Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Hatchlings

Evidence of a successful hatch.

Two little fuzzballs. The mother nighthawk put up a tremendous display while I was photographing her babies. She flew onto the road and spread her wings out in the dirt and started mewing like a cat. It was pathetic and an obvious attempt to lead the predator (me) away from her young. I won't attempt another photo unless she's away. It was too stressful for both of us.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

More of GNP

A lovely salmon colored Indian Paintbrush was growing everywhere in the Park. I love salmon colored flowers.

The south side of Josephine Lake. We hiked around this lake and then the lake on the other side of the mound of trees in the center of this picture. It was a 7+ mile hike.

Beautiful yellow flowers growing along the trail.

Two very bug bitten, hot and sweaty hikers. I don't know how we managed a smile.

A little grizzly cub along the river. He caused a major traffic jam on a windy two lane road. I took this picture from the truck and across the river so he's not in focus. It was too dangerous to get out of the truck for a closer shot. We didn't see the mother griz, but I suspect she was in the brush.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Golf in Glacier NP

We went to the 9 hole golf course by the East Glacier Lodge and played a round. It was fun until the biting flies attacked us. Can't beat the view.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Gotcha!

I spent a lot of last summer trying to get a picture of this butterfly. One evening I even chased it up and down the Hill waiting for my chance. This year he landed on some dogbane right in front of me and I was lucky enough to have my camera.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Potato farmers

We still have 3 rows of plants in the garden. I think this was a successful planting.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

We're jammin'

The berry guy was at the Farmer's Market yesterday so we bought a flat of raspberries. We waffled between huckleberries and raspberries, but the little red jewels won.

We made raspberry jam. This morning we had waffles with the jam and it was d e l i c i o u s!!!
I know my dad will want a jar (or two).

Friday, July 17, 2009

Red taters

This morning's harvest. We harvested over 10# last weekend and have been eating potato salad, scalloped potatoes and hash browns. None of the russets have been dug yet so we still have bakers in our future.

(Sorry Debara, the potato plants couldn't wait for you to recover from shoulder surgery. Next year.)

Chippy in a tree

Cali chased him up there and he's WAY up there. Can you spot him?

Thursday, July 16, 2009

I spy...

...a patch of cuteness among a sea of green.

Found him

What a surprise for me when I opened the front door and almost stepped on the "big boy". I tried to rescue him by picking him up, but he felt like a thin water balloon full of goop. It wasn't a pleasant feeling and I'm normally not squeamish about carrying frogs, small toads, little birds, etc., but this was just icky. I had to use the dust pan method.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Garden life

The "big boy". I look for him every year and this morning Hubby nearly ran over him with the Mule as he rested on the asphalt. By the time we came back from our walk he was gone.

New in the garden this year is kohlrabi. I've never even eaten it before so we'll see if it merits space in next year's garden.

Finally some pollinators on the Hill although I would prefer this bumbler visited my pepper and winter squash plants instead of this wild bergamot.

Another pollinator, the European honey bee. We had so few of them last year, I'm glad to see they've found the garden this year.

We had another bear sighting yesterday evening thanks to Cali and her uber guard dog behavior. The minute she was let outside to lay on the lawn she started barking her head off and looking up the hill. Sure enough, there was a young cinnamon colored bear ambling up the hill. No time to get my camera as we had to try and get Cali to quit following the bear.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Fur and feathers

The little twins were behind our house Saturday afternoon. These pix were taken from the office window.

So cute! The only time I like having deer around is when they are this size.

Well, despite our best efforts, we flushed the nighthawk from her nest and she flew to a pine tree down the road. After our walk, she was back to her eggs so all is well until the next time.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Wedding on Nuthatch Hill



Our neighbors, Jim & Lauren, in front of their cake.

The groom with Hubby.

The bride with me in front of the gazebo.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

This is the worst possible place...

...to lay your eggs. The common nighthawk that flies above our house every night has nested behind the crabapple trees. Normally I would be thrilled about this, but Cali has flushed this bird 3 mornings in a row on our daily walk. I finally investigated why this bird is always on the ground there and found these 2 eggs and all of the bird's tail feathers. Cali will now have to walk on leash until these babies fledge.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Little green apples

It looks like I'll have enough to make a pie come September.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Sweet peas

Hubby built a small garden box with the sole purpose of growing sweet peas. The first one to bloom is my favorite variety, 'Wiltshire Ripple'. I just love the claret color against the clean white. The smell is quite wonderful as well and isn't that one of the main reasons to grow sweet peas?

Monday, July 6, 2009

Shelling peas

We harvested the 'Caseload' variety of shelling peas from the garden. I wouldn't say we ended up with a case load, but sitting in the shade shelling peas is a nice way to spend a hot afternoon. Is my pile of pods bigger than Hubby's?

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Last one out is a rotten egg...

The bluebird babies have left their box. I found this mess when I cleaned it. Now the adults are adding nesting material to another bird box. Maybe there will be a 2nd brood this year. We need all the bluebirds we can get because we are overrun with grasshoppers and flies.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy 4th of July

Red, white and blue.
My creation from the nursery.

Nature's creation from the Hill.

Friday, July 3, 2009

garlic harvest

I harvested all the garlic from the garden yesterday. I attempted to braid it, but realized I grew hard neck garlic instead of soft neck garlic so the stems snapped and I gave up on it.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Snake

I hope it eats grasshoppers because we have a ton of them.