June showers bring? June flowers? Well maybe a few more days of green hillsides in the Methow. Also good conditions for garden photos.
Walking or dancing Egyptian top-setting onions
Native columbine
Pretty flowering catnip mint
Poppy bud
Raspberry flowers
Ken’s bees have been busy in the berry patch.
Hop vine
I confess. I like Instagram. Ok. It’s alright to like Instagram. And sometimes it is just easier to carry the phone rather than a camera or both.
Lots of small wildflowers blooming on our hill now. The Balsamroot and Lupine are past their peak at this elevation. Now, there are more blues to be seen, some pinks and yellows too.
Bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva. On our hillside, it is much whiter, less pink than in other places, such as Patterson Mountain
Cat’s ear lily, Calachortus lyalli
A yellow violet (an oxymoron of a name), Viola sp. I don’t know which one.
I’ve always referred to this as a Brodiaea but looking at my field guide, I think its name has been changed to Triteleia grandiflora
Evidence that our part time neighbors celebrated the holiday weekend riding up and down our road on quads while drinking and tossing their litter around.
More bitterroot
And tired dogs.
My desk is in a loft office on the second floor of our house. There is a window directly over the garden and when I am sitting here I have views of the hillside and a ponderosa pine. The other day, while diligently working on wedding photos from last weekend, I heard the fluttering sound of wings against the glass. I looked over my shoulder and didn’t see anything and the sound was gone. It repeated a few seconds later. Curious, I walked over to the window and looking down, I saw a Black-headed Grosbeak perched on top of the garden fence.
I backed away from the window while keeping my eyes on it and soon the bird returned and clinging to the siding it looked in the window and then over at a round decorative piece covered with lavender beads.
The bird flew/hopped to the other side of the window and again fluttered at it as if to beat it senseless with its wings?
This behaviour happened several times over the next half hour or so. There’s no ledge so the bird could only hold on to the position for a few seconds at a time.
And then the bird left. The grosbeak must have felt that it had subdued the lavender beads and they were no longer a threat to him. I have seen territorial birds attack windows and mirrors when they see their reflections and perceive them as another bird in their territory but for some reason, this bird was obsessing on the purple beads. What’s up with that?
Anniversary!
One year ago today we were married on a hillside surrounded by friends and family! Yesterday in celebration, we revisted the hillside and our love for each other. Like last year, it was cloudy but this time it did not rain! There are more wildflowers this year. We had an excellent hike to the wedding site, not exactly the way we planned but still it was nice. Then up and over a hill to Aspen Lake and back for a nice loop.
This is a good year for balsamroot
A pretty flower with an unfortunate name – death camas
At the wedding site, Ken reads a poem he wrote for our first anniversary
And the card that he made
A type of paintbrush?
What if all of our wedding photos were made in this style?
lupine
Larkspur and balsamroot
Spring brings something new and promises of life to come.
Here is some of what’s coming on our hill.
Chokecherries!
Say’s Phoebes!
Butterflies, or maybe moths!
What’s growing on your place?
My Everyday Photos 