stop and smell the roses grass seed

today driving home, i was hit by one of my favorite smells in the world: grass going to seed. at least i think that's what it is. i've spent several years now trying to pin it down. the smell takes me back to summers on hammonasset beach with my grandparents in late august. sometimes driving along, or walking through the woods, a wisp of that drifts by and pulls me into the green-gold of high summer. i'll breathe deep and try to hold the smell as long as i can. if they made perfume out of it, i swear i'd wear it every day. i love it.

enough that when i smelled it on the way home (detouring around construction), i slowed down to the speed limit just so i could smell it longer. plus the detour goes through town, and you just never know where santa's helpers will be. 

luckily for me, because while i was driving my 35 mph, the truck ahead of me turned right towards the high school, and another truck at the stop sign decided it was his turn to cross the street. i slammed on the brakes (schreeching tires and skidding at the end) and the truck was still a foot or three in front of my jeep when i stopped. we would have made a lovely t-bone otherwise.

all of a sudden i was very grateful for a lot of things:

that we just put new tires on

that my brakes work

that i reacted quickly

even for the skid at the end, because it turned me further away from the truck

that i slowed down for that grass seed

and maybe most of all, for our prayers to travel safe every day

i was kinda freaked out. and i saw the guy turn his head at the sound of my tires, like, what's happening. i've tried to put myself in his spot, but i still have no clue what he was thinking (was he thinking?). he was maybe 30 feet ahead of me when he pulled out. just barely enough space to stop. and if i wasn't paying attention?

so lesson for the day was: stop and smell the grass seed. it maybe could save your life.

here, there and everywhere

just as the trees were budding,back in the middle of may, i went north to livengood for (almost) a week of field worka day of rest, and another day of fieldwork, then i was off to see my brother commissioned as an officer in the Air Force back homewe got back with a week to spare before the church's youth group camp for girls (inventively named girl's camp), which i was organizing this year, explodedthat was half a week, and after a day to try and do laundry (we totally ignored the cobwebs and the dust), we raced down to chitina after work friday for dipnetting

we caught one fish.

to make up for it, we camped out saturday night too, rather than racing back for church. in a real campground, minus the wind and silt.just the one relaxing day was priceless.

last week we just tried to breathe and find something to eat in our depleted cupboards (still no time to shop), did at least 10 loads of laundry (for 2 people!!!), had knitting group over, and stared in dismay at our overgrown yardour garden may be doomed this year.

on the bright side, i was a good girl and took lots of pictures, of family and scenery and even some knitting that got finished and gifted, and downloaded and uploaded it all yesterday (bumping my free flickr account way over the 200 picture limit). whew. so expect to see some more illustrated bedtime stories soon.

one of the best things about alaska.......

my backyard at 12-something or other last night/early this morningah, solstice. you gotta love it. no flash either (the flash actually made it look darker than it was - weird, huh).

sunrise: 3.00 amsunset: 00.43 am (the next day)

fairbanks has a solstice festival downtown, which is ok, but i have to say swedish midsommar celebrations knock it out of the park.

speaking of which, here's a cool shot (my sister took) from 2 years ago when we actually went to the midnight sun baseball game (and a ball got knocked out of the park and chuck ran and wrestled a fence for it, then had to wrestle a little kid to keep it, but we won't go there).the sun just sat on the horizon and never really went below it.

cool, huh?