Winter is coming!

I thought you southerners would like to enjoy some recent pics from the far north, where winter is already sitting on the hill tops.

I recently went around taking pics of our fall colors. I copied them into power point and then pasted pics together to make panoramas of our landscapes.

Hope you enjoy!

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

Very pretty, Molch! Fall has definitely reached my neck of the woods too. Leaves are all aflame!

Gorgeous landscapes!

Be careful though, if the Lannisters hear you saying those words the results are likely bad for you....

where in america are u? alaska? look amazing up where u are from. i am from ontario canada and our wealther is just starting to hit the cooler fall wealther

Wow, it is really pretty. The colors are really nice. What is the reddish plant?

SludgeMunkey said:

Gorgeous landscapes!

Be careful though, if the Lannisters hear you saying those words the results are likely bad for you....

Click to expand...

no worries there. The Lannisters have been detained at the Anchorage airport and are currently freezing their privates off in the Alaska Ice prison.

otterwoman said:

Wow, it is really pretty. The colors are really nice. What is the reddish plant?

Click to expand...

the small red plant in the foreground is bear berry, Arctostaphylos spp., (uva-ursi or rubra, not sure which).

It turns an obscene neon red in fall.

Two species apparently grow near here. with A.uva-ursi being the low-elevation species. The other grows at higher elevation and develops very red leaves in fall. I suspect that your high-latitude red [translation "rubra"] species is the same as our high-altitude one, and thus not A.uva-ursi. Since I only recently learned of the second species, I can't speak to what it IS, only what it is not.

Nice pictures noot, thanks for sharing. Our mainly-aspen forests usually start turning yellow and dropping leaves in mid-August, with cool nights and hot days. This year, only in the last week or so has it started. Still, we could have bugs, herps, and plants clinging on until even December if we're lucky. October 31 is the norm for a quick shift of mild to cold. I love the scenery, hate the cold lifelessness that begins with fall however.

yes, I think it's rubra - although I always thought rubra described the color of its berry, which is bright red.

Locally, people call it kinnikinnik - but I think that name is used elsewhere for different species as well.

"Bear-berry" [translation "uva-ursi"] and kinnikinnik are widespread names for multiple species. The berry of A.uva-ursi is also red. The leaves of A.alpina turn red, but the berries are blue-black. A.rubra and A.alpina might be closely related, and it seems that all three probably occur in this province [thanks, Wikipedia, for adding some tidbits I lacked!]

Wow, i had no idea Arctostaphylos was so wide spread. A.uva-ursi can be found all over Spain and it does look different to what can be seen in the gorgeous pictures.