Fall Colours

the blaze of colour is out this week. and the weather is just amazing, so on sunday i went for a drive arround to see with my camera in hand. all the trees know its time to turn. the undergrowth turns red , but the trees dont.

Yup this pipeline carries oil. the amazing weather is 70 during the day( we are almost breaking records) and 40 at night everyday since saturday.
this will not last.

The last of the Greenhouse

I took these Sept 6 about a wake ago before the first frost, which was way late this year,.. there was ice on my car this morning and today is the 16th... way late. I have seen the first frost on the 1 of September so we got an extra 15 % time on our growing season this year. this cucumber i picked and already eaten.

The tomatoes have been a bit slower this year , i think i have a different variety, so it was slower. I wasn't so good this year and shaking the branches and pruning so I didn't get as much fruit as last year,... but the size was much better. they are all now sitting on the table hoping to ripen. which means they are a bit sluggish.

Then we have the second round of the celery. this is second growth of the ones I cut. the last of the basil. but you should see how much I gave away and behind that the parsley.

i puled most of the tomatoes yesterday. but the weather has been so nice all week. it's just hard to think that it will get cold.( sigh) but it will and it will be fast and dramatic is my guess.

Fall / Autumn

Fall / Autumn, is defined for me by the temp. And my feet - I got cold feet last night so i had to put some socks on. this morning I looked a the thermostat and it said 65 so i put a sweater on... but 65 in the house is a little cool for me.

this afternoon i made some scones, but i used oil and not butter then i put in cinnamon and ginger ( cause i couldn't find my nutmeg- have i used it all? ) and then i cut up an apple and put that in as well. then i used yogurt instead of milk.( cause the milk was ... thick and smelly). i am sure these are still scones but dam they got changed some. they are currently in the oven.

the greenhouse needs attention i had to turn the heat lamp on for the last few nights there's been good dew on the car every morning. no frosts yet. i have lots of good sized tomatoes this year they are still trying to turn yellow , hence the heat lamp. the cucumber and about done. the basil and celery are still in good shape. shall i dry it or just give it away. and i need to go do something with the last of the beans and peas. the broccoli is producing OK second and 3 cuts from the from each plant.

so its Official fall is here ( for my opinion).

I am going to turn the heat on.

Denali Park

for the weekend of my birthday i headed to Denali park. since i have never been down on the train before a friend decided that we ought to be in the dome car ( the expensive one) a great place for photographs i must say , while i got his white water rafting. ( how can you never have been rafting).

anyway on the train it was brought and sunny and i did get some pretty cool photos.

then we went for a walk around one of the nearer lakes called horseshoe lake. we saw some evidence of some beaver and some squirrel. dam cheeky things. My personal opinion is that " the only good squirrel is a dead one. preferably one that died of lead poisoning" i think this one in the park was used to too many humans and thought they might be good for getting food maybe.

my camera has a 12 x zoom that i am at long last getting the hang of using at high zoom, and think myself very cleaver to have got this of the beaver. we walked really quietly to get in position , and he just carried on like we weren't even there. it was about 5 pm ish and its august so maybe he was just in a hurry and he thinks fall is in the air. - beside the fact it was at least 80 in the park Sunday. got to stay at a cool hotel called the grand denali lodge. that's the one high on the hill. great service great view. more photos of the weekend can be found here. ( click on the photo below)

Denali

Rafting was ok for a grade 3/ 4 river but you know me it wasn't really enough. My friend tony had never been rating before and now he really likes it. so i have passed my addiction on to someone else.

a great weekend.

The tales of a Waitress

last Monday I was waiting on these people in the restaurant, 2 parents, 2 kids ( boys) 8 and 10 maybe and grandma. I served grandma her her soup, and said "here's your soup." after i left the 2 boys started giggling, and developed a serious dose of giggles that went on for quite some time. 10 ish minutes later when i was bringing everyones dinner, the boys and parents were leaving the restaurant, I was thinking this was just a bathroom trip. But grandma explained to me that they had had such a fit of the giggles about my accent they hadn't stopped giggling.

they managed to make it back OK, but were somewhat mollified when grandma told that she had told on them. i thought it was just funny. And kinda interesting that the parents made the boys leave over a fit of giggles.

Other news of the week is that it had been 80 every day of the week since then, and humid as well. Today it rained and was only 70. I am almost ready for cooler weather. and yes it gets dark today. its actually dark at 12 30 for the first time in 3 months. do we remember what a dark sky looks like?

Welcome to the jungle

The garden grows apace, this is cucumber number 4 I think, I took the first 3 camping last weekend. I tried celery this year and it has done way better than I thought it would. these photos were all taken last weekend, so there is actually a weeks growth on top of this.
The basil beside it is just amazing, tomorrow I start giving it away. so i need a recipe for pesto something, and the tomatoes are trying to climb out the roof. But currently there are only a couple of tomatoes, not as many flowers as i had last year, but that is ok. Maybe I will have bigger fruit.

My peppers that i tried again I had to pull (again ) as the aphids just came and got them. It was later than last year i managed to keep the aphids away for 2 weeks extra and actually got 2 peppers , but when i went to cut into it i discovered they were the hot variety, that i don't like, so I was less sad at having to pull them out.

Work this week has been crazy.-waiting tables just as busy as hell , an unusual week to make lots of money, 3/4 of it is in the bank. but I have had to have 3 cups of coffee this week to see me through the day job.
somehow i managed to find time to water the greenhouse and pull the peppers this week.
Now to find time to mow the lawn when its dry.

fielding lake camping

I thought I better get out a bit this year since I don't usually.
So Amy, Matt and friends went camping out to Fielding lake. ( head to Delta turn right drive 70 miles. Mile -post 200.5 on the Richardson.) This is the headwaters of the Delta river, its supposed to be good fishing. they have public use cabins there and for a small charge you can reserve them. 4 of July weekend was popular. so the campground was full. I took my tent and new sleeping bag to give them a test drive. its up in the mountains so it cooler than Fairbanks. but the views were spectacular.
Friday was a nice sunny day but Saturday and Sunday it rained 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening with low hanging cloud the rest of the time.

There goes my theory that 4 of of July its supposed to be 90, it was 55 maybe. but it was still way cool, we had some night visitors come passing by mother moose and calf crossed the river, and her yearling that she had just kicked out was 10 minutes behind her.
the public use cabin sleeps six, but could be cramped if it was raining. Matt being resourceful put up the tarps and we had a comfortable area to sit in with the fire going all weekend. We all sat around and had a pleasant time doing nothing, eating, and talking. it a 3 hour drive each way ish. I think the guys went out briefly to try the fishing.