My Everyday Photos

Night Skies of the Methow

June 28, 2015 – 4:07 pm
Posted in night
Tagged darkness, Methow Valley, night sky, Saturn, stars, Venus
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Last week I made a few attempts to stay up late or set an alarm in hopes of seeing the aurora borealis but my timing was all off. I never did see the colors and pillars of light that others were seeing. Big sigh. I did see some lovely night skies though. We are lucky to be able to see lots of stars since we don’t have a terrible amount of light pollution. People here value that particular quality of life in the Methow and work hard to encourage others to cut down on night lighting or shroud their lights in such a way that the ground is lit but the light is not spread far and wide ruining others’ night time experiences. For more information on this issue, see the International Dark Sky Association website.

This is a good time to see Venus and Jupiter in the early evening sky. From our vantage point they will come close to converging in a few days.

Venus and Jupiter appear to be getting closer to each evening.

A Few Images of the Yard and Garden

Here are a some images I made a few days ago. With the hot weather and sprinklers going all the time, hings have probably changed since then.

Red cabbage

Volunteer sunflower

Dill

Walking onions

Lavender

More of the lavender

Tree Swallows nest in this gourd

The honeybees and native bumblebees like this flowering catnip

One day lily

Many day lilies

Green tomato

Hope vine

Another hop vine

Wildflowers and Weeds

It’s been kind of a difficult last month or so with the loss of my mother-in-law and other more minor challenges and I haven’t found myself doing much photography for fun. And I’m also into the start of a busy wedding photography season so I seldom even pick up a camera for fun unless it’s the cell phone, always in my pocket. You can see what I’ve been doing with that right here.

Yesterday, despite a sore back, I made myself take the big DSLR on a walk around our hill and find something, anything to photograph. There are still some wildflowers around and the weeds are abundant. While we have made a good dent in the knapweed/barnaby and the mullein, other undesirable species are flourishing. Maybe next year we can take on some new ones.

One of those Darned Yellow Composites that puzzle me so often.

Sweet little daisy

Douglas sunflower

Sky stops to smell a late balsamroot

One of the many summer flowering buckwheats

Phacelia sp. Very common on the burned landscape

aster?

And the mariposa lily, Calochortus macrocarpus

A favorite for sure.

Seed pods from the other Calachortus on our hill – the cat’s ear lily

Arabis

yarrow

In some places the native bunch grasses are coming quite strong. This hillside used to be covered with bitterbrush

And in other places the ground is covered in tall pasture grass. Nothing else competes with this rhizomatus grass.

A large patch of tumble mustard.

Tumble mustard is two to three feet across and tall.

Salsify seed head

Another mustard

Dalmation toadflax growing on neighbors’ property

And yet another mustard.

Bitterbrush seedlings

This tree which seemed to be dead has some new growth on top. But is it enough to sustain the whole tree?

The tallest tree here has new growth on top.

Bunch grass seedlings that were seeded last fall.

A surprising sunflower seedling. It must have been planted by a bird.

Crested wheatgrass lines our driveway.

Methow Valley Spring

May 17, 2015 – 10:39 am
Posted in spring
Tagged balsamroot, hummingbirds, Pearrygin Lake, spring, wildflowers
Comments (2)

The wildflowers have been been stunning these last few weeks. They started early and as expected, they are fading early too. Maybe the morning’s rainfall will bring on a new flush of color. Hummingbirds and swallows continue to be a big presence at our house. I thought the hummers would not settle in after last year’s fire but they seem to be just about as numerous and as ravenous for the juice I put in the feeders each day. I’m afraid I’ve created a bunch of tiny sugar addicts. There are Rufous, Calliope and now Black-chinned Hummingbirds here. Occasionally, especially in the fall, we see Anna’s Hummingbirds. Here are a few images from the past couple of weeks.

From the hill above our house, above the fireline

Balsamroot so deep, you can only see puppy dog tails!

Tent caterpillars on bitterbrush

Lupine

Death camas

Geum triflorum, prairie smoke or old man’s whiskers. It survived the fire.

Violet-green Swallow

Hummingbirds can be very territorial

Calliope Hummingbird male

Blue, a type of butterfly

More blues

Painted lady

Hillsides carpeted in balsamroot above Pearrygin Lake

Mountains over Pearrygin Lake with serviceberry in the foreground

On the Edge of the Salish Sea

Last weekend Sky and I went to an agility trial at Mount Vernon, just across the Cascades from here. We stayed in the little camper at the venue and had a terrific time. Sky was impressive with her drive and enthusiasm for the courses and she even managed to get one qualifying run out of thirteen chances! We need to spend more time training but this is a process and it’s great fun for both of us.

In addition to the trial we got to spend time with an old friend and her dogs. Theresa took us to a couple of places for walks in the evening. We liked getting away from the venue and enjoyed some leash-free time. These images are from a low tide walk near the mouth of the Skagit River. While the dogs played I got to enjoy looking at some interesting plants and I watched for birds too. It was a nice break.