Fur Rondy Snow Sculptures

 Fur Rendezvous is an Anchorage winter festival that traces its roots back to fur trading days.  You can still get furs today, if you think it's ok to snare animals in traps where they might suffer for hours or days before they die. Or gnaw a leg off if that will help the escape. 

We spent much more time on Rondy when we first got here and had little kids who needed entertainment.   This year much of it is online.  

But since we really haven't been out of the house much except for regular walks, shoveling snow,  and curbside grocery pickup, and we're fully vaccinated now, it seemed like a good idea to expose ourselves to some vintage Alaska culture.  

The start out with giant blocks of snow - eight cubic feet.  

When I got to this one, my thought was, "Maybe she's dumpster diving.  It's an ode to the homeless."

Then, "Maybe she's checking the freezer."

But sculpture is three dimensional.  I just needed to check the other side.  And as soon as I did and checked the title (The Waldorf School:  So close, and yet so far), it became my favorite.  It seemed the perfect sculpture for the Pandemic Fur Rondy.

The setting under an overpass in Ship Creek made it a little more challenging than normal to get good photos.  Yes, I know, that's what divides those who take snapshots from those who take photographs.  But the hazy sun didn't give a lot of contrast and a number of the sculptures were in the shadow of the bridge while we were there.  Online easy editing made the photos above a little better than they were originally.  But I left this truck as it was.

So I played around with the editing more on this one - used Curves - to get the horse show up a lot better.  

And finally, as we left I saw this guy.  I'm not going to pretend I actually know what he was thinking.  But this is the time of year that people are ready for warmer weather, whether we have it or not.  

It was in the mid 20s yesterday.  

Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Alaska Mill and Feed and got some flower and herb/vegetable seeds, some new seed trays, and a bag of potting soil.  It's time now.  In a little over two weeks (just after equinox), Anchorage will have more daylight than every place south of us.  We're gaining almost 6 minutes a day - that's an hour of daylight every ten days.