Wind Songs: Growing Things

We live in a rain forest.

The most northerly rain forest in the country.

Juneau averages something like 80 inches of rain per year.

I am not certain of the snowfall averages, but one winter a few years before I arrived they had 200 inches over the course of one winter.

Sometimes it feels like it rains all the time.

I still remember kayaking on July 4th weekend and it was cloudy, foggy, rainy and around 50 degrees the entire weekend. The coldest July 4th I have ever spent.

We had an unusual amount of sunshine in September. Three weeks straight of unseasonably warm and completely sunny weather.

And then it rained for six weeks straight.

Sometimes it feels like it rains all the time.

But when I look back on some of the thousands of pictures I have taken over this past year that I have lived in Juneau, I realize that it does not actually rain all the time.

That sometimes - actually many times - the sun does actually shine.

And when it shines this place is magnificent.

Today it did not get above 8 degrees, was cloudy, and all day the sky threatened snow.

For the last few hours it has been snowing. Just lightly but consistently falling. Not sticking to the ground just yet but starting to stick to the porch.

LC and I debated on walking on a trail close to the house this morning and then decided instead to just hunker down inside the warm house for the day and watch movies.

Movie with gratuitous violence and little plot - the kind of movies we both like to watch.

No plot, lots of explosions and a large pot of chili.

Not a bad way to spend a day when neither of us was motivated to bundle up and face the outside.

With no new pictures to post I decided instead to look back over some of the pictures I have taken over the past months, and download pictures of "growing things".

We live in a rain forest.

Sometimes it feels like it rains all the time.

It doesn't.

But what it does do is grow things.

Greens of every shade and hue everywhere you turn.

Hugely abundant and extremely beautiful wildflowers everywhere - tall and beautiful flowers that fill the fields and meadows that surround this area, and small and delicate flowers that fill the fields in the mountains.

Every month during the spring and summer there are new and different wildflowers to enjoy.

It is beyond beautiful.............

Taken during a hike on Windfall Lake Trail..........

During the summer and during the cruise ship season when thousands of tourists roam the streets of downtown Juneau in search of Alaska-T-shirt-bargains, the city is absolutely filled with flowers.

There are many small flower gardens such as the one below, located at a traffic circle in the cruise ship district.

Hanging flower baskets swing from every lamp-post in town.

Still more hanging baskets hang from buildings and stores throughout downtown.

And lined all along the Marine Park boardwalk are old whiskey barrels filled with flowers.

It is a lovely spectacle.

Juneau is beautiful at this time of year when it is quiet and in winter hibernation.

But it is a different kind of beautiful from the colorful and noisy and energized city of summer..........

Green and more green.

Lush growth at the top of Mt Roberts...........

Not long after I arrived in Juneau I started exploring some of the mountain trails and fields surrounding the city.

After the snow and ice finally melted and "growing things" began to grow, I was surprised to see that flowers that grow in the mountains are small and seemingly very fragile.

I had made the mistaken assumption that any flowers that could survive in such harsh conditions would be large and sturdy.

I have learned a lot about nature since I arrived in Alaska.

Mountain flowers are small and seemingly delicate, and yet they continue to flourish year after year, spring and summer after spring and summer.

Surprisingly strong and resilient despite their delicate appearance.........

Ferns, moss, devils club and skunk cabbage are all extremely abundant in this area.

When I first saw a small yellow flower growing in my yard, and then saw them growing in low lying areas throughout Juneau last spring I had no idea what they were.

I had never seen such a plant before.

I watched with interest throughout spring and early summer as these small yellow flowers grew into huge dark green plants with huge leaves.

It is very common to see skunk cabbage on both sides of low lying trails..............

One of many many lovely, isolated and quiet ponds found along multiple trails in the area.........

By June every single meadow is completely filled with beautiful Queens Anne Lace and Fireweed.

These pictures were taken this summer while hiking on Cowee Creek Trail........

After walking and picture taking for a couple of hours my Mountain Boy, my Jamie-dog and I came across a huge and open field, and Cowee Creek Cabin.

This cabin can be rented for overnight trips, but when not rented is open and available to anyone who wishes to stop by to rest or warm up.

On that particular day we happily found the cabin unoccupied and stopped there for a while to eat and rest before heading back...........

Flowers surrounding a stone marker indicating the name of this downtown park.

Cope Park contains a children's play park and a lovely trail that parallels a typically fast-moving creek.

The trail ends up crossing the creek and continues on the opposite bank, eventually connecting with Basin Road in back of the city, and leads to Mt Roberts and other major trail heads..........

Early Fall at Marine Park..........

Small gardens of churches and homes downtown filled with flowers..........

Skunk cabbage in its early stages.

I took this picture in my front yard..........

Tulips in the spring outside Centennial Hall (Juneau's small convention center)........

A small, lovely and very well maintained flower garden next to the boardwalk at Marine Park.........

There is little I can say about Eagle Beach that I have not already said.

It, and the Boy Scout Trail immediately across the river (and accessible by road just a couple of minutes drive from Eagle Beach) are the two most beautiful places in Juneau in my mind.

They are stunning in every kind of weather, and at every time of year, and I never tire of either of them.

In the spring Eagle Beach, as with all of Juneau, begins its growing season again.

Grasses of all types, both in the meadows surrounding the beach as well as on the beach itself, begin to fill this quiet place again........

One last picture of Marine Park. My favorite open space in downtown Juneau.

Marine Park is where the cruise ships dock. Where the hundreds of thousands of yearly visitors begin their explorations. Where the float planes take off and land in noisy abundance. Where the locals sit and sleep and sing and eat and visit and people-watch...........

Spring flowers in my yard at the Unabomber Cabin..........

The Jensen Olson Arboretum, located only a few miles from my house...........

Taken outside the state museum in downtown Juneau..........

And taken at the city run museum, still in downtown Juneau but a few blocks towards the back section of the city.......

I have only walked on the Dike Trail close to the airport twice since I arrived in Juneau.

The first time was during the summer when the meadows close to the channel were filled with fireweed - beautiful and tall purple flowers that grow in abundance throughout this area.

The second time was only a few weeks ago when the meadows and the trail were filled with ice, when the wind was blowing coldly and wildly off the channel, and when we were freezing cold.

One of my summer pictures...........