Good morning snowshine!

[layla]

Ah yes, April 23rd in Alaska!

We woke up this morning to find that about four inches of wet snow had fallen last night, on top of the foot or two we still had left over from the winter. At least things were starting to LOOK like spring, with the banks along the driveway showing and so forth, but nature had other plans. "AHAHAHAHA! Still in Alaska, are we?" *DUMP*





Last night we had some friends over and had a bonfire, and it was ... nice. We almost never have company. As much as I crave my solitude, it's also important to stay in touch with the important people in my life, and sometimes it's easy to forget that.

Comments

[arcana-j.livejournal.com]

JEEBUS! You'll understand when I don't come and visit you, right?

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

This is usually the point where Alaskans feel compelled to say, "But the summers are really NICE!" This is kind of like, when someone is beating you with a stick, the moments when they're not beating you are really nice ...

(No. The summers ARE nice. I swear.)

[arcana-j.livejournal.com]

Nice, yes, but short. Oh, so very short.

Actually, I am told that the reason we left Oregon before my first birthday was because my mother opened the curtains one June morning and saw snow on the ground. Within a month we'd moved to Phoenix.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha! That's great!

I've actually only ever seen a snowstorm in June once. And that wasn't here; it was near Burwash Landing in Yukon Territory. About the same latitude as here, but a higher altitude.

One of the things that really made a huge impression on me when we were in Switzerland last summer was how close to the snowline they live. Here in the U.S., we think of mountains as being wild places, and the treeline is so high that human habitation stops long before the summer snowline. (For all I know, Colorado and places like that may well be different, but that's how it is in Alaska.) In Switzerland, though, the snow comes right down to the habitable areas, even in July, which was when we were there. We hiked up to a little mountain lake with cows grazing around it, and then if you looked up a little higher, there was the snow. Right above us. All around us, pleasant, warm, lazy pasture, kinda looking like Wales -- and then right above us, SNOW. You could easily have walked to it (except it was kinda steep to get there). Really amazing.