A Garden Guest :-)

I took these photos of a lovely visitor to our garden earlier this week...

"Just living isn't enough," said the butterfly,

"One must also have freedom, sunshine, and a little flower."

~Hans Christian Anderson

Soda Hill Hike

BW's been on vacation this week, so between that and a sprained right shoulder that makes being at the computer painful after a short while, my blogging has suffered! (Let's not even talk about my emailing!) But I took some photos during a fun hike up nearby "Soda Hill" (named for all the beautiful rocks found there that look like rootbeer and grape soda!), and wanted to share a few. It was a perfect day, sunny and in the low 70's...

BW and the dogs at the start of our hike...

A Sego Lily...

This is called "Prairie Smoke" and is one of my favorites...

I think this is a member of the Biscuitroot family...

BW near the top of Soda Hill (our house is waaaay below, over his right shoulder!)...

BW and Willow take a break (notice the in-flight butterfly above BW??)...

Tessa having fun!...

Pretty pinecones against a beautiful June sky...

Josie soaks her tummy and tootsies at the end of our long hike! :-)

For Fellow Treehugging Bibliophiles

In the past few days I found (and fell in love with) this quote on a tshirt at our local greenhouse and this image on a Care2 profile page. They're made for each other, don't you think?

Plant trees.

They give us two of the most crucial elements for our survival:

oxygen and books.

~A. Whitney Brown

Bon Voyage, Valkyrie!

I was supposed to be in town today for errands and appointments, but woke up with a migraine, rescheduled everything, medicated myself and went back to sleep! Now I'm over my headache but am feeling tired and "noodly," so am content to just relax in the cool basement and read on the shady patio. It's supposed to be in the mid-upper 90's today and tomorrow and around 100º on Saturday! Happy Summer Solstice!! Sure seems that someone suddenly flipped the "Summer" switch in Wyoming. Hard to believe that as recently as Monday morning, our pellet stove was running!

We sold our 1998 Valkyrie motorcycle yesterday... the buyer flew in from Tulsa, OK and we met him at the airport with it. We think he'll really enjoy the Valk. We sure did...when we had the time and good weather to ride it! At least he'll have a lot more good riding weather down there. I was sad to see it go on the one hand, as I loved going for rides, especially in the mountains. But on the other hand, it's nice to have that $ in the bank (for remodeling and sailing lessons!), and the room in the garage. And since all three dogs love going for rides now, we're thinking we'll yank the top off the Bronco, put a soft top on it for summer, and take the dogs into the mountains with the time we used to spend riding the Valk and leaving the poor kids at home! :-) (The Bronco is a 1975 beater, perfect for hauling dogs into the high country, since muddy paws and soggy fur don't matter!)

Someday, when BW retires and we're either living aboard a sailboat or in a small cottage (or both!), we'll invest in a couple of nice bicycles. We'd need serious mountain bikes up here, and we think our road up (and down) the mountain is just too dangerous. I really miss bike-riding, and pedal power has a lot more appeal to both of us than a carbon-spewing motorcycle does, so that's another fun thing to look forward to! (We have visions of docking in places like SF or Cannes or Genoa, unloading our bikes and pedaling merrily through beautiful wine, bread and lavender country ~ munching, sipping and inhaling aromatherapy along the way!) :-)

Anyway, here's the Valkyrie. She sure turned heads!

Happy trails, Valkyrie... and farewell to my fun days as a Biker Chick! :-)

19 Years! :-)

Wow, can't believe I haven't blogged in over a week! (Actually... I can believe it! Busy time of year!) But today's our 19th anniversary and I'd planned to post one of our wedding photos here. But for reasons known only to itself and the gremlins who enjoy messing with electronics, my scanner won't interface with my OS. So... maybe I'll get it working on another day and will stick the photo in here somewhere!

Meanwhile, here's my latest digital photo... a gorgeous male mountain bluebird. (His wife keeps trying to fly into our house through various windows, and BW is convinced this is really good mojo; the bluebird of happiness trying to deliver good news or some such. But I think she's just a very baffled bluebird!) :-D

(UPDATE: I've replaced the original photo with this more recent, much closer one! And while the female bluebird never made it into the house, a magpie spent the night in our garage and had to be ushered out Sunday morning! LOL Oh, and our scanner still isn't working, but we'll get to it)...

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

~Henry David Thoreau

My Bloomers :-)

We spent most of the weekend gardening and doing yardwork. Here's BW weeding the tomato patch...

And today I noticed that our blue flax has started blooming, so I took some photos of it, as well as our lone, currently blooming iris. I picked the first two irises that bloomed and put them in a vase in our kitchen for BW's birthday (June 6). Normally I prefer to leave them blooming on our hillside by our driveway, but since 55 mph winds were predicted for the 7th, I figured I'd bring them inside so we could enjoy them rather than have them flattened! Turned out to be a good decision, as along with the wind we had 25º temps and bloody SNOW! Grrr...

Anyway, here's the flax, grown from seeds my grandmother gave us years ago (they're such a beautiful shade of blue!)...

And here's the iris!...

And, as usual, a fitting quote du'jour...

Earth laughs in flowers.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hummingbirds

Right after I post this, I need to make a batch of nectar for the hummingbirds. We have cool, rainy weather moving in and there's a feeding frenzy at the feeder this morning! I take a lot of photos of our little hummer friends... it's challenging to get good ones, the way they zip around, but always really rewarding when I capture an especially good one! I took this one yesterday without a flash...

and these two today with a flash...

All three hummingbirds are Broadtails (we also have Rufous and Calliope hummingbirds).

And I found this cartoon yesterday... I'd get myself a pair of these earrings, but the way the hummers already zoom past my head at such high speeds and close quarters that they blow my hair around, I don't dare tempt them any closer! ;-)

My lists o'links

I haven't had much time to work on this, and the weather has been too beautiful to be indoors on my computer!

But when time and weather have permitted I've been adding links. Hard to categorize some of them, as some fun links are also helpful, and some helpful links are also inspiring, and many of them also qualify for the Good Karma list... oh well!

Speaking of Good Karma, here's a quote for today!

Do not be daunted by the world's grief.

Do justly, now.

Love mercy, now.

Walk humbly, now.

You are not obligated to complete the work,

but neither are you free to abandon it.

~The Talmud

Maiden Voyage...

I suppose I should launch this thing I've created, but am unsure where to start! I'm mostly just finding my way around right now. Guess I'll just start with a simple picture (I'm a fan of simplicity) and a quote (I'm also quote junkie). :-)

And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days...

~James Russell Lowell

"Tree Lined Path" by Edigio Antonaccio

(You can buy this lovely artwork at AllPosters.com)