Really amazing, beautiful, warm, sunny days

We have had a string of really amazing, beautiful, warm, sunny days lately. Saturday and Sunday this weekend were both wonderful days. Saturday it was almost 70 degrees and sunny enough for avery to wear shorts and me to sweat while wearing a sweatshirt. Last weekend we also had one or two of these really nice days. At this time of year, the nice days dont really come around all that often. We are in the middle of the rainy season. It has rained almost everyday for 2-3 weeks now, except, of course the few days in between that have been really amazing, beautiful, warm, sunny days. I took advantage of one of the nice days last weekend to go for a walk out in the tundra to see if I could find either some blueberries hanging on or some cranberries that were ripe. See the little hill off in the distance of the picture above?
I've always wanted to walk out there to see if you could see anything from the top on the other side. These pictures are from my walk. I saw this 4 wheeler coming back up the trail presumably after dropping off the two berry pickers that were way out in the tundra on the other side of the hill.
The tundra is full of fall colors right now and is very beautiful. It is also very marshy and muddy because we've had alot of rain lately. After wading through the soft tundra, I got the the little hill and followed the little trail up. I THINK this trail actually leads to a village called Atmautluak (at-mouth-luck) (that's a rough pronunciation, but better than nothing, right).
Below is the trail leading down the other side of the little hill. You can see that the landscape on the other side of the hill is pretty much the same as the rest of the tundra. There are actually two berry pickers out there somewhere in that picture.These next few shots are just pictures of the various tundra plants. It always amazes me when I walk through the tundra that it is so colorful and there are so many different kinds of plants that I'm sure I've never seen anywhere else.
This one I know is tundra tea. I dont know what the name of the plant really is, but the native people brew it up for tea and it is actually pretty good. I made a big batch of tea with it last year.
This white stuff looks like what imagine a plants skeleton would look like if plants had skeletons. It is hard and crunchy. I have no idea what it is.
Here is a variety of various plants which are all different and unique and not like anything I've seen anywhere else. See the black wispy looking stuff? I think it looks cool.
Below is the last of the blueberries hanging on. I love the way the blueberry bushes turn colors in the fall. The leaves even turn blue sometimes.
There are hundreds of different types of grasses out on the tundra. This one is interesting because it looks like the hair of a little tundra gnome that you could pull up from its resting spot by its hair. Can you tell how boring it gets here sometimes?
I took these sunrise pictures a few mornings ago. Every year we have a couple of really amazing sunrises.
I love the colors and the mountains in the distance. Of course, the pictures do it no justice.
The people have an amazing garden. When I walked by I asked the gardener what he does with all of his vegetables. He said he gives them away. That's nice of him.
One more pic of the tundra turning colors. It really is quite beautiful, but it will all be covered in snow before ya know it.
This is looking in the direction of my house. The blue building on the left is BABS (Bethel Alternative Boarding School) and the tan building on the right is my apartments. See the pretty little pond? I wish I actually had a view of it. I dont...my apt is stuck in the middle of the apartments. All I see out of my windows is my neighbors.
In other news...
It looks like we are in for another beautiful day, which is good because I'm flying today. Yep, that's right! I'm going out to one of the villages for the inservice training tomorrow. I get to take my first bush plane out to a village on the coast of the Bering Sea. Of course, I'll take my camera and take lots of pictures and tell you all about it later. I'm excited! I leave in a few hours.

I did end up making peach jam the other night and it turned out really good.

I am making good progress on the birthday list. In fact, I have completed a few things that I havent gotten a chance to write about yet, but I will do that soon.

I've lost another notch in my belt and 3 more pounds. I am hoping to have met Number 5 on my birthday list by the end of this month. I only have about 7 pounds to go.

The days are warm and the nights are cool, which makes for some pretty thick fog these days. I hope I dont end up getting stuck out in the village.

Taboo has been feeling better these last few days. I ended up having to call the vet and get him some medicine. The doctor gave him an antibiotic and something for diarrhea.

When I got those salmon last weekend fishing with the Scout master, I also got some salmon eggs. Since I tried that salmon egg salad a couple weeks ago and had the opportunity to get some salmon eggs last weekend, I decided to keep them and try my hand at making salmon egg salad.

Gotta run...my flight for Quinhagak (quin-a-hawk) leaves in about 3 hours.