Sweetpea Manor Musings

Here are those photos. I included some of the ice festival, but it you want better ones, go to the following website. They have ice sculptures lit in different colors at night. These are the entries for 2010:
http://www.icealaska.com/10/10sculptureindex.html

Here's a link to the photo album at photobucket:

http://pbckt.com/sN.tDV

And here is Mom and I at Skiland all bundled up:




This was my favorite ice sculpture I think:



Here's a sunset. See that lump on the horizon in the center of the photo? That's Denali, over 150 miles away. Tall mountain!



And if you want to peruse some wonderful aurora photos, start here and browse around:

http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01mar10_page4.htm?PHPSESSID=9jf93neddpq5adjf96ci5n8r44

Thus ends my vacation posts!

It's -2 with a light snow coming down right now. I've got this beautiful view from my window:




Last night it was overcast with a few spots were the stars could peek though. We went up to the ski lodge anyway and were rewarded with a great display. At first it was though the clouds, diffuse shapes that slowly morphed from a band into stepping stones then into a snake. At times parts would light up particularly bright, like car lights lighting up a fog bank as it drove past. Then it got real exciting. Still mostly white with a pale green to them and sometimes they were still behind the high clouds. Suddenly they were over half the sky. Multiple shapes, bands that undulated and coiled, thin streaks that darted across the sky like fish in a pond. Then there was this bit were this diffuse light washed across the sky like waves on a beach--it was like how you blow a window and it fogs, but immediately dissipates. Just like that. So, so cool. And it was cold, about 10 below I think. Not much wind which helped a lot. I was able to stand outside for 15 or 20 minutes before I had to dart in for a quick warm up. There were three Japanese up there, too. They just laid down in the snow and enjoyed. "oooohs!" are pretty universal.

So, snowing now. Supposed to snow tonight, too. Finger's crossed though.