Blooming Orchid

 A friend of mine, who is GREAT with plants, gave me this orchid a year ago (or so?) and I didn't really think it would ever bloom for me, Sandra told me they were persnickety and difficult to make bloom.

A month ago I noted that it had shot out these long stems that appeared to have little buds on them and I grew excited, then we went on vacation and I figured it would bloom while we were away and I wouldn't see it. Well, it took it's own sweet time, but the wait was worth it! Look at these exotic blooms in the beginning of a Montana winter!

Dan Hicks and the Hotlicks, Whitefish, MT

 November 19th at the O'Shaunessy Center

 Oh, I am not the best fotographer, but with a little camera from the balconey, this ain't bad!

 You had to be there.

The New 20

 I had a five day weekend! That was a great stay-cation!

We spent the entire weekend at home, just doing busy things and having fun.

Natassia and Silas came for Thanksgiving and we had the traditional turkey dinner.

Natassia and I went out for a cross country ski and started breaking trails on the new 20 acres.

It was terribly brushed in from snowladen trees and branches bending over the trails, so the next day, Mike and I took a sandvik and put our skis on and he chopped and I cleared and now the trails are clear and have a good track set.

 I skied every single day of the 5 day weekend,

and yesterday I took a ski on one of the loops and came home to find neighbor Barb at my house with snowshoes on, so I changed shoes and off we went breaking trails on 'shoes!

 This is one of my favoite spots on the property and part of the loop I make the most!

 Here is the temporary crossing Mike constructed for me after the bridge broke during the summer.

 Here I am precarioulsy crossing it on skis!

On the home stretch into the meadow!

If you use a magnifying glass you can see the look-out tower on top of yonder mountain.

Lunch Breaks

 It was a gorgeous 4 days in Missoula.

These fotos were snapped on my lunch break, walking from yoga studio to the Park

the Clark Fork River.

My walk to school

 Walking across the bridge on Higgins.

Beneath Orange Street.

There were two small deer on the other side of this tunnel and they were not at all alarmed by my presence, they would lift there heads, look at me and then continue grazing.

It was wonderful to "live" downtown for the session and get to walk to Butterfly Herbs

for coffee/tea to fuel my morning walk.

As you can see it was a lovely time of day for a stroll.