My Everyday Photos

The Garden Last Week

July 23, 2013 – 1:17 pm
Posted in garden, Uncategorized
Tagged cabbage, echinacea, flowers, garden photography, hollyhocks, honey bees, Leek flowers, sunflowers, vegetables
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Last week, before the temperatures rose to the nineties, the garden was vibrant and full of color. This week, it seems tired and droopy, no matter how often we water. Fortunately I made some images last week and captured it at its prettiest, so far, this year. It was full of pollinators – mostly Ken’s honeybees.

Cabbage with leeks

Raspberries

Bean trellis

Bean vines

Robin’s nest over the garden. It’s her second brood this year. She complains whenever we go in the garden.

Echincea

Echinacea

Echinacea with bee

Green-eyed Susan

Daylilly

Lavender

Salvia

Poppy pod

Hollyhock

hollyhock with bee

Raspberries – I can’t keep up with picking them

Yellow yarrow

Radish flower

Volunteer pumpkin/squash flower

Volunteer squash/pumpkin

Dill

Sunflower

Leek flower with honey bee

Sunflower – all of this year’s sunflowers are volunteers

Sunflower

Leek flower with honey bee

Leek with honey bee

Leek flower with honey bee

Leek with honey bee

Volunteer poppy – late bloomer

Volunteer poppy near the compost pile

Volunteer pumpkin/squash

Echinacea with bee

Sweet pea

Leek flower with bee

Leek flower with honey bees

This tomato will be striped, orange and yellow, when ripe

And one more raspberry

Blue Lake Views

July 18, 2013 – 7:28 am
Posted in hike, Uncategorized
Tagged Blue Lake, hike, North Cascades photography
Comments (3)

The trail to Blue Lake is easy to get to and the short distance – 2.2 miles – makes it a popular destination. From my house, it’s less than an hour to the trailhead, all on paved highway. No bumpety bump roads to contend with. Yesterday’s weather forecast showed thunder and lightning all morning and into the afternoon but, like as often happens, the forecast was wrong and the storm passed by ten am. I met Juliet in town and we were off to relish a few moments in the mountains together before we both get busy going in opposite directions.

The lake is just over that ridge

Blue Lake lives up to its name

White heather flowers

Considering a swim

We can’t get enough of this view

Whistler Meadows

This is where the mosquitoes come from

Backside of the iconic Liberty Bell formation

Heather

How old was that tree when it died? What kind was it? How long ago since it died?

Backing up to get the shot

The outlet

An old cabin. What an amazing place to spend the short summer.

Two boys and their dad watch trout in the small outlet stream

This image does not do justice to these delicate flowers

Lupine

White rhododendron, a native wildflower, very unlike the rhodies seen in NW gardens

Hemlock with its telltale tipping over top

The outlet stream

On the trail

A lousewort

Polemonium, Jacob’s Ladder

A little pond near the trailhead

Elephanthead, another lousewort

Good Tools

July 16, 2013 – 4:08 pm
Posted in tools
Tagged framed photos, mat cutter, work table
Comments (1)

Good tools are a joy to work with and can make mundane tasks easier and quicker; allowing more time for fun and creativity. For me, cutting mats is a mundane and sometimes frustrating task. I’m not very good at straight lines and right angles. My old Logan mat cutter has been useful and it was a good thing for me to start my mat cutting experience but it wasn’t always accurate and sometimes it didn’t hold the boards and well, I didn’t always like it. When I saw on our local electronic bulletin board that the frame shop was selling a big work table and a C&H professional mat cutter at a great price, I had to go see it. I think the table excited me as much as anything. Just the idea of having that much space for projects was enticing. Not only could I use it for matting and framing, it would be great for book making. I have done a few handmade books in the past and would like to do more.

The problem with this whole idea was how to get it out of the shop, to my house, and into the basement workroom that I use. Ken was reluctant but he could see that I really wanted it and his brother was coming in a few days and Carl is good at figuring out the best way to do things like this.

The previous work space. Some plants have to go. Anyone want an angel-wing begonia?

This is a great table. Ken was able to use it in its smaller configuration for his computer work station. I was prepared to try to sell it and relieved that we had a place for it.

Ahhhhh, empty space.

Here is the table at the frame shop. I am not using the paper holder on the right, in case anyone needs one.

And here at home, making the first cut – a board for Carl to use a template for drilling holes for our new deck railing (another post on that coming up soon)!

And here I am framing photos for the next show at the Winthrop Gallery!

Many thanks to Carl and Ken for doing the heavy lifting and assembly. And thanks to Tom from the frame shop for showing me how to use the new mat cutter. It’s a good tool.

Back to the Mountains

July 14, 2013 – 9:35 pm
Posted in hike
Tagged dogs, hike, Pacific Crest Trail, photography, wildflowers
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Life has kept me busy here at home with lots of work in June followed by visitors for ten days. While I am grateful for lots of work and happy to have our visitors from far away, I missed getting out in the mountains in the early summer when the snow first began to retreat leaving wildflowers in its wake. Yesterday I got up to Harts Pass and hiked on part of the Pacific Crest Trail and enjoyed vast views and flowers and a few remaining snow patches. Luna and I were joined by her pal Wyatt Ann, my friend Lindsey and her three dogs – Moose, Mavi and Little Bear. We were a pack. The weather was perfect – not too hot and we had a lovely day in the mountains again.

Fabulous rocks with wonderful lichen patterns

Slate Peak lookout in the distance

Buttercups

I think this is a Veronica or Speedwell

A succulent sedum

Polemonium sp?

Such a beautiful shade of blue

One of the many penstemons

Lewisia Columbiana

Great patches of the Lewisia

Contrasted with burned trees on the far hillside

Castilleja or paintbrush

The creeks in this valley are already drying up.

Little Bear is both playful and independent

Wyatt Ann is a deep thinker

Cairns don’t always point out the way

Mavi is happy for the snow to cool his belly

Wyatt Ann is wondering where do we go next?

Phlox

Dead trees tell stories

Rocks are maps

What stories do you see?

Anemone

A waterleaf

Crossing the big talus slope where the pikas and hoary marmots live. Little Bear is leading the way. Behind Lindsey are Mavi, Luna, Moose and Wyatt Ann who has come back to check on me. Normally Moose and I lagged far behind.

An old log with character

Methow Valley Pridefest

Methow Valley Pridefest celebrated LGBT Pride Month in Winthrop yesterday with a parade and fun afternoon in the park. The parade went through downtown, across the Chewuch River and ended up in Mac Lloyd Park next to the Barn on highway 20. Methow Valley Pride is creating a place where the LGBT community and allies come together to honor the history of the movement and celebrate diversity! With the recent Supreme Court ruling, this was an especially celebratory day! It was a colorful day with smiles and laughter all around.