Hello from Alaska

We had a gorgeous weekend July 28-29, which had been preceded by many many days that were cloudy and overcast, if not downright rainy. Here's a few pix of our customary Sunday walk in the woods with dog Clare on one of the rainier weekends. That's Pete up ahead. I'm shooting from beneath an umbrella.















This black sky presaged the arrival of days and days of rain. The sky was almost this dark for about three days straight, only the streets were wet, too.

















But that didn't last, and finally, back in the park where we dog-walk, we enjoyed some gorgeous flowers. This garden is in a public park and dedicated to a boy who died running in the mountains of Chugach State Park at the age of 17. A vigorous mountain runner who slipped and fell, and died. His parents keep up this garden in the public park. You can often see his mom out there weeding. He's been dead probably 10 years or more now.
















In other news, Peter has been practicing the piano after we got it tuned (and is doing that right now, even). I've been riding my bike to work, 15 miles round trip every day. It's a very pretty ride. I ride on black-topped trails that go along Cook Inlet, Westchester Lagoon, and finally Chester Creek greenbelt. I only have to cross one busy street when I get to my newspaper. Below is Westchester Lagoon on a recent Friday evening on the way home from work.

















Here is a self-portrait of me on my bike at Westchester Lagoon. This reminds me of photos Ruichun showed me from her Stanford photography class when they were assigned to do a self-portrait. I stole her good idea.

















Kale will appreciate this next picture. (Because we talked about how hard it is to move back into your house and take possession of it again.) As soon as we moved home Peter had to change out our garbage disposal. About the third day, it went out. Kaput. As you might imagine, this is NOT something Peter likes to do.
















Here's Maeve, reading a book on the couch inbetween jobs on a Sunday. Mornings she makes lattes at Kaladi Bros. Coffee Company; afternoons and evenings she seats people at a new restaurant in town called Ginger. So the couch and a book are a welcome retreat....