STEPPING INTO THE PAINTING

20 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in National Parks, Sunset, Travel

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Gros Ventre River, hiking, moose, sunsets, Taggart Lake, tetons

WE HAD A GRAND TIME IN GRAND TETON N.P. We could see the Tetons from our campsite and watched them light up mornings and evenings. The yellow leaves of the aspens and cottonwoods were absolutely luminous. The evening light just after sunset was ethereal; soft and gauzy with hints of lavender. I felt like I was sitting in a Thomas Moran painting. Just have to share a few photos.

The campground is alongside the Gros Ventre River (grow-vant) where we walked in the mornings looking for moose–along with dozens of photographers as it turned out. Our first morning out we got lucky–twice.

The first encounter was a young bull moose who looked to be bedding down for the morning.

Farther on, out at the river we spotted a full grown bull standing in the water.

As we slowly and quietly moved in a little closer we found a glut of photographers, some of whom had just witnessed a fight between this bull and another. This challenger was apparently soothing his wounds. We saw the dominant bull a couple of days later; he had broken part of his antlers in the scuffle.

One afternoon we took a hike up to Taggart Lake at the base of the Tetons. I don’t think that a hike gets much better than this.

Taggart Lake, payoff number two!

Back at the Gros Ventre campground with late afternoon shadows adding a little more drama to the scenery.

And the setting sun. It was so beautiful, made for painting.

When we were in Yellowstone we met some friends quite by accident and they joined up with us in Teton NP. On our last full day in the park we all did a hike around Two Ocean Lake. It seems that there is nowhere in the park where the Tetons are not visible. We even saw a group of three otters fishing in the lake! A wonderful way to end our trip.

RED PLUMS AND SUNSETS

21 Wednesday Jul 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Jellies & Preserves, Roses, Sunset

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DESPITE THE MORNING MARINE LAYER that has greeted us the last four or five days, the afternoons turned sunny and last night’s sunset was quite lovely. I especially love the way the blooms of Altissimo were lit up when viewed from behind. I could not resist trying to capture the glow.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON I went to my friend Don’s and took him up on his offer of red plums. In exchange, he’ll receive some plum preserves. Don has a very efficient method of harvest: shake the branches and the ripe ones fall to the ground. No ladder climbing. I brought home eleven pounds!

Yesterday I made preserves and jelly. Half of the plums went to juice for jelly and the others became plum preserves. From eleven pounds of plums I put up ten half-pints of jelly, eight half-pints of preserves and three half-pints of syrup from the leftover juice.

In 2005 we went to Chicago and then onto Milan, Illinois to visit Tom’s cousin and her husband. We went with them to visit the John Deere Museum in the Quad Cities and in the gift shop I found a great book about putting up jams and jellies. Even though the author weirdly refers to herself in the third person, The Jamlady Cookbook is well researched and written and has a great variety of recipes for just about every fruit and fruit combination you never considered. The book is full of the technical information that makes canning possible and I highly recommend this book if you have a serious interest in jams, jellies and preserves. The other go-to book is the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I finally replaced my thirty-five year old copy with a new and updated edition last summer. It is greatly expanded with a contemporary take on preserving and canning recipes. Another must-have book.