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Tag Archives: black and white

November has been mostly gray but Willow and I have done a bit of walking in the hills anyway, searching for color and patterns in the landscape. That’s what I’ve been doing. Willow played with sticks.

Sometimes, winter seems never ending with a long drawn out mud season. This year, the snow melted quickly and now everything is green again. It’s still possible to find patches of snow in shady, north facing places and the dogs celebrate each of those little patches. Tiny wildflowers are in bloom and the balsamroot and serviceberry are ready to color all the hillsides. Bees and other insects are out foraging. Butterflies are showing up. For now, it’s quiet around town and trails offer solitude. Soon the pass will open and that will all change but for now, the dogs and I are enjoying being out on the landscape.

The girls and I spent a few days exploring the basalt covered landscape of eastern Oregon last week. The weather was ok, sometimes too windy and rarely was the light good for photos, except at night. We walked three to six miles everyday and the dogs got to swim at least twice each day. Sky is doing really well on her new arthritis med and nothing seems to slow Willow down. She is obsessed with the water wherever we go. We were a little early for wildflowers. I love the way that so many plants grow right out of the basalt rocks. There were bighorn sheep on the canyon walls and Chukars and Ring-necked Pheasants called relentlessly from the hillsides. I did see a couple groups of Yellow-rumped Warblers decked out in their finest spring plumage!

Some images from late July and August too. If you can ID the young flycatcher, let me know.

A few more images from the eastern Sierras.