Spring

It's been a while since I've blogged. I have a lot of excuses, but none of them are particularly interesting. Suffice to say that it's been a long winter so far in 2015. 

Despite T.S. Eliot's claim that April is the cruelest month--and my general tendency to agree with him--I am feeling cautiously hopeful that things are taking a turn for the better. Our signs of spring here in Kodiak may be more subtle than in most other places where I've lived, but they are here. Temperatures are inching up above 40 degrees Fahrenheit/4.4 Celsius (yes, that's warm here). Crocuses and hyacinths are blooming, and tulips are coming up from their gentle beds in people's yards. Salmonberry bushes are sprouting green buds, and today I even saw a few bright pink salmonberry flowers.

Yesterday we had a brilliantly blue, cloudless sky all day (I can't remember the last time that happened), and while the sun made itself scarcer than that today, it wasn't raining, which in Kodiak officially makes it a good day for a hike.

We went to a place called Women's Bay, a few miles outside of town. It's a very calm bay near the Coast Guard base that's a great place for bird watching. The tide was low, and we were able to walk out on a small strip of rocky beach that's usually underwater, and up a gently sloping grass-covered hill with great views of the bay. We're hopeful that the weather will hold out tomorrow, which is Easter Sunday, so that we can go for another hike and watch for more signs of spring.

For several yards, there were dozens of walnuts lined up on the shore. I can't even come up with a theory about how or why this happened.

Ice on the beach