Liz | The Road Home

Workin’

The road home from Whitefish

Errands took me to Whitefish this afternoon. While still mostly cloudy, the clouds had lifted enough to see more of the mountains and there were breaks here and there letting some sunlight through in the late afternoon.

The road home wore both fall and winter dress.

To the left, the ski runs of Big Mountain have their first bit of snow.

Snow machines in the shed wait for the snow to reach them.

Rounding Montana Highway 35 as it curves south towards Bigfork, the snow covered mountains at the south end of Flathead Valley caught rays sneaking under the clouds.

And then, the road to my house…

The road home.

Snow!

Yesterday (Monday), there was a bit of snow visible high on the mountains and barely visible through the cloud cover, but this evening! – this snow is low – maybe 4000 feet or even lower. My house sits at about 3300 feet.

It’s beautiful! Karl and I stood and called for the snow to “come hither”!

It is cold – that damp cold of fall and the rain/snow mix that chills to the bone and feels colder than it does in the dead of winter. But there is pure joy in getting cold to the bone when I see smoke from the chimney and think about the warm fire in the woodstove.

The color, the rain, the cold and the snow…harbingers of Winter, Karl’s and my favorite season.

Larch madness

It seemed like the larch turned gold overnight. The weather has turned cold and rainy. Snow is forecast nearly to the valley floor this week.

By the river, the willows have started their change from willow green to chartreuse on their way to the reddish brown their branches will keep through the winter. But it is the patches of larch on the valley floor and the mountainsides that are bright gold, even on this overcast Sunday.

Larch madness.