Posts from the ‘Weather’ category

not a real gardener

Every fall when I put away hanging baskets and plant containers ….that I save…I vow that next year I am going to reuse the baskets and containers and do my own baskets. And so far, every year, I go to the nursery and buy beautiful hanging baskets already full of bloomin’ stuff. Yea, well…NEXT YEAR!

I absolutely love going to the nursery, though. And yesterday’s trip was my third trip this year, although the first I actually bought anything. See, if you put things out before Memorial Day, you either have to be a martyr to covering up and/or bringing everything in and out or you will lose it because we have these teaser summerlike spells mid to early May and then it snows one more time. But it is so hard because things are greening up, leafing out, the sky is blue and you really, really, really want to plant something – of course, I did – once…

But yesterday was June 1! So off I went. My local nursery is on a funny little rural corner between my house and Bigfork. There is Swan River School on one corner, Swan River Community Center on another, Echo Lake Cafe and Echo Lake Store on the other two. The nursery sits next to the Community Center.

Store ……………….. and Cafe

Swan River Nursery The owners of the nursery are a young couple. This is maybe their 4th or 5th year. Sometimes their little girls are there as well as their golden retriever. A number of employees that have been the same for these years are around. It is another thing about this community that I enjoy – the continuity, seeing the owner and his family, seeing the same people getting things…

Swan River Nursery

Swan River Nursery

I wandered around inside several times and didn’t see what I thought I wanted. The front porch gets morning sun and doesn’t get too hot but where the baskets hang do not get a lot of full sun. I always get something that will do well in part shade. And although I love how petunias look, I’m not all that fond of the maintenance required. And I don’t like too much pink and purple…last years baskets were mountain bell in red, white and blue and mostly I just watered them. There is not so much of the pinching off of dead blossoms. So, I was thinking that maybe I would have to put on my big girl panties and just plant my own baskets when I wandered outside and found the perfect baskets – 2!!! – planted with the same colors, the same size baskets – the perfect thing!

Swan River Nursery

Done! – well, one quick trip inside to gather a few things for another idea I had…

Swan River Nursery

One of the “perfect” baskets – it picks up all of the colors on the front porch and then some – I LOVE it!

Tree Root planter

My other idea… this tree root – last year I looked at it and thought that it would be pretty with a little color in it.

Tree Root planter

not a real gardener, but we’ll see how this goes.

Montana Sunset Alpinglow

Wednesday evening with thunderstorms forecast – 9:00 p.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time (sunset is close to 9:30 now)…the sky to the east looked interesting, the wind was kicking up and sounding fabulous in the pines. I called to Karl, grabbed my camera (and pepper spray!) and off I went. Karl did not follow – he hates thunder and seems to have a sixth sense about it -…I whistled and called and watched him head from the driveway back to the house…Rats!! – I hate to walk without him – it is our thing!! But the sky called and so I went…. but halfway along as I was looking at the vista which was beautiful beyond words, my good dog appeared – panting, wagging tail – …. I love the following photos, but more than those, I love that my dear dog put aside his fear and followed…

Oh, there was no thunder that night – and more important, no lightning …often the clouds pile up and it rains or snows in the mountains but not in the valley. We never even heard rumblings in the night…

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

You can just barely see above what you can see below with more intensity…the setting sun, once again casting the tops of the trees in gold, bronze, deep red – the colors of Fall in the height of Spring. I stood – in awe – with my mouth open in amazement at the color feast spread out before me. I have seen the setting sun turn the tree tops in my woods gold but I had never seen the array of colors that I did this evening. I took a lot of photos and as I took each I knew that there was no way I was capturing the feast of color spread out at the foot of the mountains. With each photo, I hoped I could capture what I saw – from where I stood there was a wide expanse of glowing trees, snow covered mountains and building thunderheads – magnificent! For a long while I just stood and watched the color and the light.

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

And below…looking the opposite direction – West – as we headed for the house…the sunset through the trees…

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

My property sits in the woods on a plateau of foothills before the land gives way to the Swan Range – Continentel Divide – to the east and the floor of the Flathead Valley to the east.

Positive Spin

“I haven’t failed, I found 10,000 ways that don’t work” Thomas Edison

Positive spin, healthy perspective, looking for the “silver lining”…

And speaking of clouds, I am hoping that my recent experience with weather reporting and the immediate change in the weather continues…currently the wind is gusting to 40 mph, snow is flying and the temperature is hovering at the freezing point…

I need a little less wind and a bit more warm (since roads are wet) to feel comfortable starting out. Things started out this way yesterday and the afternoon was beautiful so I’m hoping for the same today. I have until the noon checkout time to decide.

Weather

the sound of snow

Lately, whenever I write about the weather, it immediately does the opposite. Yesterday, it started snowing, which changed to rain and back to snow and occasionally to icy pellets. I wrote that I didn’t think it would stick on the valley floor. It stuck…and when I checked the weather before going to bed, the forecast was for 1 – 3 inches accumulation. It is early and dark and I don’t think there is more than an inch, but some “real” snow stuck – the ground is white!

I like Winter – at least a bit of it. I know from past experience that at this time of year I have had my fill of it and am ready for Spring like everyone else. But this year, having spent the Winter in a mild and sometimes quite warm climate, I’m enjoying this blast of Winter.

Yesterday was cold and gray and by evening the surrounding hills were white with snow. I sat in a dark motorhome and listened to the wind. And this morning am doing the same. The toppers are not flapping – they might be weighed down by snow/water/ice – and the wind is not the constant, howling wind of the last several days. It is a “storm” wind of occasional gusts and swirls of snow. It grabs at the flaps of the various vents in the motorhome, rattles the rooftop antennas and makes its presence known by the occasional draft near the door. The sound invokes that feeling of coziness at being inside in a warm and dry place – the sound of snow.

Birds of a feather

Late yesterday afternoon I heard the rumble of diesel close by. The “office” in the Winnebago is the passenger seat. There is a pull-out desk top built into the dash…my laptop goes on the desktop, I keep an all-in-one printer in the “well” left by the extended desk top – and a nice large, crisp (52 year old eyes) external monitor sits on top of the all-in-one. I have the windshield “drape” drawn to keep background glare off the monitor.

Desk

The drape wraps around both the passenger and driver-side windows, i.e. I can’t see outside when I’m “in the office”.

But I can hear! – and the deep rumble of diesel was enough of a “different” sound to get my attention – New neighbor…my row, 2 sites down. I didn’t hear the others come in, but by the evening walk there were 3 other motorhomes and one new travel trailer.

Off season, in locations where it gets cold, many rv parks that are open keep power and water to a limited number of sites. It is not unusual so also not unusual that anyone travelling the “shoulder” season in winter country would choose a site near where everyone else was. I did – although up a row as I wanted an end spot. What did strike me as funny though, is the 5rs and trailers stuck to the back row…the motorhomes selected the next row where I am. There was a Class C (Cab over truck vs “bus” or “bus-type) here for a bit and they were one row ahead of me…birds of a feather???

RVs

RVs

And I think they are all here for at least a couple of days as all unhooked or unloaded tow cars. Lest you are thinking that maybe I don’t have enough to do since I’m running around taking photos of how everyone parks and speculating on why and how long…this is a generally accepted pasttime of rvrs – being nosy I mean. See the The Tale of Woody post for more evidence of this.

After Karl and I walked around spying on observing the new arrivals, we sat at the picnic table and enjoyed the once again warm, quiet early evening. Clouds were gathering and the forecast thunderstorms headed our way. I took some photos and played with a new obsession: Adobe’s LightRoom

The results below – my first attempts – much to learn! I played with color, contrast, white balance.

Storm Clouds

Storm Clouds

Storm Clouds

A little surreal, but fun!