recommended reading

Hi from Fairbanks

I've moved into my Ballaine hill cabin with Elliott and our new poodle puppy Leo, and am enjoying the simplicity of urban life. Semi-urban anyway. Our cabin is dry, without running water or a toilet. This is normal for Fairbanks.  When I say "urban," I mean life revolving around weekends and work in the city. No sled dogs to tend to, not yet, anyway. I am happy with life in Fairbanks right now. I am only working 60-70% and feel like I have the down time to get caught up with things on my off days. I am working on maintaining a clean cabin and installing flower beds in my "backyard," a cleared section of the woods behind the cabin. I am meeting up with old friends and finishing up winter knitting projects. I forgot how beautiful Fairbanks is. Purple hills and big skies. The leaves are losing the tint of spring and the thermometer is regularly hitting 70 degrees. I am grateful for time to reconnect with friends and loved ones, time to plan floating and fishing trips, and time to go out and play.

summer reading

enjoying the warm sunny weather in spring green fairbanks, and losing myself in summer reading on dogs and winter.

"The temperature was about thirty below zero. With bells jingling, we swept though a fairyland of crystalline loveliness, each pine bough freighted with lace and gems, and a stillness that made silence seem like sound."

From Ploughman of the Moon by Robert Service

 

Pictures of a mid-February puppy run around Stengelsen.

late blue dawns

"Winter has late blue dawns and the warm buttery light of the low midday sun. It has the jagged gems of hoarfrost and soft, feathery snow. Winter is the season of solitude and pure, glorious silence. And in winter, the sled dogs run."

-Excerpt from Mad Dogs and an Englishwoman by Polly Evans