SkyWatch Friday: An Apollo Picnic Under Mercurial Skies :-)

I find it nearly impossible to believe that we're on the brink of October's final weekend! Not only because of the month's speedy passage, but also because of its unseasonably balmy weather, more summery than autumnal.

Last Saturday's softly serene sunrise was both lovely and illustrative of our mild and gentle weather lately...

Knowing all too well that despite its delayed arrival wintery weather is inevitable, BW and I have been taking advantage of the beautiful days with bike rides and lots of outings with the dogs, while my friend Pam and I have been logging many miles on long walks, laughingly referring to ourselves as "Lewis and Clark" because of our explorations and adventures (and occasional need for a guide, given our shared lack of any sense of direction!) :-) The three of us even threw together a fun picnic on Tuesday. That morning, Pam and I walked the three miles to Sheridan's quilt shop, then hoofed it another 3/4 mile or so to the library to take another gander at this year's annual Fiber Arts Show entries (yep, post coming) and meet up with BW, who arrived in our car with the picnic supplies. 

It won't surprise those of you who know me well when I tell you that our picnic venue was the cemetery. :-) Not the main municipal cemetery, but the adjacent Bellevue Cemetery, home to a rather mysterious collection of columns from the 1930s. They used to support a wooden pergola which has long since succumbed to the elements that are also taking their toll on the columns. A local historic pamphlet that Pam bought at the library identified the structure-that's-no-longer-a-structure as the romantically pagan "Sun Temple." Despite the fact that our sunny day was morphing into an overcast one, it still made a great spot for a picnic lunch.

But before eating, Pam and BW decided to burn a few extra calories by helping to prop up this lone little puffer cloud… 

Pam gave it a gentle push with her finger so BW could hold it like a serving tray! 

We set up our picnic in the center of the "temple," so were encircled by the columns as we dined on our yummy feast of tempeh salad sandwiches, hummus, carrots, apples, bananas and hibiscus tea. All we were missing were a lyre, our togas, and Apollo...

Oh, wait! Look who showed up! And ate most of the hummus! 

(okay, maybe that was me. LOL)...

After lunch we headed next door to the large municipal cemetery and visited several of the more scenic and interesting sections and historic graves there. At one point, Pam looked up and saw this dragon in the tree above us!...

Though it remained a balmy 77ºF, the weather grew increasingly cloudy and blustery, until the skies to our north looked like this at 6pm...

Though teasing us with the promise of some much-needed rain, it turned out the clouds were just for show (and cemetery ambience). The night remained dry, and the next day was another sunny one. In fact, the lack of clouds has made for fairly boring sunrises this week, at least until yesterday when more nocturnal clouds made for an appropriately pumpkin-colored and picturesque dawn before clearing out later that morning...

For more picturesque skies by day & by night, beneath sunshine & clouds, 

and both autumnal & vernal from both sides of the equator, please visit...

2014 Sheridan Annual Garden Tour, Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my 4-part series about this year's Garden Tour!

We toured seven of Sheridan's eight competing gardens on July 19. The finalists, chosen by the local greenhouse that sponsors the tour, competed this year for the most votes from the touring public in two categories: "Amazing" Estate Garden and "Amazing" Backyard Garden. 

Part 1 featured one of the backyard garden finalists, so here are the remaining three we toured (the one we missed was also in this category), starting with the "Amazing" Backyard Garden winner and their friendly, colorful welcome by the front door…

This home and garden, belonging to Debra and Rob, is just a block away from the house we rented while our current home was being built, so we remember it but had never seen the private back yard before. The most impressive thing about this place (and the last one on this post) is something I didn't think I'd be able to show you: their "before" photos! But happily, I just discovered that Debra, a working artist, has a web site! So you can see the before photos, as well as more of their yard and her art, made from recycled/repurposed materials.

Both the house and yard were in horrible condition when they'd bought the place. In just five years, doing it all themselves, Rob and Debra turned a yard of bare dirt and weeds and a rundown house into this lovely prize-winning sanctuary...

I love the airplane whirligig in the foreground and the shady bench in the back corner. 

Oh, and the guy in the blue shirt, too! :-)

Apparently Rob and Deb also managed to squeeze in some traveling! (Or maybe they just steal license plates off vehicles at the visitor's center. LOL)...

This next contender was a very large property out in the country (we were surprised it was in the Backyard rather than the Estate garden category). Its best feature was the two adjoining ponds that the owners, Robert and Carla, built themselves. The ponds (one large, one small) had a little footbridge spanning them, with koi and lily pads and antiques and whimsical decorations scattered around their edges, and so many different kinds of solar lights that I'm sure this garden is best enjoyed at night! But in the daylight, the highlight was this lovely waterfall, positioned right in front of their large covered patio for maximum soothing effect…

I found this unobtrusive little sign pointing to the ponds quite amusing (and relatable!)...

This final Backyard Garden is the one that got our votes. Before we even saw the garden, their adorable cottage had won our hearts...

This time I have no web site to share and couldn't photograph the photo album they had on display that showed what this place looked like when they bought it. Trust me, it wasn't pretty - but in three years, the owners, Gene and Lillian (former stage and screen actors and musicians) had transformed a derelict hovel into this enchanting home...

As if the charm of the front yard weren't enough, when we walked through the gate to the back yard we were greeted by bubbles!! 

And aren't those hollyhocks wonderful?\

In addition to a lot of old-fashioned plants like the hollyhocks (many grown from seed) that went well with their early 1900's home, they had a vegetable garden I wanted to raid right then and there - filled to capacity with heirloom tomatoes and gorgeous kale! Besides the adorable cottage and fun bubbles, another reason we liked this garden so much was that it inspired us with a few ideas for our own back yard and patio, from their pagoda (not pictured) to their solar Japanese lanterns to this very tall lattice privacy screen. BW had me take several photos of its details and Gene generously answered BW's questions about its construction. Since our HOA only allows "privacy" fences to be 5' tall (which only really affords you privacy if you're a toddler!), a couple of these set 2-3 feet inside the fence, with trumpet vines or morning glories climbing them, would do the trick (and give the dogs some shady hidey-spots to nap!)...

We've been enjoying some really lovely weather (though yesterday's high of about 90º was a tad toasty for this time of year!), and everyone's flowers are looking beautiful, veggie gardens are spewing forth an abundance of tomatoes, zucchini, winter squash, herbs, etc, while just a few trees are beginning to turn. Late summer/early Autumn can be so delightful.

Except when it isn't! Here's our forecast as of this moment... 

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING. 

PERIODS OF HEAVY WET SNOWFALL MAY IMPACT THE BEARTOOTH, ABSAROKA AND BIG HORN MOUNTAINS AND THEIR FOOTHILLS WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING. 

* ACCUMULATING WET SNOW MAY CAUSE DAMAGE TO TREES AND POWER LINES. 

* HEAVIEST SNOW WILL FALL ALONG THE NORTHEAST SLOPES OF THE BEARTOOTH, ABSAROKA AND BIG HORN MOUNTAINS.  SEVERAL INCHES OF SNOW ARE ALSO POSSIBLE ALONG THE NEAR NYE, RED LODGE, DAYTON, SHERIDAN AND STORY. 

 * WINDS NORTHEAST 15 TO 25 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS OVER THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
Oh, UGH! Remember what happened to us last year? (At least it had the good graces to wait till October!) I sure hope this forecast is being overly dramatic, but the predicted low of 23º Thursday night is going to wreak havoc even if snow doesn't. We'd planned to leave today with the girls and Girasole for Havre, but since this storm is barreling down from northern Montana their forecast isn't any better than ours. So we're staying put until Saturday. (And so will do my best to publish a SkyWatch Friday post this week).

Anyway, Parts 3 and 4 of the Garden Tour (which may not materialize till October!) will feature two of the three gardens from the Estate Gardens category (the owners of the third one were rude and pissed us off, so their garden doesn't get to be on my blog. That'll show 'em!) 

2014 Sheridan Annual Garden Tour, Part 1
2014 Sheridan Annual Garden Tour, Part 3
2014 Sheridan Annual Garden Tour, Part 4

SkyWatch Friday: Glad to be a morning person!

September already? Busy days lately, many that began with equally busy skies enlivened by charismatic clouds. I hope you enjoy these early morning overhead offerings!

A couple of sunrises from last week...

(I call this one "Battlestar Gallactica Cloud!")

The still unsettled (but still lovely) early morning skies over our campsite following a night of wild thunderstorms and rain...

Just when I thought it was turning into a sunny day, the clouds said, "Not so fast, sister!"...

And finally these photos, taken about 2½ minutes apart, of the breathtaking sunrise that greeted us on Labor Day and got September off to a beautiful start…

I definitely live in a place where it's great to be a morning person. :-)

Happy weekend and happy SkyWatching!

Happy Campers!

I am pleased to report that as both a learning experience and a fun outing, our inaugural camping adventure on Thursday with Girasole, our new little T@B trailer, was a success (though not without a bit of unanticipated excitement!) Naturally I had to record it for posterity. :-)

Here's BW putting the finishing touches on setting up our campsite under the watchful - if somewhat baffled - gaze of the girls...

And here BW conducts a final inspection of our portable dog kennel set-up, which met with everyone's enthusiastic approval...

We bought two of these for the kennel, used a few of the interlocking foam mats we'd purchased to go under their beds, and used an old tarp for a shady shelter. And we hauled all of it (plus more of the mats and our folding camp chairs) on top of the Jeep in our new soft cargo bag. BW's package-car loading days at UPS (memorialized on his water bottle, lol) sure came in handy...

The kennel was very handy for keeping the girls both safe and legal (the park has a leash law) while we were busy and overnight, though they were so very well-behaved (as we knew they would be) that they were quite content to just hang out with us, never wandering off or making a sound, even when other people walked by with their dogs. We camped along the Tongue River (I think; I'll explain later!) at Connor Battlefield State Park in Ranchester, about 20 miles north of Sheridan. It's a small campground, and when we arrived at around 2 that afternoon there were only two other campers there. A few more arrived during the night, but it stayed very quiet. Except for the trains! We didn't realize the tracks were just three blocks away, and trains went by all night long, blowing their whistles with gusto. The only thing that drowned them out was the thunder - I know, look at that cloudless blue sky, right? More on the unpredicted midnight storm coming up. Meanwhile, enjoy our peaceful campsite by day, like we did...

We also all enjoyed our walks around the park. Let me take you on a little tour…

This place wasn't always peaceful. This monument marks the site where an Arapaho village of about 500 inhabitants once stood...

At around 8 in the morning of August 29, 1865, in what is now known as the Battle of the Tongue River (or Connor Battle), the non-belligerent village was attacked by Gen. Patrick Connor, commander of the Powder River Expedition, and about 300 of his soldiers. Most of the young Arapaho men were gone, raiding ponies from the Crow along the Big Horn River. The women, children, and mostly elderly men who were left in the village were caught completely off guard by the attack and the indiscriminate firing by the soldiers, and many were killed, wounded, and captured. After the initial attack, the few able warriors in the village managed to put up an effective defense, retreating 12 miles up Wolf Creek while covering the escape of the surviving women and children. Most of the soldiers remained in the village, looting and burning about 250 lodges, while Connor and 30 or so of his soldiers and Pawnee scouts pursued the retreating Arapaho, who counter-attacked. When all was said and done, Connor claimed to have killed 63 Arapaho, including 35 warriors (the latter number one that historians believe was probably exaggerated), with a loss to himself of five dead and two seriously wounded.

The highly observant among you may have noticed that we happened to be camping there on the 149th anniversary of this tragedy, and its victims were very much on my mind. I agree with what this brief article about "The Connor Battle," states in its final sentence: "The tragic events of the past can be felt in this quiet and contemplative setting." And I take issue with calling an unprovoked attack on non-combatants a "battle." It's worth noting that as the Powder River Expedition began, Connor's orders to his officers were, "You will not receive overtures of peace or submission from Indians, but will attack and kill every male Indian over 12 years of age." (Connor's superiors countermanded this order). It's also worth noting that after this, the Arapaho did become enemies of the US Army (understandably!), attacking a wagon train three days later on Sept 1 and joining forces with the Cheyenne and Lakota (Sioux) in their successful attack on Fort Fetterman the following December.

I think the Arapaho may be continuing to exact a small measure of revenge, in that both times we've visited this park we've been attacked by a cloud of mosquitos whenever we stood before this monument. Didn't matter what time of day it was, and we didn't experience it anywhere else in the park!

All that history of violence and tragedy here stands in stark contrast to the playground that now also marks the spot. It was deserted the entire time we were there and so never disrupted the "quiet and contemplative setting"...

The bison appeared to be made for climbing with all its toeholds and handholds,

while the stagecoach was a unique alternative to typical playground equipment.

On the opposite side of the park is this nifty suspension footbridge that crosses the river (or creek?) to a residential area. The dogs were very brave about crossing it a few times, given that it sways and bounces noticeably!  

Despite the bouncing, the bridge provided a great vantage point for taking the next two photos. I have tried to do my homework on this, I really have - but I still don't know if this waterway, which wends its way around three sides of the park, is the Tongue River or Wolf Creek. Wolf Creek is a tributary of the Tongue River and the road that runs along this portion of the river/creek is "Wolf Creek Road." The river/creek is identified on various maps of the town and park as the Tongue River, Wolf Creek, and Five-Mile Creek (where'd that one come from?!) I'm guessing the portion beside our campsite where the water flows more rapidly is the Tongue River, and this more sedate portion opposite is Wolf Creek, but that's the best I can do. It's pretty, whatever it's called, especially with the evening sun shining on it and the Big Horn Mountains in the distance...

The arrow is pointing to our campsite and "outfit," as they call a truck or a tow vehicle + trailer-of-any-kind combination in these parts...

While we relaxed at our campsite that evening, I noticed a white church steeple, nicely illuminated by the evening sun in the distance on the other side of the river, and took this photo of it with my telephoto lens...

Not long after, when we took the girls for another stroll across the suspension bridge to explore the surrounding neighborhoods, we came upon the church, which turned out to have a Mini-Me! lol...

As dusk fell, we went inside and prepared our first meal in Girasole - a complex affair that we slaved over for hours! ;-)~ We've enjoyed various Dr. McDougall soups at home for years and are happy that they, along with his delicious oatmeal, are also perfect for camping (just add hot water)! BW had snagged the chocolate goodies at the health food store the day before, but the beer was a spontaneous purchase. We've been told by several veteran RV campers that some people engage in this activity in order to socialize (so our main goal being to get away from people might prove tricky!), and we'd also heard that the colorful T@Bs are people magnets. Sure enough, we'd barely arrived and were setting up the dog kennel when a man from one of the two other campers in the park strolled over to visit and ask about our T@B, Scotch on the rocks in hand. He was joined later by his wife, who we'd hoped was coming to fetch his talkative ass but no such luck, she was there to join him (with a stinky lit cigarette in her hand, yuck). They were nice people, but a half hour of their uninvited, chatty company right after we'd arrived was a bit much! Anyway, a while after they left I said to BW, "I don't even like Scotch, but damn his drink looked good to me!" And BW said, "I thought so too!" And then together we said, "Let's get beer!!!" :-) Our site had no shade, Mr. and Mrs. Chatty Britches and the other camper having snagged the only two shady spots, and running our A/C really sucked the generator juice, so needing to get more fuel gave BW a great excuse to pick up some Fat Tire ale while he was at it. We enjoyed our simple meal on our new table (having ditched the heavy convertible table/bed platform that came with Girasole, installing bed rails and slats instead along with getting this lightweight folding table), by the light of our sweet new little 3-way LED lantern...

While we were noshing, BW remembered Girasole's stereo and jumped up to turn it on. It happened to be tuned to Sheridan's oldies station and he'd turned it on just as the chorus to Still the One was beginning! "We're still having fun after all these years…" :-) So of course we clinked our beer bottles and sang along! (And you can too, as I've put the video with lyrics at the bottom of this post!) :-)

It's all fun and games till a wicked thunderstorm that no one predicted appears overhead at 1am (a ghostly, meteorological anniversary reenactment of Connor's attack on the Arapaho, perhaps?) BW got up when he heard one of the dogs pawing at the fence (most likely Tess, who is terrified of thunderstorms), and that's when he saw all the lightning in our vicinity. A loud crack of thunder woke ME up, and the race was on. Willow and Josie can't safely or easily jump in or out of our Jeep anymore, so we bought this PetLoader a few weeks ago - best purchase we've made. But we had to get it untethered from the back of the Jeep and deploy it, put a harness on Willow (she still has bouts of vertigo and holding the top of the harness helps steady her as she uses the PetLoader steps), put collars and leashes on Tess and Josie, gather and shake off their beds and put them in the Jeep, and then load the girls - in the dark and the wind (luckily the rain held off), with lightning striking all around us and thunder crashing and banging overhead. Though our girls haven't used the PetLoader very often - and never under such challenging circumstances - they were real champs! Loaded right up and spent the rest of the night sleeping contentedly in the back of the Jeep. We rolled the windows down so they could catch the nice breeze, and although it rained most of the rest of the night we were all lucky that the inside of the Jeep stayed dry. I checked on them at 4 in the morning and wish I had a photo of our little angels snoring peacefully away, all lying with their butts touching in the middle of the Jeep with their bodies fanned out like flower petals. :-)

The next morning we had a muddy mess to contend with, but that's all part of the camping experience. It was chilly and overcast but the rain didn't resume, and as you can see in the reflection of Girasole's front window we even had a few tatters of blue sky flirt with us before it finally cleared up late that morning. I took photos of the pretty, chameleon-like sky and will share them as part of this week's SkyWatch post. Meanwhile, here is BW sipping his hot tea and being entertained by Willow's vain attempts to convince Tess it would be fun to mud-wrestle...

I'm pretty sure that packing up, getting there, unpacking and setting up camp, then tearing it down, repacking, driving home and cleaning everything up took longer than our actual camping did! :-) But it was a great experience and we are really looking forward to our next one, a much longer trek to northern Montana, a little later this month. We'll see if Girasole is "Still the One" and if "we're still having fun" after that adventure! :-)

SkyWatch Friday: The Difference Between the Lightning Bug & the Lightning

For the past month or more, our neighbor has been trying (unsuccessfully) to convince us that there's been a nightly cloud of lightning bugs blinking and flashing their luminous bellies above a street lamp north of our houses. Though we've looked for them (also unsuccessfully), we've remained skeptical for several reasons:

1) Lightning bugs (aka fireflies) prefer warm, humid climates and are native to areas east of the natural barrier of the Rockies. They're rarely seen in the more arid states west of Kansas - and those few species that can be found in the Rockies are not the flashing variety.
2) We haven't seen any in the 25 years we've lived in Wyoming (to our sorrow)
3) When we've lived in places with lightning bugs, we never saw them cluster around lights. In fact, along with development, researchers cite light pollution as a probable major factor in the worldwide decline in lightning bug populations, since it interrupts the flash patterns lightning bugs use to communicate and attract mates.
4) Every time our neighbor has tried to convince us, he's had a beer in his hand. ;-)

What we have seen are small moths flying around the streetlights, whose light reflects off their wings and makes them appear to be glowing. So we think those are probably what our neighbor is seeing and mistaking for lightning bugs.

But last Friday and Saturday evenings, we also saw this amazing cloud of lightning blinking and flashing above the street lamp north of our houses...

So maybe our neighbor meant to say lightning and not lightning bugs. :-)

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word 

is really a large matter -- 

it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

~ Mark Twain 

SkyWatch Friday: Thunderstorms & Toadstools

I've only got a couple of sky photos from this week, so I thought I'd also toss in a couple of photos of some very weird mushroom/toadstool interlopers I found in our front flower bed this morning and see if anyone out there might help me identify them. I've never seen anything like them growing here before, and they seemed to spring up out of nowhere during our overnight thunderstorms (magic mushrooms, maybe?) Anyway, I thought "Thunderstorms and Toadstools" was a much nicer title than "Mushroom Clouds," though I confess that was the first title that popped into my head! :-)

It's been a week of unsettled weather, to say the least, and unusually humid for our usually dry climate. I took this first photo Wednesday evening as the sun was going down behind the mounting storm clouds - I thought the contrast of the dark clouds against the sunlit blue sky was striking. I suppose those three white streaks of varying widths are crepuscular rays, but they didn't look like any sunbeams I'd ever seen before...

After several days of flirting with and skirting our area (but wreaking havoc in neighboring ones, as well as with my sinuses!), last evening the thunderstorms got down to business. We were surrounded by severe thunderstorms that were trouncing those in their path with large hail, high winds, heavy rains, and a lot of lightning, and we were under a severe thunderstorm watch all evening. I'm sure it was thanks to the fact that BW and I ran our Defcon 5 Storm Drill late that afternoon - bringing everything inside that wasn't actually rooted in the soil - that all we ended up getting were some breezes, gentle rain, enough thunder to make our dog Tess nervous, and an amazing lightning show in every direction. Oh, and these very ominous skies...

The little white specks are raindrops, lit up by my camera's flash

Hey, it's Friday. There are skies. You know the drill… 

Now about those toadstools. There were about half a dozen of them hiding beneath the foliage of one of our violas and one of our bergamot plants. They were growing at the very base of the plants, in a couple of cases so entwined with the plant stems and roots that it was hard to extricate them without digging up part of the flowers. I was just weeding the flower bed yesterday and swear they weren't there then! 

Here are the two largest ones, which measured about 3" tall and a little over 4" wide...

Shown with one of my beloved Merrell Mix Master Glides for scale! :-)

And here is what their stems and gills look like (you can see a stem of the bergamot plant, whose roots were entwined with the toadstool)... 

So, anyone know which agaric (gilled mushroom) these might be? I tossed them, of course, but it would be a shame if it turned out they were edible, especially since we're planning to make this for dinner tomorrow! :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone, and Happy Canada Day to our neighbors to the north on Tuesday, eh?