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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Scenes from a Small Town Parade

The 4th of July in Twisp is always a fun day. First, there is the parade and immediately following that, there is the Arts Fest in the park sponsored by Methow Arts. Both are fun, family friendly events. The parade featured horses, search and rescue folks, firefighters, librarians, fire trucks, political candidates, candy and lots more.

Photos of Arts Fest can be seen here.

Color guard on horseback
Rodeo queen
I don’t want to be around when this unit arrives.
Local politics
Lots of red white and blue
Smokejumper
More smokejumpers!
The Winthrop Library
Promoting the library
The regional library
The bookmobile!
Ice rink
Smokey the Bear
US Forest Service firefighters
Twisp mayor, in the red shirt and the town council
Did you say the mayor was in that truck?
Kids waiting for candy to be tossed
Young violinists on a flatbed trailer
Walking the pony
Volunteer firefighter
One of the most popular parade entries every year

Walking in the Mountains

Yesterday summer arrived! It took its own sweet time this year. Temperatures in the valley rose above 90 but up high, they were in the 70’s – perfect hiking weather.

The girls and I made the long drive up to and beyond Harts Pass to walk up to the lookout at Slate Peak. From there we had a 360 degree view of the North Cascades! Seeing the peaks and basins, I could choose where we were going to go hiking and I chose my favorite – the stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail that goes towards Grasshopper Pass. Since we’d already been enjoying the day, it was a bit of a late start on the hike and we only made it just past Tatie Peak. Still, a wonderful outing full of grand vistas and charming wildflowers and a few animals too.

Mountain goats frequent a salt or mineral lick on the way to Harts Pass.
The goats are not very attractive this time of year.
Silky phacelia
Mount Baker in the distance
Old snow
Anemone occidentalis
Snow in July! What could be better?
Shooting stars
Lomatium
Phlox
Yellow violet. I’m not sure which one.
Ballhead waterleaf. This bloomed at home months ago.
Glacier lily
Heather – white and magenta
Castilleja sp
A very alert ground squirrel
Lewisia columbiana
Saxifrage
Oh, look who found a stick.

More Images From Home

Lots of birds have successfully nested on our hillside this year – American Robins, Say’s Phoebes, Western and Mountain Bluebirds, House Wrens, Tree and Violet-green Swallows, Bullock’s Orioles and more. The biggest highlight has been our Nice Nests kestrel box hosting its first successful nest of American Kestrels. Four birds were raised and got out of the box and were standing around on branches up until a few days ago. That is the branchling stage. Now they are out doing flying and hunting lessons. I hope they stay here and work on our rodent population. And I hope they return next year. We have another kestrel box that hasn’t been used yet!

The wild currants are ripe
Serviceberries
Kestrel nest box
All four baby kestrels
Western Bluebird with a Bullock’s Oriole flying by
Western Bluebird
Calliope Hummingbird
Bullock’s Oriole
Two baby kestrels take in the last light of the day
Western Meadowlark

New Places

The girls and I, along with Red Molly went out on a new road the other day. It’s always fun to explore new places. It was good timing because the wildflowers were still quite nice. Of course, the mosquitoes were still quite numerous and hungry. A person just can’t stand still for long.

No Place Like Home

After our beach trip, we had to go to Virginia for the sad occasion of my father-in-law’s funeral. It was not an unexpected death but saying those final goodbyes is always difficult.

So with that, we were gone most of the month of June. As you might imagine we came home to lots of things that needed to be done and our dogs, who were well cared for in our absence. Molly was here for a long weekend while her family went to a wedding.

After suburban northern Virginia, it was incredible to be walking on our own hill with mostly peace and quiet.

Even the weedy flowers look good.
aster
mariposa lily
paintbrush
fleabane
fireweed
There have been some terrible winds recently and we lost numerous snags including this one – the second biggest on our hill. Luckily it landed right in the draw and not on our driveway or the road.