Browsing Tag

natureza

Alaska

The Aurora

23 March 2015

Oh my goodness, the other night the leprechauns spread some very magical green lights in the sky to welcome in St. Patrick’s day! Wow, the aurora was indescribable. These pictures capture some magic, but when the lights are dancing across the sky and pulsing around, you just can’t take a picture of that. Btw, with my own eyeballs, I couldn’t see any reddish hues, but they do come up in the pictures because the camera was taking in more light than my own eyes, also making the picture more vibrant.

I was in awe.

About 11 pm, our friend Steve texted us and said their were red aurora up the inlet. This is cool. So we got un-ready for bed, put on warm clothes, and Chris packed up some camera gear and laptop and stuff. As Chris was walking out the door, I made some toast; I was hungry. And I love toast.

So we took about a ten minute drive went up to Diamond Ridge to watch the light show. :) The colors that came up were exciting and lovely. IMG_0163 IMG_0177 IMG_0207

After about an hour, we came home, got ready for bed again, and then I looked out our front window and it was fantastic. Northern lights watching from the comfort of our lovely home! Chris went to bed, but I couldn’t. So I grabbed the camera and my snowsuit and a blanket, and Edel and I went outside. It was so awesome possum. Wow. Normally the northern lights aren’t so incredible right in town. But it was amazazing. After about an hour, Chris came outside too. And then we decided we better head up to Skyline to get some pictures of the aurora dancing over Homer.

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Up at on skyline, I really enjoyed laying in the snow in my snowsuit, just looking at the sky. It was superb. And when we decided to leave our house, the northern lights started flashing and going from top to bottom like the earth was in a time warp or something. So cool.

With the dancing and flashing northern lights like they were the other night, I felt like a cat chasing a laser. It was perfect.

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In my 26 years I haven’t seen the northern lights very much. Chris and I have together a couple times this winter. And other than that, I have a few goo childhood memories of my dad waking me up to look at the green glow out the window. And I have a memory of super good and colorful lights when we were driving up the Al-Can (aka Alaska Canada Highway) when I was about 12. We were further north in Alaska then, and it’s usually better up there. So the other night with the grand St. Patrick’s day show, it was pretty unusual and I was so amazed. Thank you solar storm!

Chris and I put some of our pictures on fireweedphoto.com. Here’s the link to a few more of the aurora!

Alaska, Favorites

Adventure isn’t far

21 January 2015

Chris and I wanted to go on a little outing. We packed our puppy, camera, sleeping bags, warm clothes, a couple books, PBJ supplies, an excessive amount of fruit snacks, and got on the ro-ad. We headed north and after a couple short hours we arrived at our destination, Hidden Lake. We had no reception, and Chris intentionally left his phone behind, and it got dark. So we ate and then took a nap, at like 7 pm. I tried to keep Chris from sleeping by coercing him to play alphabet car games with me. We did the ABCs of countries, US cities, maybe animals, and at some point Chris was ready to sleep. We just laid our sleeping pads (I mean sleeping pad, since we forgot one) and cuddled in the back of the car with da pooch Edelweiss.

At like 10 pm or so, we were done napping, so we got some granola bars and headed out for an icy walk under the starry skies. Edel was read for adventure and we fortunately have a great glow in the dark ball for her that we launch and chuck and throw and project, and she still has energy to fetch the ball ten hundred more times. Our walk was so nice. So lovely to disconnect and feel the world around you.

After an aokay night’s rest in the car, letting Edel out many times in the middle of the night to prance around, we got up to b-e-a-utiful surroundings. Here in Homer, the weather has been oddly warm and lacking snow. So it was so nice seeing some white around and to have a chance to wear my snowsuit! Awesome.

We went on one of the greatest hikes ever, with nature delighting us with so many wonders, and my cozy snowsuit eventually got waaaaay too warm. So I did the old snowsuit trick of unzipping and letting the top half of my suit dangle behind me. Chris and I took pictures all along the way and it was absolutely splendid.

Cooper Landing called us next, and we saw a bit more snow there, which was exciting. There were definitely some winter wonderland moments. One of our stops was Widman’s, where I got some hot cocoa and burned my tongue, and Chris got his cream soda. Edel had some water, and she was happy with that. She’s pretty much usually always happy.

This little trip made Chris and I happy too. There’s a lot of wonderful wonderment around us, sometimes it pops up right in front of you, and sometimes you have to just look for it.

Here’s a whole bunch of lovely photos.

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Alaska

November 14th

14 November 2014

IMG_0095Aloha Friday.

I woke up nice and early, which is quite rare these days. At a dark 6 am, I got out of bed and laid in front of the heater. I’m so grateful for our heater so that I don’t have to freeze! Someday we’ll have a wood stove and that will be ever so lovely.

I’m grateful for beautiful mornings. And for a puppy who gets us going in the morning.IMG_0099

I’m grateful that I said YES to a phone call for substitute teaching at the school in the Russian village, Nikolaevsk! When I was little we lived right by the Russian village in a little cabin and we had so many great forts in the woods. Today was my first day of substitute teaching. It was great. Really great.

IMG_0111The school is so unique, with maybe like 70 kids K-12. There is focus on preserving the Russian culture and remembering the Old Believers. Not all the kids are Russian of course, but it was great because I felt like I was in a different place. It was all new and exciting and the kids were really great.

The half hour drive in the North Fork wilderness was beautiful and brought back lots of memories. So I’m really grateful for how all of that worked out. IMG_0118

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I am especially grateful for the inspiration of the spirit, and that I followed the spirit and made a salad for the ward Thanksgiving dinner. :) I didn’t feel like using the salad spinner (because I don’t like it very much) and I didn’t feel like cutting up veggies (I was being a sloth), but I felt like I should so I did. And pretty much it was like the only green salad there, so I’m glad I could make a nice contribution. :) IMG_0126

I’m grateful for our wonderful Homer ward and the lovely Thanksgiving party. I’m grateful for the crayons and paper leaves so that we could write down things we were thankful for. I’m especially grateful for the moment when little Katy came over and said, “Can you help my write ‘my sister’?” Goodness those two nieces of mine are so precious and such good sisters.IMG_0124

I’m thankful for texting and picture messages so that my siblings and I can stay in touch. :) I’m grateful for my in-laws and that I love them and they love me. I feel wonderful being in Chris’s family.

I’m grateful for movie time with Christopher — we watched Gattaca (the first ever dvd my family owned when I was a kid) and folded all the laundry, which is great! Grateful for Chris, who got me some chocolate gelato, which made movie/laundry time even better.

AND I’m grateful that our friend told us “the lights are out” and we got to watch the Northern Lights for a couple hours on a dark chilly hill under a beautiful sky. (This picture is obviously not an iPhone picture, like the rest of my pictures these days. Also, with the slower shutter speed, the camera captured a lot more light than we could see with our lovely eyeballs and supervision. We couldn’t see any pink, only green. Nevertheless, twas really beautiful and lovely.) The sky was magical with the northern lights and starry starry night.

aurora