Lemon meringue pie

I know, I know.

It's autumn and I should be reveling in all things appley or spicey, gingerbready or molassesey.

But you know what? I really wanted a lemon meringue pie. And since company's coming to dinner, I just went for it.

Maybe it's the peaks. They remind me of the scenery last night from the trailcam retrieval adventure.

See? more peaks!
(I wonder if there are any bears in this shot?!)

Wind and whine (by Kat)

Lord oh lord am I ever tired of being sick!

I was doing better by the end of last week, but then Saturday found me outside from 8:30-2:30 engaged with the public in an outreach event. My little town has a reputation for it's breeze, and, true to form, the breeze showed up to the big event adorned with all her bells and whistles. She celebrated in style, did our blustery friend, with sustained breezes of 18-39 mph with gusts up to 50 mph.

The hardiest of the bunch, the archaeologists, stuck it out the whole day. I threw my exhibit into the back of my work rig a little early so I could hear their final lecture. The snake biologists packed it in quite a bit earlier, much to the dismay of my daughter and her friends.

After a so-called "slumber" party the night before to celebrate Chirp-chirp's 13th birthday, Mr Boom brought the truckload of adolescent sleep-deprived girls to the park so they could participate in the scheduled snake sneak outing. When they discovered the trip was canceled, Mr Boom (my hero!) put the girls back into the truck, drove them down the canyon, and took them on their own private snake sneak. They only found one rattlesnake, but they called it a triumph since the "professionals" said none were to be found.

Anyway, Sunday morning found me nasty sick again, but with a tremendous urge to be...

ELSEWHERE.

I wanted out of the wind that's been howling around our house, I wanted out of the shrub-steppe despite the previous day's extolling of her beauty. I wanted trees and water and stillness and beauty.

I got it.

I love this tiny little pond nestled high in the hills.
It's not always this color blue, usually it's even blue-er.

I started meandering down the old road, but hacking as I was on the way down,
I realized that coming back up would likely kill me.

Something to look forward to...

PS Right now our local breeze is 40 mph with little gusts of 60 mph. I wonder when the real spring winds will hit? Hah!

PPS Beaufort Scale I recorded an "8" on Saturday, today's land conditions indicate a "9," although that's higher than the weather report says.

PPPS Sick people are boring. I apologize.

Buttercups! (by Kat)

Mr. Boom and I woke up early this morning and ran up to the hills. The sun shone through our bedroom window in a long-forgotten angle, and we just KNEW we had to make a run for it! That particular angle meant spring! It promised beauty and warmth and squishy mud under our boots. It whispered that we might find some antlers that deer and elk are now shedding. It yelled at us to get the heck out of the house at this very instant! Being obedient sorts (ha!), we did.

The snow is still thick on the mountain ranges surrounding our valley, but the lower hills have lost their blanket.

As we traipsed up a draw, the still-frozen soil crunched under our feet, but as we neared the upper portion, the soil grew less firm, and then it was downright muddy. We started up a toe slope, and discovered a buttercup!

Then this!

Then these!

Then a stream!

An ocean!

Oh heavens above...
Spring has sprung!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goldfish Rodeo (by Kat)

In our yard, we have a little pond.

Creatures live in the pond.

Look! There they are!

Here fishy fishy...

Where'd they all go?

Here they are in their safe winter home.

But wait!
These two have feet!

Bullfrogs!!

A good day to get out (by Kat)

Today was a really good day to get outside.

We started early, but not too early.

Recent rains turned the lichen green,
and the sage and bitterbrush perked up just a little bit.


See the little cups in the lichen?


It means we need to give it a little privacy...
Baby lichens are being made!

The hills rolled on and on all around us.


Pockets of color appeared over the dullest of rises.

Yep, it was a good day to be outside.

Little Pend Oreille Weekend (by Kat)

Our daughter safely stowed away with her friend for the weekend, we skedaddled away from home and ended up in the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge.

Wow.

The first evening found us on Bailey Lake. As the sun set, we were in our t-shirts and perfectly warm. Out on the lake, which is a pond, really, a North American river otter swam back and forth. See it's tail up in the air? I haven't been able to figure out what the purpose of that was. If anyone knows why an otter would swim around for so long with it's tail up in the air, please tell me! I need to know!


Here's the very last picture of the evening. The lake appeared to be on fire. I've never seen anything like it. I want to go back and see it again...

View from Lion's Rock (by Kat)

Here's the view from a nearby promontory. The expanse of land before your eyes when you stand up here is incredible. Until this recent visit, I'd never been there when the wind wasn't howling and the air bitingly cold. I've been snowed on in July up here.

This day, though, was just beautiful.


Don't you think?