Green Up

I took these pictures Sunday morning during my daily ski on Pyramid. The snow is disappearing rapidly and the green is moving up the mountains at an alarming rate. Kodiak is sometimes known as the 'Emerald Isle', and in a month it should be living up to its moniker. But who ever came up with that nickname obviously did not spend much time on Kodiak because it is only an emerald isle for 2 months of the year - if that. Come late August the fireweed will be blossoming, the pushki dying back and the hillsides will start to turn brown again.

This year is a little weird because spring is a bit delayed. And yet we have a lot less snow up in the mountains than we normally do at this date. Normally I ski down the mountain on a tongue of snow that sticks down into a green, green land where all the golden crowned sparrows are singing and the sun is shining. This spring the sun has barely shone (I don't think it has reached 60 ydegrees in Kodiak yet!), and it remains brown at the end of my tongues of snow.

But it is finally starting to get green and super quick too! Patrick

The second photo is of the sun poking over the top of Pyramid in the fog. And the bottom photo is of the 350 vertical feet of snow that I am still trying to enjoy every day.

Postscript: I checked the weather stats for Kodiak and it has hit 60 3 times so far this year. On May 13th, 30th and June 2cnd, and never higher than 62 degrees. That's pretty cool!