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Tag Archives: Methow Valley

The Weather is not Boring

Willow and I spent much of the first half of December walking the hills around the valley on the Methow Wildlife Area. The state closed those lands yesterday for mule deer habitat til next Spring. We never did see a deer all the time we walked out there. We only saw a few birds. We did find some beaver dams and lodges and ponds but didn’t get to see the beavers.

It’s been a mixed bag of weather, that’s for sure. We started out with snow on the ground, thinking we would soon be cross country skiing but no, it rained. It rained inches! There has been flooding in the upper valley and severe flooding in other parts of Washington. We are fortunate here and just had some erosion on our driveway. The rain melted the snow and then we had lots of fog but also a couple sunny days. One day, we got just above the top of the fog. It was beautiful.

Now the hills are closed to us and it’s pouring rain, again. ‘They’ say we will start getting snow again on Thursday. Fingers crossed.

My, What Big Ears You Have

Mule deer honestly earned their name with ears that rival a mule’s. This small group of four to six does and fawns is often seen on our hill. And they see us. And they are not afraid. They know we, including Willow, will not harm them. In fact, one big doe, in the last photo, has been known to stomp her feet and act threatening to us. We give them a wide berth. This particular day, they were grazing around our parking area and not in any hurry to leave.

November Walks

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.

Last Night’s Lights

Did you see the Northern Lights last night? I had seen predictions of a good show but a partly cloudy sky didn’t leave me too optimistic. I did get a camera and tripod out, just in case. Shortly after dark, a friend texted me an amazing shot of bright red color from her phone! I quickly found my warmest coat and put on some boots and grabbed the setup. I started with a 24-70 mm lens but quickly went inside for the 14-24 mm lens. The light show covered so much of the sky. I longed to be somewhere other than home where my view is cluttered with power lines, homes with all their lights burning and the infernal light of the Winthrop hockey rink. Sigh. Still, it was a great show, til the clouds rolled in.

When I first got outside, the lights were pinkish with green but then turned more orange and red. The show started in the northwest, then moved across the sky to mostly north and then at the same time, they appeared to the east and southeast! Clouds added some real drama to the lights. The last photo shows the clouds illuminated from above by the Aurora and from below by the hockey rink.

Early This Morning

As often happens, I needed to get up to relieve myself around 2:30 or so and I noticed that the sky to the north was exceptionally bright. I knew that there was a strong possibility of an Aurora Borealis so my camera was ready. I struggled with my sleepy self but managed to get outside and make some images til the blue hour began and Aurora faded. After seeing other people’s photos, I am pretty sure I missed most of a pretty good light show.