Wild Roses, Labrador Tea, and Evading Mosquitoes

10 June 2012
7:00 PM

Sunset at	12:33 AM	in direction	342°	North-northwest
Sunrise at	3:08 AM	in direction	18°	North-northeast

Civil twilight all day

Profusion of pale wild rose blossoms

A friend tells me that the wild roses usually bloom the third week in June.  They are early this year.  People mark events in very personal ways.  I mark the timing of the first snow in Colorado by my daughter's birthday.  I have a photo of her and me sitting in our back yard with the grass still green at my feet and the shrub behind me still holding leaves.  A week later, the first true snow had fallen and all had turned to winter brown.  Each year I watched for the first snow following Teresa's birthday and each year, with few exceptions, a frosting snow feel soon thereafter.

An important event coincides with an event in nature and then you always track the season based on the timing of the event.  At least that is the way it is with me and I wondered if an important event happened in her life when the wild roses began to bloom in Interior Alaska.  We agreed on one thing with certainty, one day there were no wild roses and the next ... generous pink hued blossoms everywhere.  

Wild roses and chiming bells

I have begun to weed my gardens. I do it in short spurts since there does not seem to be a time when the mosquitoes are not active this year.  I was able to get out for a short spell around noon where they seemed to be sleeping under the leaves without too many swarming, but by this evening, it was back to duck and cover.

Labrador Tea growing McGrath Road

So, I did some quick weeding, just until the ladies realized there was a blood pumping mammal nearby and then I waved them away while I headed back into the house.  The dogs have been bringing in more with them lately too, so the outside isn't the only place we can be accosted, but it is not so bad in here.  I can see the few buzzing around and knock them off one by one.  In the garden, the odds of mosquitoes to human is not nearly as favorable.

The Alaskan Range, barely visible through the summer moisture laden air.