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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Small Spring Wonders

We have had some really marvelous warm spring weather in the last week or two. Temperatures into the 70’s and light to steady breezes quickly melted the snow and out of the wet ground sprouted delightful tiny wildflowers. Lots of insects hatched attracting lots of birds and the honey bees have been busy on the willow catkins, gathering pollen for their hives. For nearly a week I’d go outside a couple times a day and search for my former nemesis wildflower – steershead or Dicentra uniflora – and I was delighted to find it. As the snow line descended down into our draw, I found more and more of tiny plants with flowers the size of a dime. How could they have been here all these years and I never saw them til last year. Were they tucked under the bitterbrush that burned in 2014? Or did the fire stimulate seeds that may have laid dormant?

Steershead leaves emerge as soon as the snow melts
Waterleaf leaves
Bright green moss
Larkspur leaves
Bitterroot leaves
The bitterroot leaves were waiting patiently under the snow
Delightful tiny leaves peaking out from under a rock
Lomatium geyerii, our first wildflower to bloom
Busy honeybee taking a break
Inside the house, the clivia is blooming. My aunt gave me this plant many years ago and now it’s been three years since she died. Where does the time go?
The steershead flower bud
A rivulet running down our driveway from the melting snow
Hmmmm, I should know this one.
And then the yellow bells began popping out all over
The bluebells are now blooming too
And the steershead is full formed!
Lupine
A frozen vernal pond
Another Lomatium maybe gormaii or salt and pepper?
And soon there will be balsamroot on our hill!
Lots of steershead!
Prairie stars in Moses Coulee
Buttercups in Northrup Canyon

Beach Sunset

One of my favorite things – sunset on the beach. A comfy chair on the deck, a glass of wine and dogs by my side. It doesn’t get much better than that.

This group of women gets together here every spring.
It’s a nice place to stay. Someday a tsunami or climate change will take it away so we enjoy it while we can.
Good light for Luna

Beach Scenes

The light at the beach is so inviting for photography. Maybe it’s just that it is so different from the mountain light where I live. It’s a different color and certainly less contrasty even when the sun is shining. Maybe from the moisture in the air? I return from beaches with lots of photos of just the beach, the waves, the sky – big empty canvases with little detail it seems. But there is so much to see if you look closely. Flotsam and jetsam from the sea and beyond. Birds. Anglers. Algae or seaweed.

A small flock of shorebirds
That brown color is an algae that the clams and fish like to eat. It also makes dogs very dirty.
I could look at waves all day long.
Flotsam
Jetsam.
I was much relieved to discover that there was not a body attached to this survival suit and hope it simply fell overboard by itself.
The day I arrived, this magenta/purple algae lay in long sheets at the high tide line. It was very stinky and slippery. Each day it dried a little more and at this point it resembled old tar paper, dried out and blowing in the wind. The dogs were fascinated by it.
Razor clam shell
Dungeness crab shell. One time we thought we were digging a clam but it turned out that a crab had buried itself in the sand. It nearly pinched Ken’s fingers before he re-buried it.

Beach Dogs

Razor clam season opened up on our favorite Washington coast beach and we were able to get away for a long weekend for some much-needed fun times at the beach. We welcomed the vernal equinox (and my birthday) near Pacific Beach with fried clams and chocolate cake before going out to dig more clams. Ken did some surf fishing also. It was a fun weekend and a great getaway from the long mud season we are experiencing here at home.

As you might imagine, the dogs were thrilled with the idea. We even took along an extra dog, our old buddy Wyatt Ann. She’s not Sky’s favorite dog pal but Luna likes her. Sky seems to be recovered from her strained bicep tendon that has bothered her since December. We still do not throw sticks and balls for her since she puts all of her canine energy into retrieving. She was happy to just run on the beach, bring things to us and have the other dogs try to catch her.

Wyatt Ann will never catch Sky
Sometimes Luna can catch Sky
Sky wants to help Ken with his surf fishing
Wyatt was not as interested in the surf fishing.
Oh look – he got one!
Fast dogs
Would it be too much to ask them to all look at me at the same time?
Hey – look over there!
Looks a little windy Luna.

Mud Season

Almost Spring. Mud Season. That time when the snow is no longer fresh and fun and where the ground is exposed, it is muddy. Some days it seems like the melt is coming quickly and then it snows again. We received six inches of heavy wet snow a couple days ago. The new stuff is mostly gone but there is still at least a foot of snow in the untrammeled areas and way more where it’s been piled up over the winter. New snow delays the onset of Spring. Some mornings the snow is frozen and easy to walk across. Not today. According to the calendar, spring arrives next weekend.

Receding snow reveals things left behind last fall – the extra dog water dish, last year’s flowers, detritus from the fire. It also reveals new growth and signs of Spring. Just try to keep your feet dry.

Puddle
Rivulet
Stream
Splash
Reflection
Mud on my car
willow
willow
yellow willow
sleigh bell
Dog water dish with detritus
Partially burned fence
spark plugs
litter
honey bee
feathers
Poppy
Daffodils
Daffodils
Thyme
Johnny-jump-up
Johnny-jump-up
yarrow
wolf lichen
wolf lichen
last year’s sunflower
last year’s sunflower
hop
last year’s wildflowers
last year’s grasses
last year’s grasses
stones
bitterbrush
dead trees