Steep on This

I really want this bumper sticker... don't you?

Melting Snow

I mentioned before how spring is starting to hint that she'll be arriving soon. 

I saw evidence of this when I saw melting snow atop a fallen tree on one of my walks. Don't they look just a bit like elephants walking at each other in single file?

The hours of sunlight are increasing, and the long light and shadows of early evening make everything seem like it's just about to burst into real spring; the kind with flowers and leaves and mud and puddles and birdsong and RVs and half-crazed Alaskans coming out of winter hibernation.

And soon the woods will be clear of snow and I can run barefoot without my mother getting upset with me.

Breaking Into Break

Yes, I realise that I did not blog during my spring break at all. Not even once. It went well, and I took some photos and did fun things like  binge on some great oldies and folk tunes. 

That was brought about by how I spent the first Saturday evening of my spring break... 

Mum and I headed over to Kenai for an evening of music.

No classical stuff here, just folk, bluegrass, and rock and roll... on guitar and fiddle.

With tea, because tea helps everything, doesn't it?

Hm, I wonder how many tunes those fingers know?

I love this pair. I wrote about their wedding almost three years ago, and since them have enjoyed even more music and time with them.

Isn't this teapot just lovely?

Remnants of the Past

In the homestead community where I grew up, there is an old school house. I don't remember exactly when it was built. I think it was the late fifties? Anyways, I have very fond memories of playing there as a child- it had a metal merry-go-round out back, along with some rickety monkey bars and a sand pit and a field for baseball. (And just next to it was the new school that was built in the eighties or something like that.) It was made into the community centre a few years back, and about a year ago, the old post office building was moved to the same property. 

Recently, as I drove by the school, I noticed that they had moved the buildings, as the old foundations needed some work so the buildings wouldn't collapse. 

 

There isn't much "community", per se, to be found here. And I don't think they'll make it to the goal of having a "Sterling Museum" by this summer. However, there's quite a bit of sentiment for this old building for the old time homesteaders. The first post office was actually in someone's living room - I actually know the woman whose parents ran it. That house burnt down at some point, and this one was built. Now we have a fairly modern one, about as old as my brother, and this one is definitely in need of some renovation...

I love the old slatting though, and the wall sconce. This really does look like some of the old cabins I've seen, and rather reminded me of the house that I grew up in, and then later burnt. (A story that maybe one day, I'll go into on here...) Admittedly however, our cabin wasn't as nicely finished as this and had no slatting inside.

They had to board up the doors to keep bored teenagers from doing any damage to the already dilapidated and floorless post office. However, I'm skinny and got in through the little gap between the walls and the ground. 

And here's the windows to the school. I found it sad that the post office had lost it windows, when the school managed to keep the ones that were put in back in the seventies. I suppose some of the windows need a bit of repair since frost was forming between the panes. But they are just so lovely, and I can't imagine that it would look quite right if they were replaced.

I just have to wonder if the school's had a paint job in the last forty years...

It's kept locked most of the time, but I still remember the inside well enough from my childhood. I love the look of the whitewashed door against the untreated logs though. (We didn't have a whitewashed door to our old home, but the hinge was beautifully made and I loved it even better...)

I left the school feeling rather nostalgic for my own childhood, and the childhoods of those people who attended lessons in this schoolhouse, some of them I know, others will always just be the memory of the scratched initials in the trees or the out-house or the logs (if you know where to look.)

Day of Ashes

Today was Ash Wednesday here in America- and it was quite lovely too!

I couldn't fast through the day or I would have been very faint by noon, but I suppose it's the heart that matters, not my stomach.

Since today was also the first day of Lent, it is the traditional Old English first day of spring, which I'd forgotten when I posted yesterday. Ah, well, good timing. :)

And today while at work, a friend gave me a bright daffodil to cheer up my (long) day at the office. Perfect timing.

Walking Into Spring

Today it was at last warm enough for me to take a walk outside without being completely bundled up! In fact, I was only wearing a summer wrap-skirt and a cotton shirt, with a summer knit jacket.

The sun was shining, it was all of 4 C out, and the wind wasn't too bad. So between my classes, I headed out for a little over an hour.

Of course, there were people who stopped (two old friends, and then one lady who is my coworker at college) to see if I needed a ride, but most people saw a girl with a camera and just drive right on by.

There's just something so refreshing about that first walk that tells you that:

Yes, spring really is coming. 

We are nearly out of the dark.

Just wait a few more weeks.

The sun will be out and the snow will be leaving.

Leaves will start showing.

Birds will be coming back for the summer.

On My Mind on 4 March...

I was planning on writing this post much earlier to go with Rhonda's On My Mind posts, but was kept busy with baking cookies and phone calls with Theophilus. So, I've had a lot on my mind recently... and one of those things has been my hair. 

That sounds rather self-centred, but honestly, everyone was complaining to me how dull it looked and how, for it being one of my nicest features, I never did anything with it.

I changed that last night when I dyed it a light strawberry blond. (Not that it looks much different as my hair is naturally golden with a few red highlights in it anyways.)

And then after that, on another whim, I had Mum give me a fringe as inspired by Laura Marling... 

I'm loving the new look. It's been almost eleven years since the last time I had fringe, and I think it fits me right now. Sometime soon, maybe I'll get a better photo than one taken after midnight. :)