It started with a Crash!

We marked our driveway for our First Baptist Colville Senior Summer Social. When it was time for everyone to arrive there was no problem slowing down and finding our address since a Sheriff was right in front of our property with his lights flashing because of an accident right at our driveway. The person who caused the accident was in a hurry and tried to pass someone who was turning into our driveway. He ignored or didn’t see our guest’s left blinker flashing and came around them and tried to pass while they tried to turn into our drive. No one was hurt but our guest’s vehicle suffered lots of damage and had to be towed away. That was a bang of a start to our social.

Most of the 31 folks had never been to our home before and we only knew a handful by name.

By the end of the evening we became familiar with many more and enjoyed conversations with a few.

Our back acres proved to be an ideal picnic spot in the evening since the sun goes down behind our mountain at 5:30. Since we were in the upper 80’s or low 90’s being shaded from the sun was necessary.

One of the gals from our church walked about our property with me and identified several plants by name. I was very appreciative of her knowledge. Come to find out she’s a master gardener. She told me how to cut back and what I could pull and what are weeds. I wish I had a pad and pencil on me when she pointed out the plants and named them. Our huge bush is a variegated willow. That one I remember.

The morning after when I pulled up the blinds in our bedroom these fawns were just outside our window frolicking in the yard.

And then daddy showed up, too.

He sensed us through the window but couldn’t see us.

I did not turn my computer on yesterday and just turned it on at 3pm today. We are recovering from last evening. Hope all is well in your corner.

Doe, A Deer, A Black Tailed Deer…

We’ve seen lots of white tailed deer before but these are the first black tailed deer we’ve noticed.

They were quite comfortable in our back acreage even with my Dear close by. One was more skittish. They found some bushes in our brush that they enjoyed nibbling on. We are happy for them to enjoy the plants in the brush and not our flowers.

We had an amazing sound and light show from God last night. Thunder and lightning, oh my. I pulled up the shades in the livingroom and sat in the darkness watching the lightning light up the sky and light up our house and then listening to the sound of thunder. We had some good downpours, too, so I’m all caught up on watering for at least a day.

I couldn’t catch any of the lightning flashes. Thunderstorms are fun if they don’t spark any fires.

Update: I just read this report from Stevens County Management:

If you’re wondering about the lightening numbers- the maps show a total of 28,630 Cloud Flashes and 3,499 Cloud to Ground strikes for the 24 hour count ending 5 am this morning! Data source: ENTLN

Some good words for Wednesday…

“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful!” Joshua 1:8

Spurgeon: To get the nourishment out of a text, turn it over and over in your mind, meditate upon it, pull it to pieces word by word! Scripture meditation is the strong meat on which holy men are nourished. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up into your very soul, until it saturates your heart! The more you read the Bible, and the more you meditate on it–the more you will be astonished with it!

Alvin!

This little critter appeared and entertained me for a while.

Chipmunks are rodents that are a type of squirrel. These small, furry animals are identified by their stubby legs, bushy tails and the white, black and brown stripes that run down their backs.

Chipmunks are the smallest members of the squirrel family, according to National Geographic. The biggest species of chipmunk is the Eastern chipmunk. It grows to 11 inches (28 centimeters) and weighs up to 4.4 ounces (125 grams).

Chipmunks are small, ground-dwelling members of the squirrel (Sciuridae) family known for their burrowing habits and love of nuts. Despite their size, chipmunks can cause significant damage to homes, yards, and farms.

We have already seen Voles in our yard and now we see this burrowing animal, too.

Things are warming up here in Northeastern Washington. We are inching closer and closer to the upper 90’s. We are working in the early hours and enjoying our inside cool air in the afternoon and evening. We are happy we made the decision to have a heat pump installed.

In my daily readings I read a verse in Matthew that caught my attention. I’ve read that portion of scripture before but this time reading that portion in the ESV (English Standard Version) made me underline it. One of the words that made me look twice was relaxes.

Jesus speaking to the multitudes:

Matthew 5:17-20

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Summer Visitors

This buck that has visited our back yard has an antler out of whack.

I wonder if his deer friends notice?

We have other summer visitors on a smaller scale, too.

Baby quail are getting bigger every day.

There are also lots of baby turkeys in the area that cause some road hazards.

We will enjoy some human summer visitors, too, soon. Are you expecting any visitors or have you already had summer visitors? If you are or have I hope they were or are of the encouraging types.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)

²⁴And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Western Larch

Larches are different from most conifers because they’re deciduous–they lose their needles each fall. In addition, their needles are arranged differently from those of most conifers; on current-year twigs they’re borne singly, but on older twigs they arise in dense clusters from stout, woody pegs that resemble wooden barrels. Only 10 species of larch occur in the world, mostly in cold parts of the northern hemisphere. Only western larch and subalpine larch grow in the Pacific Northwest. Larches are commonly called tamaracks, especially by people whose roots are in eastern North America.

Needles are deciduous. They fall from the tree in winter, turning brilliant yellow before they fall.

Needles are about 1″ long and typically grow in dense clusters (20-40) attached to short woody shoots (called spur shoots).

Needles are soft to the touch–never sharp or spiny. Current-year needles are borne singly on slender pegs.

Small, woody cones (1-2″ long).

The photos above were taken on October 30th on a drive Dear and I took out Addy-Gifford Rd. to Bluecreek Rd. The following photos are from 2012 on our son’s property in Chewelah.

I was happy to find that we have Larches on our new piece of property.

We did not have any random trick or treaters coming to our door last night but we did have our Colville family drop in for some treats and our little Miss Addy was sporting goofy smiles for the evening. What a joy to have these drop in visits!

Happy November to all of you!

Give Thanks and Make Known

Yesterday I reported that we weren’t slated to get snow but when I walked down the stairs this morning at “oh dark thirty” I noticed that we did get a dusting in the wee hours. Once it’s light I’ll take a photo before it all melts off with the rain that is falling.

Waking this morning my mind was singing these lyrics off an old Acapella cd.

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name
Make known among the nations what he has done
Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name
Make known among the nations what he has done

Chorus:
Sing to him sing praise to him
Tell of all his wonderful acts
Glory in his holy name
Glory in his holy name
Glory in his name
Glory in his name

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name
Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice

I rejoice and give thanks for God’s beautiful creation. I so love autumn, the weather, the colors, the start of something fresh and new.

We live in an area with easy access to walking trails and parks that show off God’s creation.

There’s an old public golf course along the Burke Gilman Trail that the city of Bothell sold off and it is sitting and waiting for developers to change it’s landscape. There was lots of controversy over this sale and I’m sure the folks whose homes have enjoyed the green views are disappointed. In the interim they are allowing the public to walk on the course. We enjoyed our first time doing this last Sunday. The many hazards on the course were left there by Canadian Geese, wink wink.

Old and young golfers are mourning the loss of this course. We met one of them who wasn’t golfing this day but walking his old dog on the course instead.

I’m thankful to God for this guy and all the years we’ve had together so far.

Not linking up today with any memes because it snowed and I have to make potato salad to go with the pork butt that has been in the smoker already for 5 hours and the Sounders won last night and I was at the game and didn’t get home till after 10:30 PM…way late for this early to bed, early to rise person. I hope no grammar police are out today to critique my run-on paragraph! Our Sounders are off to the Western Conference Finals!

Go Sounders!

This is what it looks like here this morning. Yikes! It’s melting fast.

Also…to to Mennonite Girls Can Cook for a yummy white chili recipe.

Saturday’s Critters

On Friday we picked up our friend Beth and headed north to La Conner for lunch.

We had a window seat at Nell Thorn Restaurant and while we were eating Beth saw this beauty out the window and knew I’d want to take a picture of it.

I headed out on the patio area of the restaurant to take some photos. The heron headed down to this dock to get away from me.

We enjoyed conversation and some good food. On our way home we chose some roads less traveled. I’ll share some photos from our drive later.

Hope you all have a good Saturday and Happy Thanksgiving Weekend to our Canadian neighbors!

Linking up with Eileen for Saturday’s Critters.

Pears and Apples…

…or is it Apples and Pears?

So far it looks like we have a bumper crop again this year.

We’ll see how many grow to maturity.

Photos taken on June 16, 2017.

This rabbit thought if it kept still I wouldn’t notice it.

We are heading out on Saturday morning with a summer walking group. Hopefully I’ll get some good photos to share next week. Then in the afternoon we have a Father’s day barbecue with our Western Washington kids. Hope you have a good weekend.

February Feathered Friends

Ducks at Bothell Landing taken February 10th.

Red Winged Blackbird at Juanita Bay Park in Kirkland, Washington.

I believe this is a Wood Duck. We spotted it on Juanita Bay February 11th.

This last photo is from northeastern Washington. A couple of these Grouse would come to this tree outside our son and daughter in law’s in the low light of evening and early morning. They were really enjoying the buds on the tree. It was hard to get a great shot from the window. This was taken on Tuesday morning February 28th.

Linking to Saturday’s Critters at Viewing Nature with Eileen.

We have been on a slow return to whatever might be called normal at this old house. We need to get out and have a good walk again soon. We arrived home from Eastern Washington on Wednesday. We are observing Lent which began on Wednesday. Our weekend should be relatively quiet. Hope your March is starting well.

Country Living

Here are some things I’ve learned in the country.

Horses and other animals graze peacefully and make for idyllic photos.

You can use large old tires from farming equipment and add some dirt and wild flower seed and enjoy a wild tire garden.

You can’t take having a store close by for granted in the country. For our kids the closest is just 7 miles away, though. Vegetable gardens are the best for having fresh outside your door produce. So far we’ve enjoyed potatoes, squash, green beans. Zucchini bread is just out of the oven. Later today we’ll have tomatoes and lettuce from the garden on our hamburgers. Cucumbers the size of small baseball bats were picked today.

Having a chicken coop and chickens that lay eggs everyday is a bonus. A rooster can be annoying, though. Yep, that rooster is still alive and cock a doodle doing. You don’t need a rooster to get eggs from the chickens and roosters can get real mean. Even though you think you just purchased birds with no rooster you can be surprised as time goes by. Your days are numbered spotty! The other thing I found out about chickens is that skunks find them to be a delicacy. Our kids don’t put egg shells in their compost pile because they don’t want to attract skunks to their property. A friend of our kids just had several of his chickens killed and eaten by skunks.

There are lots of wasps, hornets, mosquitoes and other flying things in the country. It’s best to get rid of nests in the winter time.

There is plenty of room for dogs in the country. They make for good companions. They do shed just as much in the country as in the city, though.

Birds in numbers like to hang out together. Sometimes they all take off at the same time and that’s a sight.

You have to be extra cautious when driving in the county because you never know what you’ll encounter along the way. These turkeys took to flight as I approached. You need to be aware and watch for deer and other wildlife because car v. animal never goes well for the humans or the animals. We always crack up at the road signs that say “Watch for Deer next 10 miles” How do they know the deer will stay within that 10 mile area?

Are you a city mouse or a country mouse?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Nature