I'm sitting in the computer lab at work where I am a tutor, currently however, I have no students to tutor so I am working on studying for my Elementary French II class. I can hear the fan running from the small server rack in the storage room behind me, the air conditioning from the ceiling above me, the occasional noises that the Spanish tutor and a couple students in the room make. I am at a large, oval table, comfortably spread out in the way I wish all classrooms allowed students to, and seeing something a bit amazing:
Outside the large plate-glass windows that make up most of the outside wall of this room is one of the most gorgeous Fall-time sights I can remember. To the left of the windows is a tree, I have no idea which type although I know my mother would, it is approximately 2 stories tall, with dark green, almost fern-like leaves; dark brown, almost black bark; and small clusters of brilliantly red berries at the ends of many of the branches. This tree grows up against the building and is in stark contrast to its surroundings.
I know that below me there is a paved pull-through for the bank that is situated almost directly below me, but I can't see it, the only evidence of it is a weathered light-pole, one of the ones that looks like it was built in the 1980s, with the light situated in a square box on the top, the paint of the pole and box having likely once been black is now almost a grey-brown. Growing from the grass and hillside behind and to either side of this pole are birch trees--white birch. The birch leaves are changing colors, almost no more true green ones exist anymore, most of them have turned a yellow-green, yellow, or have become splotched with yellow patches.
Individually, each tree would look ugly, it is nothing like the splendor to be seen on the East Coast during Autumn. There are a few black spruce mixed in and a few other berry or darker deciduous trees as well adding to the cacophony of the color scheme. Through these trees I can see the highway and the on- and off-ramps, the bridge over the highway and bits and pieces of the businesses and what-not on the other side of the highway. The sky is overcast, grays, whites, little bits of blues starting to seep through , hints of possible sunshine. The types of hints where you know that the clouds are much thicker wherever the sun actually is. It's not exactly what most people would call beautiful, but for Alaska, this type of scene, with the turning of leaves is a rarity, this is only the second year in the last 25 that I can remember having this type of true Autumn weather-wise. Usually the trees don't even get to change colors much before the leaves have dropped off, dead from frost or freeze, still green for the most part.
It is beautiful outside for this very reason, because this is so odd and it makes being at work studying so much more desirable. The only thing that could make this better would be a study area a bit more comfy than this and a good-sized mug of good coffee.
