Saturday, November 19, 2022

Idaho August

 

August was rich in flowers! This one was in the art garden by My Father's Place.
We bought some tobacco flowers to keep the deer away from our other plants. Grandma used to grow these out front at their Amador Way home, and I remember the hummingbirds loving them!
This was an especially colorful sunset on one of our evening walks by the lake.

That same walk on our way home.  This is our condo building caught in the magic light.
A selfie with a Ponderosa pine in Ponderosa State Park.  This was my first hike since the surgery, on the shorter easy marsh trail.  It was fantastic to be out in nature again!
This was a bit of the trail.
The lake, boats and beautiful skies!  Usually our fire season starts in early August. Last year it was in late June, so we were thankful for every blue sky day we had.
Dave drilled our old espresso pot to make it a vase for me.  It's so cute!
The impatiens near our front door.
We saw this gigantic hibiscus blossom on a walk in the North End in Boise.
This is one of our patio flower pots.
Flower pots and sunset view from the patio.
Another amazing sunset on our evening walk.
August blossoms in Charlie's Gardens (which we visited often).
Dave in the Gardens.
One of my favorite flowering shrubs there.
We visited the classic wooden boat show by the Hotel McCall before going to an outdoor concert.
Our impatiens.
Dave finished the backboard earlier in our guest bedroom and in August we cleaned it up for a guest, my friend Grace from Caldwell.
Enjoying the lake view after our walk to the State Park from our home.
When Grace came to visit, we hiked the longer marsh loop in the state park before having lunch at the Alpine Pantry with Dave.
The following day we went to the Donnelly Huckleberry Festival, historic Roseberry and Tamarack Resort's outdoor patio for lunch.
Grace took this photo of us making dinner.
This was an outdoor jazz concert we went to with Grace after the pizza dinner.  The stage has the lake as the backdrop.  It's a great place to be in the summer and we can often hear the music from our home.
My favorite part of August was the steady hummingbird visitors to our feeder on the porch.  Mesmerizing!
The new rocks that the city put in at Brown Park.  One of my favorite walks is along the lake to this area.
A Western Tanager on a tree on one of our walks (yellow bird with an orange head).
Summer joy!
The huckleberry season wasn't great this year because there were very few to be found everywhere we went.
Another beautiful walk.
A walk down to Payette River to see the fish and view from the bridge.
Dave's Fire-Wise Grant's deadline for work was the end of August, so he spent mornings cutting branches and thinning trees.  Then one day we had a chipper delivered to mulch as much of it as possible.
These piles are what Dave worked through as I stood nearby as a safety watch and brought him food. 
You can see Dave feeding the chipper in this picture.
And in this one you can see the chipper shooting out a bit of ground wood.
Here is the sign that got placed on our property.  Basically, Dave applied for the grant and got it!  So he had two Forest Service agents come out to help him decide what to do to make our property more safe in case of a wildfire.  He did that work, then we recently got a check in the mail that covered the chipper's cost.  But now our land is beautiful compared to the others nearby and we have a good feeling that it will be safer than before in case of a man-made or wildfire.
We celebrated by eating on the top of the roof at the Salmon River Brewery and enjoying the peace and view.
The picture above is the wildfire that broke out somewhat close to our property, on the west mountains from a lightning strike.  Firefighters battled it for a long time before finally being able to contain it.  We had lots of other fires also, so Dave's hard work gave us a sense of perfect timing.
We had a beautiful August!  It flew by too quickly as they always do.  Love you!

Sunday, October 30, 2022

July in McCall


July is always a burst of color in McCall!  It was beautiful as ever this year.  Our porch planters were gorgeous all summer long and made lounging outside such a spectacularly beautiful event! Our Coral Begonia flowers both got huge and were amazing all summer and fall!
July 4 we watched the public fireworks show from our bedroom window in our housing addition. It was beautiful and so relaxing to be able to see from home.
One of our favorite spots in town is a field which is filled in lupine blossoms all summer long.
Dave made a new gorgeous wooden top to our outdoor bar table.
My friend Grace drove up for the day from Caldwell to visit.  We went for a walk around town and to the park and had brunch afterwards with Dave at the Alpine Pantry.
Our timing was perfect to see the wild chive blossoms in Ponderosa State Park near Osprey Point.
Our spice planter was also filled with blossoms which attracted the bees and gave cover to the hummingbirds.  We had mint, thyme, rosemary, basil and wild strawberries, in addition to lavender and wave petunias.
Clustered Bellflowers on our walk around town.
Dave's Birthday celebration of choice was lunch at the Alpine Pantry across from Rotary Beach: always delicious and a huge vegan menu!
We joined our friends Colin & Delta on the Payette river near Smylie Lane to sit, relax and chat.
The rozalea plant loved flower food, south facing window and daily watering and misting.
In between getting decimated by the town deer, our townhome planters looked amazing this year!
Beargrass time is our favorite!  This year is was a week or so later than usual in July.
We saw them at French Creek and Twenty Mile Trail off of Warron Wagon Rd., both places where we flew the drone to try to capture to the mountain scenery and the blossoms.
One of the most spectacular spots was up at the Deep Lake hike parking area.  We flew the drone here as well.

Can't even see the shoulder sling in this photo.

One of our many trips to Charlie's Gardens off of Warren Wagon road.
Amazing flowers in the North End of Boise on one of our visits.
Charlie's Gardens Lillies.
Dave at Charlie's Gardens.
Our smokebush that my friend Grace bought for us.
The McCall Love heart that gets moved around all summer long to different business fronts.
Another afternoon on the river with our friends Colin and Delta just outside of McCall.
Dave on one of our walks to the lake.  We also took some beautiful walks in the State Park campgrounds.
Our last beargrass mission was to the Secesh Summit.  Amazing!
Dave set up these beautiful lamps outside on our porch.  They're made from recycled milk bottles.
Another of our favorite walks was down the paved walking path to the smokejumper base and river.  It's lined with aspen trees and wild lupines.  Below is Dave at Rotary Park with one of his biking shirts from his Bday moneys.  I met him there after his bike ride and swim for a cup of coffee on the lake.
July was a colorful, beautiful blur.  It was when the hummingbirds started to show up on our feeder.  I spent a lot of time on our porch doting on the beautiful flowers and watching the hummingbirds on our feeder and the incredible views.  We went to the gardens a lot and took lots of beautiful walks around town and in the State Park.  Dave rode his mountain bike everyday.  And we went for lots of scenic drives. July in McCall is our absolute favorite and indescribably beautiful!