March = Spring?

I keep thinking I need to get out and take some pictures, but this is such an ugly time of year. Well, in SE Alaska it is anyway. The snow is trying to melt, and all the piles of snow are dirty with sand and gravel. The stuff left in the yards have craters in it from the rain, or there are huge piles by the edges of houses. Nothing like the white with the first snow in the fall, when everything is so clean and bright. So I've had a hard time finding pictures to post, unless we have a blue bird day and we are near or on the water there isn't much to see. Frank and I are sure looking forward to our trip to Washington in April to finally get some spring weather, and maybe when we get back the snow will be all gone! There is only 1 real type "hotel" in Hoonah. This is the Icy Strait Lodge. I've never stayed there myself so can't comment on the rooms, but I have heard they are in need of an updating. The building is in a great location though, and the dinning room sits right on the water, which at high tide is pretty nice, low tide isn't so pretty, lots of mud. When they have a good cook there, it's actually a nice place to go for dinner. There is also a bar with pool tables, but we aren't much for hanging out in the bars so we haven't spent much time there. You can see we still have plenty of snow piled up along the roads, and as I type this another snow storm is going over.
You'll have to settle for more pictures of our ever entertaining Nooks. She loves her boxes, especially when Frank cuts holes in them for her to look out. This winter she has started to meow at you when she wants to play. She's had a very boring winter.

The Sky is Falling!

It sure sounds like it anyway. We must have gotten about a foot of snow the other day, then it warmed up and rained, then snowed, some sun, etc. The snow started sliding off the roof very fast. That is so loud when it comes crashing down! It doesn't have far to fall anymore though, the piles are up to the bottoms of the windows. When we got a lot of that last snow, we made the mistake of not shoveling the driveway, I kept thinking, oh, it's supposed to warm up it will just melt. HA! Now, it's water heavy snow, and neither one of us wants to shovel it. Cabin fever is starting to set in for sure. You can tell when you notice how loud your spouse chews, and the other small little things are like a fuse being lit inside your head. Yes, I do believe it's time we either get a job (YIKES!), or go visit some friends!This is right outside the front door, domino effect, from the roof, to the yard, to the walkwayThe yard between our house and the neighbors. I think the bbq is under there someplace!Poor Nooks, Frank gave her a kitty toss into the snow. I don't know why she likes him!

Just Another Day

It's really time for winter to be over. Just having survived February is a bonus around here. If I remember right though, no matter where I am, February is the hardest month to get through, maybe that's why Valentines day is in there, to try and add some "love" when everyone feels grumpy. But it's March now and it's all down hill to summer! The National Weather Service said SE Alaska was going to have an exceptionally warm summer. Really. I wish I would have saved the link to that statement. No one believes I really read that, for some reason they think I am making it up. I don't care what anyone thinks, I'm hanging onto that statement. If we have a summer like last year I think I will just jump overboard and call it good.
Frank got this shot the other day out our front window. I'm glad the camera zoomed in on the Eagle and not the dirt on the window!

Nooks, a never ending source of entertainment. Both cats fight over this location on sunny days.

Around town, continued

Since this snow isn't letting up, and all the pictures I take now will look the same. I went back through some of my older shots of places around town.

This is the Russian Orthodox Church. It needs a lot of work still, they started working on replacing the roof last summer, but I think they are still using the Catholic church for services, so I don't think it was finished. This tiny church sits up the hill overlooking town. So many people miss it since they are looking out at the bay and not up.

This is one of the stops for the tours from Icy Strait Point. The totems located at the school parking area. Under the shed is 2 canoes, an older one, and a new one that was supposed to have been finished last summer. I'm not sure if they ever took it out, something had been done wrong on it, which resulted in a crack. They weren't sure if it would float or not. So much work went into the carving of that boat, I'd hate to see it not be usable.

And this is known as "Bear Bread". Really, it's just a fungus that grows on the trees. A lot of people gather them, dry them and then paint on them for the tourists to buy when they come to town. I think this one never got dried out............