I'm baa-aack

Over the last nine months since my November post, a number of people have asked when I would be getting back to my blog. In each case I answered "soon" and I always meant it at the time. Somehow though, life just kept getting in the way. And the more that happened, the more I felt that I was so far behind I would never catch up. So I finally decided the only way to get back in the groove was to start as if today was the first day missed. You will just have to take my word for it that the last 3/4 of a year has been wonderful and busy.

One unusual aspect to the last three months has been the weather in our part of the world. This is the first summer in 15 years that I have not spent one day wishing we had put air conditioning in our home. Even more unusual is that we have already reached our average moisture level for the year and we still have five months to go. Our home is situated in an area that seems to encompass the dividing line between rain on the prairie in front of us and dry air in the mountains behind. Because of that we get more than our share of rainbows, even in a typical year. I can guarantee there is no pot of gold at either end because if there was, I would be a millionaire many times over this year!

I took this photo a couple weeks ago as the rain moved off to our east. It looks like our house is captured in some sort of weather dome. I wish I could have caught the rainbow ends but that would have meant running much further uphill and I could see a second rainstorm moving in from the west.





Last fall I posted some photos of elephanthead flowers, including a few images of very unusual albino plants. At the time I was disappointed that I couldn't find my close-up lens for my camera so I could show those who have never seen an elephanthead how they got their very obvious name. Well I have since located the missing lens and yesterday, when Ken and I went fishing at Fantan Lake in the Beartooths, I took a close-up of this wonderful plant. Can you see the head? and the ears? and the trunk? Who says there are no such things as pink elephants?

Fantan Lake was full of Brook Trout. It took no time at all to get enough for supper and one extra to take home for an experiment. Even though I seem to have far too many projects on the go right now, I have been wanting to try my hand at "Gyotaku" or fish printing. So I took a half hour today and slapped some fabric paints onto the one brookie left whole and then transferred the paint to a t-shirt. I didn't quite get the image centered so I added the hook

and line and the words "Brook Trout" with a fabric marker. I think I like it!