Hi friends,

Autumn has descended on south central Alaska with it's usual enthusiasm. The landscape has switched gears; much of what was green now glows in hues of gold and red on the ground. Autumn leaves are being scattered by damp, blustery winds and recent rain has finally added the much anticipated "white icing" to the tops of our surrounding mountains.

Yep - the time of "termination dust" has arrived in Alaska, shepherding in the termination of many things - summer sunshine, seasonal construction jobs, river salmon fishing and pleasure boating, T-shirt weather, etc. We do all we can to avoid using the actual "S" word just yet ... but yes, snow is visible at higher elevations and will likely be moving lower with each rain storm that blows through our valley.

With the coming winter's inevitable cold winds and ice in mind; here's the latest article from the Alaska site at BellaOnline.com.

Dutch Harbor, Alaska
Dutch Harbor; the busiest sea port in the entire United States, is also home to the crab boat fleet of the TV show "Deadliest Catch". Surrounded by spectacular volcanic mountains, Dutch Harbor sits on some of the richest fishing and crabbing grounds in the world.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art6917.asp

Please visit alaska.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Alaska.

To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Alaska located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=433

We recently finished up our "Name the Alaskan Animals" Alphabet Game on the Alaska Forum - congratulations to "Beetlemess" for winning the contest! His prize is being sent to him and I hope he will let all of us on the forum know when it arrives! We'll come up with a new game soon - the more players, the more fun!

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. Your feedback is a great way to let me know what you'd like to hear more about!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, too. I look forward to adding them to my circle of new friends!

Deb Frost, Alaska Editor
http://alaska.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com