Morning Moods of the Methow
This collection of photos is from one morning up at Sun Mountain.
It shows how the feel of the valley changes on a moments notice some times.
This time of year the Methow Valley wakes up in a bit of a fog.
Only being coaxed out of its slumber when the strength of the sun penetrates through the layers,
illuminating the golden hills and blazing aspens.
The sleepy energy of fall is swept down the valley with the fog,
and we are blessed with moments of an Indian summer.
Fall descends upon us.
The trees are changing,
The Garden is done,
And the crispness of the air alerts us that winter is soon to awaken.
Welcome to Fall Everyone!
I played around with a panoramic program, stitching several photos together.
And while it is not perfect (you can see a stitch line),
its a fun perspective to have.
This is truly what the view looks like up there.
A Blessed and Snowy Adventure
Thursday evening we drove up to the Harts Pass area.
Arriving at the Pacific Crest Trail parking area right at dark,
we got out of the car to discover two thru hikers camping right there.
After a lovely conversation and a congratulations on their nearing accomplishment,
we started off on the trail.
A five mile night hike along the PCT, a fun adventure.
The moon was shining bright, and the trail felt smooth.
After some late night and early morning snow,
we spent a little time exploring the area around our camp spot.
The sun did not emerge as we had hoped, but teased us with little glimpses here and there.
We continued down the trail a couple more miles.
We were treated with a few moments of sun gracing the landscape around us.
And blessed with the experience of the larches changing colour.
And on our return visit we were blessed with several very special wildlife encounters.
A Golden Eagle drifted upon a thermal, gently raising into the sky.
Then we happened upon a family of 5 ptarmigan.
What gentle and sweet souls they were.
They so enjoyed our presence, that we were able to walk with them for about a quarter of a mile.
They simply wandered along the trail in front of us,
sometimes dipping down below the trail,
and returning to visit with us as we all strolled along.
When they finally decided to wander down the hill and say their goodbyes, we continued along.
Then what would be lumbering along the trail in front of us?
A Porcupine!
What an amazing treat it was to see this grand creature.
He waddled down the trail in front of us, his quills gently swaying back and forth.
His nervousness got the better of him, and he started trotting a little faster.
Eventually he found a stand of trees next to the trail to hide himself in,
and after talking to him for a few minutes we said our goodbyes and continued on.
It was an invigorating, exciting, and blessed trip.
To see Bernie’s perspective on our outing, visit Here.
Autumn Expressions
Autumn is upon us here in the Northwest.
The energy has been shifting, and our days have been cooling down.
I love the cool, crisp, sunny days of fall.
I have been doing a few autumn themed tasks around here.
Such as harvesting food from the garden.
Our pumpkin patch is looking quite handsome, and more of them are getting ripe each day.
Our oak trees have started dropping their acorns, and shedding a few brown leaves.
And thus I have started my annual task of collecting Acorn tops for my crafts.
These are a couple of the crafts I have been playing with lately.
I created the needle felted pumpkin one evening for fun.
Its about 3 inches wide, a simple little totem to the season.
The pumpkin lantern is a craft I found on Martha Stewart Here.
It took a little more work than I thought, as the paint didn’t want to stick to the glass all that well.
But I thought it turned out pretty cute.
I have also been making some more of my felted acorns.
They are cute as always.
I always like to have a few of them around.
What have the rest of you been up to this fall?
In what ways are you expressing yourselves?
Keeping Things Shook Up
Last night at about 1:15am Bernie and I were sitting here at the computer looking at various blog sites, and I heard a rumble. These days the rumbles are usually the jets coming into the Bellingham airport, we happen to be under the flight pattern. But a moment after the rumble the house took a bit of a bump. Here in northwest Washington, earthquakes that you can feel are few and far in between.
So we started looking around online, and found a website that has updated information on earthquakes around the world, and there is amazing detail on each occurrence. We found our little earthquake and as it happens, the center of it was about exactly a mile from our house. It was a 2.8, 12 miles underground. It was pretty amazing to be able to look that information up, and see the maps that you can see our house on. So that was our excitement last night.
Yesterday my cousin Chelsea and her boyfriend Blaire came over. They came to look at all the creatures, and Chelsea’s goal was to talk Blaire into getting a chinchilla. So I took them upstairs in the barn to Chinchilla zone, and they looked at a few different chins, and found one they like. They both fell in love with him, so now they are out finding cages and supplies and our little guy will have a new home shortly. Blaire works from home, so the little chin will get lots of attention I think. When they come to pick him up I will have to take a picture of the happy little family and post it here.
The other good part of that visit is Blaire fixes cell phones, laptops, and lost more. Bernie has a laptop that has been getting slower and slower as time goes by, and it makes it hard to work on his pictures, each action is painfully slow. So Blaire took the poor little computer and is going to fix it all up for an incredibly great price. YAY! We were pondering getting a new laptop, and hopefully after this is all done, we won’t have to! It’s great to know someone that’s good at that kind of stuff. I think he can talk to the electronics, because he can fix things fast.
Another day of grey weather, in the summer I tend to forget exactly how dark the days can be this time of year. In some ways it’s a very cozy warm feeling, you feel like you are surrounded by a big grey down quilt. The other side of that being, you feel like sleeping all day long. So here I go to try to accomplish something other than sitting around like a lump.
Before and After
It amazes me how things can change, and when you are immersed in the middle of it, sometimes it’s a challenge to remember just how much it has. My parents bought this property about 16 years ago, and I found a picture that is probably about 14 years old, or so. Its funny to look at that picture, and then look at the yard now. The trees look like little sticks stuck in the ground. This place was 10 acres of field with 2 trees on it when we bought it. Now the tree population is quite healthy around here. So I thought I would share a before and after picture, and who knows, in another 15 years I might find both of these pictures and laugh again.
Notice we have the same wooden swing, and the same ford explorer, the only difference being, now the explorer is my car not my moms. The trees are so big now, you cant really see the barn. And now there is a pond to the left of the oak tree.
Todays Outing
Today was enjoyed fully in the beautiful fall weather. It was sunny all day, with a few pretty wispy clouds hanging in the sky. We started off the day just hanging around home. Since my parents are out of town, I am the animal caretaker. So I did a few chores in the creature realm. I have a rooster with an infected eye that I am trying to clear up, poor little guy.
Around noon we headed out for an adventure. We went to Boulevard Park, an enjoyable park on the water front. There is usually some birds down there for Bernie to take pictures of, and right now the fall colors make a nice backdrop. We spent the whole afternoon there. There are a couple of pier type board walks that run along the shoreline. It is always an interesting perspective walking along them.
Then we sat for a little while in the heart of the park, and watched people and wildlife. There was a small group of people tossing around a Frisbee, and a guy practicing his balance on a line strung between two trees. He was pretty talented, great balance. Later we saw a couple of girls on their own balance line. I love to people watch, and I admit eavesdrop on their conversations once and a while. It gives me perspective on the world, the things that people are interested in and concerned with. Sometimes it makes me laugh, we humans are interesting creatures.
To stretch our legs we walked down the path, that seems to be the old railroad bed. Its a pretty nice trail. There are all sorts of trees hanging over it, creating a nice little tunnel along certain stretches. The light was beautiful filtering through the multi colored leafs. We both got some nice shots along this area. Bernie has been trying out people shots along with his wildlife photography. He got a nice one today of a young lady running down the path, it looks like she is running into a painting, the colors are beautiful.
It was quite a nice day over all. It felt good to get out of the house, and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. The fall weather is bringing in a slight chill to the air, but at the same time its crisp and refreshing. Tonight is another movie night, we didn’t get around to Sweeney Todd last night, so its on tonight’s list. I’m excited, I know its going to be a morbid movie, but I love Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp. I’m off into movie land! Have a great week everyone!
Another week rolls by….
It never ceases to amaze me how fast the weeks go by. I could swear it has only been a couple of days since last weekend. Then I start to question what I have accomplished. This week was not one of high activity, but I did get some things done.
Unfortunately I did not get started on the whole picture project, I do have some time to get it done, but I am going to try not to fall into my typical pattern of procrastination. Its always easy once I get started, its just that whole getting started thing.
Bernie got a beautiful shot of a pileated woodpecker today; he has it on his blog already. It has the most beautiful fall colors in the background. They are such majestic birds. I think it will be a good seller at the upcoming shows. I am starting to get excited about the shows. I am starting to think about what cards we need to print up, and we have a new card rack that will be a nice addition to our booth set up. In certain ways I wish I was doing another show or two, but these two shows will keep me plenty busy. The first one is just for one weekend, but the next one is a four weekend event, Fri. Sat. and Sun. each weekend. Its my version of a winter job.
Today I dropped my parents off at the airport, they flew into Las Vegas. They are going for a shipping container convention. I know, sounds pretty exciting right? Mom just started a new job at a place that sells and rents those big shipping containers that cargo is shipped across the oceans with. There are some interesting things going on with them. Some people are building houses out of them. Since my dad is a carpenter he is going with to see if it would be a feasible income earning endeavor to do housing and such with these containers. It will be interesting to hear what they learn at this convention. They get back on Wednesday, so they get a nice little vacation.
We spent the weekend getting the bark/scrap pile from the sawmill burned up, there is a little bit smoldering still, but its pretty much all gone. It’s a nice feeling to get things cleaned up. And that means the next step is using some of that fresh lumber to do the siding on a pole building that my dad built not too long ago. That will be good to get that finished off also, and it will be fun to use some of that lumber. So maybe we will get to start on that project later this week.
Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, so the plan is to go on a walk. It will be nice to get out and enjoy the outdoors, and perhaps get some good pictures also. I really haven’t been out walking much, and I can sure feel it in my body. It will be really nice to get out there and walk/hike a little bit. Clear out the system a little bit.
Alright, its movie night. I am off to watch something, not sure what the selection is yet. But I do know that we just got Sweeney Todd from Netflix today….. that should be a good selection to watch this close to Halloween.
The Weekend
This weekend was both a relaxing and productive one. We recently just got finished with milling a pile of logs into lumber. We hired a neighbor to come in with his portable sawmill and break down a pretty big pile of logs. We have been in the process of stacking the lumber, and cutting up the scraps for firewood. There is enough firewood to last a few years now (the house is completely heated with a woodstove, no other means of heat through the winter). So we are getting close to being done with that whole project, it will be nice to have all that put away. I will have to post some pictures of the lumber piles before they get covered with tarps for the winter.
We also harvested the rest of the apples, well actually we have one more tree I believe, but we are pretty close. We have plenty of apples to last us through the winter, and then all the scabby and icky apples are to feed the rabbits through the winter. They LOVE the apples, and we do too. Homegrown apples are so great, no nasty chemicals sprayed on them, and they taste so sweet and fresh.
I am amazed at how fast fall has come upon us here in the northwest. We had a beautiful, warm, late summer, and then fall just decided to drop in. It is a beautiful season, just a little hard to put away those summer clothes and pull out all the layers. I am looking forward to Halloween, it is Bernie’s birthday, and I have been dreaming up little treats to make.
Yesterday I was browsing online for fall dessert recipes, and found some fun ones! Last night I ended up making pumpkin whoopie pies. They are soooo good! It is a Martha Stewart recipe, and my family loved them! A very fun Halloween treat. Baking is one of my many passions, I have a horrible sweet tooth, so I make all kinds of sweet gooey things.
We went to the Bellingham Farmers Market on Saturday. It was a more eventful trip than we thought it would be. First I got to custom order my new purse from a very sweet lady there, Heather Fitzstrawn. It is my belated birthday present from Bernie (on my birthday we were in the middle of nowhere, on Adak island in the Aleutian island chain, not much out there for birthday presents). My parents came also, and mom had brought her standard poodle Angel with us, she walked her around for a little bit and then put her back in her canopy covered truck, and came back to the market. Mom and dad were talking to a friend and dad pointed to a lady walking a white standard poodle and said “she looks just like Angel”, and they went on talking. When we all made it back to the truck we discovered an empty truck bed, Angel had pried open the window and jumped out. We went running back to the market and looked all over for the lady with Angel….. funny huh? Well it turns out they had already taken her with them. So we had to drive all the way home to get the message from them (about a 25min drive). Well when we checked the message there were two, one from the nice lady that picked her up, and then one from a close family friend that said he was hanging out with our dog….. Well it turns out the lady works at the restaurant that he used to manage, he had stopped and talked to her for a minute, and she asked if he happened to know where this address was. And as a matter of fact, he did. So he took Angel and we met him to pick her up. It was a very very strange coincidence. It can still be a small world.
She looks so innocent here……
Well, now we are off, the rain stopped and the sun has come out. We are going to go find some place to walk around and maybe find some animals to take pictures of. If we get some good pictures I will share them.
