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The roofs belong to a small Headstart facility below me.



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Patricia, quite a screenshot, of a beautiful area.   Like your view of things from your balcony.   Way ahead of us with the fall color.

Patricia - I had a strong feeling of deja vu, when I looked at the photos taken from your balcony!  I have never been to Alaska, but there was something, oh so familiar, in that view. I enjoyed the pictures and the feeling.

Great photos Angel! They would make good paintings too, in misty aquarelles

Patricia, Beautiful fall pictures.   Lots of varied activities outside your little window on the world.

As Jack told you,  your area is way ahead of where I live also.  Our foliage has not started to turn yet. 

I do like fall, but I am one of the ones who still loves the summertime.  I am not looking forward to winter.

Joy

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the fall colors, Patricia, since our migrating birds are all gone now.  The sweet gum tree in my front yard has a slight yellow tint to the leaves but I was thinking probably roots not getting enough water.... also dropping some leaves.  Had enough water the last week but temps are still HOT for next week after a couple days on pleasantly cool.  Love your photos, you have the best of both worlds, right in the middle of activity and yet can see "wild" life in the distance. 

On this flat land we get to see sun rise or sun set, think that's what I enjoy when driving through the Flint Hills.... you can see forever.  I have created a monster with all the trees growing along the river & in the river bed.  I can't see the water from my house anymore and can't see across the river.  May have to cut down some trees instead of letting them take over. 

I notice some taller buildings, bet they are earthquake safe.... you do get your share there?  I know when we've had one close enough to move pictures as I walk around the house, some we feel but most we don't.  The world is shifting.... and was thinking about walking through Yellowstone & how near those bubbling pots are to the surface, I'd be even more fearful now than years ago when there.

Jack, you are so smart with those videos, wish you were near to "show" us.  It doesn't soak in watching the help ones online, I need more help than that. I ran across a morph I did when Glenn Curtis was with us... the Animation Shop is still on the old Vista computer downstairs but not sure I could remember how anymore.  I checked & the instructions he had online are no longer there (I had it bookmarked). 

Better get on with my day, have not checked on cats.  By the time I get them all fed it will be lunch time & I haven't had breakfast.   Thanks for the photos, Patricia!     

Enjoyed your photos, Patricia.  You have a nice view from your balcony.  The yellow foliage reminded me of our trip through Colorado with their many Aspen trees that turn yellow in the fall.  I love that cam photo of the park.  It would make a beautiful painting.

Today is misty and rainy.  One more day of dog sitting.  They are well behaved but the oldest one is kind of "bossy".  He is used to a certain routine and when it is his meal time or time to go to bed he stands in front of you and gives a bark to let you know it's that time.  He keeps us on schedule. 

Flajean that is funny, his name wouldn't be Sarge?     Farrah will sit and stare at you, and if that doesn't work, she will begin tapping you. She has gone from that very frightened cat in May to one who understands your place in life, and that is to serve her! 

Thank you all for the lovely comments! We are just over the edge of the line demarcation between arctic and near-arctic so that we will be slightly ahead of you southern folks. I know we are four hours behind Michigan and 2,904 physical miles for an example.

Also, this summer has been horrible with constant rain and cooler temperatures so I'm just as glad to see it ending, albeit a month earlier. We have had three chilly and rainy summers in a row although this was by far the worst of the trio and I'm hoping it is not setting a trend!

Jack, thank you. There are the trees and the river to the right, just out of sight. So we are close to the edge of town, the tall building is a federal courthouse, and most of the others are small businesses. Across the river are the Catholic schools, homes for some nuns and priests and a few smaller neighborhoods before another loop of the river and the industrial area.

We have two Catholic areas with churches, home, and schools, bracketing the town on the south and northern sides, along with industrial zones. The other types of churches and neighborhoods are in the center with the west side having several car lots, and the east side has the railroad yards and another river winding through that. Shopping is on the east and west sides of town although teenagers and military bemoan our lack of huge malls.

Fairbanks is a blue collar town that mainly deals in freight to and from the Arctic, interior and smaller villages and towns. It is a working class town with a lot of railroads, plane and trucking businesses.

Anchorage is the lovely town with a Scandinavian appeal with mountains close on its heels and the sea directly in front of it. The rainforest climate keeps it fresh and green. Fairbanks is a desert with sagebrush, an arboreal forest and several rivers, hot springs and other lakes, stream, and sloughs. Two very different climates. It is river country.

Anchorage is on the cusp of the mountains. We are on the mountain's other side in a valley.

Earthquakes? Oh yes, we have earthquakes, a 5. earthquake is a ho-hum around this area, and we have volcanos, glaciers, and forests. So along with those earthquakes, we get fires and floods. Anchorage has the San Andreas fault running right down Fourth Avenue, and we are only about 400 miles north of that. Between the glaciers, fires, floods, volcanos, etc. Alaska is a land constantly reinventing itself.

Bubble, I had to look up aquarelles, thanks!

Patricia, what a beautiful view from your balcony. They are saying we will not have much color this year, because of the drought and very hot summer.  By the way while I am trying to write this Taffy is setting in front of the computer.  the red cars really show up.

Angelface - Enjoyed your photos! The leaves have turned yellow.......Are they aspens?

Was wondering the same, Beverly.... aspen or cottonwood maybe?  The cottonwood turns first here in KS & in CO, but we don't have aspen either state & know in CO that both types turn about the same time.  I am so angry that "our government" leased out the National Forest campgrounds that we stay in, to private companies and the companies close them... cross bars & chains to the entrances.... early September, long before the aspen turn!  I have a lot of photos from years ago when I did go out "to see the colors".  They used to keep the campgrounds open all winter so the hunters could use them, no services but outhouses and picnic tables & fire rings to use.  I am getting "Fall Fever", wanting to take off & see the world as it changes seasons.

Beverly & Shirley, Those trees that are losing their leaves are not Aspens. We also have cottonwoods but they are very different. These trees are white or paper birch.

The trees you will see in this area are white birch, commonly called paper birch;  cottonwoods, mountain hemlock, balsam poplar, mountain alder, tamarack,  fir and blue or black or white spruce. There is an aspen found here called a quaking aspen, but we're told it is not a real aspen, just a name given to it.

Pine trees, western  hemlock, and Sitka spruce, are further southeast.

"Paper Birch is  one of the most easily distinguished trees with a narrow, open crown of slightly drooping to nearly horizontal branches, and conspicuous white bark. Paper Birch is sometimes found as a shrub. In Alaska, there are 3 geographical varieties of Paper Birch in Alaska, and they hybridize with each other wherever their ranges meet.

Native Americans used the Paper Birch for the making of canoes and many types of containers. The bark should never be peeled from a live tree, as this leaves permanent, ugly black scars. Birch trees produce a bitter tasting chemical known as salicin (similar to aspirin), to deter moose and other animals from browsing on their branches."

Angelface - The northeast, including Vermont, has many of the same trees you mentioned. Clumps of white birches are much desired on large lawns. My son had a beautiful clump of birches until a bad ice storm last year.  Part of it survived.

Shirley - Northwest Oklahoma has lots of cottonwoods, too. We lived in Woodward for awhile and then down near Tulsa.

Beverly, he should move to Alaska's Interior! We have millions of white birch, its our most common tree!     

Carole, two words   Beautiful  and Wow

I second that WOW! , Carole..... gorgeous spring flowers and I did a Google for the Godwits, not familiar with them.  Amazing birds, so glad you posted the photo.... fascinating!  Besides, great photos~   

I can't say it any better.....WOW!

I had to look up Godwits......beautiful bird.

Angelface - This is the clump of birches on my son's lawn.

A closer view with my granddaughter and her Dad.

Beverly, love the stand of white birch, and great family photo.

Thank you, Jack.

I give up! I've made myself dizzy trying to resize that picture with the new PSP 8. If it's too large I will delete it.


Even though I paid $$ for it, I am thinking about trying something else.

Those spring flowers are lovely and so are the birch trees.  Nice photo, Beverly.

Beverly, that's a nice group of birches. In a way, they look better singled out.

Carole, the godwits spend the summer in Fairbanks's Creamer's Field, a wildlife and bird sanctuary before returning to you. Carolyn in NZ. and I used to ponder the long trips they made twice a year.

All lovely photos!

Beverly, try this for photo resizing; try optimizing on 20.

http://resizeimage.net/

I do have  Corel's version 8, but I normally use PSP12Ultimate for the majority of my PSP.

Beverly, when I worked as a tour guide at the Great Alaskan Bowl Company, I learned so much about wood. A few notes for your son on birch. The white or paper birch has been one of the earliest and most-used trees in the new world. The Vikings, Indians, and White settlers all used it and many of those uses have survived to this present day.

You can use the wood to make a shelter, row boat,  or a canoe. You can use the bark to cover that canoe, make a dish or platter out of birch bark, brew the young leaves for a tea to cure a headache or stomach upset, or peel off the bark and eat the first inner layer if you are lost and unable to make it back. It won't taste like beef wellington, but you can survive until help comes or you get that canoe finished and launched!

This is the place of the Burches.
A Forest Hymn

The groves were man's first temples.
Ere man learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them ere he framed
The lofty vault to gather and roll back
The sounds of anthems in the darkling wood.
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down
And offered to the mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication.

Bryant

Very interesting info Patricia!
I don't think we have that kind of tree here, but it looks very regal.