The natural world, life, and dogs.
Sometimes you don’t realize just how stressed you’ve been until the cause of that stress is lifted. Case in point: a yard fence for my dogs. What I thought would be a simple thing to acquire turned out to be anything but, and the stress just kept building. In the span of the past week,… Continue reading From Low to High In a Week
A drop in temperature, into the zone well below freezing, brought frost, highlighting bits of the natural world that would otherwise remain obscure. Spider webs. I started this recent morning walk with my dogs thinking my phone camera would remain in my pocket, that there wouldn't be anything new or interesting to photograph. I was… Continue reading Webs
My previous posts featuring rural fences were all winter scenes. I hadn't thought about a spring or summer rendition because I rarely see fences on the forest trails my dogs and I spend our time on, but this morning, as we finished a high-elevation mountain hike I was struck by the beauty of stacked log… Continue reading Fences VII – Spring at High Elevation
Winter is slowly easing toward spring in my valley. The red-winged blackbirds have returned, early harbingers of changing seasons. I heard Canada geese honking as they flew above the forest yesterday. Soon the sandhill cranes will arrive. The snow, while still thick on the ground, is ever-so-slowly melting, reducing, disappearing. I always miss the snow… Continue reading Fences VI
February is my favorite winter month in these mountains. Fresh snow carpets the landscape, making everything clean and bright. The skies clear and temperatures drop, often below zero at night before rising along with the sun through the day. Stars blanket the night sky, easily seen, so close it seems you can reach up and… Continue reading Fences V
A bit at a loss for words lately. As a placeholder, here are more fences and gates, in winter. A short break in a series of recent snow storms leaving 2.5 feet of new snow on the ground. The birds have flown south for the winter. January 11, 2020. Because of snow, many gates are… Continue reading Fences IV
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… Continue reading Fences III
As I warned in my recent post Fences, I have tons of photos of rural fences and gates, most taken while walking my dogs in the valley. Since it's 2F this morning, rather than venture outside, here's a group of photos from last year, December 21-25, 2018. Except the last two photos, which I just… Continue reading Fences II
In the rural West, fences are ubiquitous. Love them or hate them, they're everywhere, marking property boundaries, keeping livestock in or out (or not). Some fences are all wood planks or posts, others wood or metal posts with barbed wire. Wooden gates are quickly being replaced with metal tube gates (and fencing) which aren't nearly… Continue reading Fences
Wild Sensibility 