Quiet Paths

Going outside in winter

Christine January 11th, 2010

Larch Cones quietly wait for spring up where my parents live. Most of the cones face west; I wonder why that is? They must love the sunset as much as I do. I planted this tree when I was in college. It was a very small larch which I found in the woods trying to make it in a very precarious spot. So, I scooped it up and planted the little more than seedling tree. I love that it has tons of cones now. Maybe they will make baby larches… does that make me a surrogate tree-grandma? Oh dear…

Down the path where my brother and his wife live I stroll. They were gone on a trip back east so I watered the plants inside their house and the music studio. The vast array of rocks he has lying around the shop are starting to peek through the snow. Below is a rock my brother sand-blasted with one of his favorite quotes by Thoreau. The snow is melting only for the time being – as a reminder for us to keep on, keeping on with courage and heart. Soon that message will be layered with white once again– a whisper of wisdom underneath a blanket of snow.

And, the woodpile of cottonwood logs is very neatly stacked for those very cold winter days when it is below zero. Not today! The woodpile houses many small critters and the chickadees like to search for bugs here.

The Scamp’s winter home this year is in my parents’ driveway. The Scamp really cannot wait for Spring break in April. We have a ways to go until then…. brrr. It was colder inside the Scamp that day than it was outside. How can that be? Oh yes, and if we ever decide to do any winter camping we will have to switch out the memory foam mattress; it is hard as a rock!

Creativity , Quotes , Scamp , Travel
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Whitefoot

Christine June 12th, 2009

~~ We were on an overnight camping trip yesterday parking the camper at Swan Lake Campground. Whitefoot the wild bunny was in our campsite when we came back to the camper after paddling the canoe. Actually, that was Whitefoot’s place. He did not seem to mind our presence in his yard. (I’m pretty sure this is a buck bunny.) He keeps a tidy little place all snuggled in by the stream under the tall cottonwoods and pine flanked by dogwood and chokecherry bushes. He had several little cubbyholes to enter and exit from if needed.

I talked to him while we sat at the picnic table enjoying his company, and he quietly nibbled at his lawn, pretty much ignoring us but fixing an unwavering eye on our movements. I thought if he used a mower it would go faster for him; his method was equivalent to me trimming my lawn with a pair of scissors, but hey – it’s his yard. Eat lots of calories; burn lots – that works. We were pretty boring sitting there sipping hot chocolate and reading by the evening’s long sunset while Whitefoot munched and munched, blade after blade of grass. As you can see he truly does still have white feet, I suppose left over from the winter coat. There was still quite a bit of underlying white fur left as well, but those feet were hard to miss. A handsome rabbit, to be sure!

Scamp , Wildlife
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Notes from a future camp

Christine April 22nd, 2008

This morning, the garden is slowing rising up out of the snow. I wanted to post a picture of my pansies and preemie tulips which were blooming before said snow arrived. Now things look a bit droopy, so I’ll wait until they perk up a bit. It’s amazing to me the rhubarb can continue to leaf out despite the 24 degrees in the morning and ice everywhere. Over in Great Falls they had minus 7 to wake up to. What can I say – it’s Montana! I’m sure the garden will recover and be glad for the sunshine when it does arrive. Me too.

I alluded earlier to taking our Scamp out this last weekend, which of course did not happen due to the impressive snow storm which hit the region. The Scamp was snowbound in the yard. My mind is still on our first camping excursion of the season. I am thinking of camping even more so now that it has been temporarily denied. My father-in-law recently went down to their basement and hauled up a nifty cast iron Dutch oven which will require a bit of steel wool and elbow grease to get back in shape, but to buy one of those new would be costly, and I am considering all the uses it could have over a camp fire. We plan to take the college kids to the ocean ASAP, and that big pot will come in quite handy.

I found a magnificent list of camping tips this morning. Some of these on the list are self evident in the declaration of camping ideals, but others I hadn’t thought about or had forgotten the wisdom of. Here are a few tips which made me nod my head.

~To fix a cooler leak, apply melted paraffin wax inside and outside the leaky area.

~Pita bread packs better and stays in better shape while camping than regular type breads.

~Consider using a crockpot. Prepare and start your dinner in the morning before your activities. It’ll be ready to eat when you get back. (Ah, enter Dutch Oven stage left!)

~To keep soap clean at your campsite, put it in a sock and hang from a tree.

~For ease of clean up and to protect from smoke and fire damage, put liquid soap on outside of your pots and pans before putting over the fire.

Continuing on with the theme of camping, if you are looking for a nice summer, church camp for your kids I wanted to pass along Camp Marshall on Flathead Lake. Our boys have attended this camp for years. It’s a beautiful location with quality programs, and the price is right. We were just getting Aly signed up for Senior Camp, so I thought I’d pass along their web address: Camp Marshall. They also offer a couple of family camps during the summer which we have also attended. You can kayak, boat, swim, hike on Wild Horse Island and fish in the Lake.