NAEC Calendar

I rarely do much with the photos I take besides share them with friends and post the occasional one on this blog. A few months back I got a wild hair and decided to do something different by entering a few of my Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) photos into a photo competition that the Northern Alaska Environmental Center (NAEC) was having to gather photos for a 2011 calendar celebrating the 50th anniversary of ANWR. Much to my surprise they liked a few of my photos and used the one above as the cover for the calender. You can go to NAEC's web site to check it out. I warn you though. If you decide to purchase a calendar you will be supporting one of those environmental organizations that fights to keep your water clean and wild places wild so make sure you can stomach that.

The Settling in of Winter

Winter is slowly but surely settling in around us. The leaves changed colors and dropped to the ground a little over a month ago. Then a few weeks back we received our first snow. It was not much but it was enough to set the mood for another snowy winter. Fortunately it stayed cold enough to keep the snow around without going through much of a freeze-thaw cycle. We've had a few snows since then which has allowed one of our cross-country ski areas to open up (the area is pampered like a golf course so they only need a hand full of inches to be able to pack the snow for skiing). And the rivers have started to freeze over. The transitions of the rivers from liquid to solid in fall then from solid to liquid in spring are always fun to watch. None of the rivers are frozen enough to go ice skating or skiing on yet, there are still some open spots here and there, but all the rivers have enough ice on them that no one will be putting their boat in the water until spring. Many of the small ponds in the area are completely frozen over and are being used for ice skating. Yet again, another great fall.