Tag Archives: Western Larch

The Golden Season Hodgepodge

It’s Fall y’all and Joyce has a fresh batch of questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. Fall officially rolls into the Northern Hemisphere on Monday (9/22)…what’s your favorite thing about fall?

All the things! I like the weather, the changing colors, our local Corn Maze, Cider Fest, Thanksgiving, Flannel and the end of mosquito season.

2. What’s one thing on your real or proverbial autumn bucket list?

New England or Prince Edward Island would be nice to visit during the Autumn months.

3. Apples, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and cranberries are some of the top fall foods. Which one is your favorite and how do you like it prepared?

A Thanksgiving dinner favorite is sweet potatoes/yams baked in buttery brown sugar and marshmallows on top golden and delightful, a favorite of kids young and old.

A good butternut squash soup with a little spice is delicious!

Any on the list you don’t eat?

I can eat any of those things.

Which one have you had most recently?

I might have had dried cranberries in a nut mix the most recently.

4. ‘Fall is proof that change is beautiful’ is a popular sentiment. Would you agree or no? Elaborate.

I am a fan of Fall so I could describe it as beautiful. I also like the changes that occur from summer to fall. Not all change is beautiful and not all the changes from Summer to Fall are beautiful. This isn’t a sentiment that would come out of my mouth. That’s a  little nitpicky but I’d share another sentiment for Fall like “Fall is the season for cozy hugs and warm mugs.”

5. Is there a spot near you where people go to see the leaves change color?

Around our parts you can see the Larches/Tamaracks in some nice groves that have taken on their golden hue.

Will you try to leaf peep somewhere this fall? Lonely Planet lists the following ten places as the best for leaf peeping…of those listed which would you most like to visit?

Stowe, Vermont~Shenandoah National Park, Virginia~Columbia River Gorge, Oregon~Zion National Park, Utah~Tennessee/North Carolina border~West Virgina~Northwestern Wyoming~Wisconsin Northwoods~Northern Nevada~Ozark Highlands Scenic Byway, Arkansas

We are closest to the Columbia River Gorge and that would be a nice Fall road trip.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We were thrilled to hear on Tuesday that all evacuation levels were suspended for the Crown Fire which is the closest fire to us. We are so thankful for all the fire fighters that have been battling these fires. Thank you, LORD, for them and for the rain we received on Sunday!

Happy Autumn/Fall to all hodgepodgers and visitors here!

Fall Stages Hodgepodge

This photo is from the last event that we wore costumes to and it is from this season of life.

Jo From This Side of the Pond has challenged our memories once again for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. What are your current priorities in this season of life? Elaborate as much or as little as you like. 

At my stage of life I’m one fall away from a nursing home. My priority is to end life well. I want to keep cooperating with the Holy Spirit in conforming my life to be more like Christ. I want to love Jesus more because my life and my future are all tied up in what He did for me on the Cross. For that I am so grateful. Thankful that I am not spiritually dead anymore because I’ve been born again. I thank God the Father, who has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered (rescued) me from the domain of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:12-14

2. What’s one thing you wish you had more of? 

Retention. Being able to keep what I’ve read and or heard or studied in my memory bank.

3. Do you celebrate Halloween? If so, what are your Halloween traditions? Any special plans for Halloween this year? 

Some of our family in their costumes.

The only Halloween tradition that we have kept in the past was handing out candy to trick or treaters. I say in the past because here in our country setting we do not get any random trick or treaters. We do enjoy our grands being  driven over to show us their costumes and us treating them. That is the only plan this year, to have a treat ready for our Grands when they drop by.

4. Last thing you ate that contained chocolate? Last thing you made that called for chocolate? 

How is this for a complete Chocolate experience. On our Scotland trip we stopped at Highland Chocolatier and enjoyed some amazing world famous chocolate. I wrote about the experience here.

I haven’t made anything lately that has called for chocolate.

5. Do you prefer laid back weekends or do you like to have a lot of plans? Thinking back to this past weekend… which was it? 

I prefer laid back weekends with a touch of accomplishment. I don’t like to get to Monday morning wondering why I didn’t accomplish anything. Rest is important but laziness is not necessarily rest. This last weekend we attended our granddaughter’s basketball game in town on Saturday and then we had lunch out. Sunday, as usual, we attended our services at church and in the afternoon we had our ‘connection group’ and then had a quiet evening. That was the ideal amount of activity for me.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We are enjoying Fall and enjoying getting photos of our Grands enjoying Fall to the fullest!

And this is one of my favorite Fall photos of their Father’s property before he had any inkling he’d have a beautiful wife and two children of his own.

Sweet Hodgepodge

Sweet Southern livin Jo has come up with questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge.
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1. Let’s start things off right…Wednesday is National Dessert Day. What are we having? How often do you  make/serve dessert? Store bought or from scratch?
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We can have my signature Creamy Cheesecake, pictured above…
or a family favorite; Peanut Butter/Butterscotch Rice Krispy bars
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or in the cake realm; Another family favorite, Applesauce Spice Cake.
We added a new favorite in 2020, Strawberry Ice Cream Cake.
Lately I only make a dessert when we are having company. I made this Ice Cream Cake yesterday for dessert after our Raclette meal that we introduced to my brother’s family.
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I like scratch desserts but am not opposed to store bought. In fact see question #3 for something I always buy instead of bake.
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2. Slow as molasses, icing on the cake, that’s the way the cookie crumbles, have your cake and eat it too, half-baked idea, that takes the cake…which phrase might be applied to something in your life in recent days? Explain.
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I’m going with icing on the cake. Since my brother’s family (originally from Texas) landed in the Pacific Northwest on their RV journeys around the USA some other members of our family gathered here, too, and we were able to have a mini family reunion of sorts.

My sister Kathy sitting to my left is now our matriarch. Four out of 8 siblings plus two spouses and eleven cousins rounded out the group for a few days of food and fun.

3. Something that’s ‘easy as pie’ for you to do?

Sticking with the pie theme here I’m confessing that making pie is not in my wheelhouse. It is not something easy for me and I choose to avoid it by buying good quality pies in the frozen section of the grocery store and popping them in my oven! So ‘easy as pie’ is not a phrase that pertains to me.

4. Are you someone who likes to ‘sugarcoat’ news you think might not be well received, or are you more of a tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may? Do you like to receive your news the same way you give it?

Please don’t sugar coat it. Get it out now and let me know what’s up! I’m a tell it like it is person. Don’t beat around the bush, either.

5. Something you did recently that made you feel like a ‘smart cookie’?

Driving for over 6 hours by myself from Bothell to Colville with stops at the Home Depot and Costco in Spokane. I was smart to bring a book on CD to listen to. That makes the hours go by quicker for me and keeps me awake. For this trip I listened to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe read by Michael York, delightful.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

 

Looking forward to our Western Larches (Tamarack) to turn golden.

October is a busy busy month here at Our Country Bungalow. Still ahead is our annual family hunting weekend and this year we are throwing in our first professional family photo shoot. It’s been fun coming up with a clothing theme so we look a bit coordinated. For the majority of the days in October all of our guestrooms are full to the brim.

Fall Colors to White Out!

The Western Larch trees are in their glory.

We had a power outage at 3PM on Monday the 28th of October and I sat in our recliner in front of our family room slider and took the photo above. The wind was really blowing. The power came back on just after 4PM and then we were surprised to see the snow blow in.

The wind died down and the snow stopped falling. Such an interesting day. We’ll see what Tuesday holds.

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!

 

Put Your Boots On!

It’s time for a trek through Dan’s 6.5 acres!

Head past the old barn…

through the gate…

past the brush…

up the rise…

now down the other side of the rise…

keep going across the brush that the deer and the bears enjoy…

keep going…we’re headed to the creek…

past more beautiful fall colors…

through the evergreens…

along the boundary marked by barbed wire fencing…

to the creek…

Don’t forget to look up and see the distinctive Western Larch.

“The largest of the nine larch or tamarack species growing in the Pacific Northwest, the western has pale green foliage, a rather “feathery” graceful arrangement of branches, and an open crown. Brilliant yellow in late fall, the needles drop in November. In fact, this species is one of only two coniferous species that sheds its needles every fall. Its thick bark is reddish-brown in color and features elongated scale plates.”

And speaking of elongated scale plates…

More fencing marking his boundaries with fair warning to those who might pass by…

At the boundary of his property on the old mining road…

We trek back listening to his ideas of what to do with this piece of land…

He describes to us what he has learned about the Western Larch…

I keep exclaiming about the beautiful fall colors that we are enjoying on our trek…

A close up of the Western Larch…

We are shown the evidence of this being a favorite of deer for bedding down at night. I’ll spare you the close up of what they have left behind…

I’ll end this part of our trek at the road and his little stand of “Christmas trees”…

More to come from our time at Dan’s…

We are so thankful to God for his provision for a home and land for our son Dan. We put in lots of hours to organize the shop and house for his comfort. I’ll be sharing more in the future. Our trip over the pass to and from Eastern Washington was good with no snow or significant slow downs.

Dear is back to work today and I’m trying to get back in my groove. Our niece’s family is still without electricity and running water in their high rise in New York City. Continued prayers are going up for the people effected and for all the first responders who are working hard to restore services to everyone without.

I’m also getting ready to hand out treats to the children in the neighborhood who will brave the cold and wet to ring my doorbell!