TravelingMel

Catch the whole weekend:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3 (morning)
Day 3 (afternoon)

After Heather left for Cody, I decided to take a little walk up the Rescue Creek Trail. I only hiked for a couple hours, but saw plenty of wildlife, big gorgeous views and some lovely flowers.

Rescue Creek trail is pretty exposed for the first few miles, probably for the whole trail. It was cold and a bitter wind almost dampened my enthusiasm. But it didn't.

Watch out for bears and rattlesnakes. Tough to keep an eye out for both at the same time.

Looking up the Yellowstone River canyon (Black Canyon).

Looking back towards Gardiner and the Gallatin Range.

Watching sheep from the trail.

The Gallatins, again.

See that snake at the top of the frame? It rattled at me while I was looking for bears.

Zooming in on the rattler.

Trail heading over to Rescue Creek.

Bright lichen.

Pronghorn spied from the trail.

Right now you may be asking yourself why there haven't been more pictures of plants. Don't you worry, they're coming up.

Gardner River near the trailhead.

Fall colors for you.

Lots of bluebirds on the trail.

Trees and branches litter the entire town of Livingston after Monday's storm. Up and down every street the parkways are filled with brush. After most of the snow had melted, Anders and I took a little walk around the block to survey the damage.

Some of the branches from our tree. Note the trees across the street.

Eighth Street.

The sidewalk on Lewis.

Heading up Ninth Street.

A little break to play in the snow.

Last weekend we spent two days berry picking. On Saturday my friend Jessica called and suggested we visit the berry patch at Rocky Creek Farm near Bozeman. The raspberries were at their peak a couple weeks ago, but there were still a few to pick.

Anders and Jessica's daughter, Katie, ate most of their find while Finn squashed a couple berries in his hand.

Jess with her 6 week-old Julia and 2.5 year-old, Katie take the hay ride to the berry patch.

Anders is not that psyched to be on the trailer.

Jess and the girls looking for berries, berries for jam.

Anders and Katie in the berry patch.

Berries for jam.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

Stealing my berries.

Delicious!

Grrrrrrr!

Lunch break.

I get in a little extra picking while the boys eat lunch.

Hay ride back to the barn.

The next day we went for a hike up the Passage Creek Falls trail in the Absaroka. I was hoping to find some huckleberries, but I had forgotten there was a big fire in that drainage a couple years ago. Huckleberries don't like all that sunshine and aridity. Fortunately we found thimbleberries and a few wild raspberries. But, no camera so use your imagination...

Last year I planted a few sunflowers in my garden. Just four or five to pretty-up the place.

Apparently they reseeded themselves. I didn't have the heart to thin them out and they are now totally out of control.

Aaahhhh, they are trying to escape. Hide your children!

The more subtle sweetpea.

The other part of the garden.

Henry built a sandbox for the boys earlier this summer and they absolutely love it. They can play in there forever.

Anders likes to scoop and dump while Finn likes to scoop and eat sand.

Baby pirate in the sand.

And the state of the flowers in my garden a few weeks ago.

White cone flower. I thought it was going to be pink cone flower--echinacea, but I'm happy the way it turned out.

Delphinium aka larkspur

Our first strawberry of the season.

White foxglove. I am going to have to find more of these. I LOVE them!

Yummy smelling lavender.

Lily.