News from the 10th Planet
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Caribou herd high on the ridge at Porcupine Mountain on our Pinnell Mountain hike.
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Monday, June 30, 2008
Been a while since writing, you'll notice. What happened was summer. That and some fierce activity in the studio (see studio notes). The beginning on June saw choke cherry tree time. One day you come out of some building and smell the blossoms in the air and smile...big. Then came wild roses time in mid-June. Probably the most prolific year we've ever seen. Symphonies of roses everywhere through the woods and along the roadside. They're ephemeral though and now are all but gone with the leftover rosehips growing toward a nice fall crop. Now it's just the wind in fat leaves in the trees and the heart of summer ahead.
After the deadlines were met we got away to a great 4 days backpacking on the Pinnell Mountain trail at solstice. Talk about the sun never setting! It never came close to touching the horizon from that high up. We started, though, with a car camping night just to get our "camp on", by beautiful 12 mile Creek (North Fork). It was a tight fit by the bridge, on a little cliff above the creek and out of a stream coming down the pulloff road. There were several piles of gravel for future roadwork and the ones nearest a possible tent site were of fine gravel. Robin got the idea that if we a shaved off a little with some big flat rocks for shovels, we could have a great tent space. And so we did. Perfect night to start our trip.
The Pinnell Mtn. Trail was wildflower heaven. And twice we came upon a small herd of caribou less that a hundred feet away. The bucks had huge antlers that were awe-inspiring to watch as they moved the herd this way and that (skittish animals). Marmots in a few areas and one lone ptarmigan on top of Pinnell. A few bugs but more breezes that pushed them away. And long, long sunsets that turned into sunrises. Hope your summer's going well. Keep singing all the while...
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
R.I.P Bo Diddley, one of the original creators of rock & roll. Read more in Pat's Blog..
Last week the choke cherry trees began blooming. A smell from heaven. And another benchmark in the Interior summer. Saturday, late, we walked down to the the little lake in the valley. Strange as it may seem we've never been there in the summer. We ski to it in the winter but when summer comes there just too much to do. We didn't know what to expect. It could have been just a wet bog. The trails were wet going down. The night air was cool and the night birds were singing. As we cleared the trees we were delighted to find that it was a full fledged lake. With ducks no less. In fact some drama was going on. There were two pairs of mallards in the lake and a couple birds we later decided were harlequin ducks. On of the male mallards started quacking and flew over to the other male and attacked it, winged fluttering, loudly chattering. He'd then go back to his mate on the other side of the pond and a few minutes later do it again. It happened over and over. Robin called it Peyton Pond. Just another night in Hoppner Creek Valley.
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Saturday, May 24, 2008
For those of you outside of the state, and those of you who don't go outside at midnight or later, here's another reason we love this crazy place: This time of year the birds sing all night long. Not in the dark of course because at this time, a month from Solstice, it only gets dusk all night long. Last night we took a bike ride 10 miles further down Chena Hot Springs Road to a volleyball game at the house of our friends Will & Trudy. Afterwards we road home at midnight in the glorious all night sunset. The air was sweet and cool and we cruised through the night air laughing at our good fortune. Just before the turn-off to our road we saw a moose by the side of the highway munching down on the new leaves of a young birch tree. We crossed the road and passed him, talking to him gently. He gave us an eye but never stopped eating and we considered that a victory for all of us.
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Salutes to another wonderful Clucking Blossom festival! Truly a meeting of the tribes: Freak, goth, punk, nerd, redneck, hippy and Bill & Betty Bendix. All representin'. All enjoying a day of music, games and education under (mostly) sunny May skies. Thanks to the anarchic spirit of all who worked to make it happen. And thanks for the kind reception to our afternoon set. We had a natch'l ball, that's all!
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
It's been a while since our last post. That's simply because our plea for Spring must have fallen on the right ears. Beautiful new green leaves. Aaaah... Just what we needed. We took a day recently raking up the grounds of the Planet as much as possible in anticipation of the coming grass then took the first lovely bike ride around our "pipeline loop" that parallels the oil pipelin for a mile or so. At one of our favorite grasslands, which at this time of year is a lake, we saw swans in the distance and two moose crossing throught the water. The one lagging behind fell a bit, into a hole, and the one ahead stopped and looked back like, "What the devil...!" There is nothing like summer in Alaska!
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Monday, April 28, 2008
Winter's holding on like a dog with a tennis ball. Frankly, we're done with it. Since we can't ski anymore we're on to the next thing. (Uh, that would be Spring.) Lay it on us, please! Today was so gray and snotty even the birds stayed home from the feeder and when the birds ain't singin', we ain't swingin'! Even some honest to goodness rain would be better than this snowy slushy stuff. So let's all use a little group think here and try to force the leaves and grass to make the Big Show!
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Winter's holding on like a dog with a tennis ball. Frankly, we're done with it. Since we can't ski anymore we're on to the next thing. (Uh, that would be Spring.) Lay it on us, please! Today was so gray and snotty even the birds stayed home from the feeder and when the birds ain't singin', we ain't swingin'! Even some honest to goodness rain would be better than this snowy stuff so let's all use a little group think here and try to force the leaves and grass to make the Big Show!
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Fairbanks music community, players, listeners, dancers alike, has been shaken by the untimely death this past week of one of the best that ever graced our stages, Dan Ison. Like a big ol' dancehall where the music of the spheres plays, we all hopefully settle into the seats where we're most comfortable. And If need be we change seats to get a better spot. We're hoping Dan now has the best seat in the house. Play on, brother... Check out the Song O' The Week for a sample of what he left for us.
.: posted by Pat & Robin
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Spring was here, I swear! Now here we are back in Winter again. That was one short summer! Seriously, we've had some of the best skiing of the year this past week. This morning was a surprise though: About 5 inches of snow had fallen overnight. It looked like a picture of Vermont or Maine or somewhere else. OUR snow doesn't look like that. Thick and cottony-looking but wet! No fretting though. It won't last long and we got just another extra hit of the good part of winter before the geese return and the leaves start sprouting and all the bands come out to play!
.: posted by Pat & Robin
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