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Tag Archives: blue skies

The snow has a frozen crust and it’s easy to walk across the top of it. This is great because much of our road is covered in ice and treacherous for walking. Yesterday, the girls and I walked to the top of the hill. We haven’t been there in many months. The views are outstanding and sometimes we get to see coyote or deer but not yesterday. We did see new survey markers and new fencing with new ‘no trespassing’ signs along it. A bunch of the land up there is for sale or has already sold so we can expect changes in the future. Change is inevitable.

Speaking of change, Willow looks more and more like a dog but still has a puppy brain. Sky says she is an alligator and maybe we should return her! Willow is quite playful and Sky has never been playful so sometimes the puppy is a bit much. Willow adores Sky and wants to do everything she does, plus have lots of fun. She does stay close and mostly comes when called. We have many training opportunities with her.

We enjoyed the sunshine and cold temperatures and endless views. We also noted that some of the deciduous trees and shrubs STILL have last year’s leaves. Most notably, serviceberry (or Saskatoon), aspen and elderberry. Some of the aspen trees’ buds are already swelling so the leaves need to go!

On Thursday I had to look at the calendar to remind me that it was only February 8! The temperature reached over fifty degrees, Fahrenheit! It was shirt sleeve weather when we should have been wearing down coats and heavy boots. Ken’s honeybees felt the warmth and flew out of the hives in great numbers, searching for something new to eat, fresh water, fresh air and goodness knows what else. The bees were everywhere and Luna didn’t like it. She had to go inside since she’s been stung more than once and goes out of her way to avoid any contact with the honeybees. Sky and I enjoyed the nice afternoon, poking around the yard, finding reminders of last summer, and she even posed for pictures.

The snow has been rapidly melting for the last ten days or so and where there was nearly three feet in late January, there is barely a foot now and none in the forecast. It’s colder today but with full sunshine, should be a nice day to be out and about.

Up until yesterday we’ve had wonderful snow days mixed with bluebird days for most of the winter. Monday was a perfect bluebird day! Powder snow covering the hills above our house, blue skies forever and a temperature that wasn’t too cold. Wonderful conditions for ski shoeing with my fat Hok skis.

The Methow Valley has been socked in with fog for a few days now and it’s not very pleasant. Gray and feels colder than it is. The light is flat. This morning I had lots of choices for skate skiing on groomed trails and I could tell from a web cam that one of them had sunshine and it’s a dog trail. Sky has not been to Gunn Ranch but she’s doing well at Big Valley so I figured we could give it a try. This trail is a long gradual uphill climb of 5k, or more. I just went the 5k and that was enough for me today. And then it’s down, down, down back to the trailhead. With perfect grooming it was lots of fun but when I got going pretty fast, Sky would come too close and cut me off or step on my skis. Twice she caused me to fall. I did figure out how fast to go and keep her out of my way after that and also I kept my eyes on her pretty closely. And we stopped and took pictures too. It was beautiful in the sunshine just barely above the sea of clouds in the valley below.

Yesterday’s warmth melted snow and ice and created beauty everywhere I looked.

 

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