Swinging spring
posted in Alaska, Spring, Weather |The blog has suffered intensely because we’ve had spectacular, wonderful, gorgeous weather. Yesterday our local Mesonet station hit 82F; today it hit 78F; on Friday, it was in the low 70s. These have been record-breaking temperatures. The sun has been shining, the birds have been singing, and I have been raking.
And raking, and raking, and raking.
I am, as a result, achingly sore in my shoulder, arm, and hip muscles. I also have a fantastic sunburn. Wah, wah, wah. Pity me: We’ve had weather to die for, and I’ve been outside for three days straight, playing in the yard, and discovering that, yes, Virginia, Alaska sunlight can give you sunburns.
A week ago, the snow was all the way down the mountainsides; now, it’s melted up two-thirds of the way. A week ago, the trees were brown and bare; now, leaves are exploding everywhere you look and our neighbors’ houses are fading away behind the greenery (as is our kitty-corner, catty-wompus sliver of a view of the smaller mountains to the north of the valley).
This time of year is called “break-up”, because the ice encasing the rivers finally breaks into chunks and is swept downhill, down to lakes and the ocean. There are bets and lotteries based on when various rivers will break clear. There is also the problem of ice dams–where the chunks of ice manage to get snagged on something, then snag more chunks of ice, which capture still more, until you have a jumble of ice damming up the river. Wayfarer Scientista has a lovely description of break-up in her area; Bill Hess was up in Wainwright, helping some native Alaskan whalers prepare an ice ramp for their whaling ship; AKMuckraker, over at Mudflats, took a walk along a creek today, along with some great pics; and Hig, at Ground Truth Trekking, has been using the (lovely, wonderful, long-awaited!) sunlight to play around with Fresnel lenses.
Our lilac bushes are putting out leaf buds and what looks, to me, like the beginnings of lilac blossoms (?):
Some fresh new trees leaves catching the sunlight:
And our pasque flower survived the winter, too, and is about to bloom:
So, essentially, everyone in Alaska is making up for six months of winter weather by soaking up as much sunlight as possible. It’s amazing just how much being able to be outside and just bask can change one’s disposition–I am practically manic with delight at the joy of springtime. Anyway, something has to give when one is obsessively enjoying the weather and the yard and the leaves and flowers and and and…and in my case, what gave is the blog.
