Friday, September 14, 2007

Our new Neighborhood!!

Autumn in our neighborhood – September 11

We were able to move in to our new house on Friday, September 7. It was a nice day. It was a good thing that we decided to move on Friday, as it rained all day on Saturday and Sunday. Rain here seems to consist of a really heavy drizzle. But you don’t have to be out in it long to get soaked.

I took a walk around our neighborhood this week. Fall is definitely here. They tell me that one day the leaves will all be on the trees and the next day they will all have fallen. So I am to enjoy the fall colors while I can. These pictures were all taken in my neighborhood. The one with the red groundcover was taken in the woods right behind our house.



















































I posted pictures of fireweed earlier. The hillsides were covered with its purple bloom. Since my return to Alaska, I find the tops are grey and fuzzy and the leaves have turned a fiery red. Natives say that when the fireweed is done blooming all the way to the top of the blossom and the leaves turn red, winter is on its way.
































I walked by a culvert and looked down and saw these salmon swimming right under my feet! The red body and green head tells you that they are almost ready to die. They turn red from the tail to the head. If you look closely at the picture of the single salmon, you will see another larger fish that is dead in the water underneath the swimming salmon.
































Remember that I told you that it had rained the weekend after we moved? Before that weekend, this mountain was not covered in snow. After the moisture, the top of the mountain gleamed with the new snow covering. I imagine that all the mountain tops will “gleam” shortly.


















Today when I walked, the view was exceptional. Notice that in the foreground of these pictures, the house and the trees seem sharp and real, while the mountains in the background seem two-dimensional. It almost looks like an old movie, when they had the actors riding horses in front of a fake mountainous backdrop. These pictures were taken from the end of our driveway. You can see our driveway in the picture below (the one with Doug’s pickup in it). So I wasn’t very far from the house when I took these pictures.

















































Our House

Our house sits at the top of our neighborhood. I am standing up the road to take this picture. Our house is the one in the center back. Doug’s green pickup is sitting in our driveway.
!!!!!!!!!!!NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!
TODAY I WALKED BACK TO THE SPOT WHERE I TOOK THIS PICTURE OF OUR HOUSE. ABOUT 50' BEHIND THIS SPOT WAS A PILE OF BEAR POO!!! GUESS WHO IS NOT GOING TO BE WALKING ON THAT COUNTRY ROAD ALONE ANY MORE!!




















This is the front of our new house.





















This is the view that we see to the right side of our house(as you are facing the house). (Pioneer Peak and the Chugach Mountains). We see this view from our dining room and the side of the front porch.


















This is the view from the back of the house. (Lazy Mountain, Matanuska, Talkeetna Mountains). This view can be seen from the master bedroom, master bathroom and the kitchen window.




















This is the view from the left side of the house Talkeetna Mountains, Hatcher Pass). This is the view I see as I sit at my computer.