fog and ice

 these are from sunset at Basher Trail and from a Thanksgiving day trek down to the beach at Kincaid.

 only attempted this one under ice shot with the new phone....turned out pretty good.

 above is a random bald eagle shot from today at the dog park.  the town is ice at this time, which is a drag, but i do try to get out there and enjoy the beauty that does come from that. the beach was super fun as it was frosted out there and i liked how the cold causes ice crystals to form as the tide recedes...that is kind of crazy.

 this day on Basher i was above the fog to enjoy the sunset with the fog...always beautiful....especially when you can get above the fog

 Redoubt in the distance.

 and zoomed in.

 Denali in the distance, zoomed as much as possible

 that Basher trail head is a favorite winter spot for me to watch sunsets...they are happening so early these days.

 met with my friend Scott for dinner tonight.  it's time to attempt to get organized for some of the Christmas stuff. i  do have my cards and calendars so that will  be a fall back this year i suspect.  with the kitchen still not back together the house just seems to cluttered to attempt to put up decorations.

 painted the mantel the grey/white tonight..will need to do some touch up on the wall right around it and the mantel i suspect as well.  covering the brown I'd painted with the lighter grey/white may take a little extra paint.  i also bought some quarter rounds for trimming out the exposed beam so i painted two of those tonight as well.

 saw some dog park friends out at the dog park...one pup that looks fairly sickly but he seemed happy to be at the park. the dog is only 5 but is a large breed, Deer Hound? i think.  sad...these big dogs just don't always get the longevity. 

 my little pups are still looking quite young.  Ivy has been on a leaping run.  i was making some headway on the way back up the hill from the beach.  calling her over and not rewarding her until she sat in front of me rather than jumping at me.

 fun week at work since i was sent home a few hours early each night this week.  so i clocked out between 4-5 am each day, which is nice as i get up earlier and can do a longer walk.

 some errands as well today. 

 hopefully, my handyman will be digging in tomorrow and i will see upper cabinets finished and lowers put in so i can get the measurements done for the counters and get that on order.

 put a few happy words on a few benches out there the other day.  always fun..and good photo ops as well. 

 wood pile, but it looked cool because of the frost that day.

 wet/frozen days ahead.  we do want snow...that is the Alaskan way...we love the cold and the snow.  it's one of the reasons we are here.  it's another good season to get out on the ice though so far and to enjoy all the crystals that form.  there is amazing diversity even in the ice crystal formations

 once the snow coats these old fallen leaves this opportunity ends so i figure just enjoy what nature brings.

 headed down the side trail to the beach, the views come on.

 liked the frost on the knots

 my nieces daughter should start at her new school tomorrow/today i guess if i have remembered that right. hoping all goes well. i would imagine getting back into a routine would be helpful for kids.  just hoping everyone makes her feel welcome.  they have all  been through a lot, not just my niece and her family but her entire community.  happy they do have each other to lean on as the whole community mourns the loss of their homes and town.  it sounds like they have all been treated kindly, which makes me happy....the worst of times often can bring out the best in people.

 one SIL was talking and again brought up this all possibly being signs of the second coming of Christ.  i just don't have any reason to really respond i guess.  i guess that is an easy way to look at things.  out of your control...gives us no responsibility or course of action if all the bad stuff that happens is part of some big plan that includes the end of the world. 

 i can recall my mother talking like this every time there was terrible news out there.  guess it makes me think about all the decades of doing nothing waiting for the second coming.  i mean if all the lives lost in WWI and WWII were not the signs of the second coming or i guess Christ didn't appear at that time, why would the current weather patterns be.  i keep going back to why not believe the science?  over 90% of scientists world wide agree that we are in a warming trend that is being hastened by man's choices/actions. they have global agreement on the science so to me that takes away the liberal plot idea.  all of science did not get together to make this crap up.  the oil companies have known for years their own impact and actually hired scientists to disprove the other science in order to prevent increased limits and restrictions on drilling and exploring for oil. there are things we could do to slow this but for some it's easier to pretend it's a liberal plot and ignore science and instead just believe that it's all just part of Gods big plan.

 there is some pancake ice forming on the beach.  we had lots last year. for sure the warming trends are more obvious in Alaska and places north.  it's gotten warmer.  the natives communities know this far too well and it is impacting them.

 these next two you can see ice crystals are forming in the mud itself..pretty cool looking i think

 zoomed in for more detail..my feet give you a size perspective

 lattice ice formed as the tide went out and the water crystallized.

 just a small layer of fog remained, but i think it did return.

 more inter tidal ice crystal formation

 pancake ice

 Ivy on pancake ice.  it's very flaky ice.  not sure why that is, is it the salt in it?  not sure.  so many different ways water can crystallize though.

 i came home from work early this week and groomed the dogs, brushing them out....i think they liked it.  i wanted to try not to get them too excited, feed them and head to bed

 frost on rocks on the beach

 ice crystals formed as the water ran down this rock below with the tide receding...thought it looked cool as well.

 made a small ice covered rock cairn. 

 the beach...the grey areas are frozen sand, the darker areas are not frozen

 loved the lattice work that nature formed out there. the tide time was perfect. 

 another Monday walk tomorrow.  hope the roads aren't too bad out there.

 small ice chunk out there on the beach

 Denali was peeking out from layers of fog

 you can see i was a bit obsessed with the frost and crystals.

 a few others walking at the beach. it really was peaceful out there.  feeling a desire to wander a bit further out.  have done many of the usual trails these past few months, hoping to start branching out.  need to buy plane tickets and find a pet sitter for March.  takes some time, should be fun, though always tough for me to leave my pups

 Tusker enjoys a run on the beach.  tennis balls have flown out of the yard a lot this week.  I'll need to get another bag or two....or sneak over to the neighbors and collect a few I'd tossed over there

thankful for: A.  ice in all it's forms  B. going home early this week C.  dog and cat snuggle time....so sweet