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.  

abundance

Despite occasionally wishing for a little bit more space, I know there are many advantages to having a small house.  One of them is that, on any given lot, a small house means a larger yard.  Having a larger yard means having more space to garden.

And in August, having a big garden is a happy, happy thing.

For instance, one does not need to buy nearly as much fruit.  One can simply go out to the backyard . . . 

. . . and pick blueberries (this was all we got this year, but still.  It's three more than last year!) . . .

. . . and blackberries . . .

. . . and raspberries.  This year, especially raspberries.

One also does not need to buy as many, if any, vegetables.   There are peppers to eat . . . 

. . . and garlic . . .

. . . and kale, carrots, beets . . .

 . . . and soon, very VERY soon, there will be tomatoes.  Masses and masses of tomatoes, if these are any indication:

Not to mention potatoes and currants and onions and cucumbers, and, soon, corn and beans and squash and cabbage, and even a few grapes and soybeans.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my little bungalow and the big yard that comes with it . . . not to mention my garden-crazy husband?  

ripe red fruit and bright blue birds

Yes, it is the beginning of fruit season.  Red, ripe, fruit season.  A few strawberries have been eaten.

We are drooling over the handful of cherries that just may be ripe by the weekend.

Our raspberry bushes are laden with flowers and green fruit, which should be ripe in the next couple of weeks (probably the day after I leave on vacation . . . oh, well!).

Fruit is so exciting.  I love vegetables--peas, spinach, kale, green onions, bok choy, all the delicious goodies we're currently harvesting from our garden--but there is just something special about fruit.  It's sweet.  It's tangy.  Its flavor bursts lusciously against your tastebuds and you forget everything except how delicious it tastes.  Mmmm.

It's almost July and I'm not quite sure how it happened.  The weather has warmed, at last; the sweet hot air of summer surrounds us, though this afternoon a cooler front whirled through in a scattering of leaves, sprinkles of rain, and bright flashes of lightning, but the storminess, too, is summery.

Last night after dinner I walked to Mt. Sentinel and made my way up the steep trail to the fire road that runs across the western face.  I didn't set out to climb up the mountain (if I had, I probably would have worn some other footwear than flip flops!), but that's where my feet led me, and I'm glad they did.  The sun blazed golden on the horizon, illumining the clouds that rose above the valley and the encircling mountains.  The clouds shone rose and orange, dimming to dusky purple and periwinkle as the sun sank down.  The waving grasses near the top of Mt. Sentinel glowed pink against the deep blue eastern sky, and I watched a deer watch me, pausing in her munching as I meandered past.

I love that an evening stroll can take me up the side of a mountain.

Dad and Mom visited two weekends ago, and the June rains let up enough to let us wander the North Hills for an afternoon.  We saw myriad birds and flowers:  bitterroot (Montana's state flower!)

and lupine, waterleaf and groundsel and penstemon,

mountain bluebirds and meadowlarks, western bluebirds and goldfinches.  The highlight of our amble was 1) seeing several mountain bluebirds, which you think can't possibly be as blue as you remember them, and they're not--they're BLUER;

and 2) watching a mountain bluebird family, the father and mother feeding their little fledgling, who must have been just out of the nest.

The parents kept flying away and catching insects, then taking turns bringing them back to their fluffy little birdlet, who seemed very grateful.  And hungry.

 We were utterly enraptured.

It was a lovely day.

Though time does seems as though it's been whirling by, it helps to remember what I've been doing during these weeks.  It helps to set the memories down here, in this little bit of cyberspace, and recall the delights and details of the quickly-passing days.  It helps to taste and see the world around me . . . and I am reminded of a poem by Denise Levertov, one that I read in college and that has stuck with me ever since.

It is a reminder.
A motivation.
An encouragement.

O Taste and See

The world is

not with us enough

O taste and see

the subway Bible poster said,

meaning The Lord, meaning

if anything all that lives

to the imagination’s tongue,

grief, mercy, language,

tangerine, weather, to

breathe them, bite,

savor, chew, swallow, transform

into our flesh our

deaths, crossing the street, plum, quince,

living in the orchard and being

hungry, and plucking

the fruit.

Summertime!

Lots of pics and few words, because pictures are more interesting anyway, right? (Though as a writer I suppose I'd better not really believe that . . .)

Enjoy.

Back to June and Alaska . . . and magnificent Denali



The Baker Beauties (this was BEFORE the bear got them . . .)



Sunrise (not that it exactly ever set . . . ) over our campsite at Toklat



A midnight shot after our writing and wine night



Summer ain't summer without a trip (or seven) to the Big Dipper! Guess who DIDN'T order the huckleberry ice cream!



A mariposa lily, giving a shy smile



Setting up camp at the June Shy Bear contra dance



Oh, those tree huggers! Just can't get away from 'em!



Stacey in the lupine



Basil being fierce (or just tired?) in the laundry basket



Afternoon sunlight and glittering summer bugs by the river



Sending Greg off to Namibia (only 16 days left, though!)



What's this? ANOTHER Big Dipper trip??



A lovely and oh-so-quintessential picture of Tricia and Benjamin (and, for that matter, Miriam)



Yet another typical, not to mention traditional, picture: Tricia and I on the Welcome Creek bridge



We spent a lot of time at Franklin Park's splash park . . .



. . . and got just a tad damp.



We also ate lots of yummy food . . . mmm!



Adult swim night at Splash Montana!



Which happened to be the same night two kids set Mt. Sentinel on fire--we had great views of the fire and smoke from the top of the water slides!



~400 acres burned



I've also spent a good few weeks doing a very late spring cleaning.

The contents of the Recycling Cave of Death:



The newly-organized RCoD:



I also decided to paint the meditation room (finally!)



Despite the strong paint smell, Basil's curiosity got the better of him:



and the lure of the window was too great to resist.



A job (mostly) well done!



I also washed the rugs, and then sat out on the balcony and read while they dried. Mmm, balcony.



The last big project was rearranging the living room thus, and suddenly it seems much more spacious. Huh.



But I had plenty of time to play, too! Here we are in Butte, heading downtown to the National Folk Festival



For those who seek an alternative energy mode of transportation:



I also decided to plant a garden this year--though I bought starts rather than plant seeds:



They were so little! So cute!



And for some reason I didn't anticipate how much they would grow!!



So now everything's a little crowded . . .



but it will still all taste very, very yummy.



the best of both worlds: mint chip and huckleberry