Sunshine Report

June 24, 2006

Steve and Martha “Sunshine” from Denton came to Alaska. They brought 3 home grown Texas tomatoes and sunshine. They got here around 9:00 last night with the sun still two hands off the horizon. We took them out to eat, but it was difficult to find a place that was not filled with tourists. We finally got our food around 10:30, ate and made it back to the house in time to watch the end of a beautiful sunset around midnight.

Steve and I road trails today in Kincaid park. The hills almost killed both of us; then we road the coastal trail into town and met Annie and Martha for gourmet reindeer dogs at MA’s in front of the Federal building on Fourth Street. Later Annie took us to the fair at the Anchorage Botanical Garden. I was sleepy; not used to going to bed at midnight; and didn’t really want to go.

Annie was right as usual. I felt much better after the flowers, butterflies, red lichen on a birch tree, music floating through the woods, weird homemade garden stuff, a girl selling herbs and wearing a UNT sweatshirt who is going to school at North Texas in the fall, and t-shirts covered in prints of Alaskan flowers.

I think the flowers are what surprises most first timers to Alaska. Streets in town are lined with lilies, dahlias, geraniums, tuberous begonias, lobeilia, orange globe, petunias, delphiniums, and hundreds of others; all in full bloom. The roads are lined with wild daises, wild roses, forget-me-nots, and lupines; fields of white like bleached linen, splashes of pink like a baby girl’s pajamas, clumps of sweet blue like movie star eyes, and strips of faded purple like mountains just after sunset. Later in the summer the fire weed will blaze twice, once when it blooms and again when cold fall nights suck the fire into its leaves. Alaska has a short growing season, but long days of light that squeeze blooms from all the flowers.