The other night lights in Fairbanks

I love the northern lights. I love watching them dance and wave across the sky. They remind me of when I was 10 years old and my dad got us all out of bed and took us outside in our pajamas and coats and slippers to see what is now referred to as "the great red aurora of 1958." It was my first auroral display and it was incredibly beautiful. I'm so glad now my dad had a strong love of nature and a great wish to share it with us. I don't see an aurora now that I don't think of him, and wonder if it's Dad waving to me from Heaven. Unfortunately, I don't have a DSLR camera and it's very difficult to photogaph the lights with what I do have.

So last night I went out with my friends Mae and Cindy and we visited the other night lights in Fairbanks. While there were not as many as in some past years, we did see some very pretty displays.

It's always fun to see these. Some people go all out, others keep it simple. One family had everything from a nativity scene (complete with palm trees) to Santa and Frosty. One family lights up their huge house every year. The little log cabin above has an American flag on the left side of the cabin.

It was a good night with good friends.

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family and happy holidays to those who celebrate in another way.

Tis the Season

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope it was a good one.

My friend Mae and I went to Pike's Landing for their big buffet. It was very nice, as always. This year, though, the turkey was a little dry as was the ham. The beef roast was perfect, however, and the gravy was phenominal and flavorful. And the creme brulee (as well as the rest of the 16' dessert table) never disappoints me.

I took most of the week off and made good use of it. Since I LOVE Thanksgiving leftovers, I cooked a turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes and corn. I do not like sweet potatoes, so that is never on my menu. And I've been enjoying the turkey all week.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. We would gather at my grandparents' house, along with my Dad's brother and sister and their families. We kids would watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while the men went duck hunting and the women cooked dinner. To this day, I watch that parade - it's part of the magic of Thanksgiving. Since I wasn't able to be with my family in person, I phoned and talked with many of them. I have such wonderful memories of those Thanksgivings past.

I did break one of my own rules - I put up my Christmas tree before I ate Thanksgiving dinner. I did not turn on the lights though. I usually put it up the day after the big dinner, but because of the MRI, I knew I wouldn't want to do it Friday. It is now lit and already has some gifts under it.

Friday, instead of shopping (I refuse to go out on Black Friday - there are animals in those stores), I had an MRI on my back. I have been seriously considering lumbar surgery, as the pain in my back is getting stronger and is there all the time, even when I'm sitting or lying down. I have not made the actual decision yet, but I'm getting closer. When the tech was talking with me and going over paperwork prior to the MRI, she asked what music I wanted to listen to. Even through the Valium haze, I remembered that one of our local radio stations plays Christmas music from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas day. So I requested that and it made the procedure a bit more bearable. I was on the table for about 30 minutes and the last 10 were miserable. Both my back and leg hurt and I had to work hard not to move them to relieve the pain. Sitting up was very painful, but by the time I got home the Valium insisted that I sleep. After a few hours of good, deep sleep, I felt much better.

I have been really good about shopping this year. I hate crowded stores and rude shoppers, and in spite of the fact that this season brings out the best in most people, it also brings out the worst in others. I have only one package left to mail and cards to do yet, but plenty of time. I have only a couple of people to purchase gifts for and am feeling that this year may be stressless - I can only hope.

I love listening to the Christmas music and watching the wonderful sappy movies. I will watch "The Gathering," a made-for-tv movie we saw years ago and I finally found on DVD last year. It stars Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton and I cry most of the way through it. I also watch "It's a Wonderful Life," "Miracle on 34th Street," (the original with Natalie Wood) "White Christmas" and "Holiday Inn."

At this time of year, I think of my family even more than usual. I think all of us are feeling the loss of our dad during this holiday season, But staying in touch with frequent phone calls and Facebook and our family website really helps me feel closer to them.

May your holiday season be filled with love and sentimental movies, with great food and great friends, with wonderful classic music and good feelings about everything. It's memories of this time of year that I bring back to mind each November and December - the scents of cookies baking, the noise and excitement of kids and the secrecy of hidden gifts. And most of all - the love that seems to be all over the place.

     

Thank you Veterans

On this Veterans Day I'm thinking of all the soldiers and airmen in this city who have deployed and served our country - some for a year or less, others for 20 years or more.

I'm thinking of my days in the Women's Army Corps and how that experience changed my life. I became more patriotic and found a focus. Prior to my service I had been a teacher, a secretary and a clerk in the Vital Statistics Bureau for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Army trained me to be a journalist, and there I found my passion. My years in Army Public Affairs have been very gratifying and I've had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the most admirable people in the world. I love talking with young soldiers and telling their stories. I don't write nearly as much as I used or as I'd like. Sometimes, I feel a bit rusty when I sit at the computer to write an article or commentary, since much of my time now is taken up with meetings and administrative requirements. Suffice it to say the Army has provided me a tremendous a good career and a tremendous sense of pride in our armed forces and our country.


I'm also thinking of other veterans.

A number of my ancestors served in the Armed Forces. One of my grandfathers several greats back was a fifer in the Revolutionary War. He joined the Army at 14 and left at 21.

Two great-great grandfathers served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Records state that one was shot in the wrist. The two men were from the same hometown and were in the same unit for a while.

My grandfather, served in the Army in WWI. He was a reconaissance soldier. He would go out ahead of his unit and map the terrain. When we started to study WWI in history in grade school, my grandmother and parents told us not to ask my grandfather about the war - he would not discuss it with anyone. He was in France - it had to have been horrible. After the war, he stayed on in France for a year or so studying art courtesy of a special opportunity provided by the U.S. government.



Cleve Hoffman, 314th Infantry, Co. C, France

 

 

 

 My dad, his brother and their brother-in-law all served in the Navy. I'm not certain of the dates my two uncles served, but my dad told me he enlisted at the end of WWII and he did not see any serious action. He was a sonar technician on a sub and served on several ships, including a Canadian hospital ship, Letitia.

 

From the top - Raymond Willow, Paul Hoffman (my dad) and Neil Hoffman

 

 

 

My dad, Paul Hoffman

 

Letitia

 



 



 

My mother's brother, Paul (Izzy) Grubb, served in the Army in Korea when I was a young child. I believe it may have been during the Korean War, but still need to confirm that. I can remember seeing him in his uniform and the entire family so happy to see him. I don't know if he was home on leave or about to be mustered out, but the family's happiness has stayed with me for many years.

My older (by just a few years) cousin served in the Navy, I believe in the Mediterrean Sea area while I was still in high school.

I will go to the Veterans Day ceremony Sunday. There are very few WWII vets in Fairbanks, but I love watching them stand to be recognized. Regardless of the conflict, all those who stand demonstrate pride in their service.

So on this Veterans Day, I salute you all - those veterans from my family who helped shape me; those who served before I was born and before I started school; my peers, who were sent to Vietnam and those who have most recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as those who served during peacetime. Thank you all for your service.

     



Denali in autumn

I love Denali in autumn. Even on a blustery gray day, it's like a patchwork of colors.

A few of the photos ended up with a reflection from the bus windows, but I still liked the colors, so added them in.

sunflowers, birds

Saturday my friend Mae and I decided to have lunch at River's Edge Resort. This restaurant is open daily only through the summer, and offers excellent meals with the opportunity to dine on the deck next to the Chena River. My halibut lunch was very good.

As we pulled up, we looked at the sunflowers planted outside. I loved the brown highlights on them.

After lunch we drove past Creamer's Field, a waterfowl refuge for spring and fall migrating birds. Local businesses and organizations donate seed for the birds, partly in an attempt to keep them away from the airports in the area. There was a large gathering of birds - some ducks but mostly Canada geese and sandhill cranes - so we pulled in to take a photos and watch them.

They were all very busy feeding, preparing for the long flight ahead of them. Of them all, I like the cranes the best. They are raucous, calling to each other constantly. Listen to their calls here:  http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/sandhill_crane/sounds.

They ruffle their tail feathers; they flap their wings and run at each other; they strut as they move around a small area; and when they decide to move to the other side of the field, they stride across in no time at all, appearing to have a singular purpose in mind (which they probably do - looking for the best spot to feed).



They will be flying out soon and we won't see them again until breakup next year. I hate to see them go. But I will enjoy watching them as long as I can.

Autumn is coming. . .

it's August

I've tried several times to post here, but for some reason the photos, although they downloaded, would not show up in the blog. The toolbar directly above the typing area is mostly gone - no icon to upload photo, most of the tools are missing in the new format. So today, I'm using the old format. Because that post was 2 weeks old, I decided to just delete it and start over.

My friend Mae and I went to the Tanana Valley State Fair Aug. 5 and wandered around for about 3 hours. It was fun to see old friends there and sample some of the fair food. We had exceptionally good shrimp at Killer Shrimp. We opted for the fried shrimp as opposed to the Killer Shrimp - Mae tried that one last year and it was very spicy - and hot foods set off my asthma.

I had a chocolate-covered strawberry - yummy! We both passed on the deep-fried PB&J, and I still think that was a good idea. We ended the day with ribs from Big Daddy's. They were incredibly disappointing. They were dry and tough - tasted like they had been cooked earlier in the week and reheated to shoe leather consistency. That's the second time I've wondered if I was served "leftover" pork at Big Daddy's; the first time was in the restaurant several years ago. I may put off visiting the place for a while. When I pay for food, I want it to be fresh and cooked that same day.

I used my rollator and found it very helpful. It has 8" wheels on all four legs and was relatively easy to push around the fairgrounds. I only had to stop about twice the first hour, but in the third hour my back was screaming at me and I ended stopping to sit about every 10-15 minutes. However, that walker was one of the best investments I made last year. It has made more mobile, able to go places where a good deal of walking is required and very little seating is available.

Shortly before we left the fair we stopped to look at the vegetables and saw these gorgeous flowers.

The birds are back at Creamer's Field - sandhill cranes and geese and ducks and other, smaller, birds
These little guys were on the fence near the western field. The one on the upper rail is banded.

I love the rustic old fence at Creamer's, especially when it's set off by the bright splash of fireweed.

Sadly, I had to let my bird feeders go empty for a while. I ended up with a whole flock of pigeons in my yard and on my roof. They are gone now, but so are the little birds I love to watch. I think I'll wash the windows this weekend, then refill the feeders. Hopefully the nasty pigeons have found a new place to hang out.

One of my favorite things about August is my annual back-to-school shopping trip. My granddaughter Maddy never fails to enchant me and this year was no exception. And this year we had Atheana, my newest granddaughter, age almost 12 and Maddy's stepsister since April. We had a lovely girls' day out with my daughter, buying school supplies and clothes and having a great lunch together. I always enjoy this day.

Although most of Fairbanks is still green, the trees in my yard - and a couple of neighbors - are beginning to turn yellow. I'm not ready for this. I still want to wear my sandals and capris, I want to sit on the porch and I want to not have to wear a coat.

Still to look forward to is our annual train trip to Denali National Park. That's coming up and I'm hoping for good weather and some wildlife-sighting as well as some heavy duty relaxing.

Enjoy what's left - our summer here is moving on toward autumn.

wet floor and random thoughts

I got up Monday morning and found a large part of my kitchen floor covered with water. Apparently the hose that delivers water to my refrigerator's water dispenser is broken. I threw down about six rag rugs - some of them rather heavy and went in to the office early to knock out a few things, figuring I'd wait a couple of hours until the plumbers were at work and save a chunk of money on a night call.

When I came home, I found all the rugs soaked through. This is the one the least affected, probably because the water ran in a different direction. This one is, however, still largely wet. The lighter pink color is the dry area.

While I waited for the plumber to get here, I decided to resize photos and delete some I really don't need. (I have several hundred photos of birds at Creamer's Field, not all of them great shots.) I have a bad habit of dropping all of them into a folder on my desktop I call "camera dump," then forgetting them.

As I was working through them, I was reminded of some of the trips I've taken and places I've been. It reinforced for me just what a beautiful and varied place we all call home.

My photos of Georgia, Florida and New England are still in boxes, waiting to be scanned, as are the ones from our drive from Pennsylvania to Seattle when we came to Alaska in 1978. Pictures of Sitka and Juneau are also awaiting their turn at the scanner. One day - maybe this winter - I'll get to those.

It was only when I got my first digital camera that I really started shooting anything that moved and some things that didn't. Before that, I was trying to be thrifty and save some money on film and processing, although to be honest there are still a lot of those from the old film days.

Oh, I'm rambling. Back to the topic at hand - our beautiful country.

I grew up in south-central Pennsylvania, about 2 hours north of the Maryland line. I never appreciated its beauty until I went back home as a visitor.

I would sit on the porch with my dad and watch the sun rise through the trees next to the Susquehanna River. Of course, the company helped make it special too, but it is pretty.

I grew up looking at the Susquehanna every morning when I woke up. I've always loved that river - back then it was wide and slow, kind of a lazy river. Today, there are more trees hiding the river from view. This was taken a few miles further south, near Harrisburg.

My dad always had lots of flowers in the yard and on the porch. Here are a few:

These are butterfly bushes, so called because they attract the beautiful insects.










I remember trips our family took when I was small. We'd go to Potter County, in the northern part of the state. We visited Tioga County, near Potter, and Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon.
http://visittiogapa.com/canyon.html That part of the state is heavily forested, and beautiful. It's full of streams and rivers and the air was so fresh and clean.

I went to college just 12 miles from the canyon and a group of us would go over there on weekends to hike and enjoy the view.

Other favorite places in Pennsylvania included Gettysbury and anywhere with Amish populations. We had a number of Amish farms within a few miles of our homes and their fresh produce and homemade breads still make my mouth water. In fact, I have a fair collection of homemade rag rugs I got from an Amish roadside stand near where my mother lives.

Georgia and Florida also had their special attractions for me. I loved the palm trees and the big leafy trees with Spanish moss hanging down. Although I wasn't too fond of the heat and humidity, and I couldn't grow a lawn in Georgia's red clay to save my life, I loved the lakes. I thought Savannah was an especially beautiful city.

One of my favorite places is Washington, DC. I love walking the mall and visiting the museums and monuments. The Lincoln Memorial is a favorite and the Vietnam Wall is moving and thought-provoking as well as a beautiful structure. The energy of that city is phenominal.

I lived outside Boston, MA, for about six months when my husband was at training. We moved there in October, after several years in Augusta, GA. What a change! I worked just off the bay and saw the water every day. The year I was there, Boston had a horrific snow storm - only emergency vehicles were allowed to move the first couple of days. Then they allowed public transportation to move.

That move took us through South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Our trip from Massachusetts to Alaska took us through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, a short piece of Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington state.

A couple of trips took me to Hawaii - Oahu specifically. The first trip was in January, shortly after we'd endured more than a week of 50 below zero temperatures. The "cold snap" in Honolulu of 60 degrees was heaven! My second trip was in May/June on the North Shore. Although I loved the lushness of the island and the vibrant colors of the water and the flowers, I'm not sure I'd want to live there. It's hard enough to get out of Alaska to visit other places, and from Honolulu it's a 6-hour flight to the mainland. I was so very glad to land back in Seattle. To me the flight seemed very long.

In recent years, I've had the chance to do more travel - much in the American Southwest. San Antonio was a nice place to visit for a week, but way too hot and humid for me. I did enjoy the Riverwalk, but was surprised it was not a greenway, but a very commercial area. I expected to see lots of grass and trees. Not so.

Although there were plenty of trees, I didn't see any grass. It was a bustling place, with restaurants and stores and lots of people. The boat trip along the Riverwalk was great fun though.

I also enjoyed seeing the bluebells and my very favorite part of the city was the Alamo.

I've made several trips to Arizona and more recently to Las Cruces, New Mexico. My good friends Bonnie and Junior lived in Yuma, AZ, for a few years and another friend, Mae, and I would visit them. We drive to Phoenix for some spring training games and shopping and visiting. After a long cold winter, Arizona in March is as close to perfect as I've seen. It's normally not too hot and an afternoon or evening at the park seeing a good baseball game makes it even more special.

Our time in Las Cruces visiting with Bonnie and Junior is always great. We shop in Old Mesilla and they have taken us to some very good restaurants. Catching up on news and spending time together is the best part of the trips.

This year I met two of my sisters in Phoenix and we drove to Yuma to see another sister. It was an exceptional trip. Being with the three of them was great. We talked, we ate and we laughed. We walked in the desert. We took tons of photos. The only downside was the heat. It was over 100 degrees - not my kind of weather. But it was sunny and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. The worst part of living in Alaska is the distance from family.

Although I enjoy my trips to the Southwest, I think it would take some adjusting. I love lots of green, and the desert is brown - and sometimes seems bleak.

We did see some green, but I prefer big leafy shade trees. The desert has its own beauty, but it's not my first choice.

My sisters departed Phoenix first, and my plane left several hours later. Our pilot flew us over the Grand Canyon (the real one) for a short while. I was really disappointed - I was in the front row and my camera was in the overhead bin - so . . . no photos. However, even from well overhead, it was spectacular and beautiful. One day I hope to visit it and see it from the ground perspective.

All of the places I've been have had a special kind of beauty - and all very different from others. But my favorite is Alaska.

Since I've been here, I've visited a few places in Alaska - Sitka (one of my very favorite cities) is a small town accessible only by air or sea. It sits right on the water, with small islands dotting the area. It was the site of the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States. Mt. Edgecumbe, a volcano, is nearby - absolutely striking when it has a snowcap. The Alaska Native and Russian influences are evident all over town.

I've visited Anchorage, Seward, Homer, Fort Yukon, McGrath and Nome. I like going to Chena Hot Springs and Denali National Park. The train ride to the park is wonderful and relaxing.

As I was driving home today, I saw the peaks of the Alaska Range in my rear view mirror. The mountains, the northern lights, the rivers and oceans - the wildlife and the people all make Alaska special. It's nice to visit all those other places, but I truly love living here.

fog rolling in at the base of Mt. Margaret, Denali National Park

moose feeding a few miles outside Delta Junction

the Alaska Range at Delta Junction

pool at Chena Hot Springs

Denali National Park colors

grizzly at Denali National Park

flower at Georgeson Botanical Garden, University of Alaska Fairbanks

This thing has rambled on long enough. I started it Monday - it's now Wednesday and I'm (again) waiting for a plumber. After cleaning up all the mess and yearning for a good hot shower, I discovered I have no hot water. So I'm scheduled to get a new water heater today. (I sure hope he makes it!)

I apologize for the long and winding prose here. There are so many beautiful and fascinating places in our country, it's hard to pick just a few.

I'm so fortunate to be able to visit different places and especially so to live where I do.

Happy August!