Our part-time neighbors have a beautiful pair of golden retrievers. Yesterday, after a long weekend of fun with their family and friends they come up to visit while Ken worked with his bees. The dogs are beautiful and real sweethearts. Sadie is the mom and Oggie (the doggie) is her pup. I could not resist making a few images of them.
Someone else coined the term ‘cardio Wednesdays’ and I’ve taken it to heart. Three weeks in a row Luna and I have joined other dogs and women for a brisk uphill hike to someplace with a great view and wonderful wildflowers. This week we went down-valley to hike with Lindsey and her three canine companions in a canyon pretty much in her backyard. We walked an abandoned road up, up, up til we came to a tremendous viewpoint of the snow-covered Sawtooth Mountains underlined with banks of yellow balsamroot sunflowers. Then we followed the ridge to a flat spot, the site of an old hunters’ camp, where we rested before heading down the other side of the ridge. It was a great morning hike.
Ponderosa pines have a wonderful scent when the sun hits the bark
A puffball emerges from the forest duff
The Sawtooth’s lie between the Methow Valley and Lake Chelan
Evidence of old logging activity
Luna catches her breath
Balsamroot
and more balsamroot
and still more
Moose is an old dog who still loves his walks
A relic, possibly from an old hunting camp
Arnica lines this forest floor. I missed getting photos of the blooming patches.
A tremendous wildlife tree
and another one
Down through fields of balsamroot
Lindsey points out another trail we could have taken
Shiny beetle on lupine buds
Looking back up
This is the height of the wildflower season on our hill. The elevation of our house is about 1850′ and the colors of spring can be fleeting in this arid climate. Yesterday, before the wind came up, I was particularly struck with the beauty and diversity of this dry site’s wildflowers. Last week’s warm weather has been replaced with the more expected breezy and cool weather of spring.
Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza sagittata – the signature spring flower of for this valley
Thompson’s paintbrush (I think), Castilleja thompsonii
Calochortus sp (sometimes referred to as Cat’s ear)
Agoseris sp., again I am not sure
I am pretty sure this is bastard toadflax (not a pretty name for a delicate flower), however where I have seen it before it was more of a salmon color. Comandra umbellata
Columbia puccoon, Lithospermum ruderale
Bitterbrush, Purshia tridentata
Lupine, Lupinus sp
And another view of balsamroot, looking down-valley to Balky Hill and beyond
Luna and I missed our hike last week and so we were happy to get out today with friends and dogs. Starting early at the Patterson Mountain trailhead we joined two other women and four other dogs for a very pleasant hike before it got too hot. The weather has been unseasonably warm (not that we are complaining mind you) these last few days – up into the high eighties, so it was good to start at 7:30 am and enjoy the morning air and beautiful light. Only one other party started up before us. After the trouble I’ve had with Luna recently I put her on the leash and kept her there all the way up and down, only letting her off when we came to a little creek where she could wet her whistle and at the top of the mountain. She was very well behaved and even when I let her off she returned when called. I was much relieved. Of course the other dogs were fine. Well Cassidy had some barking issues but he and Kathryn worked through them and he was fine. We were rewarded with fine mountain and valley views at the top, wonderful wildflowers and at the end, the dogs got to cool off in the lake. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Patterson Lake and Mount Gardner
Luna stops to smell the flowers
This sign always seems out of place to me
It’s really hard to get three people and five dogs in a photo all looking at the camera at the same time.
Really, really hard
Little Bear doesn’t like crowds so he is hanging out behind the bitterbrush
Luna likes to be in the middle of everything
Cassidy always has something to say. He is very opinionated and frustrated when we don’t understand him.
There’s Little Bear. He’s a sweet fella
Dexter and his person Amy and their friend Peter made the hike this morning too but they had to race off to get to work on time.
Pretty death camas
How pretty is that?
We love our big ponderosa pines
And our balsamroot
My first bitterroot flowers this year!
With wild onions growing in the background
Moose really relaxed in the cold water
And Luna was ready to play
Around here the biggest disaster the people worry about is wildfire. Last year we had more than our share of fires in North Central Washington and many folks were trapped in their houses for days in hopes of avoiding the choking smoke. I am reminded of this now with the US Forest Service doing controlled burning in hopes of preventing uncontrolled fires in the future. The smell is strong in the air and I can see the smoke’s haze all over the valley.
One gift of fire is the morel mushroom. The fire morel is a delicacy that is hunted with great zeal in a burned landscape. My uncle came to visit this week in hopes of getting the mushroom season off to a good start. He had studied last year’s fires’ locations and aspects and picked one area to explore. He was right. With the little bit warmer weather we are finally getting, the fungi are just starting to show themselves and we both came home with about a gallon of them. He said the ones we harvested are most likely natural morels and that the fire morels will come on a bit later. On our menu last night was morel risotto! What a treat.
The landscape looks very bleak.
I heard and saw Black-backed Woodpeckers who come into a burned forest almost immediately to consume the insects that have arrived to consume the dead trees.
Many of the morels were growing out from under rocks and burned roots. This is a nice looking one.
I also heard Canyon Wrens’ beautiful songs from the cliffs above.
My Everyday Photos 