June 29, 2018
July 15, 2017
Midsummer rainbow
When a search of my archives produced the photo of the weevil in my previous post, it showed this photo right next to it, taken on the previous day. I’m sure hoping for some weather like that to visit us again soon!
May 25, 2017
Firewood season
Last Tuesday I made a trip into a higher region of the back country scouting for a place to start cutting firewood for next winter. I found that an access gate that the Forest Service said was open wasn’t open: fortunately I was just scouting and hadn’t planned to do some serious cutting. At least I brought back a few photos. The gate sits at an elevation of about 5,600 feet and the peaks in the photos are 7,000 to 7,400 feet. This is in what was about the center of the Chippy Creek fire in 2007 that consumed 150 square miles of the Lolo National Forest. The fire-killed trees will make excellent firewood but the real good news is all of the new tree growth that is already taking place. It will be 200 years before it gets back to what it once was, but Nature has plenty of time. It’s too bad that mankind doesn’t.
July 23, 2013
July 8, 2013
It’s getting along toward that time of the season
Last Saturday there some shrubs along the trail with pairs of red berries; Utah Honeysuckle. Then today as I was enjoying some Serviceberries (my favorite wild fruit) I noticed the seed head of a Goat’s Beard, and I realized that it is already getting into the mature time of the season.
Utah Honeysuckle, Lonicera utahensis
Yellow Salsify, Goat’s Beard, Tragopogon dubius
Saskatoon, Serviceberry, Amelanchier alnifolia
November 29, 2012
Late afternoon on the river
Montana Outdoors 