My Everyday Photos

Honeybees

May 23, 2013 – 7:14 am
Posted in beekeeping
Tagged bee hives, beekeeping photos, honeybees, Methow
Comments (2)

Ken’s honeybees are an endless source of questions and wonderment. He enjoys working with them and checking on them from time to time to see how the hives are doing. Are they strong? Are they too strong? Will they swarm? What are they eating? Will we get honey this year? How do we keep other bees from stealing the honey? There are more questions than answers. One friend said while you need to keep an eye on them, there is so much time when you are not watching and who knows what is happening then.

Ken ‘smokes’ the bees as he opens the hives

Smoking calms the bees

Pulling a frame from a hive as a bee watches

These are new hives this year

The bees are making brood and storing food

Ken points out a possible queen cell to the neighbors and their golden retrievers

Many frames are not yet filled. It is early in the season

There’s some honey! We got to taste it.

Golden Retrievers

May 20, 2013 – 12:45 pm
Posted in dogs
Tagged dogs, golden retriever, Methow, photos
Comments (1)

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.

Wednesday Walk

May 17, 2013 – 9:41 am
Posted in wildflowers
Tagged balsamroot, hike, Methow, sawtooth mountains, Wildflower photos
Leave a Comment

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

Yesterday’s Wildflowers

May 13, 2013 – 7:16 am
Posted in wildflowers
Tagged balsamroot, lupine, Methow photography, Thompsons paintbrush, Wildflower photos
Comments (1)

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

More Hiking with Dogs

May 8, 2013 – 5:58 pm
Posted in hike
Tagged dogs, hike, Patterson Mountain, Winthrop photography
Leave a Comment

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