Spring Snow

Yesterday was a cool and windy day here in Anchorage. My friend, Doris, and I got out to do a little shopping.

The flag near Dimond Center was flying in the breeze and looked so pretty with those mountains as a backdrop.

 Today, however, it was cold and snowy. It snowed pretty much on and off all day. At times, huge fluffy snowflakes just floated down hitting the ground with a splat.

 Other times, small icy flakes rained down with a vengeance.

 It was beautiful to watch. I loved it!

 Greg wasn't so fond of this spring snow.

Here is Mr. Ready for Spring walking home from work. It was snowing so hard that I couldn't find him at times.

 As you can tell, all the snow melted as it hit the pavement.

 It did cover the brown grass with a white blanket for a bit. That has pretty much melted now. We haven't seen much snowfall this season. At one point, this year was in the lead for the least snow recorded in a season. I doubt today's precipitation did much to boost the level. Sure was pretty to watch!

Another nice one!

Saturday my friend, Genevieve, and I got out and walked almost four miles on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail and Chester Creek Trail. It was a beautiful afternoon with highs in the mid 40s. Many people were out walking, jogging, and riding those fat tire bikes along the route.

 We stopped for a minute to enjoy the beauty of Westchester Lagoon.

There were no ice hockey players out on the ice today as it has gotten too thin.

 It was so nice to enjoy some light and other subtle signs of spring.

This small creek still had some snow around it.

We had to walk through two tunnels and both of them were filled with snow and ice. The ducks seem to know the ice won't stay around much longer.

They didn't let it get in their way of an afternoon swim. As you can tell from this photo, the ice has really begun to melt in this small marshy area.

I know the pics aren't up to the usual professional detail and quality. Greg won't trust me out with the nice camera if he's not there to supervise! He had other afternoon plans and couldn't get out with me. Hopefully, he can get out next weekend and capture a few nice shots with his camera.

Beautiful Day

After not much of a real winter, spring has arrived in Alaska. We haven't had any more snow. This season it has only snowed about 20.5 inches. Not even two feet of snow!! Crazy. The way it has been lately, sunny and in the 40s every day, the outlook for any more snow doesn't seem too promising. By this point we are ready for some nice weather anyway.

 Today I got out during my lunchtime and rode out toward the airport.

Cook Inlet had some very small ice chunks floating in the current.

 I did manage to catch a couple pics of two bald eagles enjoying the afternoon sun.

 They were just perched in the tree surveying the surrounding area.

 It was quite an enjoyable break from work. Thanks Jen for driving me around and letting me enjoy the sunshine!

Fur Rondy begins

It's Fur Rendezvous time again in Anchorage! Although you could barely tell it by looking around. We have had two-tenths of an inch of snow since we last blogged. This brings us to 20.5 inches for the season. Pitiful! As of right now, we are still at the second lowest snowfall totals for a season. We have about 2 months of winter left, so you never know. There has been so little snow that the sled dog races have been cancelled here. The ceremonial start for the Iditarod will still take place on Saturday. I hope they have enough snow stockpiled to make the course!

Last Saturday I took a few pictures of the Frostbite Footrace.

The costumes were as flamboyant as ever!

 This afternoon, Greg and I went down and took pictures of the snow sculptures.

With the temps being in the mid 30s lately,

 we were too late on a few of the sculptures.

Parts of some sculptures had melted and collapsed.

Here's my favorite. The Stay Puft marshmallow man!

 Here are some images from the movie Frozen. 

I'm headed out of here for Spring Break so we'll have to catch up later!

Where's my snow??

We added to our snowfall by about an inch last week. This puts us at about 20.5 inches for this season. As of right now, we are at the second lowest total snowfall ever for a season. Boston has had three times as much as we have had! Although the ceremonial start to the Iditarod will be held here in Anchorage on March 1st, the actual race has been moved to Fairbanks due to the lack of snow. This is only the second time in the history of the race that the start had to be moved to Fairbanks. Our temps have been way above normal. The roads are clear and parking lots are slushy during the day but refreeze at night.

 We set a record high yesterday at 44 degrees!

 That was the official high but several areas around town warmed up to near 50.

 I got out a bit today and took some photos of Northwood Park.

The ducks actually had water to swim in instead of just resting on the snow.

You can actually see grass under some trees around Lake Spenard.

The lake still looked solid and frozen.

If it continues to warm up, the floatplanes can land on water soon!

Finally, some fresh snow!

After several weeks, we finally saw snow again this Thursday and Friday. We probably got about 4 inches downtown by the time the little burst of snow was over. This is not even close to their forecast of up to 13 inches! Still, this was enough to make the landscape light and brighten things up a bit.

We are now back to over 7 hours of daylight a day and adding around 5 minutes of light each day to that.

 We decided to get out today and enjoy our new membership to the Alaska Botanical Garden that we received as a Christmas gift.

Thanks Scarbrough Family!

We took an unplanned sightseeing tour when we missed the turnoff for the garden.

There were a lot of people out in the nearby park enjoying the new snow.

We finally made our way back to the garden and walked around a bit.

But as the temp was below 0, we didn't stay out too long!

 The bitter cold is supposed to stick for several more days. Brrr.