spring | My Everyday Photos

Category Archives: spring

Spring Changes

April 10, 2017 – 1:44 pm
Posted in spring
Tagged bluebells, dogs, farmers market, flicker, garlic, sapucker, spring snow, sunrise, vernal pond, wildflowers
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Everyday there is something to observe. With the melting snow, we can see where the dogs relieved themselves all winter. New wildflowers pop up overnight. Birds return from their winter haunts and declare their territories with loud calls and repeated banging. It rains. The mud returns. The sun shines. We go out and work furiously. And then it snowed.

Sunrise

Red-naped Sapsucker banging its beak on the wire

Northern Flickers discussing housing opportunities

Bluebells not yet opened

Vernal pond

I don’t know her

Fog follows rainy days

In Twisp, the farmers market opened

Garlic poking out of its mulch

Honeybees gather nectar and pollen from the tiny wildflowers

Promises of yellow balsamroot soon to come

Spring beauties

The steershead flowers are fading

Female Dusky Grouse thinks she is hidden

Female Dusky Grouse in flight

Finches at the feeder this snowy morning

Two mule deer

Yellow bells in the snow

Out Like a Lamb

March 31, 2017 – 6:47 am
Posted in spring
Tagged birds, nature photography, nest, white tailed deer, wildflowers
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March has brought us all sort of winter-like weather but I think that spring is finally settling in. Most of the snow is melted. For the first time in four months, there are deer walking around on our hill. It was a hard winter to be a deer in the valley. Wild Turkeys seem to be wandering around here too. Birds are selecting nest boxes and building nests. Tiny wildflowers are growing and blooming.

Good morning

Still looks like winter

Swallows

Vernal pond

Wild Turkey tracks

White-tailed deer

Robin’s nest on my Hok skis

Steershead foliage

Spring beauty

Yellow bells

Ash tree

Spring

Signs of Spring

Finally, the snow is retreating, leaving enough bare ground that a person can safely walk without getting her feet wet. Muddy, but not wet. Little patches of green grass are everywhere (except in our yard which is a whole other topic best left alone). Tiny forbs are sending out small shoots and I was even able to find one tiny flower. Sky found her own treasure.

Bitterroot leaves

Those might be steershead leaves

Sprouts against a sun-warmed rock

Waterleaf

Tiny lomatium flower

Balsamroot

octopus wood

I think these are currants

I found it. You throw it.

Small Views

May 9, 2016 – 9:47 am
Posted in spring
Tagged bitterroot, groundsel, Methow Valley, phacelia, western bluebird, wildflowers
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We live in this house because it has an incredible view from the river valley to the high peaks of the Pasayten Wilderness. Besides that, there is no practical reason to live here.

Additionally, their are pretty good small views – wildflowers and birds too. This year, the flowers are all coming fast and furious – early with bountiful foliage and intense colors. Without some late spring rains, in a month from now we will be facing brown, crinkly hillsides. So we enjoy the colors and scents now.

Western Bluebirds are using this nest box

Every year I need to remember the name of this flower.

Cat’s ear lillies. Funny name for a beautiful flower

Groundsel

Groundsel is about the same color as balsamroot and has replaced it on our hillside, keeping the yellow theme for a little while longer

Larkspur adds a bit of blue

I think this is an Erigeron sp. but I could not tell you which one

Bitterroot. A perennial favorite. Lewisia rediviva

This Phacelia is much reduced compared to last year when it grew vigorously and everywhere.

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.