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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Phoenix Festival – Rising From the Ashes

We’re Not Burning Man was the theme of Saturday’s Phoenix Festival at TwispWorks. After this summer in the Methow Valley, folks came together from TwispWorks, Methow Arts, KTRT, The Confluence Gallery and others to create a reason to celebrate; to put this summer of fire behind us. It was a grand success! The music, the visual arts, the fun all put smiles on people’s faces. Spontaneous hugs erupted all over the place. We were able to enjoy fire – campfires, fire juggling, and later on (I missed these) fire dancing and a trumpet of fire!

There was music on two different stages from the start at 2 in the afternoon til way after 10 at night. All kinds of music. There were art demonstrations. There was interactive art. There were art vendors. Artist studios were open. Kids played with balls. Dogs were seen enjoying the scene.

Firefighters, the ambulance crews, law officers and a lookout were honored for their work during the emergencies.

People shared deeply personal art in the Share building. Some pieces were created for the show including paintings, collage, photos and poetry. Some were artifacts from the fires. It was all deeply touching.

Here are a few (too many) images from the event.

 

Olive is a service dog
The annual calendar from Door #3
Robin of Door #3
Rex
Eqpd has a ‘fix your gear’ night once a month. They will do simple repairs for free!
Daughter and mother
Basil
Lynnette and Roger
Even Superheroes need friends
Inside the Share room
Inside the Share room
My encaustic transfers inside the Share room. Two of them sold!
Inside the Share room
Splat!
Good thing there was a fire fighter around, just in case.
Patrick’s nest boxes – Nice Nests!
Patrick talks about his nest boxes
Sara Ashford’s Culler Studio
Carolee describes the natural dyes she uses on wool and hemp yarns
Twisted Knitters
Donna K, founder of the Methow Gallery
Drive in drugs?
That deer in the headlight look we all know so well around here.
Part of a raku pottery demonstration
Spontaneous hug
Multi tasking
Heeler/lab cross puppy
Local yoga teacher serves in the beer garden
Dusty 45’s
Spontaneous hug
Music hosts Don Ashford from KTRT and Superhero Danbert Nobacon
Jack, a hound/border collie cross
The popular free tour of TwispWorks
Short films in the Spartan Art Project
Rose and her daughter Magnolia return to the Methow. We miss you Rose.

Mostly a Dog and Her Stick

I walked my dogs with two friends and their dog, Bailey this morning at Big Valley. It was a rainy, kind of gray morning but not too cold. The dogs didn’t seem to mind and the rest of us were dressed appropriately for the weather. Bailey is a small dog and her thick coat sheds water. She never really got wet. Sky has taken over as star of the show and she is in just about all of the photos. Luna seems to steer away from the camera and lets Sky have her fifteen minutes of fame. We saw a pair of American Dippers in the river. Belted Kingfishers chattered back and forth and we saw a Bald Eagle fly overhead.

Bailey likes to have her picture made
American Dipper
Mushrooms growing out of a dead tree
Dignified?
Not so dignified
Shake
Throw the stick, Camille!
Ok, Kim, you throw the stick!
Uh oh, looks like it’s my turn to throw the stick
Throw it now. I’m not kidding.
I’m not the only person who photographs her dog.
Drips off of a gate

Fall Hike

I have to admit I wanted summer to come to an end as soon as possible but now that fall is here I am sorry I missed out on so much hiking this year. The summer was sort of a lost season. I look back at posts from June and early July and it seems like eons ago.

Now life is better and the weather is perfect for hiking. A person does need to remember to take her extra layers and if it’s sunny she will be putting them on and taking them off regularly.

The girls/dogs and I hiked to Tiffany Mountain earlier this week. It started out gloriously sunny with bluebird skies so as I climbed through the burned trees I soon had to shed my jacket. In the open I was able to see migrating raptors including a Golden Eagle! Mountain Bluebirds and Clark’s Nutcrackers entertained me along the trail. As we made the final push to the top, the wind picked up and gray clouds rolled in. It tried to rain or snow or something wet and cold. We hunkered against a rock and I tried to make some selfies with dogs and quickly had lunch before making the descent. It warmed up again as we neared the trailhead but never got as nice as when we started. I found a few lingering small flowers and some slow butterflies.

After the hike we stopped at Boulder Creek. Along the way we saw an aspen with unusual coloring. Instead of its leaves turning yellow, they were a reddish-orange. I have seen this occasionally in the past but it is pretty uncommon.

I always wonder when these burned trees will fall and hope it’s not when I’m on the trail
The round top of Tiffany Mountain
A natural watering hole
American Pipit
The Pasayten Wilderness in the distance
A distant smoke from a fire on the Conconully side
Tiffany Lake
Alpine larch trees with fall colors
Clark’s Nutcracker
Growing lichen
Fireweed seeds. We hope some will grow on our place.
An unusual aspen showing reddish orange fall foliage
Boulder Creek

 

Pollinators in the Garden

In a normal year I’d have lots of blog posts from my garden. Needless to say, this hasn’t been a normal year and I have rarely been out to the garden except to do maintenance or harvest. Last week I took a little time to really enjoy it. It was a warm day and lots of pollinators were active in the sunflowers and catnip. I imagine they are building stores for the fast approaching winter months. I love seeing them all covered in pollen. The bees in the catnip moved quickly from flower to flower so they were much harder to photograph. In the sunflowers, they move slowly, savoring the abundance of the blossoms. Most of these insects are honey bees but there are some natives as well as a moth. Do let me know if you can identify them since I really don’t know insects very well.

Random Images

This is a selection of random images from our hill over the last couple of weeks.

These honeybees set up housekeeping in the neighboring cabin a year ago
I could see these three guys crossing the river from our porch
new growth
This enormous volunteer sunflower needs a post all its own
Harvesting the honey. There was more than seven gallons! This was a highlight of our summer.
There have been lots of looky loos but only one was a Great Blue Heron
80 bushes and trees to start the restoration of our landscape
Eric and his co-worker from Methow Natives worked hard to get everything planted, mulched and caged.
Sky helped. A lot.
new growth
new growth