Mountains Close to Home

View of the mountains in Chugiak…one of these is Bear Mountain…taken close to the post office.

Mountains at Mirror Lake…notice the reflection of the mountains in the water.

Pioneer Peak in Palmer…taken from the parking lot at the Alaska State Fair.

Giant Veggies

Last week the children and I went with some friends to the Alaska State Fair. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! I am thankful we went. We had so much fun. One of the first stops we made at the fair was the veggie stand. Alaska is known for its giant vegetables and I was expecting some big veggies but WOW!

So I thought that I would share a few photos with you.

This pumpkin set a new record. It weighed in at 1,1o1 pounds!

This cabbage is actually in the photo above too, this is just a close up.  I do not know which cabbage weighed the most this year at the fair but this one weighed in at 93.9 pounds.  That is a lot of coleslaw!!

Here is a kohlrabi weighing in at 20 pounds and a 19.6 pound turnip!

Then there was the fun selection of veggie people.  This one was my favorite.

So, how does your garden compare?  Ha, I don’t even have a garden!  We are a large family but I think that veggies this size would even be too much for us!

Alaskan Sunset

Alaska has some amazing sunsets! This is definitely not the most spectacular but beautiful none the less. Maybe one day I will be able to capture the sunset with the inlet and the mountains also. For now, I will share the ones my daughter took from home last week. Enjoy!  God’s creation is awe inspiring!

Snowing Cotton

Over the past couple of weeks it has been snowing cotton!  The cottonwood trees are releasing an unbelievable amount of seed into the air!  It is pretty to look at but talk about allergies!  I thought I would share a bit of our cotton snow storm with you.  In the first photo you can actually see some of the cotton falling.  Oh, and another point of interest, I took these photos at 11:30 pm on an overcast day.  Just to give you an idea of the daylight.

Big Wildlife Day

This Memorial Day will be a memorable one but not for the regular reason.  This was a BIG wildlife day at our house.  Even though our house is nestled up against the mountains we usually do not see much wildlife in our yard.  It is probably because we have dogs and the children tend to make noise too.   BUT, today was a big change.  This morning in the trees right across the street sat a very large bald eagle.  Of course, it flew away before I got outside with the camera.  Maybe that had to do with children running in yelling, “MOM,  A BALD EAGLE!”

I did manage to get a couple of photos of our afternoon visitors though.  A mama moose and her two little babies running right past our backyard.

My Spring Garden

I thought I would share part of my spring garden with you. We spent some time yesterday planting. Our house is beginning to brighten up for the summer! They are not the best photos but the flowers are beautiful!

My birch bark planter.

Some ferns in front of the house.

Another birch bark planter, I LOVE these planters!

My Mother’s Day gift.

Just something pretty I picked up at the greenhouse yesterday.