Home again
So, after two surgeries and many days recuperating, the dawg is back home again. We had all been missing him something fierce–even the dotter, who the dawg doesn’t get along with, and who, therefore, doesn’t get along with the dawg. So he’s back, he’s ensconced downstairs (no stair climbing for a while!), he smells extremely doggy (no doggy baths for a while!), and we have managed to get him to eat and keep down a tablespoon or two of freshly baked chicken and some rice. Given that he’s hardly eaten in a week, this is monumental.
In the meantime, as soon as the autumnal equinox passed, our area of Alaska plunged directly from late fall into almost-winter. Typically, the early winter snows creep downward on the mountainsides, first dusting the tops (”termination dust”), then moving on down bit by bit.
Last week was vintage autumn: clear, vibrant blue skies, the kind that you can lose yourself in forever, with the sun glittering in etched yellow along the edges of leaves. We had some winds, and they loosened the fall leaves, which would shower down to the ground like a handful of golden coins tossed into the air.
Then came gray days and rain.
Then came the cold snap, along with more rain. We had no snow hereabouts, but you could tell the mountains were getting it. This morning, when the dotter went off to check her chickens, the back stairs were icy. This afternoon, when we motored off to the vet’s to get the dawg, the sun was out and sparkling from every damp spot on the trees and the houses and the underbrush.
And surrounding the valley, the mountains were covered with snow, two-thirds of the way down. Yesterday evening, I had caught a peek or two that showed that the snow came almost down to our level, but the sunshine today must have warmed things up enough to melt that snow back.
The mountains seem suddenly more immediate, more immense, more looming, when they are covered with snow; I don’t know why.
Right now, it’s a beautiful sight. I actually can’t wait until our first snowfall down here. Remind me of that in January and February, when I am bitching endlessly about the never-ending wintertime, eh?
posted in Alaska, Fall, Illnesses, Injuries, Livestock and Pets, Weather, Winter | 2 Comments
