‘Tis life in the mountains—one day you’re in a t-shirt and next you’re trundling along in boots and your winter coat again. In the last number of days I have been talking with friends and family on the East Coast who disparage the chill that remains on their side of the continent, while we have had unseasonably warm conditions and yes, even sunburns. It was with good fortune that I managed to stack all the firewood (for next winter, or maybe not) that was piled up in the driveway and covered it with a tarp. The stiff winds that cleared the deck of lawn furniture, hanging towels, snow shovels and whatever else, brought in the cold front that turned the place white again. Just as the magpies are beginning their nests, bears with cubs are starting to be seen and sandhill cranes are initiating their nuptials, it is understood by all that choose to call this place home that the weather is never a ‘given’. Winter can return at any moment and in any month of the year. I remember guiding a hiking class in Yellowstone at Old Faithful some years back, and for the first couple of days the students donned shorts and their light weight windbreakers when the weather stirred. On the morning of July 5 we awoke to 6 inches of new snow: and as we always do, we got right out there! One of the interesting sights along that morning’s hike was an impressively-antlered bull elk laying bedded it in the snow. The powdery white dusted over his velvet antlers in a way that if you saw it in a painting, you would think, “this artist had no clue what he/she is doing! Elk don’t have velvet antlers during the snowy times of the year.” Touché! Not in Yellowstone…
Segue to the “lower yard” with teepee poles and juniper.