Posts from the ‘Nature’ category

Snow Day in pastels

**These photos were on Artful Tales in the larger sizes I was trying. I will have the new, larger format on From the Front Porch – hopefully to start the New Year. I made the decision to have only one blog and From the Front Porch will be it – sticking to writing and photos of the simple things in my life that I wish to share.

I want to thank all who commented and emailed – so helpful to know how things look to you, especially when I’m sitting here dithering!

Artful Tales has been dismantled, but I am keeping the domain name, just in case… and it has sentimental value – a shared venture at it’s start.

We got snow

We got a bit of snow…about 10 inches by midday. Karl blazed the trail for our early afternoon walk, although I think a few deer had gone before..

This explains a lot…

Yep.

I didn’t do much better…my hat after my snowblowing. The rest of me looked pretty much the same as the hat and Karl’s face.

We got snow.

Flathead Lake Monster

Almost every large lake or loch has its monster and Flathead Lake is no exception.

From Flathead Lakers website*:

Since the first sighting reported in 1889, 79 accounts of a large-sized objects have been documented. Most (92 percent) observations have occurred during the months of April through September.

What is it the people see? The object most frequently (70 percent) described is a large eel shape creature that reachs in length from 20 to 40 feet. It is round, brown to blue-black in color, and possesses very obvious steely-black eyes and undulating hips. Others identify it as a large-sized fish from 6 to 10 feet in length.

The most obvious point made during the recorded narratives is that the sighters were not drinking or on drugs and that they hate to talk about it to anyone for fear of being identified as a “weirdo” or worse.

Hmmm…

A monster???? on this beautiful and peaceful mountain lake??? But, wait – in the photo above….to the right and just to the left of the dead tree…in the water…

GASP!…. oh, it’s a log…..I think it is a log…I’m pretty sure that is a log…

* Flathead Lakers website has information about the lake. The “Lakers” are a volunteer organization “working for clean water, healthy ecosystems and lasting quality of life in the Flathead watershed in northwest Montana”.

Photos were taken from Wayfarer’s Park on November 30, 2008.

Shooting the Moon

The above courtesy of tips and tutorial from Ivory Hut in a guest post at Pioneer Woman titled: Shoot for the Moon

If you’ve not been happy with your moon shots, click on the link above. I read, jumped up, grabbed my camera – no tripod – went forth and followed instructions. I hope I can try again tonight when the moon is low and large over the mountains. It is supposed to be clear tonight…

From the same spot, the morning scene:

Rainy day Monday

Another gray day, making for not much “easy” in the way of photo taking…that, and I’ve been mostly “nose to the grindstone” with my day job…

But as I was working late morning, some movement out the window caught my eye…

And a friend of hers was munching away in the side yard…

Bob kept an eye out…

Karl was with me saying “Please, Mom, I don’t feel like chasing deer”. He generally doesn’t like them close to the house and will convince them to move into the woods where he’ll stand and look threatening until he’s sure they will not venture back. But on occasion, I’ve seen him pointedly ignore them, as if he’s tired of the whole thing. Not the rare bucks, but the does which are abundant, will often not move unless you get seriously close to them. Then they bound effortlessly away. I can understand his frustration.

The golden glow of the ground is not just dying grass… some of the gold is the larch needles that have fallen. The trees are looking a bit sparse, some already bare. There is some color left, but between the sparsely leaved and needled trees, the gray skies and clouded in mountain tops, Karl and I in our hunter orange were as colorful as anything!

Rainy day Monday.