Sun stars and full moon

 

Yesterday was a spectacular day - no wind, sunny, and frosty.  In the morning I went out to my car to drive in to work and there was a furry blanket of ice crystals over the whole car.  And a full moon was setting on the other side of the lawn. A very frosty morning!

After work before my ski I experimented with setting the aperture on my camera really high and creating sunstars out of the sun through the frost crystals on the trees.  It kind of looks cool but I need to do some more experimenting. I also tried to create a sunstar behind Ryan and John on the mountain, and it sort of worked.

Then when I got back home there was the moon again rising out of the Gulf of Alaska.  And everything was purple and gold.

Patrick

sunstar through the hoar frost on tree

And of course a sunstar over snow 

Full moon and a very frosty lawn

Powder at sunset

 

These are the pictures from yesterday's sunset ski with Nora.  It was so beautiful that I took way too many pictures and then I could not decide which ones I like best.  So I posted way too many, but suffice it to say there were a lot of great pictures that I did not use!

The pink light and blue sky was sort of surreal, and actually even brighter than it looks in these pictures.  When I tried to make the pictures have the same color that I remembered from the ski they looked too fake so I toned them down a bit.

Anyway, it was one of those evenings that does not happen very often on Kodiak.  Powder snow, no wind, and glorious light.  And if you looked the opposite direction from the sunset there was an almost full moon.

Patrick

We got snow

 

These pictures are from Wednesday afternoon.  Tuesday night and morning it was 35 degrees and rained hard in town.  But this is what we got at the pass - a foot of new powder! A winter wonderland.  And it is supposed to stay cold for a while - so hopefully it'll stay powder for a while.  I also went skiing with Nora yesterday in the sunshine - so stay tuned for those pictures next.  

Patrick

Welcome 2023 Goodbye 2022

 

I'm not sure if New Year's Eve fireworks celebrate the passing of the old year or the advent of the new year.  Maybe both?  Or maybe people just like fireworks and need an excuse.  I tend to like to look back, and so for me I'd say they celebrate the passing of the year.  So goodbye 2022.  

This year Kodiak was very stormy on New Year's Eve and so we delayed our fireworks celebration until 2023 had already been around for a day and 2022 was long gone.  So welcome 2023.

As usual a bunch of people came over, I lit a fire in the fire pit, and we shot fireworks off from my lawn out over Mill Bay.  Quite dramatic with the sparklers, smoke, noise and big explosions.  One of the favorite was the big lantern balloon (see immediately below) that once lit floats up into the sky and up up and away.

At the same time as we are lighting off fireworks everyone around the bay is also lighting off fireworks.  The whole bay is lit up and smoky.  It always reminds me of that scene in Apocolypse Now where the USO entertainers show up.

The next morning I had to dust off the fireworks debris from the roof of my car.

Patrick

Wet walks

 

Welcome 2023!  

Weather wise it has been a pretty dismal week or so. After Christmas we were supposed to go on an Alyeska ski vacation, but our plane got cancelled. We were not able rebook our flights because these days it seems getting an actual airplane seat in or out of Kodiak is pretty difficult.  And so we spent Christmas vacation on Kodiak and it rained, and rained and rained.  

This was not all bad because it did snow on high and we now have rock solid base of snow on the mountain.  Rock solid being the operative word.  The last few days the skiing has been a little icy!

So to get outside we've been going on wet walks.  In the rain under the trees is green and beautiful.  On New Years day Nora and I went hiking with the dogs in the Termination Point woods (top photos).  Buskin beach has been a little more dismal - crashing waves and bleak skies.

Oh well, it is supposed to get cold later this week and last night it was 35 degrees and rained almost an inch.  Hopefully today we have some new soft snow on the mountain.  Fingers crossed.

Patrick