First Winter Snowfall

We finally received our first snowfall of the season....in the third week of January. By the time it stopped coming down we had about 6 inches on the ground, and everything looked beautiful!

A pair of old Adirondack chairs, which somehow missed getting put away last fall.

My lastest birdhouse, a yard sale find. Dear Husband mounted it for me on a section of lodge-pole pine.....for the natural look.



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For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11

Happy New Year! 2012

Wow....it has been over a year since I have posted to this blog! I have taken a break to focus on other things....important things! I have wondered many times, throughout the year, if I would ever post here again, but today just feels like a good day to start anew! :-) I recently spent some time cleaning up my photo folders.....with the realization that I have many photos that are share-worthy. So the plan is to keep it simple, a short post now and then, as I find time.

We have experienced a unusual Winter this year.... mild temps, lots of sunshine, and virtually NO snow! So I pulled up some photos from 2006, to show how beautiful and fresh our part of the country looks.... covered with a soft white blanket!

These photos were taken on a drive in December of 2006 , when my husband and I were scouting for Elk.

Close up of the misty fog.... hovering among the trees.

A local farm. I loved the contrast between the red barn and the white snow!

A line up of of fence-posts marks the curve in the road.

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A good verse for the coming year...

The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!"

Lamentations 3:22-24 NASB

First Snowfall

Our first snowfall arrived on November 22nd this year. As always, it prompts me to pull on my boots and venture out for a few photos. After all, it is an event! We have had several snows since then, adding up to about 6 inches, and it is softly falling even as I write.

Heritage Rose, with the mountain as a backdrop.

A snow-laden rose bud.

Black-eyed Susan seed head....food for the birds!

Autumn Joy Sedum.... still looking good!

Orange Calendula....bravely blooming beyond the frost.

A pair of Black-Eyed Susans......yellow petals still intact.

There is much to appreciate about the flowers that hold on, to give us a spot of color...... long after the Petunias and Zinnias have disappeared!

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"He giveth snow like wool....." Psalm 147:16

It is compared to wool for its whiteness, and its softness; it falls silently, and makes no more noise than the fall of a lock of wool; it covers the earth, and keeps it warm like a fleece of wool, and so promotes its fruitfulness. See how God can work by contraries and.... can warm the earth with cold snow. ~ Matthew Henry

New Year Greetings

From Our House to Yours......Happy New Year!!

This photo was taken on a snowy evening, a couple weeks before Christmas, when we received a foot of snow in 24 hours! Much of it melted before the holidays, but enough was left on the ground to give us a white Christmas. It is snowing again now, as I write, with more snow in the forecast for the next several days. Tonight we are attending a New Year's Eve gathering with friends, but tomorrow I look forward to settling in next to the wood stove, and browsing the huge stack of gardening catalogs just waiting for me. It will be a day well spent.


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My best wishes to everyone for a great Year in 2010....and your best garden ever!

Signs of Spring

With March well under way, there are changes going on the garden. Slowly, but surely.... signs of life are re-appearing.


Daffodils emerging, with their flower buds already intact.

Same daffodils, a week later under an inch of snow! Yup... it's March, and anything can happen. Fortunately, the snow melted very quickly, in this case.

Forsythia branches, being forced on the windowsill.....

.....it's first yellow blossoms opening in the sun.

Garden clean-up begins in earnest, with the first ritual of Spring.... the pruning of my Simplicity rose hedge. This was a stealth shot by my dear husband. :-)

And lastly, a robin... looking for worms.


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"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world."

Virgil A. Kraft

Happy New Year

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a
Happy New Year!

This is my neighbor's shrub. I'm not sure what it is, but it is covered with beautiful red berries, and looks quite festive against the weathered building, while the freshly fallen snow accentuates the cement block wall.

We watched with interest, as this icicle on our house grew longer each day during the Christmas holidays. It almost touched the ground...before the rains came and melted it away.

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"Another fresh New Year is here...
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright New Year is given me
to live each day with zest...
To daily grow and try and be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant some tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

~William Arthur Ward

A Black and White World

Our second round of snowfall has brought the level to about a foot deep. It went over the top of my boots when I took my veggie scraps out to the compost pile this morning. :-) I think this may be a record snowfall for us, especially this early in the season. Something I really appreciate about living here in our valley is the lack of wind, which allows the snow to pile up neatly on everything.

I like the way my birdbath resembles a layer cake...complete with fluffy white frosting.

Our patio dining set. Care to come over for a (very) cool drink?

Flat heads of Yarrow in the flower garden sporting their fancy conehead caps.


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"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."

~Andrew Wyeth

Snow Moon Rising

I couldn't resist the title for this post, though I'm aware that the moon in these photos isn't actually rising, but setting. Maybe a more fitting title would be.....Goodnight, Moon.

These were taken in the morning, the day after our first snow. The sky was a gorgeous shade of blue, making the moon quite visible.

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A close up of the moon above the mountain. It is in the waning stage, a few days after the full moon. (If you click on the photo, you can see it much larger.) Here is a little Moon trivia I found with a quick internet search:

The Moon is visible in the evening (PM side of the Earth) starting a few days past new moon, during first quarter until a few days before full moon. It will be visible in the morning (AM side of the Earth) starting at full moon, during third quarter until a few days before new moon. The Moon will not be visible for a few days around new moon because the sunlit side of the Moon is facing away from Earth, towards the Sun.


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"The moon, like a flower
In heaven's high bower
With silent delight
Sits and smiles on the night."

"...and sometimes the morning." My addendum ;-)

~William Blake, English poet

New Fallen Snow

We finally received our first snowfall of the season. As always, it is beautiful and magical..... adding a clean layer of white to everything it touches.

A ranch in our neighborhood.....always photogenic, but especially so in the low winter light and a cover of snow.

Snow adds a new dimension to this simple, rustic fence post.

The brown remains of Queen Anne's Lace becomes a receptacle for a fluff of white snow.





Wild turkey tracks. :-)



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"The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow. Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show."

Postcards from Idaho

In honor of the upcoming New Year, I thought I would send a couple of 'virtual postcards' from our beautiful state! The photos below were taken on Harris Ridge, about 20 minutes from our home, where my husband and I spent an afternoon Elk hunting this week. The land is owned by a cattle rancher friend of ours and it is a beautiful place....seemingly on top of the world!

There were 30+ plus Elk in this herd, including cows, calves, spikes and one big bull. (The two small dark spots on the left are 2 deer....who were watching with interest.) We hiked about half a mile in nearly a foot of fresh snow, and the scenery was spectacular....providing some great photo opportunities. The hunt was successful and we are grateful to God for the provision of meat to fill the freezer for yet another year. Just as our vegetable garden makes an important contribution to our diet in the summer, this wonderful low-fat grass-fed meat rounds out our healthy diet all through the year!




This tiny log cabin sat just off the road, not far from where we parked our vehicle. I tried to imagine myself living here, in years gone by. I venture to say there are no modern conveniences in this humble abode. ;-)


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Wishing you all a Happy New Year..... and your very best garden in 2008!

Winter Wonderland

Not much time for blogging lately, as I am cleaning/organizing and getting ready for Christmas company, but I wanted to share this photo of the mountains, dressed in yesterday's snowfall.....it makes them look so fresh and clean!

"Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers."

First Snowfall

It was raining when we went to bed last night, but sometime during the night it turned to snow....

This late bloom on my yellow English rose 'Graham Thomas' was heavy with wet snow, and resting on the post of the picket fence.


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"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" ~J. B. Priestley