Yesterday we went to the German Oktoberfest because Bierocks for lunch sounded good – and they were! But the plum kuchen wasn’t as good as it looked. There was rollicking beer drinking music and dancing, too, but my photos of that were not so good. It was 46 degrees, overcast and breezy so we were glad for  jackets as we watched the Weinerdog Races.

There were 48 entered so they were broken up into heats of 6 to start. We decided to leave before it was over, after a man got in front of me and took away my small window of photo opportunity.

This little guy caught my eye for his unusual color. The owner said they had petted him so much they rubbed the black right off!

On the way home

we saw this guy and had to stop and get a picture. Maybe the most unusual leaf man we’ve seen in a while!

We had a hard frost last night so finally had to bring the deck plants inside. Filling two of the three windows really closes in the studio. When I add the two Amaryllis plants, it’ll really be full! Nice to have flowers in the winter though….

It’s still hot and dry here. As I settled in last night to watch some TV, I could see the tree over the water garden and a brilliant flash of blue. I hadn’t seen bluebirds this year but nothing else is quite that color! I got up to see and there were four juvenile bluebirds getting drinks from the waterfall pool and sitting above on a branch! They stayed until a bluejay came along and ousted them. Others that are visiting for the water are robins, cardinals and the orioles. A few days ago we saw a doe going across the lawn in that direction as well, but she spooked and didn’t get that far. There are still some farm ponds in the area that have water, but both of ours are dry.

I sat out on the deck for a while yesterday morning while it was still cool and hand sewed on the binding of Bignonia after my walk. I think I will do that again today. It is so tranquil there in the shade with the sound of the waterfall and the splashing fish.

We are enjoying a brief respite from the record breaking heat – now it is only in the 90’s! We are about 6″ behind on rain.

It shouldn’t look like this in July.

The creek has been dry for a couple of months.

It looks deceptively lush in the shade.

On the 5th of July we had a grass fire probably started by fireworks about a mile away. With everything so dry, it didn’t take long for it to get to our land where it burned some trees and two hay fields and part of another.

The fire department got it out just before it would have gotten into the woods that separate the fields from where the house is, maybe a quarter of a mile away! As it is we were getting lots of cinders in the wind. Kind of scary!!

These Mountain Goats were on a faraway distant slope. Very difficult to see with the naked eye and hard to focus on so I just pointed where I thought they were and hoped for the best. It was hard to tell what was goats and what was rocks or patches of snow. Cropping the photo brought them in closer, but it is a bit fuzzy.

Same with these Mountain Sheep! Now we can see the curly horns.

These goats were at a different location, GoatLick, where the goats come to lick the rocks, I suppose for the minerals they contain. Here we were able to get much closer, but it was a steep and slippery trail to get there! This rock face is nearly vertical and they navigate it with ease. Amazing!

This Crow? Raven? came right up to the car looking for a handout I guess.

We saw this Loon family in a roadside pond, quite unconcerned at our presence.

The handsome Daddy Loon stayed between us and his family and treated us to several choruses of his loony laughter. Or maybe he was saying “Don’t come any closer”.

Mama Loon meandered nearby with her babies alternately swimming and riding on her back.

Well here we are in Kalispell! Yesterday was a long day of driving, we started out in Butte and spent about three and a half hours driving through the National Bison Range. I REALLY enjoyed that! We saw herds of buffalo and their calves, antelopes, deer and a spotted fawn, all pretty close and unafraid, lots of birds and flowers. We did not see the mountain goats or the bears though. Inside the visitor’s center we watched a short film about the program to restore the buffalo. I got some nice photos along the way but I need to find a place to buy Photoshop so that I can resize them for the blog. be patient! In the meantime here is one from Del’s camera:

We spent so long at the National Bison Range (we were told it would take a hour and a half to two hours, but spent much longer) that we arrived late to Kalispell. We debated whether to drive on, or stop sooner, but could not find a place to stop and eat other than McDonald’s so we ended up going all the way, part of the time in a heavy downpour. We found a gourmet burger place and were glad that we had not opted for McD’s. By the time we found our lodging and unloaded we were both ready to crash and slept through til 9am!

This afternoon we need to shop for breakfast food as we are at a long stay suite with a kitchenette. We will also go by the Quilt Gallery to claim our space and set up for the start of the workshop with Ruth McDowell that starts tomorrow.

Tonight Del and I are in Ogden, Utah. This is the first time I have ever tried to blog on my laptop so I am not sure if it will work. Last evening we were in Cedar City. We had spent most of the day at Zion and it was SO hot. Over 100 degrees. We had thought we might go to Bryce Canyon but it was just too hot to enjoy it and since we both had been there before we passed on it.The scenery is amazingly beautiful and I got some nice pictures but I don’t have Photoshop on this computer and I don’t know how or even if it is possible to resize them in iPhoto so they are to big to post right now.

We drove a little way up into the mountains tonight to eat at a restaurant that had fresh Rainbow Trout. It was really pretty good and the location was gorgeous. The road was narrow and twisting and the rock formations were awesome; there was even a waterfall and a rushing river, or maybe brook. It wasn’t very big but it was fast and beautiful!

We have been in and out of rain storms the last few days, aside from some pretty violent winds, nothing serious. My Wahoo tree by the water garden didn’t fare so well having lost about half of itself. Apparently that crotch has been holding moisture for some time.

Remember the Rain Cups? Here they are again, holding rain this time.

Yesterday I saw TWO hummingbirds at the feeder and the first Oriole arrived. What a gorgeous bird!

This spring’s first sighting of a hummingbird was this morning! We have had the feeder out for a week at least, in anticipation.

Here is my newest acquisition for the shade garden, a double Columbine in pink and white. The flash kind of washed out the color, but it is really quite lovely. I hope it makes it here.

This Iris aptly named Kansas Blizzard is blooming now. Other Irises blooming now are yellow, purple, blue and some the color of orange sherbet!

I love this tiny Euonymous ground cover, the largest leaves are about a half an inch long and look nice against the Hosta which is a medium sized variety. I lost a couple of Hostas this past winter. Must have been too dry, it sure wasn’t too cold!

Thunder is rumbling so I need to shut down the computer.  I think these rain cups are about to be filled!!

Spring flowers are everywhere! I missed getting out to take photos of the early stuff, fruit trees, redbud trees and the spring bulb flowers but here is what’s blooming in my shade garden right now!

Hydrangea with Iris and Vinca.

These sweet bells start out pink, then turn blue, their proper name escapes me.

I LOVE the leaves on this Brunnera; the tiny flowers are a brilliant blue though you can’t tell it by this photo. I guess my camera doesn’t like blue as the previous photo is washed out too.

I didn’t plant this wild phlox, but if it wants to be here, I’m totally happy with that!

Bleeding Hearts- what a neat flower!

Ok, so they say Leap Year brought us an extra day last month, but I didn’t notice any extra days in any of the weeks, but maybe I was just too busy quilting! The seasonal piece is well over half finished now and as usual I am putting in LOTS of quilting. I think it is looking good and I guess I need to think up a name for it and stop calling it the seasonal piece. Today I will finish the foreground and hopefully start on the sky.

We’ve had unusual weather for this time of the year, low 70’s to below freezing and snow. While we do certainly enjoy the pretty days, this is not good. A devastating tornado about wiped out half of a town a few miles away the other night. We only got high winds and rain and hail here.