Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

OK… so it’s not autumn yet. In fact, we’re probably still a few weeks out (weeks!), but I’m not real happy about the color changes I am seeing around my house.

I do admit that seeing these little touches of red and yellow and orange are very pretty amongst the green foliage, but I’m just not ready for what is to come. Can’t we have a few more months of summer?

The rain has been falling on almost a daily basis. It’s not a heavy rain, but it’s helping quite a bit with the smoke and fires. The smell of smoke in the air has lessened, making it easier for me to breathe, and there are even brief periods when I can actually see real clouds and not clouds of smoke.

We’re losing daylight hours quickly now. Gone are the 24-hour days. Length of light is now about 20 hours, which means we are having periods of darkness. Not the black darkness of winter, but dark enough where headlights are needed. I still can’t see the stars, but I haven’t been outside at the darkest hour either. In a few weeks, the northern lights will be visible again, when active.

Here’s a sample of the color changes I’m seeing around the yard. The misty rain has left beautiful tiny raindrops on the foliage.

This is a pretty shade of red, but I’d rather not see it yet!

Here are some flowers in my wildflower garden. I don’t know what kind they are, unfortunately. The flowerbed is too crowded. I’ll sow more sparingly next year.

This is horsetail. The raindrops look gorgeous on these spiky leaves:

A yellow birch leaf lays on our new green grass:

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Charles’ Celebration of Life was held yesterday at a local Masonic Lodge.  The room was full of people who knew and loved Charles. His siblings told stories about him - both funny and heartwarming. The good-hearted, kind and caring Charles that we knew as an adult, was the same Charles as a child.  With a quick wit, and wonderful sense of humor, he spread cheer wherever he went.  He liked to pull harmless pranks on friends and family, and his sister in law told the story of coming home from their honeymoon and finding that the canned goods in their cupboard had all their labels removed, while their living room furniture was re-arranged to face the walls.

While there was quite a bit of laughter as these stories were told, as each person finished their personal eulogy, the laughter was replaced with tears as emotional expressions of how much they were going to miss Charles came forth. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.  Charles is going to be missed by so  many people. Anyone who knew him - even if briefly - was touched by him and will never forget him.  I know I won’t.

After the Celebration of Life, we all went downstairs to partake of a potluck and view photo slide shows of Charles and his family and friends.  It was decided that we would all go to the Gold Rush Saloon - where Charles and friends used to go to watch his favorite San Diego Chargers play (as well as other football games) - and have a drink and make a toast to him.

The family brought Charles’ ashes and Chargers football jersey to the bar. The box was placed on his jersey, in the middle of a table, with photos all around. We gathered in a circle around the table, while several toasts were made.  Charles would have loved that.

All in all, it was a bittersweet day of both tears and laughter, but a fitting send-off for so wonderful a man.  His ashes will be scattered in Denali Park by the family.  Charles didn’t attend a ‘bricks and mortar’ church here in AK, although he was a Christian. His temple was Denali Park, where God’s presence surrounded him in beauty.  A fine place to rest for eternity.

Perhaps they are not stars,
but rather openings in heaven
where the love of our lost ones
pours through
and shines down upon us
to let us know they are happy.
~Eskimo Prover~

Until next time…