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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Black Dogs in the Snow

What kind of photo situation is the most difficult? I am always challenged with photographing my black dogs and today to make it worse, it was snowing this morning, the light was flat and there was more than half a foot of new snow. But how much fun is this? These dogs like snow and they know how to have fun. It looks like they are fighting and trying to hurt each at times but they never do. Well, when Sky was younger and had her puppy teeth, she did make Luna’s ears bleed more than once. Speaking of Sky, she is now over six months old and weighs more than 50 pounds! How big will she get? Luna is 65 pounds and she has lots of long curly hair. She needs a haircut soon. I know, this is a lot of images of black dogs in the snow but we like dogs.

Here comes Sky
Yes, that is my stick, why do you ask?
Luna’s white beard
Oh look, the neighbors are going to church.
Let the games begin
Break
Luna pushes Sky into a snowbank
Sky explodes out of the snowbank
Shake
Even with all that shaking Luna is still covered with snow
Sky nearly flies down the hill
Why yes, I do have another stick.

Summer Memories on a Winter Day

These images are from last Thursday, the same day I photographed the bees. It was a very warm February day with the temperature approaching fifty degrees. Today it is near freezing and snow has been falling for hours. In the last week or so we’ve had nearly two feet of new snow but combined with warm afternoons, it is compressed and heavy with ice in the places exposed by the snow plow and shovels and in the trails that are heavily trod upon.

aspen leaf
yarrow
bubbles
bubbles in a partially ice covered puddled
bubbles
shadow
ice where the truck gets parked
ice at the bottom of the stairs
flax seeds
grass seeds
maple seeds
maple seeds
hop in the snow
hops on the vine
sunflower
sunflower stem
upward sunflower
downward sunflower
splash

Cahalen & Eli in Twisp

When I first thought about where I’d like to live, the Methow Valley was high on my list for two things – the terrific outdoor recreation possibilities (hiking, skiing, etc) and the arts. This area has a large number of creative people and it also supports the arts pretty remarkably for such a rural location. Last night we had the good fortune to experience a wonderful musical act – Cahalen and Eli in the Spartan Art Project which is currently located at TwispWorks. How can I begin to describe all of this? Let’s see – TwispWorks is housed in a former US Forest Service complex that was surplused by the federal government and put out for auction. A group of civic minded folks decided it could be a great incubator to support arts and small businesses in our valley and they raised enough money ($1 million dollars!) to buy it and then they had to start refurbishing the old buildings. Now it is home to art studios, classrooms, a natural history center, teen center and more! The Spartan Art Project is a 1951 travel trailer transformed into a gallery space supporting artists both local and from far away. It is the brainchild of three local artists. Last night Donna Keyser’s studio on the TwispWorks campus hosted a reception for the musicians and the audience.

Cahalen and Eli are two fine acoustic musicians based in Seattle. In the last week they have been featured on NPR and Folk Alley and probably other media outlets as well. They write many of their own songs and play mandolins, banjo and guitar and their harmonies are wonderful We were lucky to have such a talented duo in our tiny town of Twisp. One of the ways that the Spartan Art Project supports artists is with their ‘Intimate Performances’. This is the third one. As you might imagine, an old travel trailer does not seat too many people. However, the acoustics are wonderful and the chance to see these men performing up close was particularly entertaining. We reserved two seats so we could be up close and personal with the show.

Matt Armbrust, one of the three ‘spartners’ in this project introduces the musicians
After the performance, visiting with the musicians as snow falls.

Bee Days

Just last week the temperature got as low as nine below zero, Fahrenheit, at my house. Today and yesterday it was pushing fifty above zero! The weather also brought in some new snow that was greatly appreciated. The warmth brought some stirring to Ken’s bee hives encouraging the honey bees to fly and relieve themselves and do some serious house cleaning. Here are a few of the images I made today. Those with blue backgrounds are on the metal surface that covers the tops of the hives. The bluebird sky makes a nice reflection, don’t you think? Some bees were walking around on the snow.

Cache and Cougar

Yesterday MA and the dogs and I had a breathtaking walk in the hills above the Twisp River. Breathtaking in more ways than one. We are in the midst of one of those cold snaps where the early morning temperatures are below zero; where the dogs don’t waste much time when they are sent out to do their business; where it takes some time to get dressed just to go outside and you wonder how the dogs do it without any extra clothes. But they go out happily and wish I’d take them on more walks. The cold wasn’t the only breathtaking topic. So were the views. Cold weather is often accompanied with blue, blue skies and snow-covered mountains. A surprise, not so much breathtaking but a surprise none the less, was finding a geocache on top of a hill. To me it seemed altogether too obvious even without the help of a gps and coordinates. Maybe it would have been harder if we’d been searching for it. We opened it and left a note and a dog cookie. We had breathtaking views of birds – a Kestrel kiting (hovering) in search of prey: Common Ravens soaring and laughing: three Red-tailed Hawks soaring and falling together – maybe a sign of choosing their territories. Breathtaking was seeing a cougar loping across the hill below us! Luna had erupted into her serious bark and Frida had her hackles up. Luckily Sky was behind us and didn’t rush to see what all the fuss was about. She knows that bark means danger ahead. MA and I watched for a moment before the cougar came into our field of view maybe fifty meters away. Maybe less. I expect that when Luna first saw it, the animal was much closer than that. We regrouped and made a swift retreat, back the way we came from, stopping to leave another note in the geocache.

Looking up the Twisp River
The Sawtooth Mountains in the swirling mists
A Kestrel ‘kiting’ in search of prey.
We have walked in those hills too.
Frida looks down at Twisp. This is just before we saw the cougar
Twisp
Balky Hill rock formations. That’s where the rattlesnakes live in the winter
We named this Cougar Cache Hill