They have bloomed!!

I have been thrilled to watch our flowers slowly begin to bloom.  It has been an interesting summer here.  It is almost August and I have only seen 3 salmonberry blossoms.  By late July the past couple of years, there has been a bumper crop of berries.  This year, the blueberries still have yet to bloom. Of course, I may not be looking in just the right spot.  But these beauties are right out our front door. I love the variations in color with the columbine and the peony is an amazingly huge flower. 

The best thing outside our front door is quite possibly the rose bushes that are beginning to bud.  There was one rosebush already here when we moved in.  In the past three years, we have not seen a single bud.  This year, they girls lost count around 52.  We also added two miniature rosebushes.  Last year, while they gave us some beautiful roses, someone from the neighborhood either cut them back to the ground or trampled them until the stems broke off near the ground.  Either way, I was unsure if the rosebushes would be back this year.  They are beginning to blossom too! I am excited to be able to share garden fresh roses with friends this year, especially as it seems we will have one or two to spare.

Not quite "raindrops on roses..."

I love this huge flower. It may be my new favorite!

Caught a fly on this one.

As you can see, this stem has 3 flowers. I don't think it will support all of them...

Recent happenings

In the last month or so, in no particular order, we have:

Worked on a science fair project

Seen some beautiful BLUE eyes!

Helped Mama ice her knees

Enjoyed an afternoon at the beach with typical Kodiak weather
(chilly and rainy for those who aren't familiar)

Defeated the baby gate to get upstairs
(The Duchess's foot is barely seen next to the wall)

Gone shoe shopping for me
No.  The shoes didn't fit.

Hiked at Ft Abercrombie

Talked on the banana

Played doctor

Worked on Mama's computer
(it had been closed and hiding under the couch...)

Bundled up to go for a walk with the new jogging stroller

Played in the snow (in late April)

Tried to sneak a cookie
(the orange cookies are a hit around here)

Shared with sisters

The Duchess comforted her Miss E after Miss E got in trouble

Swept the front porch

More shoe shopping - still nothing

Beautiful sunrise at the Buskin again

Coming home after a hike

Enjoyed making faces in her open top cup at the galley

Time for a workout! Bear crawling through the kitchen!

A rare sunny Kodiak day

Where we found a fallen tree and had to figure out how to get around it

Watched Lady A's very last soccer game

And worked on Mama's computer again.
(the Duchess is the engineer of our family)

It has been so much fun hanging out with these girls.  Birthday updates shortly!

More photos

Buskin at sunrise

Looking out at the snow

Snow Day! Too bad it was a Sunday :)

High Tide

Road to Anton Larson Bay

Boats on the water9

We've officially made it to the end
of the road in three directions

Sheltered harbor

Fishing boat returning to port

Sunrise

Our neighborhood during an evening walk with Michael

To compare

A few days ago, I posted some photos.  The very next day, I went out to the same location and took some more.  Do you notice the difference?

And now the following day:

the view upstream is mostly ice

Almost completely iced over

quite a bit more ice on the 2nd day

Sunrise on the Buskin

I went out to the Buskin River this morning because I was awake before sunrise today.  Being awake before sunrise isn't unusual when sunrise is at 9am.  Being awake before sunrise on a cloudless morning is unusual right now.  We have about 7-10 days of rain or cloudy weather and then one or two days of sunshine followed by 7-10 days of rain or cloudy weather.  While the sun was shining and the sky was cloudless, it was certainly not warm this morning.  The white patches in the photos are ice. 

the mouth of the Buskin before sunrise

the mouth of the Buskin just after sunrise

further upstream on the Buskin