Skip navigation

Tag Archives: snowberry

Evening Walk With Dogs

The days are getting shorter, faster, it seems. Soon it will be dark after dinner and there won’t be any evening dogs walks. But for now, the weather is perfect and the light is lovely so we enjoy it while we can. Some chokecherries, nearly black, and snowberries still cling to the bushes. The serviceberries and currants are long gone, eaten by birds, coyotes, bears and Willow got some too. This is brown season. We have white season, green season, brown season and fire season. Fortunately, this year, fire season hasn’t been threatening to us, so far. With little or no precipitation in the forecast, we are not out of danger yet.

Don’t Breathe the Air

Our valley has been inundated with wildfire smoke off and on for over forty days. This week is particularly bad with an inversion trapping all of the smoke and holding it down throughout the day and night with no relief. A person, or a dog I suppose, should be wearing a mask whenever she ventures out in it. Otherwise, she ought to just stay inside and be grateful for air conditioning and a tightly built house.

Dogs don’t understand this and they want/need a walk each day. Here are a few images from this morning’s walk.

New yarrow flower
Most yarrow is dry and crispy yellow
Snowberry

Summer Scenes

September marks the unofficial end of summer around here. Kids returned to school this week and most vacations are over. Harvest season is in full swing. The weather is beginning to feel like fall. Birds are flocking up for migration. And we try to squeeze in a few more hikes. Here are a few scenes from the end of summer.

 

Cutthroat trout in Blue Lake
Blue Lake
The back of Liberty Bell
Abundant flowers at the farmers market in Twisp
Yummy looking bread at the market
Rugosa rose blooming in the Twisp Commons
Seckel pears
Ginger gold apples – one of my favorites
garlic
Beautiful peppers
Turkey Vultures
A very late-blooming serviceberry
Lots of snowberry has become established in the two years since the fire
Interesting that the snowberry shows both flowers and berries at the same time
And snowberry is somewhat fire-resistant so that’s a good thing
Arrowleaf balsamroot
Dusk from our hill

Fire, Flood, and New Growth

We drove up Lester Road and walked to Campbell Lake yesterday. This is an area that burned in the Cougar Flats Fire, part of the immense Carlton Complex of wildfires started by lightning last month. This is the fire we could see from our house. Photos of it burning are here. We got home just as the next big rain storm with thunder and lightning was beginning.

These aspens are already sprouting new growth from the roots.
The patterns of green and burned are pretty amazing.
aspens
A huge mudslide that followed the last big rain event.
The rocks of Pipestone Canyon.
I think this is snowberry
New lupine growth!
What triggered this serviceberry to start blooming?
Rosehips – good food for the birds.
Chokecherries that survived the fire
We drove farther up Lester Road to get a closer look at the mud slide
Can you see MA and the dogs?
Snowberry?
Snowberry?
Currant
Yesterday the surface was parched dry and cracked
A spot of color
Yesterday’s storm turned out to be another wild one causing far more destruction to homes and roads.