Springtime in Alaska: A Long Season of Ice and Mud

Moving between extremes in the seasons

A few years ago, I was doing after school pick up, when my daughter’s friend let out a sigh and said “I just love spring. It’s when everything turns BROWN.”

Her voice held no sarcasm. And on that early May day, everything was brown. The snow had finally melted back to reveal sand, dog poop, and dead grass.

Spring in Alaska is icy. It’s potholes and dirty snow. It’s discovering socks in the driveway and the twenty spoons I lost when we hosted a chili bonfire. It’s dirt caked on all the cars, but no one will bother washing them until the ground dries out. It’s blizzards and rainbows. It’s exchanging my winter boots for my mud boots. It’s the ducks laying eggs again.

And it’s a long stretch of brown, until overnight it seems, everything turns green.

See my yard in the picture above? This was the moment I knew spring was approaching. The snowmen are melting. The May tree’s twiggy arms are warming in the sun; soon she will be the first to green out.

But the shadow strikes me the most. As if the sun were cutting smoothly down the middle of the yard. Light and dark at play.

Alaska is all about extremes — and though it can be fun (and exhausting) for it to be light until midnight or later, I value this brief time, when the light and dark are more balanced.

There’s a moment every year in the post office where I notice this shift: the air is warm and people are smiling. That’s it. People are smiling. The tension we carry in our bodies all winter from cold, dark days is suddenly gone.

It’s when people trust that summer is really on the way.

Anyway, I planted bulbs for the first time last fall with my oldest. Daffodils and tulips. My fingers are crossed that the squirrels didn’t make a meal of them.

Because I’m sure looking forward to some color added to the brown.

Key Message: Spring has arrived in Alaska, but it’s still some time before we get green grass and wildflowers. I’m ready.

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Thanks for reading! Here are some links to some more of my stories about life in Alaska: