My Everyday Photos

Emerging from the Snow

March 10, 2013 – 7:18 pm
Posted in spirng
Tagged bees, bitterroot, lichen, Methow photography, pine cones
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These are the remains of winter on our hillside.

The anemone-like leaves of the bitterroot. It won’t bloom for months and by then the leaves will have disappeared.

Lichen on a piece of thin bark

A tiny buckwheat next to an immense ponderosa pine cone

More lichen. They are bright and fresh this time of year.

Maybe from a woodpecker

Lots of little piles of fertilizer

Does it seem like there was an especially good ponderosa pine cone crop? The White-winged and Red Crossbills have been busy opening them.

Just one of the deer that didn’t make it through the winter

Remains of an earlier time

This was probably from one of last year’s fawns

Sprouts!

More subtle lichens on a rock

One of last fall’s mushrooms survived the winter.

These tiny flowers seem to be growing out of moss

Back at home, the bees were flying again.

Spring Skiing

March 9, 2013 – 7:07 am
Posted in skiing
Tagged Mazama, Methow photography, Methow River, MVSTA, skate skiing, Winthrop
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MVSTA is still grooming the ski trails and their website says they will keep going til at least next weekend. The snow is getting thin in places but the weather is great and the birds are singing and it’s a good time to be out. Yesterday I enjoyed a ski on the Community Trail between Winthrop and Mazama – some of it along the river. The American Dippers are singing their little hearts out! Also chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and lots of others are busy claiming their territory. It’s hard to believe that in just a couple of months these woods will be full of the sounds of warblers, redstarts, veeries and vireos. That’s one way to mark changes of the seasons.

Approaching the Goat Creek crossing

Goat Peak looms above the seasonaly low Methow River. In June it will be full, bank to bank.

The clearest water you’ve ever seen. No place for fish to hide.

The suspension bridge is always a favorite stopping place

Old cottonwoods

A side channel. I’ve seen a Northern Pygmy Owl here several times this winter. Not yesterday though.

This cottonwood forest provides wonderful songbird habitat in the spring and summer.

Amaryllis

March 7, 2013 – 2:46 pm
Posted in flowers
Tagged amaryllis, flowers, Methow photography
Comments (2)

This time of year flowers are few and far between. Some low-lying dryer parts of the state may have some buttercups and grass widows but here on my hill they remain snow-covered or encased in mud. Blooming house plants do bring some color inside, sometimes unexpectedly. According to The Amaryllis Bulb Company, these plants can bloom from December through June. I had always considered them to be Christmas flowers and wondered why I could not get them to re-bloom during the holiday season. This particular plant also bloomed last summer when it stayed outside on the deck. When fall came, I put it in the coolest room in the house and quit watering it. After it lost all of its leaves about a month ago, I began to water it again. It sent up a flower stalk right away and has been blooming this week. The flowers are stunning and they seem to be calling out to be pollinated. Maybe I should go see if Ken’s bees are awake and if they are interested. Or not. This plant was my mother’s. She had received it as a gift. I have been caring for it for nearly seven years now. Hard to believe she’s been gone that long.

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That’s a lot of photos for one flower. Some many images in that one growing plant.

Hot Air Balloons

March 6, 2013 – 7:14 am
Posted in hot air balloons
Tagged hot air balloons, Winthrop photography
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Every year at this time, Morning Glory Balloon Tours hosts the Winthrop Balloon Roundup. Often, the weather is stellar with blue skies over snow capped mountains and sometimes it is bitterly cold, but calm. Some years I’ll go see them three days in a row! Last weekend’s roundup didn’t fare so well with the weather. Skies were gray and on Sunday it was windy and the balloons didn’t fly at all. I was glad to see them on Saturday.

Last year, after three days of balloons, I had three posts about this event. You can see them starting here. The couple that were married in a balloon were back this past weekend to celebrate their anniversary with Captain Crystal and her balloon.

Just for Fun

March 5, 2013 – 3:56 pm
Posted in winter
Tagged dogs, guitar, ponderosa pine, snow, squirrel
Comments (1)

My friend said she was having trouble with her little point and shoot camera and since she is getting ready for a big trip in the spring she is concerned that maybe it’s failing and she wondered if she ought to try to replace it. I said I would give it a try for a couple of days and took it with me on a couple of walks and used it in the house with and without the flash and of course, it behaved just fine for me. It seems like I haven’t been doing too much ‘fun’ photography lately so it was a good exercise for me. The camera is a low end Nikon Coolpix, and not very new. I found it to be serviceable although I did miss having raw files. The color balance was a little skewed, especially in the snow but not terribly so. I was mostly able to adjust for it in Lightroom. Its exposure compensation allowed me to photograph my black dog in the snow and its close-up scene setting worked well for close-ups.