Sunrise this morning was at 5:14 am and the sun will set at 10:37 this evening, for 17 hr 23 minutes above the horizon. It’s now pretty dark at night – dark enough that the Fair will be setting off fireworks Saturday when it closes – but if I stayed to watch them, it’d be too dark for me to drive home. The sun will dip over 9° below the horizon tonight – not astronomical twilight, but dark enough to see stars and aurora, if the clouds will just clear away. They’re not really expected to, today or tomorrow, but they might by Thursday. At least it doesn’t look like we’ll have any more frost warnings in the coming week! In fact, highs may be up to 70 again by the weekend.

Giant cabbage display, winner at lower left.

It wouldn’t be Fair week without rain, anyway. So far, Saturday was the only clear, hot (by Alaska standards; it got above 70) day.

I’ve mostly been getting photos of horses, checking the Alaskan Authors booth (they have my first book for sale) eating what Fair Food I can with an insulin pump, checking out the crafts booths, and checking other exhibits one or two a day. Yesterday I looked over the giant cabbage entry, but it wasn’t very impressive. The winner didn’t even make 50 pounds.

Photos of horses? Last winter I was blogging weekly on the genetics of coat color in horses. I need more photos, once I can get them off of my camera. Meanwhile, I went through and linked all of my horse color posts from my author website. After all, I mentioned under the Leopard (Appaloosa) gene that all of the horses in Tourist Trap were spotted.

I’m also feverishly checking the mail. I ordered copies of my second book, Tourist Trap, thinking it could be added to the Fair booth. They were shipped July 22 – but in spite of my repeated insistence that they be shipped USPS Priority Mail, they were apparently sent media mail – 4 to 6 weeks to Alaska, if I’m lucky.

My own garden is now providing beets, a few wax beans, and squash faster than I can eat them. My camera, alas, is still not talking to my computer, so until I can get it fixed I’m stuck with iPhone photos.

More on the Fair (and the quilt show) tomorrow.