The Winter that Will Not End!

Still waiting for spring to arrive but not making much headway so far. The photo below was taken this morning and it is snowing as I write.

Sunday Apri 17, 2011

I'm still chomping at the bit to get out and get to work and my teeth and patience are wearing mighty thin. I've got a million and one projects I would like to begin and times awasting. It will be winter again before I know it.

Around here people are back in the forest after firewood because most have run out by now. I'm good because I produce my own here at the ranch and always put up more than I need. That way I never run out and if I don't use it all it's just that much less work I have to do the next year.

Even the mule deer are still hanging around. They are normally long gone by this time.

Sweet Cheeks raiding the bird feeder

Koty isn't very happy about the weather either.

Koty, all dressed up and nowhere to go.

It hasn't even been good for photography either. Dreary. Dreary. Dreary. Friday we could stand it no more and went over to the West Kootenai. There was intermittant sun but it was windy and cold. I stopped on the bridge to take a photo and nearly got blown off it. The wind was blowing so hard it was literally playing a tune in the aluminum guard rail.

Koocanusa bridge-Lake Koocanusa Montana

We headed on down the West Kootenai road and pulled in at the road that goes to the Little Northfork.

On days like this I focus (pardon the pun) on designs in nature. The forest is my MOMA and it's where my moma aka Mother Nature does some of her best work. The arrogance of humans, particularly in the art world, makes me chuckle.

Lichen growing on a boulder

Tufted heads of grass growing on a bank

Looking through the clear water of a spring creek at the sandy designs below.

I find these designs in nature endlessly fascinating and beautiful. I think sometimes I must be some kind of nut. Better to be nutz than blind?

Big Creek and the Little Northfork are running pretty full and there hasn't been much in the way of melt. It has been way too cold for melting snow of any significance. I reckon the streams and rivers are going to roar when, or should I say if, spring ever gets here and the melt gets underway.

Little Northfork Montana April 15, 2011

Big Creek Montana April 15, 2011

There have been moments when the clouds have lifted and the sun shone but they have been few and far between and lasted maybe fifteen to twenty minutes at a time. It is my great good fortune not to have to go anywhere to see beautiful vistas so when those transitory moments appear I get to warm not only my body but my heart and soul as well.

The view

The mountains you see above are the Purcells and what is called the West Kootenai which is exactly where I was when I took the other photos displayed here.

©Kinsey Barnard