morning harvest

Sweet peas and beans. I picked them before the afternoon rain.

Shady spike

Yesterday Cali and I chased this guy away from the shade of the lilacs. It's hot today and he didn't want to leave another shady spot because of some pesky human and her even more pesky dog. He's still in this same spot after an hour.

Velvet

I found this guy hanging around behind our shed. I'd like to find his antlers when he sheds them.

flowers and wildlife

The wild rose went crazy this year after all that spring rain we had.

Gaillardia.

Snake in the grass. Actually it's in the Vinca.

The little brown bat hiding out under the deck. This is a little bit more in focus than last year's attempt, but still not perfect. It's pretty dark under there.

dinner on the river

You can just make out the "M" on the hillside.

New residents

Cute. Cute.

Trip to Portland

My mom and I with my grandmother's picture in the background. We had a private memorial at my aunt's house on what would have been my grandmother's 95th birthday.

Hubby and I on the sofa. We look so color coordinated, but it wasn't on purpose.

My mom and cousin, Sherri, with their vino!

My mom, cousin Mary and aunt Anne getting ready to cut the cake. In the background is my uncle, Butch.

bluebird dinner

The male Western bluebird with food for his babies. I wasn't able to see how many nestlings are in the box. I think they must be close to fledging by now.

Indian paintbrush

It took some hill traversing, but we were able to get to the few paintbrush plants on our hill. They are in full bloom and so pretty.

sunrise

Lolo Peak this morning. Beautiful.

hiking Ward Creek

Beautiful cedar trees line this creek. We had the trail all to ourselves.

A family portrait along the creek.

Our neighbor, Cate, with a lichen headdress.

Cali by the huge trillium.

shades of red

A beautiful rusty colored moth. I saw him on the patio and thought it was another chipping sparrow that had hit the window. This moth is huge!

What to do with all the rhubarb the remaining plant is producing??? Make gingered rhubarb jam. Yummy and so pretty, too.

morning mushroom hike

Cali with her pleading look..."can we please go up the hill this morning???".

It's been raining everyday for 3 weeks. This morning it rained and then cleared up for a bit. We went looking for mushrooms and found them.

Then we found more morels. Yippee!!!

A baker's dozen. Enough for dinner tonight.

Fishing trip

Dad and Dennis went fishing with a guide on the Blackfoot River.

Here is Dennis with the brown trout he caught.

Dad with the bull trout he caught.

golfing with Dad & Dennis

Dad and I after 9 holes. It started out rainy and then got warm. The weather has been crazy lately.

Obviously this putt went in because the ball is nowhere to be seen.

Red winged black bird. I have to take a few pix of birds on this golf course.

goodbye

Goodbye Grandma. I'll miss you forever.

field trip

We took a little drive yesterday afternoon before dinner and decided to look for elk. We found them.

Cali and a pretty sky

Cali looking crabby.

Another crabby look because I made her pose by the daffodils.

I found these clouds so interesting, but it didn't really come out in the picture. It's still a nice view though.

striper

One of our many toads made it's spring appearance. It's nice to see it survived the winter.

hiking

Yesterday we did the hike to Morrell falls. We usually make this trek later in the month, but it was such a beautiful day with highs in the 80's, we decided to tackle it. Quite a bit of the trail was still snow covered which makes for unsure footing. It's still totally worth it though. The falls were gorgeous.

Because it was so early in the month, this Trillium was the only wildflower we saw blooming.

golfing

We saw some great birds on the golf course. This yellow-headed blackbird was on the 6th tee.

I couldn't get very close to this eared grebe and her babies. She kept squawking at me. This was on the 7th tee. We played nine holes, but the birding was better than the golfing for me anyway.

spring harvest

The usual suspects are available in the garden for harvest. This rhubarb was used for a rhubarb custard cake.

The asparagus was used in asparagus mushroom tarts. This is the first year we get to eat asparagus from the garden.

Pretty in Purple

Hubby found these violets in the forest during our morning walk. We noticed several more plants growing right on the path. So pretty.

spoiled dog

It was Cali's 3rd birthday yesterday so I made some wheat free dog cookies. They smelled good enough to eat...and she did!

hatchling

Is this how we get young Douglas fir trees? Cali found an egg shell like this a couple of years ago and I thought it was from a turkey. However, we haven't had any turkey sightings in over a year. It turns out this shell is from a domestic goose. I'm not sure how it got on the Hill. Fox? Coyote? Raven? Who knows, but it's funny about the fir cone.

mushroom eyes

After community clean-up, the neighbors that always come out to do the work got together for a potluck. Of course when you live in the woods the topic of fire always comes up and one neighbor mentioned how one year after her field was burned she collected quarts and quarts of morels. Hubby and I filed this info away and decided to start hunting for them when he thought conditions were right.

Hubby spotted this morel this morning in an area near our house. He told me now that I've seen it, I should have my "mushroom eyes" and be able to spot them. He's a trained mycologist so of course he has "mushroom eyes".

Then he tells me to turn around because I just walked by this patch. Obviously my "mushroom eyes" need glasses.