Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Lately, each morning, I have the incredible urge to throw open the sliding glass doors and belt out the song “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma.

Oh, What a beautiful mornin’,
Oh, What a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin’
Ev’erything’s goin’ my way.

The Interior is in the middle of the big thaw (breakup). There has been sunshine just about every day, and it even warmed up to 63F a few days ago.  While I still have quite a bit of snow coverage in my yard, the depth of the snow has gone from a high of 2′ to about 6 inches.  There are bare spots opening up everywhere, and in the lower parts of the yard, there are now puddles. Hopefully the puddles will be absorbed into the ground quickly, so as not to encourage mosquito breeding.

A few days ago, I picked up my friend Abby, and we went to lunch. We ate at the Regency Hotel (Regency Cove Restaurant) - a first time for her, and only the third time I’ve had lunch there. The food wasn’t bad at all, and the tables were full with the business lunch crowd. I like the ambiance at The Regency; the lighting is dim and there are beautiful fish tanks throughout.  I tend to forget it’s there as a dining option, unfortunately.

After lunch, we stopped by The Stash for a few minutes. I took new framed and matted photographs in last week, and wanted to see if they had been hung. Only a few are on the wall, as of yet. The owners are planning to rearrange the store - moving some items to the front, and removing old stock and replacing it with new stock, in time for the summer tourism season. It’s going to be a large undertaking, as the store is busting its seams with beautiful new items. If you’re local, stop by and check it out. The Stash is located at 535 3rd Avenue, Suite B, near Mt McKinley Bank. You’ll find photographs, note cards, jewelry, soap, fudge, and so much more. If you happen to go in looking for some of my work, and don’t see what you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to email me: susan@susanstevenson.com

From there, we just had to stop by Creamers Field and see the geese. It’s nice to see huge puddles (the size of small ponds actually) where the piles of snow used to be. The geese and ducks are loving it, and so are we! The fence line is often crowded with parked cars now, as folks stop at the fields to watch the geese on their lunch break or in the middle of running errands.

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Today is Earth Day, a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.  Environmental responsibility is everyone’s responsibility. I found a quote online that I feel is perfect for Earth Day:

“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” ~ Marshall McLuhan.

We can all do our part to save energy, conserve water, recycle, and make environmentally protective choices.  Every little bit helps. I want my grandchildren and g-grandchildren to have a beautiful earth to enjoy!

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The geese arrived in Fairbanks last week. Each day more arrive. The fields at Creamers still have piles of snow in places, but there are also puddles and plenty of grain and seeds to welcome the spring arrival of the Canadian Geese. There are cars in the parking lot again; folks sitting quietly, watching the geese peck and honk and squawk and chase each other. What a joy it is to see the geese again. The sandhill cranes will be arriving next. Spring has definitely sprung!

I took Sedona for a drive to Chena Lakes last week. The lakes are still frozen, but there is slush around the edges in places. There were ice fisherman out on the lake, which I was surprised to see. I don’t know if I’d be so willing to go out there with the weather warming as it has, but I’m sure they’ve been doing this long enough to know when it’s too dangerous to go out there. I hope!

I was thrilled to see the willow catkins blooming (aka pussy willows). That’s always a first sign of spring, and brings joy to my heart. Skies were a deep cobalt blue and the soft, white, *furry* catkins against the blue backdrop were just beautiful.

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Easter Sunday was my father’s birthday. If he were still on this earth, he’d have turned 75 years old. In my mind’s eye he will never be older than 62 - the age he was when he left us.  Some days, I miss him so much that my heart literally hurts. And other days, I think of him and my lips turn up in a smile over a fond memory I have.  It is true that the pain of loss lessens as the years pass, but that’s an overall lessening. It doesn’t mean you stop having days when the grief grabs a hold of you and shakes the tears loose.  Fortunately, Easter Sunday was a day when my sorrow was just a mild ache; a wistfulness as I drove down the highway with Steve and watched the beautiful countryside pass by outside the window.  I so wish I could show my father Alaska.

I’ve been following the road opening updates on the Denali National Park website for several weeks.  With anticipation, I followed the progress of the plows and the dozers, as they cleared mile after mile of roadway.  Finally, the announcement came on Friday - the road was opening to mile 15: Savage River.

The weatherman was calling for snow showers, which wasn’t something we wanted to hear. Spring has come to the Interior, and the snow is quickly melting away. With average temps in the 30s and 40s, and abundant sunshine, the thought of snow showers depressed me.  When I woke up on Sunday morning, the first thing I did was glance out the window. The few puffy clouds that were drifting across the blue sky were uplit with orange, as the sun moved above the horizon.  How exciting to see that, and not gray skies and flurries! Steve woke about an hour later and we were packed up and on the Parks Hwy at 9am.

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