Yesterday an idiot who lives immediately south of us decided to start a brush fire. Had he had a brain, he might have noticed the wind rustling in the dry grass around his brush fire, and not started the fire in the first place. Hopefully he enjoys the large bill he gets from the State or County, whoever is in charge of extinguishing forest fires. Gotta hand it to the local fire fighters. They jump right on top of a small fire unless they are overwhelmed by huge fires as happened a couple of years ago.
We had planes and helicopters flying around the mountain for hours, basically until it got too dark to fly. And the fire department still has four trucks on the scene today, making sure that there aren’t any hot spots hiding out. We saw the trucks when we went out this afternoon to see exactly where the fire was, but it was too far off the road for us to get a picture. Scary! We were in a direct line with that fire and if the fire department hadn’t gotten it out as fast as they did, I kind of shudder to think what would have happened. Actually I’m not going to think about it.
Since we couldn’t actually see the fire damage, we went for a drive and made a 30 mile loop, up the drainage where the fire was, over the top of the mountain through forest service lands, and back down the other side. We looked at scenery and flowers instead. We’ve talked about making that particular drive since we moved here 11 years ago. Amazing place – there are Western Red Cedars up that drainage! I love cedars but they like a damp climate, and it’s too dry where we are.
We’ll have to go up that road again next spring and see what birds we can hear calling. It will be different birds, to some extent, than we have on our drier side of the ridge. It is a really rough road. We should probably take the tire pump, and electric chain saw with us.
Wild Tiger Lilies were all along the side of the road.
Dan grew up with these flowers so he was very happy to see them. They also prefer a damper climate.
Lupin carpeted the forest floor anywhere there was a break in the canopy.
I love this color of blue almost shading into lilac as the flowers fade.
Scarlet Trumpets were in rocky areas with bright sun.
These are so bright, the hummingbirds must visit them.
Along our road are lots of Clarkia, named for the Clark of Lewis and Clark fame.
These are common some years, and rare others. This year they are growing all over the place.
The baby hummingbirds are out and about, finally. Our feeders are going to be the party place soon but right now there are wild flowers everywhere and the adults are busy teaching their babies which flowers to go to for the best nectar.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the flower pictures. And OMG about your stupid neighbor. I am so glad that the fire fighters got it out quickly. I am grateful, proably not as much as you and Dan are, that no big fires were happening so that the resources were available to quickly help you. WOW. I hope this same neighbor learned his/her lesson.
I can’t wait to see you guys! Love, Cassandra