Artistic Creations

Month three has begun and it will soon be a memory of good times, so I'm trying to make the most of it. I don't know what would have happened in these past two months had I been with the rest of you all, but up here its been slow, quiet and relatively comfortable.
December has started out nicely, blue sky and visible sun for a little over four hours. I must say that the cabin isn't placed in an ideal area for maximising the sight of sun. The mountains that tower over me are so close that the sun can not rise high enough to shine over the tops and reach my window, which I'm staring out looking lonesome for its light. I was informed that in Barrow, Alaska, they will not see a sunrise or sunset for the next seven weeks. I have it a little better than they, but anyone who depends on sunlight to survive, this is not a place for you. It was a great day to take a walk over the semi frozen lake, taking each step with caution, pounding my foot to hear any cracks or breaks.... and then taking another step. Once I determined that the first hundred feet from shore was solid, I ran and slid, shuffled my feet as if ice skating and having a great time actually getting some exercise. The fox who has still been absent from view was out long before I, making his rounds of the lake. I figured he was hunting, and judging by the scrambled footprints in the snow near what seemed to be tracks of some other extremely small critter, shrews or....???
His tracks led me further up the lake to where I just said enough was enough. He could have gone on for miles or another ten yards but figuring a way over a very unstable ice bridge and running creek under it was not on my to do list. I had to try anyway and it broke.

Some of the ice that broke was layered for a total of about six inches. It broke easily around the edges but remained solid in the middle. It really is neat to see how ice forms on all sorts of objects like rocks on the shoreline. Its as if the rock is glass, all shiny and smooth but with a little pressure, the coating chips away to reveal the plain old rock. Its also neat to see the bubbles captured in ice, thick and thin alike have these elongated masses of air, and it looks very artistic.

Sitting on Skype the other day, it was snowing quite heavily mid morning to after noon. Through the snowy distance there was a large flap of wings and a gentle glide to the shoreline where a Bald Eagle had just caught a fish and when I could look through the binoculars all I could see was the fish's tail flopping and the eagle glaring in my direction. He could probably see me better than I could see him, and for the times that he had to watch from above as I reeled in a fish, now it was his turn to show off his skills. I admired that. There was a pesky magpie that just landed in hope of sneaking a bite away from the much larger fisherman and although his dancing around was entertaining, the eagle had enough and flew off with a half eaten kill.

It wasn't but a short time later that with a glance out the window again, a large cow moose was wading across the river and was on her way out as I scrambled to get a picture. Without a care in the world, or maybe the only one being how she was going to warm up after a swim in the frigid waters, she just looked around and slowly meandered off into the woods. Had it been me, I would have waited for a better day, perhaps with a little more warmth.

Glowing from the sun strikes the clouds that paint my world orange and pink on the horizon and fade back to grey again every morning. On the best of these days, there is more than just the horizon that is filled with color, be it in the morning or the evening. Its hard to realize the potential of all clouds when the sun is not out. They are all dormant in color, and liveliness until given that breath, and they light up to beyond what anyone could imagine. How do such beautiful colors come from grey? I thought that a little black mixed with white was all that consisted of that color, not purple,orange, yellow, pink, red, and shades in between.

I'm not an artist so I don't know but I truly get inspired when staring into these daily creations.