Yowser, it’s HOT! I don’t wear shorts a whole lot in AK–long johns are part of my year-round wardrobe–but it’s a shorts-and-tank day, and I’m still in need of a cool beverage and shade.

We all know that the summer sun is up for 18 or 20 hours right now, and that the growing season is short but fast. Well, it never ceases to amaze me how fast it is. (It also never ceases to amaze me how big Denali and moose are.) Between yesterday and today, some lupines have gone to seed and a fireweed plant has started to bloom. It’s the first–and as far as I can tell, the only–fireweed to start blooming. We have to stay up and active for 18 hours a day or we miss all the action.

Pictures, eh? I can try. I’m not much of a picture-taker. I’m sure they won’t do the flowers justice. Part of the impact is the overwhelming quantity, but that’s pretty hard to capture in a snapshot. Also, these are wildflowers, not at all cultivated, so they are hither and thither, weaving in and out of grasses, snaking around dead wood, bursting out of rock piles, and squishing in amongst the trees and shrubs.

What I’d like to do is take a video of my walk to the mailbox so that I could point out all the fabulous patches along the way. But who, besides me, would want to watch that?!

This is labrador tea. It’s a shrubby ground cover. Imagine acres of this.

These are lupines. Early bloomers, seen in bunches like this or bigger.

Wild prickly roses. From small plants like this, to hedge-like masses. I’m charging the camera battery so that I might take it with me on the walk to the mailbox tomorrow. There are some giant patches of roses along the way. We’ve got some good-sized bushes here, too, but my battery pooped out before I got to them.

I’ll see if I can do better tomorrow. You may be sorry you asked about pics!