Spring

17 May 2012
7:51 PM

Sunrise at	4:19 AM	in direction	35°	Northeast
Sunset at	11:19 PM	in direction	325°	Northwest

Duration of day: 18 hours, 59 minutes (6 minutes, 57 seconds longer than yesterday)

Spring in the Horse fields

I took some photos of Fairbanks Monday after we returned from driving south.   While most regions of the state had the suggestion of buds, we came home to spring green hillsides.  Even hillsides of locales close to home, e.g. Nenana, just over 50 miles away still had many large sections of bare limbed trees.

Here, each day, leaves extend more fully and comfortably from the protection of their bud casing - even though unfolding of leaves is slower than in previous years.  I saw my first Robin pair Sunday or Monday.  Spring is official.

I am including photos of shots I've taken before at different times in the year.  It's already greened up a lot since I took these at the beginning of the week.  Many times, I can smell the new poplar leaves as they emerge.  The smell transforms from aromatically sweet to pungently sweet to no odor as the leafing out progresses through spring to summer.

From the deck looking across our lawn

Looking north across the flag quad to Rasmuson Library

I stopped to take this next photo because the green trees in the foreground was a nice perspective, but chose that exact spot so I could catch the peaks of the Tri-Valley (Delta Junction) region above the hills.  The day was partially cloudy and they'd covered the trees in the foreground making my first goal superfluous.  However, the peaks in the background are clear.

Looking south east toward Delta Junction