Winter light on the lake
Today, 12/9/2010, from the north end of Flathead Lake as the next winter storm moves in.
Archive for ‘December, 2010’
Thursday
Thursday already!
We three members of the fambly Summers all “rise and shine” in our own unique ways…
Late yesterday afternoon, the temperature rose above freezing and stayed there overnight making everything a drippy, soggy mess. So, while not really cold enough to send a bear dog to his pillow, it is wet enough. And no, he doesn’t want to come in – he is free to come and go at his choosing.
Bob has the same freedom and chose a spot indoors.
It should be noted that both of them have been out on their morning rounds…
Me, I start with checking food and water bowls, loosing the boys to the outdoors and then coffee and a nibble: this morning, homemade rustic rye toast with peanut butter and my own cranberry-orange marmalade.
The snowthrower arrived home in working order (HEY, they had given me an incorrect belt – I feel a little bit vindicated in my repair efforts :)! ), a big storm is due with the forecast being 4-10 inches of snow, my pantry and frig are full, the work project deadline was met.
It is Thursday – hope all are having a good week!
Wishful thinking
This morning, I cleaned the ashes out of the woodstove, vacuumed and then before I started a fire got distracted by other chores…like my breakfast!
Bob thinks I need to rethink my priorities…
***I am not dependent on the wood stove for heat. Electric baseboard heaters are set to keep the house comfy when there is no fire and overnight as I let the fire die out in the night, i.e. we don’t all have icicles dangling from our noses when there is no fire.
Inversion’s End
A low deck of stratus casting gloom over the valley = Inversion. It has both beauty and some ugly. An inversion keeps it cold and damp underneath, while above the sun is shining under a clear blue sky and the air is dry. But sometimes in the underneath we have freezing fog, hoar frost or some other such thing which can be beautiful. This weekend it was seeing Inversion’s End that made up for living under the clouds.
The inversion ended north of the valley and the sun tantalized those of us south by showing itself on a range of mountains not under the low deck. Saturday night, this same range glowed orangish-pink in glorious alpenglow.
This is one of those “you have to be there moments” – I don’t believe it is possible to capture the feeling of the entire valley being under low, gray clouds and then seeing a bit of mountain lit up as if by a giant spotlight. These photos are just a glimpse of the eery-beautiful light.
Inversion’s End.
Links to previous Inversion posts:
Road Home Inversion
Keeping the peace
Now that we have snow…and enough that remnants from porch roof, sidewalk and driveway have created mounds here and there, Karl takes up position in a strategic spot that affords him the best view of his territory.
There is a herd of elk that stay in the area during the winter months as well as deer. Occassionally we see a coyote and even more rare are mountain lion tracks. Where the food is the predators will follow but primarily it is deer and elk that cross the property.
But all must be kept at a distance so the alarm sounds now and again.
There, that should do it!
Keeping the peace.
Morning sparkle
