I needed a "mountain fix," so....Hi, Hatcher Pass!

This one's for you, Kathy. If you look closely left of the path, you'll see that someone else forgot the rule about staying on the nice, hard packed path, too.

Somewhere under all this snow is the mighty Little Su.

Most of you won't know what I'm talking about, but for those who do, dang it, the "Hobbit Tree" is gone. Too snowy to tell if it was taken down or just gave way under the snow and all the winds of late, but I missed it immediately.

Sunshine, lots and lots of sunshine.

View into the sun and down into the Valley.

Nearing Hatcher Lodge

The big building is the Lodge, the smaller ones are rentals for skiers or whoever wants to explore a bit more.

Even the dogs were having a wonderful time and, no lie, one of 'em was named Juno.

Click on this one to enlarge it and see if you can find the line of folks making their way up the slope with snow boards.

Oh, okay, this zoom should help.

And even more zoom....

I sat there watching for a long time, hoping they might get to the top an decide to come down somewhere where I could see 'em (I had the Flip camera) but they kept going out of sight from here. By the way, only two had made it to the top by the time I saw 'em the first time, then went on up to the parking lot just past the Lodge, snapped around there, and made my way back down here....to sit some more. I don't know the elevation of this particular mountain, but it's a huge climb!

My White, White World

Today was one of those snow covered days where the whites of one object sorta blended into the whites of another, leaving us with a white-on-white world.

No sunshine, either, which didn't help. On normal days, you'd be able to spy the mountains peeking out to the lower right of this pix. Not today. Just gray.

Yes, even in its white-on-white or, okay, gray, overcast mood, there was a certain beauty to the day.

What a wonderful world....

What's that white stuff falling from the sky?

It's been awhile since we've had a decent snowfall that hung around awhile so, Betty, your spruce tree was looking particularly happy early this afternoon with its white coat on.

Picnic anyone?

Love the patterns the snow creates on the spruce trees.

Pasture gate, wide open to let winter in.

For some reason I don't normally take pix of the house from the rear, but here's one taken from near the barn.

For those of you tired of listening to me whine about the winds, please note that the poor spruce tree in the back would like to join me. See how flat the right side appears? That's the direction the prevailing winds, with gusts up to 70-80 mph lately, come from. Poor tree.

You can't see it here but I wasn't thinking one day and put out a door mat/rug on the stumps to dry. It's still there. Guess it'll be dry around, oh, August?

Winter cafe for the birds?

This is an odd picture, I know, but it caught my eye. It's the underneath of the deck, with ridges of snow formed where it has seeped through the cracks between the boards.

Pinecone Snow Hat?

Betty's spruce tree taken from the pasture gate area.

Back out front, the driveway is under all that white stuff somewhere. Yesterday, after a brief snow, the driveway was powdery white but the yard was still green, so guess Mother Nature came back to finish the job.

Icy frost or frosty ice or....

I really wish there was some sorta "Sparkle" effect out there I could click on for this shot cos it really was just sparkling in the sunlight. That's the good news, it was beautiful. The not so good news is that this is part of the driveway and it all looks like this, or worse. Ice on ice on ice, but, hey, it sparkles!

We haven't had snow in...well, I don't know how long. Heck, even when it's snowed the wind has come along and blown it off the trees asap. Still, the mountains retain their beauty and grandeur and always welcome me. Taken from Idita-Park area. (BTW: Wind in the forecast for tonight and the next day or so but, jeez, surely there can't be much left out there to blow away.)

Random shot of weeds or grass, not sure which. Should have tried for a closer look but, well, I'd have had to get outta the car and would have probably fallen on my rear in the driveway. Sigh.

Heck, once frosted, even sticks look winter lovely.

This was a photo I didn't even mean to take, just hit the shutter while switching cameras, but it turned out that it shows some of the ice crystal patterns fairly well. Might go back and try this one on purpose now that I know what's there. The back of my mailbox cluster, btw.

This one shows the cracked ice around my mailbox cluster. I'm not even sure it wasn't me that cracked it while checking my mail the other day. Ice everywhere.

1-1-11

Happy New Year!

Welcome, 1-1-11

I only took one picture all day and this was it. The temperature was, no lie, 47 degrees, and the sun was trying to peek through from behind the Chugach Mts. but not having much success. Seriously, this was about as picturesque a it got. That said, welcome, brand new year!