Spring Flora of Alaska

Everyone was excited with the coming of the warmer weather.  With the trees budding and flowers beginning to appear it was a clear indication that the long cold winter was over and the warmer weather was certainly on its way.
Karen and Linda both had vases of tulips when we arrived.  Karen had put pussy willow with hrs.  I love pussy willow.  Karen had a tiny wreath made of pussy willow flowers and to me it looked like a bunch of tiny furry animal babies all huddled together.  Very sweet.

The spruce trees hold their leaves all year but the birch trees lose theirs in the wintertime.  It was still too cold for them to have leaves and I loved the tracery of the twiggy branches.

The moss amazed me too.  It was like a thick mattress and was spongy when you walked on it.

It was amazing to see a tree chewed down by a Beaver.  Real storybook stuff for me.

It Sitka we saw gorgeous big yellow flowers growing on the side of the road.  They were like huge yellow tulips.  Julie and I asked our Chilean taxi driver what they were but he didn't know.  When we got to my cousin Mike's in Ketchikan he told us they went by the very unromantic name of 'Skunk Cabbage' and that the bears loved to eat them.  On one forest walk we actually got to smell one and it wasn't a horrible smell, just a very sweet herby smell.

The bears also like to eat berries, and Salmon Berries were just beginning to flower.  Salmon Berries, Blueberries and Raspberries all grow wild in the forest.  As the berries had not set yet there was only the skunk cabbage for the bears to eat.  Needless to say we didn't see a bear as there still wasn't much food about for them.  The occasional early bear had been seen by others.