I love fall. The beautiful yellow and gold leaves, the red underbrush, the cool, crisp air. It’s all so beautiful. I don’t even mind that it leads to my least favorite season. I shouldn’t say that too much, I do like winter as well, just not for the 5 months of the year that we have it here in Alaska.

The last couple of days though, the fall colors have been absolutely gorgeous so I thought I’d share a couple of pictures from our adventures. The first was at the cabin of my future son-in-law. We were standing around after lifting a wall, and all of a sudden the tops of the trees just looked like they were on fire. It was absolutely beautiful!

Then, yesterday my daughter, son-in-law, and I went up Hatcher’s Pass. My daughter is a photographer, but when she wants pictures of her and her husband, I am the button pusher. She sets me up where I need to stand, how high I hold the camera, what angle and what background she wants and then I hold the camera and click the button, as many times as I can.

There was a little bit of snow on the tops of the mountains yesterday, but all the tundra was red and yellow down in the high valley we were in. There was a bit of sunshine, a bit of low clouds, a bit of snow, and it was just breathtaking. We also found quite a number of blueberries still on the plants. I had figured it was way too late for blueberries, but we walked and picked as we got out to where my daughter wanted the pictures.

One of my favorite parts about fall is that it’s still warmer at night, above freezing still, but that it’s dark. On cloudless nights there is usually northern lights visible. The other night we went out to look at the northern lights about 11:30 pm. We took my daughter’s dog with us, and after she’d been outside for a couple of minutes she barked. I called her back, and she came right away.

I decided to bring her in the house so she didn’t run off chasing whatever she had barked at (I assumed a moose). I turned on my flashlight so I didn’t have any other lights on for those still out viewing the northern lights. When I turned around to give her a treat, I was shocked to see porcupine quills all over the top of her face.

My daughter and son-in-law were just coming in, and I woke my husband, my other daughter (whose dog it is), and my son to come and help. We are ever so grateful none of the quills actually went in her eye as there were several in her eyelid. My son and son-in-law held her down while my husband pulled quills. My daughters escaped to the far reaches of the house so they didn’t have to hear her cry. She actually did quite well and didn’t whine for most of them. She mostly whined because she didn’t like being restrained.

We are actually quite grateful that this is her first encounter with a porcupine, we know a number of people in our area who have had to deal with porcupines multiple times over the last couple of years. Last night, almost a week later, we found one more quill. I am hoping that’s the last one. It was a little bit infected because it had been in there so long. We decided it must have broken off right at the skin so we couldn’t feel the barb. We are all grateful she is ok!