Stack and Whack Quilt

Here is my latest quilt, a pattern called, "Stack and Whack." It is for a friends daughter who was recently married. We were at the wedding, but unfortunately the quilt was not. The stars are all made from the fabric that borders the quilt, but the way you cut them, they make interesting patterns, also called a kaleidoscope quilt, and you can see why.

Fires in Montana

This has been a very dry season in some states, causing the fire season to be very active. I thought I'd post a few pictures of some of the fires that have burned, and in the case of Seeley Lake, still burning, http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/ (see "Jocko Lake Fire"). These are two places my family visited when we had our one family reunion. The top two are the Gates of the Mountain (Meriweather Fire), where we took a boat ride. The bottom two are of Seeley Lake where we had a beautiful week on the lake. The weather is going to be cooler for a few days, so I believe there is light (no pun intended) at the end of the tunnel for those living near some of the fires.

MONTANA STORIES

Fort Knox? Guantanamo? Not really. It's the now-hopefully-deer proof fencing for our garden in Montana. We arrived with our kids last week for a 5 day stay to find that all the beautiful roses, lilies and other flowers we left behind in mid-July were gone. The colorful menagerie had been devoured by the ravenous deer, who starved by the perils of our dry weather, body-slammed and jumped our flimsy fence. So I got to work after the kids left and built a new sturdier one. No telling if this one will hold up against these jumping Houdinis.

The Ramirez tribe of Montana, Wyoming and now Oregon got together for a wonderful 2 days of rest, relaxation, good food and wine. Chris Taleff, Danny's best friend joined us for dinner one night. We missed his soon-to-be spouse Sara, who was on her way to Denver for a cousin's wedding.

You may have heard Montana is parched and burning up in several spots. The beautiful view we enjoy so much and often feature in this blog had an interesting haze that changed often depending on wind speed and direction. Living so close to it, we are often reminded by Nature of it's infinite power and energy. JIR

HIKING IN THE BIG HORNS

We purposely left behind home projects and the news about the war and the flailing stock market to immerse ourselves into the Big Horn National Forest for a moderately strenuous (Linda says to sunbstitute the "moderately" for "highly") hike on the Wolf Creek Trail. This trail starts at the Eaton Ranch (http://www.eatonsranch.com/), a working dude ranch 15 miles west of Sheridan, WY. The hike took us for 4.7 miles each way through thick forest along the beautiful Wolf Creek, over open meadows, and across Sibley and Bear Creek. The picture above is at our turning point on the banks of Bear Creek after having lunch.

The views are fabulous-notice the haze in the distance from the wildfires, most of them in Montana

Definetely a unique shot-the butterfly on the right posed for me as I pressed the shutter release button to photograph the one on the left. We were a month late for the peak of the wild flower season, but we still managed to enjoy and capture quite a few in our photos.

It took me 5 minutes working my way around this flower to capture the busy bumble bee in the right pose.

Patience is a must when photographing nature in the wild. Ever notice how long butterflies keep their wings spread out between long moments of having them folded?

Wolf Creek comes rumbling down the canyon towards the Eaton Ranch over several small waterfalls. Some of the falls have cool clear pools of water under them. Now that we know the territory, we will definitely go in for a refreshing dip on the way back.

FRIENDS IN DC

We had a wonderful time visiting our friends Line and David. They had us over for dinner, which was punctuated by laughter and conversation