Personally, I've got big things hanging over my head, like the possibility of losing Medicare and Social Security, but it's the sheer pettiness, the ignorance, and the incompetence that are really getting under my skin. 1/

I just read that one of my favorite authors, Celeste Ng, is being banned in red states. I decided to reread my copy of her book, Our Missing Hearts. I challenge everyone to read a banned book in February; I especially recommend Our Missing Hearts. Be a defender of books that speak truth to power. ✊

Somebody started a thread of bridge photos. Which I missed. So, anyway, here's a photo of the Alaska Native Veterans Honor Bridge in Nenana, Alaska. Love and respect to indigenous American service members past and present. ❤️

Thank you, Jimmy Carter. Just ... thank you so much.

This far north it's the time of year where the lightest it gets outside is twilight. So I'm posting a photo taken last fall when the dahlias were still blooming radiantly at the Georgeson Botanical Gardens in Fairbanks. Hope it reminds you of warmer days.

Minus 20F this morning and the sun was just touching the tops of the trees.

Now commences The Shoveling of the Snow. Later featuring The Aching of the Back. Not to mention The Moaning of the Afflicted. Yay.

🌿☕ The Greek name for forget-me-nots is mouse ear.. myosotis from mus (🐭 )& otis (ear) because of the shape of the leaves

In Greek legend, Zeus thought he had named all the plants but a small blue flower was left who called "forget me not"

Zeus decided that was good enough & that became its name 🍃

Boreal forests are the places where magic is born. (Creamer's Field Waterfowl Refuge, Fairbanks, Alaska.)

Libraries feel like something about which we could very easily be saying, “Remember that place where you could borrow books, for FREE, and return them when you were finished?” And kids would say “What?? No way!” And yet there they still are, despite everything we’ve become, existing. Remarkable.

Winter tree on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus a few years ago. Just a quiet moment for you in between posts about current events.

I don’t know about y’all, but I sure do miss the daily doses of joy from Kamala & Tim 😢 They filled us with so much happiness and hope. And now we’re just here…with a dark cloud over us. I’m so glad you’re all here 💙

It's probably been said a million times since the election, but this would be a really good time to renew your library card, use the heck out of it, support public libraries in any way you can, and be actively and loudly against banned books.

Okay, putting a toe in the water. Here is a shot of dwarf dogwood (Cornus canadenisis) on the floor of the boreal forest here in Alaska, taken last summer. To decorate your day.