Jewels of July

Seven years in Montana, and hundreds of hiking miles, and one can be forgiven for thinking you have seen it all.  And then you round a curve on a trail and your jaw drops.  Mountain Lady's Slipper stands regally.  The upper sepal shields the slipper like the hood of a cape; the lower sepals twist downward like strands of curly hair.  Why haven't I seen this demure orchid before?  Maybe it's because this trail is not often used, and the Slipper has managed to survive here.  A quick scan of Internet sources suggests that Cypripedium montanum is "apparently secure", a technical term that means a plant is uncommon but not rare, with some cause for concern due to declines or other factors.  Time of year is also significant - if I was walking this same trail a month later, the blooms would be gone.  All the more reason to be delighted to be in the right place at the right time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early July took us to Glacier National Park, executing our responsibilities as citizen scientists to document Mountain Goat and Bighorn Sheep populations.  I could stop there - the simple elegance of the Park's beauty is enough.  And yet we are blessed to have many other delights layered into the experience.  The sunrise at the house, with lake mist lingering in the valley.  A black bear grazing along the roadside.  Dashing through the rain at the new Kyiyo Mercantile for a Huckleberry Bear Claw.

Forecasters called for a full day of rain, and we were pleasantly surprised that it eased up early in the morning and didn't return.  The hike along Cut Bank Creek is known to us, and yet we commented that we had forgotten how lovely it is.

In the afternoon, we covered new terrain via the Dry Fork Trail.  The Two Medicine area is known for bears, and given the low usage of this trail, it wasn't a big surprise to encounter a grizzly sharing the area with us - fortunately, it took off in the other direction as soon as it saw us.
 

Have you noticed the lack of photos of goats and sheep?  Yep, two hikes in and no observations.  Sigh.  The next morning, we popped in our favorite East Glacier breakfast spot, the Two Medicine Grill.  Fortified for the day ahead, we hiked Scenic Point and we were rewarded with numerous sheep, including the nanny group in the photo below.  Our second hike that day, along Rose Creek, yielded plenty of mosquitoes but no mammals! 

 

 

In early July, Lupine and Penstemon are plentiful along alpine trails, and I am hoping the video below gives you a small taste of purple splendor as we walked back to St. Mary Lake.

Back at the house, the flowers were doing their best to represent for Kila, Montana.  July is certainly the peak for native plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the early years of the garden, I had Prairie Coneflower (pure yellow) and Mexican Hat (a deep burgundy coneflower).  Now, cross-pollination (thanks, bees, moths and butterflies!) has delivered numerous flower shades.

I am constantly bragging about Head Chef and his cooking - the summer salads he creates are always a massive hit with me - I love the variety of colors, textures and flavors.  A neighbor has a flock of chickens, and we are regularly purchasing a dozen eggs from her.  As everyone knows, the taste and color of free-range eggs cannot be "beat"!

Another neighbor grows vegetables, and her arrival at the July ladies' gathering was like our own personal farmer's market!  So many talents in our neck of the woods - check out the baby quilt one of my friends recently finished.  I love our neighborhood get-togethers!

Summer in Montana also means guests, and the end of July started our string of visitors - my oldest brother and his wife came from Utah for a few days.  For a year, we had been talking with them about huckleberry picking and a picnic at a location that we had spotted the summer before, while on a back-country camping trip.  The site delivered, the weather delivered and Head Chef delivered with charcuterie and beverages that had been chilled in Mineral Creek while we picked hucks.  

And it is our tradition to wrap up visits to Glacier with a cold bevvie on the back porch of Lake McDonald Lodge - this is livin'!!!

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Linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.  She has a super group of bloggers that always have something positive and interesting to share!  The prompt for September 26 is "What is your favorite fall scent?  Would you rather have a pumpkin spice drink or apple cider?"  I love the aroma of slightly damp leaves, especially when you walk through them and you get the bonus of the rustling sound.  But I don't miss raking said leaves!!! At our house here in Montana, the aspen trees are vastly outnumbered by pine trees, and we wouldn't rake the leaves anyway since they provide natural fertilizer for the trees and other plants.  This is a huge change from the mounds of leaves we used to rake in Cleveland, Ohio.

I am obsessed with Pumpkin Spice Lattes (PSL), so that gets my vote over apple cider.  I go to coffee shops a lot, so I have to limit my PSL intake due to the high calorie count and so that I don't get bored with them!

Linking to Thankful Thursday

Linking to Mosaic Monday