Lunch Time Jaunts

This is the new-ish pathway to the Park in Troy,

AKA "the lunch walk".

Note that the pond is covered with "cotton" from the cottonwood trees.

Thankfully I am not allergic!

Can you imagine if you were?

The town has piles of cotton blown all over.

The view from the west end of the fishing pond toward town and the Cabinet Mountains.

The entire town of Troy smells like this!

I am not exaggerating!

Look!

And I couldn't resist,

I have been playing with my new camera,

trying to bond with it, if you would.

And this is the weird, artistic setting!

Love the boldness!

11~11~11

 Natassia and I took a little road trip to the Flathead for 11~11~11.

We met up with some friends and went to ladies night out in Whitefish.

But first we went with my friend, Helen, of hooping fame &

walked around this lovely property that is full of stone circles and mandalas

and huge crystals and other delightful things.

 The property is roughly 300 acres and the Whitefish River runs through it.

It was an old mill site.

Now it is something like a "StarGate" or portal.

We are not sure what the owner is calling it.

But it was a lovely outing and a lovely day for a walk,

and all the goodness and adventure carried on late into the night.

The full moon and 11~11~11!

Melting Snow

 Two co-workers and my daughter Molly and I took an evening hike to Crowell Falls.

 It is always amazing to see this place when the water is high.

The view from up here is spectacular.

The wildflowers are in full bloom.

 Bull Lake through the trees from on high.

 It is amazing that all this water is fostered by the sun on the snowfields!

A walk in the Park

 Today, my co-worker and I had a lunch meeting

walking through Roosevelt Park along the Kootenai River

 We made the loop around the fishing pond

 and the other loop down by the tracks

where you get this nice view of Grambauer Mtn.

These are the best of meetings.

More productive than any conference room! 

The Morning Wander

Our walk to the paperbox on the weekends becomes more of a journey in the late spring. Mike becomes a weed extracting machine, no weed goes undetected and there are always many to pull, or at least remove their flowers untill he can get there with the weed whip or herbacide. The cats come along, usually Gazpacho only makes it halfway before turning around, but they both need many attention breaks,

 2/3 mile 'round trip is a long way for a cat without any attention!

I bring the camera and am distracted by all of the wildflowers blooming and other plants. We talk about all the plants and practice our horticultural latin and verify with the books when we get home. Mike has his cup of coffee and I have my cup of tea and we have to balance sipping and weed picking and foto taking and holding the paper and petting the cat...multi tasking in the truest sense and most relaxing sense!

 Calypso Orchid~Fairyslipper~Calypso bulbosa

 Wild Saparilla~Aralia Nudicaulis

We haven't noticed this flower before, we see the leaves all the time.

We think it is the very wet spring that is drawing our attention to these blooms.

 Starflower False Solomons Seal~Smilasina stellata

 Bunchberry~Canadian Dogwood~cornus canadensis

 Fairybells~disporum tracycarpum

bunchberry & yellow violet 

 wild apple

 wild strawberry~fragraria virginiana

 Oregon Grape~mahonia aquafolium

 wild strawberry, just past flowering & ready to make a berry.

 beech fern-thelypteris phegopteris

heart shaped leaf (violet) by a rock with moss. 

 Just past the fork in the lane on the way home.

 kinnickinnick~bear berry~arctostaphylos uva ursi

bunch berry with a pinker center! beautiful!

This year with all the rain, the world around us is very lush and clean and verdant.

The water drops on everything make the world shine with a different light.

oregon grape with rain drop and note the pollen in the center of the rain drop.

Skiing

After a full day of shovelling the pathways, parking spots, shed roof, camper,

 the basement windows & the neighbor ladies paths, a friend showed up

all excited about ALL the snow and we immediately donned our cross-

country skis and took off breaking trail around the "back 20".

 As you might recall, the bridge blew out last summer,

this is the new crossing.....a bit tricky on skis, but worth the adventure.

 It is actually the approach and the ending that are the treacherous part of the adventure.

 Over the knee deep! Wow!

 Whew! a little desent, but not very fast as the snow was SO deep!

The snowed in path.