It’s fall. Sky is feeling a little better these days.
Tag Archives: sunflower
This is a selection of random images from our hill over the last couple of weeks.
These honeybees set up housekeeping in the neighboring cabin a year ago
I could see these three guys crossing the river from our porch
new growth
This enormous volunteer sunflower needs a post all its own
Harvesting the honey. There was more than seven gallons! This was a highlight of our summer.
There have been lots of looky loos but only one was a Great Blue Heron
80 bushes and trees to start the restoration of our landscape
Eric and his co-worker from Methow Natives worked hard to get everything planted, mulched and caged.
Sky helped. A lot.
new growth
new growth
These images are from last Thursday, the same day I photographed the bees. It was a very warm February day with the temperature approaching fifty degrees. Today it is near freezing and snow has been falling for hours. In the last week or so we’ve had nearly two feet of new snow but combined with warm afternoons, it is compressed and heavy with ice in the places exposed by the snow plow and shovels and in the trails that are heavily trod upon.
aspen leaf
yarrow
bubbles
bubbles in a partially ice covered puddled
bubbles
shadow
ice where the truck gets parked
ice at the bottom of the stairs
flax seeds
grass seeds
maple seeds
maple seeds
hop in the snow
hops on the vine
sunflower
sunflower stem
upward sunflower
downward sunflower
splash
Despite the smoke.
Today the smoke has cleared out of much of the valley leaving blue skies in its wake! It’s forecast to return but for now, what a relief. Here are a few images I’ve made the last few days when I ventured out into the gloom.
This hibiscus is a recent gift from a friend. The flower’s colors are amazing.
It will soon have to find a room in our house as it is not hardy in our winter.
Shaggy mane mushrooms have popped up around our backyard.
Some people eat them. They don’t appeal to me.
This moth was on the outside of the window while I was inside
French pumpkins.
Our growing season isn’t always long enough or warm enough for them.
A sunflower gazes into the murky sky
Putting away food for the cold months is a major preoccupation these days. Like bees gathering nectar for honey, we are freezing, drying, canning and just generally squirreling away food for winter. We have a deer in the freezer and lots of fish already (it’s not even steelhead season yet). From our neighbors, we have some rabbit, a new meat for us. And from the garden I’ve dried onions and garlic for storage, made pesto from our basil and also from our kale to store in our freezer. Beans are frozen as well as corn from the Columbia Basin. I’ve dried nectarines from a roadside stand and tomorrow I need to make some jam from the really ripe ones. There are lots of potatoes to dig. We hope to get some honey from Ken’s bees however they have recently been attacked by ‘robber bees’ from someone else’s hive. He’s covered most of the entrances but still these robber bees are all around and they are not only aggresive to Ken’s bees but to us and the dogs too.
These are the ‘robber bees’ trying to steal Ken’s bees’ honey
Various kinds of garlic to get us through the winter
Yellow Onions. I am not so good at growing onions as I am at growing garlic
Dried nectarines for skiing and hiking outings! What a treat.
Little tomatoes. These would be good dried.
Big tomatoes for fresh eating or sauce
Still some bees getting nectar and pollen from the tall sunflowers
My Everyday Photos 