Summer's over?

Apparently classes start tomorrow, which explains the madness getting from point A to point B in town. That means summer is officially over! Though the sunny weather likes to stick around this time of year in Seattle, making it my favorite hiking season by far. Ripe blueberries and huckleberries, yellow-to-red leaves everywhere, yes please.

I've gone out of my comfort zone this summer and climbed two big peaks, Granite Mountain in Montana (its highest peak), and Mount Stuart in the Cascades (7th highest in WA). Both had class 4-5 rock which means that ropes were duly appreciated (or desperately yearned for). There was plenty of exposure which made both climbs entirely beautiful and sometimes terrifying.

Here are some nice photos from Granite (not mine):
http://xpda.com/mountains/granite/

And here's a photo of Stuart (not mine):
http://peakery.com/static/images/items/main/mount-stuart.jpg.910x580_q85_crop-top.jpg


Both were absolutely thrilling, and luckily I had a fantastic group to go with on both trips that helped immensely during the toughest bits. We got to see Yellowstone, too, and discovered that it takes forever to drive through there at night due to bison disappearing and reappearing all over the roads. Wouldn't recommend it, though I would highly recommend visiting the park during daylight hours.

In other news, grad school is still plodding along. I've stopped taking a picture a day after missing a week of photos (flu + food poisoning did me in), and I'm still working on finishing a classic book for each month. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a quick read with its southern dialect.

Today might be a garden makeover day in time for the autumn crops: bok choy, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, onions, leeks, and kale.

Ski season isn't that far away already. What happened to summer?

Old photo of the day: Fires near Wenatchee

Picture a Day

Taking at least one photo a day has its challenges. Despite ending up with lots of feet photos taken at 11:59 p.m. (nearly forgetting to take a photo for the day), I'm still satisfied with my new year's resolution to take one photo a day. What if my feet got chopped off tomorrow? Thank goodness I have proof that I once had feet.

I'd recommend this goal for anyone. It's enriching.

Here are some photo highlights:




Cornices from Big Snow Mountain.


Some very cool flowers.


Caterpillars which are fed to poison dart frogs.


Succulents around our climbing spot on Mt. Erie.


Sailing in Puget Sound.


Interesting people in Seattle.


Palouse Falls.

100 Degree Change (it's less impressive when it's Fahrenheit)

There's nothing quite like spending a day in the sunshine, digging around in your own garden in flipflops, taking the time to simply smell the flowers without your snot freezing.

Bliss.

Going from -55 F windchill to 55 F spring weather has made me value warmth. Pure warmth.


------- Barrow -------

I perused the magazine aisles at the Anchorage airport on my way to Barrow. I found their Sports/Fitness section lacking.


Unbeknownst to me, my flight was supposed to stop at Deadhorse on its way to Barrow. I was confused when we landed. You see, Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay) is windy and cold... it was at this point, when the flight attendants opened the doors to let passengers off/on, that I became worried about my feet (in tennis shoes) getting cold. They were numb in <5 minutes while I sat on the "warm" plane.


Barrow has creative dumpsters, painted up by the local children and families. This is one of the more interesting ones to me.


One of the first mornings in Barrow. It's usually gorgeous.



Then I finished 3 weeks of fieldwork and came home to this:
------- Spring in Seattle --------


Spinach


Carrots


Broccoli


Onions



That's all for now.
Love,
Melinda

Barrowing Around

Yikes, I forgot I had this thing.

Update: In Barrow, Alaska, doing anything and everything that is hopefully useful and relevant to some Arctic research. It's cold. I'm getting better at driving a snow machine. I can sweat at -54 F wind chill. I have to look south if I want to see the aurora. Ice crystals grow on my eyelashes when I don't wear goggles. Arctic foxes like to pee on our instruments. I've found two restaurants that serve sushi. Pop (soda) is cheaper than water.

Here are some pics.








Love,
Melinda