Fences III

Posted on by Rebecca Wallick

Late December in Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains means snow, some years more than others. This year, so far, is a little below average, although I’m not sure there is such a thing as “average” anymore. With climate change, I’ve noticed that the snow arrives later in the fall – December rather than November – and the big accumulations come later in the new year, February rather than January. But at least we still get plenty of snow, which means lots of fun for me and the dogs (we love running on snow) and sufficient water in the summer for irrigation.

In my big, open valley, various creeks tumble out of the surrounding mountains to join the Little Salmon River on its meandering run north before plummeting three miles down a narrow canyon, eventually dropping two thousand feet on its way to joining the Main Salmon. The Little Salmon frequently brings morning fog to my valley, and that fog adds frost to everything it touches. The landscape sparkles.

The first six photos (including the feature photo) were taken earlier this month, the last four in December 2017. What I love about living here is that when the fog burns off, the skies are usually blue. Except when it’s snowing, which I also love.

Fog, Frost and Fences

frost on fence
Thick morning fog and frost, 12-25-19.
trees in fog
Morning sun and trees breaking through the fog (black & white), 12-25-19.
gate, fences, building in fog
Foggy morning walk in other end of the valley, 12-22-19.
frosted cattails
Frost-coated cattails lining a pasture fence, 12-22-19.
fence, buildings, mountains
Old house and barns hiding in the last wisps of morning fog, 12-22-19.
frost on fence
Thick frost on barbed wire fence and grass, sun burning off morning fog, 12-31-17.
old tractor in pasture
Old tractor in foggy posture, 12-31-19.
sun, fog, frost
Morning sun breaking through fog to highlight frost-covered weeds, shrubs and fence wires, 12-31-17.
frosted grass fronds and fence wire
Back home and above the valley fog, a dog’s-eye-level view of distant snow-capped mountains, 12-31-17.

Published by Rebecca Wallick

I delight in exploring the national forest near my Idaho home on foot, whether trail running, hiking, or xc skiing, with my two dogs by my side, taking photos of nature and wildlife. An author and freelance writer, I love observing and writing about the natural world, and dogs, and am a long-time contributing editor at Bark magazine. I used to practice law for a living. I much prefer the writing life.

14 thoughts on “Fences III”

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s