Shaking my head in disbelief, I begin to pen this post about July 2020. How can it already be August 2? If you’re like me, August rouses memories of back-to-school shopping, and last-minute attempts to collect on all of summer’s unfulfilled promises.
A few days ago, I was weeding along the roadside, and a neighbor paused
to chat while walking her dog. She
listed the summer visitors she had been hosting, and then switched gears to
describe the fall activities for her kids.
“And then it will be Christmas,” she said. It might have been the heat and the dazzling
sun, but I almost passed out.
Christmas? Stop the bus, I want
to get off! It feels like summer has
just arrived, and it may disappear again with the blink of an eye. Even Whitefish Mountain Resort joined the
conspiracy by sending out an invitation for past employees to re-apply for
winter positions. Really? So, this post is my deliberate attempt to
drag my feet, to savor summer, to deny that fall is around the corner.
It has been a full month, when I pause to reflect. Three hikes plus one
over-night camping trip.Several doctor’s
appointments (all is well) and a lengthy visit to the dentist for a crown.Volunteering at the museum.Coffee chit-chats and kayaking with my Dear
Neighbor Friend.Ongoing job search
support with #1 Son.And of course, joyful
intervals in my beloved garden.Activity
seemingly makes the hands of the clock launch into overdrive. Occasionally, I long to simply lounge on the
deck, gazing out on the beauty right in front of me.When these feelings occur, I rationalize that
the season of “lounging” will come of its own accord, when I can no longer be
so active. And I jump back into the
fray!
Non-human animals have it much simpler, and maybe we (you know I mean me) would be wise to take some lessons from them.
First: take a nap in the heat of the day (not my strong suit)
Second: Eat well (A+ on this one thanks to Head Chef)
Third: Avoid predators (in my case, it's mosquitoes and ticks that threaten my health, and dare I mention the c-word?)
On July 21, I was working in the garden and the badger strolled within 5 feet of me. I was caught by surprise and didn't get him on video. But wouldn't you know he stuck around most of the afternoon, apparently hunting chipmunks, and for your viewing pleasure, I have two videos below. Don't worry, no death and carnage in either one. But if you watch the second one closely, you will see a chipmunk escape the foliage and run under the deck, literally under my feet and then the badger follows.
Fourth: Hang out with buddies (COVID has put a bit of a kibosh on this; I've relished my coffee/kayaking dates with Dear Neighbor Friend, and we invited a couple for dinner on two separate occasions.)
Our back forty is a popular location with the swallows given the lake and the multitudes of flying insects that congregate there. A dead aspen has become a gathering spot for the swallows, until something triggers them to all take off at once, as you can see in this video below.
Fifth: stay hydrated (I don't have any animal pix for this one. And I don't think alcohol and coffee count toward the 90 ounces of liquid I ought to be drinking ... maybe I should move on ....)
Sixth: look after your offspring (this is a joy, not a "task". We are so excited #1 Son is moving to Montana while he continues his job search, and #1 Daughter and her boyfriend are visiting in August. The family reunited!)
July is the month when
most plants in Montana progress rapidly from leaves to blooms to seeds. As many times as I have walked our property
and the surrounding land, I still make new discoveries. And I rejoice in seeing old favorites as
well.
My garden is also
flourishing; you can expect another post on that soon. For now, I am tickled “yellow” with the
success of the yellow penstemon since in previous summers it seemed weak and prone to insect infestations. Sometimes,
gardeners have plants that tend to crowd out others, and we have to actively
restrain them. I am not quite ready to
do that with the coreopsis (the yellow plants in the pictures below), but I can see the time is coming. Just look at how prolific they are and all
from three plantsat the time the landscaping was installed.
I have managed to tear
myself away from the outdoors long enough to draw a birthday card for a close
friend in the UK, and for my father-in-law.
Note: if you are planning to send anything overseas, allow plenty of time. Two weeks passed before my friend received
her drawing, and it was three weeks for my father-in-law. Yikes!
I was also proud and honored to have my Violet Protest square included
in a display of Montana-made squares at Honey’s Café in Red Lodge,
Montana. Organized by Maggy Hiltner, the
installation features 24 squares that will be forwarded to Phoenix to join
squares from all over the U.S. for the main Violet Protest organized by Ann
Morton. My second square is halfway
complete and will be ready in time for the November 15, 2020 deadline. You can still participate!
No summer is complete
without a “campfire” and S’Mores. As
faithful readers know, I always take the makings for S’Mores on our camping
trips, so this summer “promise” has been partly fulfilled. But you may be shocked to learn that we had
not yet used our firepit this summer!
That was rectified last weekend, and at the end of the night, Spousal
Unit said “We need to do this more often.”
In Montana, it’s never too hot in the evening for a fire – as soon as
the sun begins to dip, the temperatures drop dramatically and the stars blink
on. You are likely to spot several
satellites tracing their way across the sky.
Night sounds are distinct, and identifying them (or letting your
imagination run wild) is entertaining.
That evening, we saw a crane fly up from the lake and land at the
tippy-top of a pine tree some distance from our house. So special.
If you live in the
Northern Hemisphere, what remains on your wish list for the summer? I am dreaming about swimming, attending an
outdoor concert, and a picnic at the lake.
Oh, and definitely more ice cream!
Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme
where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain
time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your
blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and
enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an
easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I
stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join
in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.
This post continues the re-cap of May that I started last week - so much went on I couldn't possibly cover it all, and you probably wouldn't have read it, either. So here we are again.
Surprises can come from many places, and this month was no
exception.A stinkbug on the arm of the porch rocker.Flowers from Spousal
Unit.
On May 17, it was a wildlife
extravaganza just outside our windows.That morning, I was sipping my coffee and looking out the dining room
window, my custom in case the ground squirrels are there and need chasing.This day, I noticed that the area around a
drainage pipe had been thrown into major disarray.What?I immediately went outside to check it out.In the past, a ground squirrel had used this
hole as a hiding place, and I had piled many rocks on it, large rocks, to prevent
its entry.All of those rocks had been
tossed 3 to 5 feet down the hill, and what was a small hole was now two large
holes.As I told Spousal Unit, only a
bear or a badger could have done it, and based on the print sizes in the
ground, I was betting on the badger.
Red arrows - where rocks WERE
Blue arrows - where the rocks ended up
That same day, I sat near the great room window, putting
together my to-do list, and I spied something unusual sitting in the Ponderosa
Pine below the birdfeeders.I shouted
for Spousal Unit, and we both watched it for at least 15 minutes.I commented that it would fly away as soon as
I got the spotting scope out, but Spousal Unit encouraged me to do it.Here are my two favorite photos of the Sharp-shinned Hawk that we took that day using the scope.Since then, it has returned at least once in the times that we have been watching, and I am
sure that I have also seen it flying low through the trees in search of prey.
These pictures don't compare to the professional shots
that many of you take, but I like the "personality" in
these photos
As more hummers arrived, I
added another feeder to the line-up
As long as I am writing about birds, allow me to mention others
that put in an appearance in the month of May. (Note that the pictures below are from the Internet.) In our three years in Montana, I have never seen a Blue Jay here; from May 6 - 23, up to three males were regular visitors at our birdfeeders. According to my Audubon app, Montana is not a common part of its range.
But perhaps the most exciting thing is that I saw the badger
the afternoon of May 17.Yes, this was
the same day I described above, when I noticed the fresh digging.About 4 pm that afternoon, I was looking out
the same window, and I am sure that I gasped out loud – for there, just below
the window, was the badger, going in and out of the holes and seemingly marking
its territory.Here are two videos that
I took right then.
Since that day, I have seen the badger one other time.The afternoon of May 22, it came out of the
hole and sauntered off into the woods.The trail cam has been trained on the holes for almost two weeks, and
has not captured a single photo.At
first, I was tempted to speculate that it is a female and she dug this den
specifically to give birth (it is referred to as a natal den), which might
explain the rare sightings.But I would
have expected to see her emerge at least once since May 22.I am now convinced that the badger dug the
hole to catch a ground squirrel, but I am not quite ready to close up the hole,
just in case!
On May 20, I was in Whitefish for my normally scheduled hair
appointment.Arranged before the
lockdown began, it was timed perfectly for the re-opening of salons.My stylist and I both wore masks throughout
the appointment.It was hot; I am
sympathetic to her spending a whole day in a mask!We took advantage of being in Whitefish to
frequent another local restaurant that we trusted – the Craggy Range.What a delight it was to imbibe one of their
Smoky Old-Fashioned drinks.
Spring always puts me in the mood for rhubarb.In my childhood, we had several large rhubarb
plants, and we ate it raw with sugar.My
mother had several methods to cope with the bounty, from sauce to pie to crumble.So, I had been pestering Head Chef for a bit
to buy some rhubarb.It is not stocked
in his normal grocery store, so he made a special trip to Rosauer’s to get
some.Yum, that crumble with ice cream
was an absolute delight.Do you have a
favorite spring food?
While I am singing the praises of Head Chef, check out two of his other creations from this month. Good thing I am getting more exercise in the garden and elsewhere to burn off all these calories!
Walking our back forty is one of the ways I work off those meals, and each day in the month of May seemed to bring new life to the meadows and glades. My forays often take place after dinner, and the soft evening light transforms everything. I am never sure that my pictures do it justice.
The re-opening of Montana, together with the improved
weather, has allowed for precious time with my Dear Neighbor Friend.Chatting around our fire pit.A bike ride with her standing group of hiking
ladies.Kayaking.As I wrote in my May 24 post, we made quite a team transplanting 29 lupines into my garden. She brought another 7 to my house on May 26, and we jabbered on while I planted them. (By the way, as of this writing, 6 out of 36 are fair, two are perky and the rest have returned to the earth from which they came).
Upper right: a perky lupine
Bottom: view of Swan Mountains during bike ride
I have published kayaking pictures before, but I think these are some of the best that I have ever taken, thanks to the gorgeous sky and the mirror of the lake. (And thanks to DNF for having me!)
When we kayak in the evening, we almost always see the beaver swimming and eating. On the day I filmed the video below, we saw four different beaver. This video shows two; the second one comes very close to my kayak - watch until the end!
I look back at these scenes, and I am already missing May. But move on we must … and who knows what wonders June will bring, all by her little self?
Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme
where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain
time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your
blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and
enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an
easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I
stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join
in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.
I found April to be a month of contrasts. An in-between month, almost like a teenager that wavers between the simplicity of childhood and the desire to be considered an adult. The sun was out but the air was still cold. I had some recurring events, but in general I was less scheduled. The "dead" of Winter was slowly losing its grip to the life of Spring. All in all, I enjoyed the variety that was April 2019.
I am so glad this is the only
day Spousal Unit wears
this sweater!
The ski season ended with a cool vibe as Whitefish Mountain Resort hosted Employee Ski/Ride Day. In keeping with the "fun" character of the resort, costumes were encouraged and each department adopted a theme to identify its employees. In the case of the Mountain Ambassadors, everyone decked out in retro/60s gear. We don't often get the opportunity to ski/board at the same time, so this was treasured team bonding.
With skiing wrapped up for the season, I welcomed the free time to finish a key project, a Shutterfly book. This labor of love documented the life of our new house from inception of the dream in 2006, through its first two years. I chose this timing because April 24 marked the two-year anniversary of the date excavation began on the property. It was a surprise for Spousal Unit, and it gave me great joy to present it to him on April 21 - once I had it in my hands, I couldn't wait to share it!
Salted Caramel
My open schedule also allowed me to simply pounce on some opportunities that came along. Like the day Spousal Unit texted me that local ice cream company Sweet Peaks was giving away free ice cream - I was all over that! (Sweet Peaks opened its Whitefish shop in April 2010 and now has 6 additional shops throughout Montana, Idaho and Washington State.)
As long as we're focused on my sweet tooth - I was spoiled at Easter by a basket from Spousal Unit and from a dear neighbor.
It was such a delight to join my fellow Arts and Environment committee members to decorate our church for Easter. After the barren symbols of rocks and branches during Lent, the color and life of Easter flowers and lilies was a feast for the eyes and the nose.
In past posts, I have written about my search for options to enact true charity. Last month, Spousal Unit and I attended a fundraiser for the Samaritan House, a homeless shelter and transitional living program in Kalispell, Montana. Its mission is to provide shelter and basic needs for homeless people, while fostering self-respect and human dignity. The Twelfth Annual Cowboy Up event featured a live auction, silent auction, Chinese auction, wine pull, dinner and live music. We bid on several items and were pleased to win a rustic bucket full of gardening-related items.
As one who likes structure, I garner contentment from my recurring activities. My cooking adventures for the month included Shawarma Chicken, Pan-seared Cod, Chicken Taquitos and Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake. Only the Shawarma Chicken passed muster. We liked the Chicken Taquitos IF IT HAD MORE BUFFALO SAUCE, MORE CHICKEN AND LESS CHEESE. In other words, that's a different recipe!
Shawarma Chicken Salad
Pan-seared Cod
Chicken Taquitos
I have continued experimenting with my spotting scope/phone camera combination, and one morning was thrilled to have Spousal Unit join me. We observed a Belted Kingfisher in the dead trees on the edge of the lake, but didn't manage any good photos. It probably didn't help that mist was rising from the lake due to the brisk morning temperature. But I am very proud to report that Spousal Unit snapped these entertaining Flicker photos through the spotting scope. He might just be hooked! The trail cams have also documented April's fickle ways.
I am sure the deer thought we were done with the whole snow thing!
The diversity of wildlife seems to be on the rise - whether migrating or emerging from winter dens, they are on the move and in some cases, vying for territory.
Upper middle and right: BADGER!
Perhaps the best wildlife story is captured in this video. One morning, Spousal Unit and I were on the lower level, deeply engaged in our photo album project, when we heard a succession of "whap, whap, whap" on the glass doors. Since it sounded like bird strikes, I wondered out loud about the chances of several birds striking the windows in such short order. Then the sound came again. WHAT??? Away to the windows we flew like a flash … and what to our wondering eyes should appear, but a crazed Tom Turkey, intent on fighting his reflection in the glass. We just love living in the woods!
Of course, with the passing of Easter, my limited Easter decorations have retreated to storage, leaving our dining room table lacking in adornment. But never fear, creativity and our back forty soon came to the rescue with a simple green and white arrangement. Welcome to the month of May!
Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme
where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain
time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your
blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and
enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an
easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I
stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join
in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.
When we moved into our new house on April 14, 2018, I began taking notes about wildlife we saw around the acreage, including information such as date and location. And, of course, digital photography is a superb record-keeper since it embeds the date the photo is taken. My blog is another source of historic information about the last 12 months.
So, as the anniversary of our move-in date approached, the idea of a retrospective on flora and fauna deeply excited me, and mainly as a reminder about what we can expect as spring continues to unfold. I plan to maintain my journal, and in the years ahead I can envision a running dialogue such as "the bluebirds are late this year" or "flowers will be delayed because this winter slammed us with 5 more feet of snow than normal". Won't that be interesting? For now, let's focus on what we can anticipate in the next 90 days. Maybe in a future post I can tell you if it happened or not!!! APRIL
As the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers, so this month delivers more in the way of fauna than flora. Last year, April meant turkeys passing through our yard, but we have yet to spot any this year. The chipmunks, on the other hand, emerged from hibernation at the end of March and have been scampering around ever since.
Birds that have been absent for the winter have begun to appear. Both the Mountain Bluebird and Sandhill Crane have arrived at Hodge Lake, earlier than last year. I find it particularly interesting that I observe a mating pair of bluebirds in almost the same location as last year. I read some material that suggests these birds bond more to a nest site than to each other.
Sandhill Crane
Last year at this time, the bluebirds and swallows were considering our bird houses. This year, as I mentioned in my last post, we have already noticed the bluebirds examining the nesting quarters, but the swallows are still in absentia.
April also witnessed the return of the Red-Winged Blackbirds at our bird feeders. This year, the first one showed up on March 14, and now my feeders are mobbed by males and females alike on a daily basis. The sunflower seeds have also attracted an occasional house finch, a new visitor. On Friday, I almost fell over myself when a Red-Naped Sapsucker perched for just a few moments on our porch railing. (I knew it was a woodpecker, but I had never seen it before and had to look it up in my Montana field guide. SOOOO exciting!!!) Other new sightings have included two otters. On April 7, in the early evening, Spousal Unit spotted something dark on the remaining ice of the lake, and he examined it through the binoculars while I deployed the spotting scope. Over the next few minutes, we watched one and then two otters slide in and out of the water onto the ice. At one point, they shared a fish that one of them had pulled out onto the ice. How cool is that? On April 10, Spousal Unit (yes, he has sharp eyes) detected movement on the far side of the lake, and we soon determined that it was four wolves. We must have observed their activity for 20 minutes; they ran up and down along the edge of the lake, and at times acted almost like puppies in the way that they gamboled together. Of course, I have reported wolves before, but this is the first occasion that we have seen them in real time.
That same evening, I noticed something white moving around in the tall grass near the lake. On closer examination, it turned out to be a bald eagle eating something on the ground. Being this close to Hodge Lake is certainly a boon for wildlife! MAY
May 2018 was a thrilling month since we witnessed the moose down at the lake, and the beaver pair moved into the neighborhood, building a dam and lodge lickety-split. After those initial sightings of the moose, it disappeared for parts unknown. We continued to see beaver activity in terms of changes to the dam, tree cutting and the occasional tail slap, but over the winter they have been entrenched in the lodge. Hopefully they will be more visible once the ice clears out. The flowers surged last year during this month, and here are some of the beauties we can anticipate emerging first.
Lower left: Glacier Lily; Center: Blue Violet; Lower right: Aspen
Lower left: Oregon grape; Lower Center: Not sure; Lower right: Lodgepole pine
On May 28, my trail cam documented the Columbian Ground Squirrels, but I am fairly certain they were scrambling about earlier. Just as I was wondering when they would leave hibernation, I spotted one yesterday on the slope just below the kitchen window. He was frantically eating the short grass; we shouldn't be surprised since he has been underground since mid-August!
May 29 brought a coyote loping through our leach field around 9.30 pm. At the time, it was a novelty that had me jumping up and down. Twelve months on, I have become accustomed to a sighting (at a distance) while I am running, and I have certainly captured plenty of them on my trail cam. Don't get me wrong, I am still mesmerized, but they are not as rare as I first imagined. At the end of the month, we planted our flower pots. While this does not relate directly to my chronicles of native flora and fauna, I can use the reference as a safety net - generally, I don't have to worry about these plants suffering a snow storm or ravaging frost if I wait for the final days of May to set them out.
JUNE
Middle left: Narrowleaf Collomia
Middle right: Rose
Lower left: Starry Wild Lily of the Valley
Reproduction systems kick into high gear in this month. Fawns begin to appear, and as many as six elk with a baby in tow wandered the edges of Hodge Lake. A painted turtle crawled up the logging road and seemed to be digging a hole for eggs. This occurred twice that I witnessed. Each time, I placed rocks on either side of the area to enable monitoring (incubation is 72 days). Nothing came of it as far as I could tell. Not to be outdone, the swallows were nesting in both bird boxes. (But by mid-June, the gnawing squirrels had kicked them to the curb.) I also glimpsed the occasional Western Tanager high in the pine treetops, and male and female crossbills chose our rock steps below the kitchen as a favorite hang-out. I still have not determined what drew them to that spot - something in the soil? Microscopic bugs that I could not see?
Of course, not all wildlife is welcome. This month also brought the carpenter ant infestation, which we were able to fend off quickly. That was a relief, and now I am constantly vigilant for bugs attempting to make a warm nest out of our house. Abundant wildflowers danced in the meadows and nodded under the shrubs.
Upper left: Cinquefoil; Upper Middle: Blue Violet;
Upper Right: Butter and Eggs
Lower left: reflection in lake; Lower right: Shooting Star
I would be hard-pressed to choose the highlights from June, but the black bear on the logging road (captured by trail cam) and the badgers I observed would land at the top of the list.
JULY
Early July brought much of the same with an occasional surprise, such as the afternoon I glimpsed a small black bear on our driveway as I returned home from a run. Or the weasel that caught my eye from the window of our master bathroom. As I sit here now, looking at barren tree branches and muddy ground, my mind struggles to grasp the life that is waiting just below every surface. I am dreaming about the wild grass and wildflowers that we sowed in the fall, immediately before the snow took over. Will it sprout? What kind of wildflowers will we see? Can we defend the new growth from the deer and the bunnies? Of course I am also keen to observe our formal landscaping. Does it come back? How much self-seeding occurred? Will our apple trees bloom and cross-pollinate? And then we have the pines and aspens we transplanted at the end of the summer. Did they survive the process? When can we expect the aspens to leaf out? So much anticipation. All I have to do is wait.
Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme
where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain
time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your
blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and
enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an
easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I
stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join
in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.
