Abba's Art

Tag: Inspiration

  • Beauty for Ashes

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    Fred D
    in

    In 2019 the Swan Lake fire devastated over 170,000 acres of Kenai Peninsula pristine forest. This past weekend my wife and I drove through that area on our way to visit friends … Nature’s restorative power amazed us! What was a barren landscape of charred, skeletal trees and smoldering ashes just seven years ago, now…

  • Uncertainty Therapy

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    Fred D
    in

    The Last Frontier summer is rapidly fading into fall, and this aging ragamuffin’s fall season of life has already experienced winter’s first snows.   Uncertainty is a certainty of life. Lately, life’s uncertainties have been edging into my ponderings. A comforting quote I recently heard helps mitigate the ‘worry’ of uncertainty … “Write your plans…

  • Cycle of Life

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    Fred D
    in

    Yesterday we awoke to 2026’s first summer/fall transition snowfall … after all … it is August here in the Last Frontier A short road trip to Hatcher Pass was in order. Here’s a few summer/fall transition snowfall scenes that delighted our eyes with wonder. While Ellie chose to stay in the car, I took off…

  • Rainbow Promise Prints

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    Fred D
    in

    A woods wander, interspersed with sunshine and rain, was graced with my Creator’s celestial watercolors. “Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and a rainbow occurs in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy…

  • Dolly’s Legacy

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    Fred D
    in

    Along with countless others, my wife and are grieving Dolly’s passing, only eased by knowing someday we will be forever reunited. Ellen and I are blessed to be able to snowbird between two awesome corners of Creation … the vast Greatland of Alaska, and the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains of TN. Our TN home is…

  • Seeing God

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    Fred D
    in

    Recently the sun has taken a hiatus behind the clouds, and Ellie and I took a short ride up the road for dinner. The food was scrumptious, but the cloudy day mountain vistas catered a celestial feast for the eyes no earthly menu could ever describe or serve up. The Good Book tells us, “No…

  • Silent Soul Stirrings

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    Fred D
    in

    Deep early morning’s shadows draping the river valley, and mystical mountain mists silently stirred tranquility in my soul. A hen turkey suddenly peering in the kitchen window silently stirred a smile in my soul, and “The mountains are calling and I must go” yearning … so I went … up the trail to Castle Mt.…

  • Planting Restoration

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    Fred D
    in

    The emergence of fireweed blooms heralds the beginning of summer’s exit and the impending entrance of fall in the Last Frontier.  Much like the ubiquitous dandelion ‘Wonder Weed’, fireweed is edible and nutritious, possessing medicinal qualities attributed to mitigating migraine headaches, insomnia, anemia, delirium tremens, infections and colds. Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) is also one of…

  • Sustained … Carried … Rescued

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    Fred D
    in

    This summer has found many in the Lower 48 battling oppressive heat, raging wildfires, and devastating floods. Gratefully we’ve been spared such maladies. It’s been cooler and damper than normal summer in the Last Frontier, with sunshine at a premium. Being a sunshine fan, were it possible, I would negotiate with Mother Nature to restrict…

  • Wonder-Weed

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    Fred D
    in

    It’s been a cooler than normal summer thus far in the Last Frontier. Today we awoke to a fresh dusting of snowflakes on mountains peaks, and ‘seed-flakes’ on the ground. A single dandelion plant can bloom multiple times each season with multiple flower heads producing over 15,000 seeds. Every puffy whitedandelion blowball seed head contains…