An Anchorage Journal

We moved to Anchorage from Seldovia, a rural community in southcentral Alaska, at the end of June this year. It was very sudden - our Seldovia home was sold, with immediate occupancy desired by the buyers.

"Why not?", we said, so I went up to Anchorage and was very lucky to find this Zero-Lot-Line home for rent, near the airport.

Carl is a gardener, and we found a way to transport many of the pots of flowers he had created in Seldovia at the back end of the U-haul van... so we and our two cats headed onto the early Sunday ferry and up to Anchorage.

The summer went by rapidly, flowers bloomed, lawns got mowed, a very routine summer; alternately gorgeously sunny (hot, even, by Alaskan standards) and rainy, which watered the flowers for us...

Later on, In September came the news that the storm drain behind the house would need to be reconstructed as it was collapsing. Ah it would be an interesting winter too! The contractors came by and installed a 6 ft plywood fence through the easement area - in some cases clipping the back decks off the homes which had been built right to the easement.

The Vee on this side of the fence is our current yard. The pile of treecuttings is where the yard used to end. Oh My!

So now we have a 6' plywood fence to look at right off the porch door. That won't do - so It's off to Eagle Hardware and Home Depot - yes we have the big-box hardware stores here, too- to sort through their mixed-up paint gallon rejects and Paint That Fence. Before you know it we have a mural of sorts - it's a lot better than plain plywood. And up went the silk- flower arrangements and the windsocks to make the view more easy on the eyes. The silk-flowers replace the dead-from-frost real ones. We're talking "Late September" by this time. Maybe we'll go to Snowmen and other painted wonders in October...