Fiery Sky

A smoky haze hangs in the skies due to several wildfires in the area.  We've had temperatures in the 80s and low 90s and conditions are very dry, the perfect recipe for forest fires.  Shortly after 10:00 p.m., the sun sinking behind the trees on the hills behind my house reflected off of the haze and made for a colorful sky.

Cropping and texture seem to set the trees on fire.  

We could use a nice rainy day!

Dragonfly Days

I always look forward to seeing dragonflies in my yard.  Alaska has a huge mosquito population, and dragonflies can capture around 300 insects a day, a good many of which will be mosquitoes.  Hooray for dragonflies!  

The dragonfly in the first four photos is a Four-spotted Skimmer.  It is about 1.6 inches long, and is one of the first dragonflies to emerge in the spring.

The dragonfly below is a Boreal Whiteface and is about 1.4 inches long.

A little cropping and a poster filter show the intricate wing patterns.

Another Vermont Barn

 This is another Vermont barn we saw last October on our road trip, just a short ways up the road from the one I posted last week.  I love driving those back roads!

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Check out more old barns at Tricia's Barn Charm!!

The Downhill Slide to Winter Begins

Taken at 11:55 p.m. Thursday night, the two photos below were 52 minutes shy of sunset, which occurred at 12:47 a.m. Friday morning.  After a week of temperatures in the mid to upper 80s with clear skies, a few clouds moved in with a very light rain shower.

The color intensified a bit after midnight, but sunset is still over a half hour away.

Sunrise will be at 2:59 a.m., giving us 21 hours and 48 minutes of daylight.  It won't get dark between sunset and sunrise though.

Thursday at 9:04 p.m., according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the Earth experienced the moment of the summer solstice.  That's the point in time when the northern half of the Earth's axis reaches its greatest tilt toward the sun and then begins its slow return to perpendicular on the autumnal equinox in September.  That means that winter is officially on its way!

Looking away from the sky, the photo of the flowers was taken at 12:09 a.m.

Fairbanks celebrates the summer solstice in a big way.  Friday night the Midnight Sun baseball game will begin at 10:30 p.m., with the Alaska Goldpanners playing the San Francisco Seals in the 108th staging of this event.  Saturday night the 10K Midnight Sun Run will start at 10:00 p.m., with thousands of participants either running or walking, many of them in costume.  Sunday the Midnight Sun Festival will take place from noon to midnight.  The downtown street fair will have hundreds of booths and 33 live music and dance performances.  Many other events will also take place, like the Midnight Sun Hockey Tournament that my husband is playing in, and many other sporting events.  After a long winter, everyone is ready to cram as much as possible into summer!  After all, we're going to begin losing daylight now.....

Wild Iris

Vermont Barn

For a change of pace, today I'm going back to the road trip we took in October of 2011.  We saw this barn near Bennington, Vermont.

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Check out more old barns at Tricia's Barn Charm!

Hummingbird Moth Medley

Muskox Farm

This old log barn is situated at the Large Animal Research Station for the University of Alaska.  Tours are offered throughout the summer at the Muskox Farm, as it's more commonly called locally.  We took my granddaughter Sydney on Friday, so I thought I would post a few more photos of it.    

The Farm was an old homestead that was deeded to the University in 1963 for the study of Muskoxen.  Click HERE to read more about it, and HERE for more posts about the Muskox Farm and its inhabitants.  The animal population at the farm today consists of muskoxen, caribou, and reindeer.  The old log barn was used for potato storage, but today it's used for lichen storage.  The lichen feeds the reindeer and caribou at the farm through the winter.

In addition to the old log barn there are several newer buildings at the Farm.....

....including an observation platform.

It looks much like any other farm.....

.....except for the animals behind the fences.

   

Much to Sydney's disappointment the muskoxen all elected to stay back in the shade of the trees.  The caribou and reindeer were much more willing to come and get some willow twigs and lichen.  Sydney went away happy, though, thanks to the cute little stuffed muskox from the gift shop that went home with us.

Oh, yes, and that big dark cloud above did move directly overhead and pour rain on us.  Fortunately they had umbrellas available--good news for me since I'd left my camera case back in the car.  I didn't care if I got wet, but the camera is a different story!

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Check out more old barns at Tricia's Barn Charm!

Caribou Treats

 Where's my snacks?

About time!

Mmmm, fresh willow leaves.

I never share!

The Gossip Circle