autumn happenings

Oh, fall, how I do love thee!  Birthday, anniversary, new season, colors, crisp air, crunchy leaves . . . so so much to love.  A few photos of things that have happened thus far this season.

Happy birthday to me! Celebrations included dinner out at the Pearl (YUM):

and a lovely birthday shindig, of which I only got photos of the hanging candles above the picnic table (but it was a fabulous evening with wonderful people!):

There were also some gorgeous autumn sunsets:

and some warm evenings spent in the harvest-time profusion of our back yard: 

Then, delightfully, we got an unexpected visit from Michelle!  We drove over to Philipsburg to explore the town and try out the new brewery.  And take a few photos, of course.

We drove back over Skalkaho Pass, and the scenery was decidedly worth it.

photo by Michelle Lanzoni

photo by Michelle Lanzoni

Then, the kitties were cute.  It happens.  A lot.

I got to spend two days at Camp Paxson on Seeley Lake with a great group of teachers participating in A Forest For Every Classroom teacher workshop. Between unloading all the food into the ample kitchen and the teachers arriving later that afternoon, I spent a long, lovely hour basking in the sunshine on the dock.  Ahhhhhh.

The next morning, some of us took a sunrise canoe ride through the mists on Seeley Lake.

We also had some fun hikes with good friends--exploring Sawmill Gulch with Ann and Nathan (who, fortunately, are as normal as we are) . . .

 . . . and our yearly autumn pilgrimage to Glen Lakes to see the alpine larches changing color.  We enjoyed a gorgeous sunny day with Kara and Mark and Christopher and Lisa.

There was a goodly amount of snow up there--spectacular!  (And thank goodness for sunglasses.)

I will never, ever, get tired of this view.

Of course, we've also spent time doing lots of harvesty things, and Greg has been working hard to put the garden to bed for the year--cleaning out the chicken coop and digging all that rich compost into our garden beds . . .

. . . digging under beans and squash, and planting the garlic . . .

. . . and harvesting our sweet potato crop (always one of our favorite things)!

We also scrumped a bunch of apples from Bill and Becky's trees, and a volunteer at MNHC gave us a huge box of pears, so we spent an evening making apple-pear sauce:

YUM.

And then, of course, there are all the fall colors to enjoy, from oak trees to western larch:

Reflections on autumn colors.

And last night--pumpkin-carving party!  Tis the season!

Today Greg bought a bunch of native (and other) plants from Marchie's Nursery, and we are excited to fill in more of the gaps in our landscaping, and at the prospect of even more flowers next year.  One can never have too many tulips. Or daffodils. Or irises. Or blanketflowers. Or kinnikinnick plants. Or Oregon grapes. Or thimbleberries.

We've also spent a fair bit of time shelling our dry beans, which we had much more of this year than usual, since in addition to our fairly extensive backyard garden, we also had a community garden plot--in which we planted nothing but beans. We have black beans and garbanzo beans and kidney beans and white beans and pink-spotted beans and lima beans. But mostly black beans. And just this week Greg made his first batch of black bean hummus, which is exactly like regular hummus except that you use black beans instead of garbanzo beans. And let me tell you, is it GOOD. And it's particularly tasty with tortilla chips. Yum.

There is something so satisfying about eating hummus (or anything, really) made from ingredients you've grown yourself. I know this, but I am always reminded of it again during harvest time, when all those vegetables and herbs we've grown are piling up in the root cellar and fridge and kitchen counter. For the first time, we've dried herbs from our garden, and have jars full of fragrant crushed basil and marjoram and thyme (and catnip). For the first time, we grew more than just three and a half squash, and have made baked squash and squash soup and are looking forward to experimenting with even more squash recipes.  For the first time, we may have grown enough black beans to keep us through the year--!

Life is good. And I am grateful.

oh, the glorious month of June!

It's a sunny, warm, windy Sunday.  We got several weeks of rain in May, so now everything is green and lush and growing:  our garden, the wildflowers on the nearby hillsides and mountains, the weeds . . .  I thought I'd share some of the loveliness with you all, so here are a few photos of our activities this month (it's been quite full, and it's only the 9th!):

My good friend Jessie visited from Boise last weekend, and we had a great day hiking up toward St. Mary's peak (it was still rather snowy, so we didn't quite make it to the top).  Jessie and I both happened to wear the same exact style of Smartwool socks . . . which definitely warranted a classy photo:

And Greg is ALWAYS classy:

So is Ebie!  She galloped about in the snow, chased snowballs, ate snowballs, and wondered why we bipeds were moving so slowly.

The views were, of course, gorgeous.

That ridge in the center of the picture is the ridge right above Glen Lakes (one of my favorite spots in the Bitterroots--you may recognize it as being the same ridge as that in the picture at the top of my blog!):

It was a little odd walking on several feet of packed snow and seeing the green, green valley below us:

Group shot!  Ebie's almost looking!

I've had such fun running this spring.  And it's always fun to get a new running outfit.  Yup, went for pink power once again!  (No, really, I think it helps me run faster.  Whoosh!)

A few shots of the flowering plants in our yard and garden--these are chives, in a little ceramic planter painted by my Bepa years and years ago.  It's nice to have this memento of her right by our back steps.  :)

Flax!!

Spectacular columbine:

More spectacular columbine:

Our garlic and onions and potatoes (on the left), and the raspberry & blackberry bushes on the right.  Yes, we will be eating lots of berries this summer.  I can't wait.

The backyard on a beautiful spring day.  Ahhh.

I love our oak tree.  I think it loves us, too.

Last week we went on another Bitterroot excursion, to the Bear Creek Overlook trail, with Bill & Becky.

And the view was . . . not too shabby.

Not too shabby at all.

No matter which direction we looked!

And today, our rosebush is flowering!

And our spinach and tomatoes are growing!

And the bitterroots (Montana's state flower) are blooming!  We hiked up Waterworks Hill this afternoon to admire them.

The rest of the view wasn't too bad, either.

Yay for a breezy, sunny day!

The bitterroots in our yard are blooming, too.  I love bitteroots.

The irises are also pretty lovely.

June is lovely time to be alive.  It's been wonderful to get out into the hills and mountains, to stretch our legs, to admire views and wildflowers, and to simply enjoy the beauty all around us.  This past Friday was my 8-year (!) anniversary of moving to Montana, and I am so very glad and grateful to be here still.