the season for red

Yesterday I promised I would try to get some color (other than dingy gray) into my posts for a change. Our winters can be so dark and dreary, and so gray.... that some times it's hard to see anything but. But here are some of favorite red colors.


You might recognize this little basket of hearts from the French General. They're filled with lavender and smell so yummy. I'm trying to add a little more color into our home by using accent pillows and was excited to find this front one, with the flowers, in the 40% clearance table at Fred Meyer recently. It was only $7 so I bought two of them.

Ask and you shall receive. I've found that I no longer need to spend all that money in airfare traveling down south to feed my shopping addiction. All I have to do is go to my favorite blogs and see what they have for sale this week and, of course, there's all those Etsy shops to find all the crafty and vintage items my heart desires. So not only am I saving $500 in airfare but all that gasoline driving from store to store, paying 8% in sales taxes, and just having to fight with the traffic and the shopping crowd! And on the chance that I don't find what I'm looking for on-line, all I have to do is send a note to my personal shopper and she'll find anything I want! Like these hankies. I read on someone's blog the other day that they use them for napkins..... Now I'm not certain I can actually go so far as to wipe greasy hands on these beauties, but maybe a little dab at the mouth.... For now I like them sitting in my napkin holder where I can look at all the colors of pink and red.

This screen serves many roles. In the summer months I might put it outside on the back deck to hide my garden hose. But inside it hides the ugly printer that sits on one of the bookcase shelves. It also is a great place to display my vintage quilts and table covers. It's hard to see how cute the table cloth is on the left side, but it's berries of some kind. I also hang my aprons from here.

So there you have it. A post without gray! Have a lovely day! We're expecting another 7-12 inches of snow today.... It's so beautiful but I promise, no more snow pictures for awhile!

the colors of winter....

We don't have a lot of color in Juneau. Mostly different shades of gray. You'd think when our weather was so gray all the time that people would paint their homes a bright, lively color! But we don't.... Gray and various shades of gray.... grayish blue, concrete gray, pale gray, slate blue (which is similar to gray in our gray weather). Okay so you get my point.

Today we're in the middle of our winter storm. We're supposed to get 16-28 inches of snow by tomorrow and then more tomorrow.... It's snowing but not accumulating too badly just yet. We did go for our daily ride this morning (per our dog, Sadie's, orders and expectations....) and I took some pictures along the way.

Like I said, Juneau is just a lot of gray.... whether it's a rainy/dreary gray or a snowy darkness. But I promise, starting tomorrow I'll try to get more color on to my pages! I hope you enjoy the ride!

Egan Highway; our highway into town. Up until the 70's, we had a two lane road that went from downtown Juneau to The Valley. If there was an accident, the road would be tied up for hours with traffic having no other way in or out of town. Egan Highway is a fairly new highway as it was built in the 70's when sand was dredged out of the Gastineau Channel (a body of water between the mainland and Douglas Island), forming this road. Most people traverse to and from town on this road now. We drive right along the Channel and have a gorgeous view of the water and even whales some times.

This is "the Channel." When it's cold, the salt water will freeze over and then as the tide comes and goes, it breaks it up into these ice flows. It's pretty awesome looking in real life. You feel as if you're up in the Arctic.

This is one of our boat harbors downtown. The harbor water freezes in the winter too. We have a lot of people who live on their boats year round. Blue tarps are a staple for Juneauites. It also adds a little color to Juneau's skies!

Okay, we're almost downtown now. We're just passing our high school area. The dry snow is squirreling along the highway. The winds can get pretty bad down town. We have what are called "Taku Winds." These winds come from Canada, across the ice fields, and are strong and cold. One thing you don't want to do is get caught in the middle of one of these gusts unless there's a car, a building, or some other object to grab a hold of. I've seen more than one person get blown across the road as if they were a rag doll. Taku Winds. Not fun.

Okay, we're here, downtown Juneau, the southern part of it anyway. This is the tourist part of Juneau. It looks pretty desolate this time of year without hoards of tourists milling about. This is our sleepy little town in the winter. Snow is blowing. It looks deserted!

This is uptown Juneau, the main business district and shop area. Juneau is an interesting town. It's built at the base of two mountains--Mount Roberts and Mount Juneau with the Gastineau Channel on the other side. During the mining days, downtown space was expanded by building on pilings driven into the Channel. But, still, downtown Juneau is only a few blocks in size, just a small area.

Here we are, home again. Hope you enjoyed a little bit of our blizzard conditions today!

a winter's day

Our home.




One of my loyal friends.

Juneau is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful places in the world, but never more than when the sun is out. Sadly, we don't see the sun often enough.... Lack of sunshine and long nights can cause severe cabin fever in the winter time as we long for more day light hours and more sunshine. Lack of sunshine depreciates our vitamin D and we get so pale looking. Mostly, when the sun shines through the windows and rays stop long enough on a table top, lamp shade, or a portion of the floor.... the first thing you notice is the dust and dirt and dog hair that has been hidden for so very long in the darkness! Talk about ruining a good thing!


Too much snow.

But today was one of those beautiful sunny days that filled us with hope and renewed our spirit. It was a good day! Never mind it was minus 10 degrees when we woke up this morning. That would be -10 like in below zero. Minus 10.... Now we're in for more harsh weather.


Out the road.


The national weather service says we have a winter storm coming our way. Tonight will bring minus temps again and "gusts" to 65 mph.... That would bring the wind chill factor to -35. Brrrr. Tomorrow we're supposed to get more snow; a total accumulation of 14-24 inches. Tomorrow will be a heavy day of shoveling.
A winter storm a brewin.


A beautiful sunset.

These are some pictures of Juneau; not necessarily this year. Just pictures that fairly represent the good, the bad, and the ugly of Juneau. Enjoy!




Our airport area. Much of our commute to and from remote villages are done by float planes.


A rainy day in Juneau.

you know you live in a small town when....

I know this is my second post today, but as I'm sitting here listening to the radio, and laughing, I just had to make another entry. I wasn't actually listening to the radio but was on hold with the car dealer and the "music" was our local radio station. Problem Corner on KINY.

You know you live in a small town when your daily call in program is to sell and buy and trade and barter or just to visit! "This is Phyllis (the Alaskan Native says)..... and I'd like to wish my sister Harriett and her husband Tom Feller happy second anniversary....." Or Henry who has an 1985 vehicle for sale, cheap.... Or Marge who's just lonely and wants to chat for awhile. Maybe you're looking for some seal oil.... or mukluks.... or canning jars.... or instructions on how to knit socks.... This is THE place to shop!

KINY radio is a main source of communication between all the small villages and towns in Southeast Alaska. Natives living in Angoon will call Problem Corner (in Juneau), asking that their son call them. They're regulars. The DJ doesn't need to ask names or phone numbers. He has it all memorized from talking to these people day after day after day.

And if you're a day laborer, you can call Problem Corner looking for work. Have shovel will travel! If you need someone to come shovel snow, this is the means you would use in Juneau. If you have something to sell, or just want to sit and visit, just pick up the phone. If you have a political view .... just call KINY and let us all know what it is.

When I moved here in 1971, I didn't miss a day of Problem Corner. It felt like a piece of home. Families calling and talking about what's going on in their homes that day or relaying messages to other families in Southeast Alaska. But 30 some years later, you'd think we would have moved out of this simple, back road means of communication, bartering, visiting, and keeping in touch. But we haven't. Every day you can visit and chat with Dennis Egan from 10:15 until noon. He's your family.

We don't listen to KINY so much anymore. I guess I outgrew it.... but every now and then I turn the radio on it takes me back home 30 years ago. It's good that some things never change.

yep....

it's still winter....



We're expecting another foot of snow by tonight.... We got well over a foot of the white stuff yesterday.... It's beginning to look a lot like last year.... Here's some snow pictures for those of you who have to dream about snow :)

(By the way, this mountain with sledders is no mountain. It's a heap of snow! We still had some this Fall.... this is the beginning of a new glacier!)

follow up

I was caught off guard yesterday when my little grandbaby came with his momma. My blog post got stopped quick as a wink and I hit that publish button so quickly I didn't even have time to do spell check! Usually I go back and fix some of my ramblings and make sure all the spacing is good, but not yesterday. I had more important things on my mind for sure. We even got to watch him for a bit while his momma went grocery shopping! He was sleeping when he got here but I managed to wake him up in the tradeoff.... oops.... When Hunter arrives, he has a habit of staring at you for the longest time, an intense stare, and then he recognizes me and coos and smiles. I know you! he says. Just way too cute.

It's still snowing.... We're supposed to get another 8-18" by tomorrow. January snow was below normal with only 23" accumulating. I guess I'm surprised it was even that much.


I bought the cutest little towels from Shabby In The City yesterday. I love shopping on-line! It's such a perfect marriage for people like us that live a somewhat secluded life with limited shopping options. They're made from a vintage embroidered table scarf....two hand towels with a pretty crochet border. Only $7. I can hardly wait to get them. You have to be johnny on the spot though with some of these blogs shops though because items go so quickly. Too, because of our time difference in Alaska and most of ya'll (four hours behind you), it could be practically noon before I get around to shopping.

Anyway, I love the little flowers and can hardly wait to see them in real.

I've also been doing some on-line shopping for the baby shower. I talked a bit about my favorite little grandbaby yesterday but neglected to mention my most favorite little granddaughter is still on the way. A granddaughter! Oh, the fun we're going to have! So I'm planning my daughter's baby shower, with the help of her best friends Jerusalem and Tanya who have access to more resources than I do. The color theme is pink and brown polka dots! It's going to be so cute! But since it's going to be a couple's shower, I had to think of a theme that wasn't too cutsey and girlie, yet sophisticated and fun for Tracy, with a hint of masculinity in it for Adam and his friends. A huge order! April 5, 1:00 p.m. if you're in the neighborhood :)

Tomorrow is Super Bowl and although I am so not a football fan, I do love the food! For my famnily it's all about the food! We usually invite some friends over but everyone's sick this year and I really don't want them here if they're sick because my grandbaby may be here. Too, I may not have time to visit with them if my grandbaby is here.... So we'll have plenty of food and if anyone shows up, I'll be covered.

Have a good weekend!

it's still winter

Yep, it's still winter here.... in case you were wondering.... You wouldn't know it though if you lived down south. Many people don't even know Alaska is part of the United States! How sad is that? And too many people see the two letter state abbrebiation AK and think Arkansas!


We find it interesting when we watch the morning news (national) that other states can have blizzards and zero degree weather and 10" of snow and gusts to 55 mph, and it's always recognized on the national news as NEWS! Chicago is buried today with 10" of snow. A train was tipped over yesterday due to high winds. But you never heard about all our container vans that were blown over due to high winds this week. Yes! Shipping containers weighing 11,000 pounds were knocked over like dominoes! Or that we've had temps dipping to -9 at night with wind chill factors of -35 for most of the week. Last year we had record snow fall well over 200". Never heard a peep about it on the news.... I wonder why Alaska isn't recognized as being newsworthy....

Here's the week in review at our household:


Blue Jays versus the Yellow Bird....
Bird DOG that is.... I've noticed ears of dry corn laying about in our back yard lately and just thought the Blue Jays had carted it off. I keep a plant stand up on my outdoor table filled with dried corn on the cob for my Blue Jays to enjoy during the winter months. It stays out of the weather pretty much because there's a second story deck overhead that protects it. It's an easy place for the birds to get a little snack. But our little Sadie Girl has figured out that somehow this is food meant for her and she wants her share as well. A picture is worth a thousands words. Do I need say more?


Grandbaby turns 2 months!
My most favorite little grandson turns 2 months today! Okay, so he's my only grandbaby so far. But two months, already! How time flies. He is just so adorable, I can hardly stand it. I get to visit with him at least once a week and we're developing a good rapport with each other. He's already indicated that I could just possibly be his most favorite grandma (out of three of us) and he likes coming here to visit me best of all. :)

Personally, I think he's already advanced for his age..... But I could be just a tad prejudice.

And, yes, it's still winter.... The temps have been to near zero or below for several days. We're having a heat wave today as it's almost 20 degrees outside. It's been snowing all day and we've accumulated about 6" of very light, fluffy snow. You don't need a snow shovel for this though, all you need to do is blow and it flies away!


Despite winter conditions, I've got a few Valentine decorations up, although I don't do much in the way of decorating for this holiday. I love little splashes of red here and there and especially chocolates wrapped in red celephane! Or just chocolate. I love chocolate. I got like 12 boxes of chocolate covered cherries (CCC) for Christmas this year. Did I tell you that? My family all know how much I love them, but 12 boxes....? I may still have some come next Christmas! I've tried buying other variety of candy since Christmas and my husband not-so-politely reminds me I have candy at home.... I have to tell him that one cannot live on CCC alone; variety IS the spice of life! And I do love variety! I hinted that I expected a box of chocolates for Valentines Day, but we'll see. Some times he's not so good at picking up on hints....

And speaking of my grandbaby, he just arrived so I'm signing off! I have a sweet little thing to hold!