Day 18 – A Prediction
I thought I’d open with this weather prediction. It’s Bill Murray playing Phil the weatherman from the movie Groundhog Day.
“It’s going to be cold, it’s going to be grey, and it’s going to last the rest of your life.”
That’s where we are.
Facebook is filled with people posting pictures of the snow, and writing messages in it. Some can be repeated:
REALLY?
WTF?
OMG!
And all are followed by the date. According to KTVA, we have now surpassed the previous record for longest snow season ever. The previous record was 32 years ago.
Despite the winter weather conditions, Mudflats contributor Elstun Lauesen sallied forth and hit the Spenard Farmers’ Market and sent this frosty photo.
On the other side of town, Linda Kellen Biegel was at the South Anchorage market, also in defiance of the weather. Here’s her shot.
I decided not to drive after hearing reports of two rollovers right down the hill from Mudflats Central. So I thought I’d take another walk outside. You know, bla bla bla winter wonderland and all that crap.
And I brought my good camera and my most favorite lens, and the greatest hound on the planet (tied with yours of course), just to make it special.
Fresh icicles on the rig. Too small to jam into my temple.
Please may I put you away now? Your little nest in the garage is all ready.
Fine. Spring water. Just don’t eat a frozen rabbit. That’s all I ask.
Any day that’s not raining is all the same to her.
Snow filling the dead skeleton of a cow parsnip flower.
Ah, the beautiful palate of spring…
A closeup of a dead cow parsnip flower cluster. It looks like a little spider about to throw a giant medicine ball made of ice.
And another. There were hundreds, all different.
Here they are in the larger context.
OK, I got a little obsessed… I’ll stop now.
Former grass. Hopefully it will not be the last of its kind, and a future generation will come. Some day…
Camouflage dog.
All it needs is the Christmas decorations!
My next prediction is-within one week some rwnj pol will suggest liberals ban tornadoes instead of guns after seeing the devastation in Oklahoma these last few days.
The firm of Burl and Ives were progressive-they hired Fanny Palmer to do panaramic lithographs and she was the first femme in America to earn her living as a professional painter/artist. The very first one and look at how far we have come until rethugs became regressives.
What is the dealie with youse guys and birch trees? Just curious.
Mike, most of the area around Anchorage and the Mat-Su is birch forest. Some swampy patches with spindly black spruce, but birch dominates the well-drained hillsides up to about 1000 feet. Above that you will see willow & alder scrub, then tundra, bare rock, snowfields.
I live on a quarter acre lot with about 50 birch trees.
The trees are empty all winter, which is actually helpful on those all-too-rare winter days when some sunshine sneaks through for a couple of hours.
In the spring, the trees are smarter than the humans. We keep waiting for the leaves to bud out, but the leaves wait until the last hard frost is gone. How they do this, I have no idea. I hoped to see leaves about May 7. Somehow they knew another snowstorm was coming. Leaves still haven’t popped.
When the leaves finally open, they grow at an astonishing pace for three or four days. You can almost see them grow.
And then when the wind comes through the leaves the air is filled with music. Ever read “The Wind in the Willows”? Okay, it’s birches instead of willows, but a beautiful sound, and the sound of home. Summer evenings when the sun doesn’t set until midnight or so and there’s enough breeze to keep the mosquitos away and set the trees to dancing . . . almost make up for the long dark of winter.
Then we need to have a little talk about the fall. We get some color, just yellows — nothing like the northeast hardwoods. Sometimes for a few days in the fall the spruce are dark green, above them the birches are yellow, the scrub alder is green, the tundra is deep red, and there’s fresh snow above — five bands of color spread across the mountainsides.
Then comes the raking. All those leaves fall between about Sept 15 and Oct 15. The snow usually falls about Oct 31 — so you have six weeks to rake, and it’s about six months worth of work. A lotta now-unappreciated leaves. Drop by in early October, and bring your rake.
And then the birch branches are bare again. Winter. And we wait.
Thanks for the education. A birch tree sounds like a better Spring indicator than a fat little rodent in Punxatawney,Pa. and should replace the varmint immediately.Raking leaves is a rather enjoyable past time,provided no nears are watching me.Does a bunch of burning birch leaves remind mikey of autumn in iowa? Love the smell of burning leaves.
The local wisdom about birch trees is that when the leaves are as big as squirrel’s ears it is safe to plant outside. Those of us who garden are getting pretty antsy!
Do you have the same teensy squirrels we do in Southeast?
Not much bigger than chipmunks I’ve seen Outside?
I’m not sure how big yours are, but I’ve been trying to see one up close for a birch leaf comparison. They must be laying low for the time being.
http://www.rso.cornell.edu/squirrelclub/squirrelmap/states/AK.htm
We have the only Red Squirrel (and marmots , of course ) here.
I was wondering if the flying squirrels and/or arctic ground squirrels are seen where you are.
Lil boogers here are ALWAYS to be found if you walk with your dog- they like to taunt puppers from a safe height. Probably not too high to see how big their ears are 🙂
If you don’t have a dog perhaps you could borrow one?
Best wishes for more melt, more s u n , and being able to get your garden going!
Alaska Pi, you are so knowledgeable on a range of topics!
We have the American Red Squirrel here in Anchorage, but I have not seen the flying squirrel or the arctic ground squirrel. Maybe someone who lives on the hillside can weigh in….
PS Your post had no way to reply, so I replied to mine.
The weekend snow has already melted on the west side of Anchorage. Now if only the birch leaves would pop out….
Love the photos, though!
At least you’re not in Tornado Alley. Snow isn’t going to tear your house from its foundations.
An avalanche will. How’s your significant other coming along after shoulder surgery?
He’s terrific. Still attending physical therapy sessions, and supplementing with the gym and my TENS/EMS machine, which he had his physical therapist program. Thanks for asking.
Why not get him online so the rest of us can harass him or something?
I’ve got a prediction if you believe in conspiracies. It is all Ben Lomond’s fault-this wintery-like spring up North. See,Ben got me started on Burl and Ives postcards and Jeanne keeps bringing up winter. So,as it happens,the song “Sleigh Ride” just happens to mention a Burl and Ives print(A brush for the Lead)?,although not by name. This song also happened to be recorded by none other than Currier Ives(as well as R E O Speedwagon and everyone else with vocal cords). Now that you got that tune in your head and can’t get rid of it,just like Jeanne’s winter, you are doomed to suffer winter misery-skitters until one of you,Jeanne or Ben,sacrifices their favorite memory of Snowdrift Snarky to the whims of Spring. Within ten calendar days from that moment,Alaska will be free to enjoy a shortened Spring/Summer/Fall. If you can’t trust me-mike from iowa-who can you trust? I has spoken!
I LOVE that tune !! as a percussionist, I get to “crack the whip” in that song !!
..my favorite memory of “She who shall not be Named”.. is being part of the protest when she blathered words at Stanislaus University ….
I’ll give up just about anything so Pi can plant some tomatoes!
🙂
thanks ben!
I have 7 tomato plants in the big window facing the icefields, 4 varieties of ultra early cold hardy tomatoes.
I stand a chance of getting a handful of fruits to eat from them. Hardest part is getting and keeping soil warm enough for tomatoes to mature. I want to figure out how to do that without pumping paid-for heat into them.
Last week a friend and I were remembering a project of 6-7 years ago. We had a low tunnel in a place where we could get all day light and did pretty well. The monsoons of August cooled everything down so fast we were stuck with a bazillion green tomatoes, mostly cherry tomatoes.
We hung some of the sprays and they ripened ok . Friend had never had fried green tomatoes so we had a party.
You have any idea what a flap making fried green tomatoes with 200-300 cherry tomatoes is ? 😀
A whole bunch of friends laughed their way through putting THAT dinner together…
Read Jeanne’s post for today and you will be amazed that the curse of Old Man Winter seems to have “Ben” lifted. You are the new hero,fella. Wear it proudly.
as I say around the base..”I live to serve, Hail Casear!!” … but it’s only a tail light warranty on the weather 🙂
ANC Weather this week:
Monday: Mostly sunny in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Highs in the upper 40s to mid 50s. Light winds.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. Lows in the 30s. Light winds.
Tuesday: Partly sunny. Highs in the 50s. Light winds.
Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 30s to lower 40s. Light winds.
Wednesday: Partly sunny. Highs in the 50s.
Wednesday Night Through Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows 35 to 45. Highs 55 to 65.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain showers. Highs 55 to 65.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=AKZ101
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Here’s hoping the weather people at NOAA are right 🙂
I didn’t see this before I shoved both feet in my mouth. Looks like you are trying,albeit inadvertently,to smudge my cred with everyone I’m trying to finesse. And I LIKE IT!!
;-D
All we need now is a sprig of mistletoe!
here it is 😉
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130519/joe-miller-must-pay-alaska-dispatch-85k-legal-fees-judge-rules
hehehe…what does benlomond say? Chortle, snicker, hehehehe
😀
looks suspicously like my nemisis,,,, the long hated dandelion!!!….sigh, I STILL have the #$%&#^# things popping up… it’s gonna be another weekend of chasing those goldurn things !! at least I’ll have a 4 day weekend to do it with ! have to get cracking on making things purty in the yard this next month. Engagement party for oldest in July ( finally!) … now if I can just get the other one married off…..
Pi.. I’m gonna send you pics of my raspberries and tomatoes … just as soon as I can figure out that digital camera the kids got me last year… ( I can barely operate that Kodak Brownie I got when I was 12 years old!)
Cool !
Will be fun to see!
Son got me a what he called a mom-proof digital camera a few years ago and I’ve mastered the thing well enough to take thousands of slightly out of focus pics on the AUTO function since then … hehehe
aaaawwwwww…. it’s so pretty !! Just like a Burl and Ives postcard !! especially the last one..!
sorry… heat stroke again … 🙂
“Burl and Ives”? Didn’t know he did postcards, too. Thought he mainly told folks about how “Froggy went a-courtin’, and he did ride, uh-huh”, and Rudolph, and “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, and being Big Daddy Pollitt, and Ephraim Cabot, and Sam the Sherriff, and stuff. Yup — must be the heat getting to you, benlomand2…might have to get yourself a “Currier” air conditioning unit to cool your poor overheated brow. 😉 beth.
Serious sarcasm in your post.
The wind is blowing our hot air your way. Hopefully, it will stay warm until it gets there.