At the Garden

With an early spring and lots of outdoor garden chores to do, I've taken a bit of a break from blogging to take advantage of the nice weather.  With the bulk of the early garden work done, I can take it a little easier and enjoy our long summer days.  Tuesday my granddaughter Sydney and I went to the Georgeson Botanical Garden at the University of Alaska.  She was in a hurry to get back to the Children's Garden and set a pace that I had a hard time keeping up with.  I heard lots of "Hurry up, Grandma!"

After she played a while in the Children's Garden we headed back towards the main flower garden.  Early flowers are blooming and the wild iris and yellow lilies provide a lovely background for the split rail fence.

Of course, I had to take a few closeups of the flowers.

Looking even closer at the iris above you can see a hitchhiker.

As we got closer to the entrance to the garden, I once again heard "Hurry up, Grandma!"  However, this time it was because Grandma was taking a few too many photos of the flowers.  The green lawn beckoned Sydney to take a bit of a rest and commune with nature in her own way while she waited.

Back on April 15th Sydney and I visited the Garden briefly after stopping to see the reindeer calves at the UAF Experiment Farm, which shares a parking lot with the Garden.  The snow was melting but the paths were covered with patchy mud and ice.  Sydney was all for running back to the Children's Garden, but with the tricky footing underneath I chose to come back after spring had sprung.  Well, we're past spring and into summer now, but with our long days and short summer months, we'll cram as much as we can into the next few months.

The photo below is my Index #531, which I'm linking with

Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 114.

I'm also linking with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

The Sculptures Are Finished

Thursday at 9:00 p.m. marked the finish of the Multi Block Competition for the Ice Art Championships.  Friday morning the area was quiet, the tools all put to rest.

Below is a sampling of the sculptures.  Friday was cloudy and there was a couple of inches of new snow.  The cleanup of the Multi Block area still needed to be done, so not the best time for good views of the sculptures.  We've had several more inches of snow since then and more likely.  I'll probably make another trip to the Ice Park on Monday for some better shots, and with a little luck there will be a bit of sunshine to add sparkle.

I'm adding a bit of color from my garden with a photo taken September 5, 2011.

I'm linking it up with Eileen's Saturday's Critters 64

and

Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 101 (My Index No. 8888)

The bright colors look very appealing right about now!

Winter and Summer Color

Midwinter skies in Fairbanks are often full of color.  On December 22, 2014, I took the sunset shot below around 2:00 in the afternoon.  Our shortest day is 3 hours and 45 minutes between sunrise and sunset, but already we have gained over 20 minutes, with sunset just before 3:00 p.m.

Although we've had a very mild winter so far, it's still nice to look back at photos taken during our long summer days.  Below is a shot from my garden taken on July 29, 2012.  It's my Index No. 7035, and I'm linking with Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 92.

I'm also linking with Eileen's Saturday's Critters with all the little flying critters that were in my garden that day.

The holidays have kept me busy and off of my computer, but hopefully I'll be able to catch up with everyone this week.  I wish everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Field of Poppies

Frost Is Nipping At The Garden

The last couple of nights we have had a light frost and some of the more tender plants are done.  Still, there are many colorful flowers still blooming.  

I'm hoping it will warm up again and September will be nice.

The way our summer has went, though, I'm not holding my breath.

Rain on Friday brought our summer total up to 11.62 inches for June, July & August.  Local rain records date back to 1906, and the previous record of 11.59 was set in 1930.  The official totals are taken at the airport which is dryer than many of the surrounding areas.  It was a very different year from last year when we had lots of sunshine and many days in the 80+ range.  Unfortunately, that led to an active fire season, and the upside to this years rainy summer was a very quiet fire season.

It's not been a great year for gardens, and I did very little watering.  I didn't do much maintenance either, as it seemed like every couple of days we'd have more rain.

Below is a shot taken in my garden back in July when the Blue Darner Dragonflies were most active and all the flowers were blooming quite nicely.  I'm linking it with Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 74, using the index number of 633.

August Colors

Georgeson Botanical Garden

Fairbanks, Alaska, August 10, 2014

Flowers From My Garden

A Swarm of Dragons

Every year about this time our yard is swarming with Blue Darner Dragonflies.  It's quite a sight to see several plus dozen flying around at one time.  They zip across the deck in front of you and fly around your head as you walk across the lawn, or even perhaps land on you for a brief rest.  We have plenty of mosquitoes to feed them, and I am very happy to see them on the hunt.  I'm happy to see one land on a flower, and even happier when they stick around long enough for me to get my camera focused on them.  I've gotten lots of photos with blurry dragons or of the bare flower they were just recently sitting on.  Occasionally though it all comes together.

I am linking up with Eileen's Saturday's Critters.

Hummingbird Moth Dinnertime

I've been seeing bees, butterflies and dragonflies in my yard during the last few weeks, but today the first Hummingbird Moth showed up.  He was particularly taken with the dianthus flowers.

Goodbye Spring, Hello Snow

After spending 10 days in the Pacific Northwest, enjoying the flowers of spring and even one day of 70 degree weather, we're back home in Alaska.

No flowers here yet, but furrows have been plowed in the snow at Creamer's Field in anticipation of all those birds that are migrating north.

Grain will be spread soon to welcome their arrival and help them to refuel before continuing their journey further north.

So far though the field is quiet.  

Our daytime temps are in the 40s, so melting should go fairly quickly.  The geese and ducks and cranes should be here soon!