August 18

Ester Dome, Ester: Picked highbush cranberry in spots the berries weren’t wrecked. Not very many berries per cluster. Blueberries perfect. Crowberries perfect, very big and sweet this year. Red bearberry perfect. Lowbush cranberries red and fat but crispy, not ripe. Still lots of weird mushrooms everywhere.

July 3

Ester Dome, Ester: Picked red currants, ready and nice. Some blueberries ready but mostly too green, look good. Some red bearberries ready. Crowberries look ripe but aren’t. Raspberry, lowbush/highbush cranberry all have green berries. Nagoonberry still flowering.

June 17

Ester Dome, Ester: Has been hot statewide and high/extreme fire danger. Rose petals mostly off, some rosehips, lots of rose galls. Tons of wildflowers: tall jacob’s ladder, yellow cinquefoil, dogwood, labrador tea, cotton grass, capitate valarian, etc. Extra lots of bluebell. Raspberry flowering with some green berries. Abundant nagoonberry flowering. Cloudberry finishing flowering. Soapberry ripe. Red currant, crowberry, and highbush/lowbush cranberry have green berries. Nice green blueberries with some purple color.

May 18

Ester Dome, Ester: Pollen everywhere, Fairbanks broke world birch pollen record this year apparently. Good spruce tips and red cones (berry-like.) Red currants have small green berries. Blueberries have tons of flowers. Also flowering is highbush cranberry, bluebell, labrador tea, soapberry, nagoonberry, coltsfoot and many wildflowers. Wild rose has no flowers yet.