🧡 September 🧡

 

Pumpkins are starting to appear in the markets, and the little chrysanthemums are blooming.  Summer passed by so quickly.  It didn’t really get started until the middle of July and never really got all that hot.  This was a summer like we used to always have up here in the San Bernardino Mountains,  and it’s my favorite kind of summer.  

Apples are nearly ripe, a few trees are tentatively coloring their leaves and I’m starting to make my fall cards. Stella always likes to “snoopervise” while I put up the autumn decorations.  

Stella and Malcolm love cuddling up in front of the fire, although Malcolm isn’t too happy in this photo because Stella just bit him!  He might have deserved it; he has been known to try to push her off the hearth.  Now that SoCal gas is charging so much I’ll be having a fire every night, and probably every morning, to help defray heating costs. 

I hope everyone has a lovely, cozy autumn filled with fun things to do.  Visiting pumpkin patches, eating caramel apples and taking walks to see all the beautiful fall foliage are some of my favorite things to do on a beautiful autumn day. It won’t be peak season for our fall foliage up here for several more weeks but I am really looking forward to it! 

Spring and a Bit of Summer

 We had a wonderfully cool May and June.  Rarely got above 70 degrees.  Many days the Marine Layer was hugging the mountains and engulfing the valley.  

I bought a new hydrangea called Mysterious.  It’s a mystery to me how it has so many different colors.  Just gorgeous.  

Wild flower season is well underway.  Wild Sweet Peas in the top photo, Seep Monkey Flower in the bottom photo.  

My cherry trees are loaded this year.  For some reason, the birds are leaving quite a few cherries for me!  

The lake is looking particularly beautiful since it’s so full from all the snow last winter.  

The forest is wonderfully green, too, although the July heat is turning the grasses to gold pretty quickly now.  

Sylvia Squirrel getting a drink from the birdbath.  How squirrels manage to drink while upside down is a mystery to me.  

The Blizzard of 2023

 

The month of March was brutal.  It started snowing on February 23rd and didn’t stop until over 8 feet of snow had accumulated.  Five feet of it fell in a 24 hour period.  This photo is looking out from my studio window during a break in the middle of the storm.  Thank God I could get out to it to paint, it saved my sanity.  Nearly two weeks of not seeing another human being, no plows clearing the road, just snow, snow and more snow was stressful, to say the least.  

The roof of our only grocery store in Crestline, Goodwin’s Market, collapsed due to the weight of the snow.  They estimate it will take a year to rebuild.  Only the outside walls remain. 

Roofs all over the mountain collapsed.  The last time we saw this much snow up here was the winter of 1982-83.  

Thankfully, the roof on my 115 year old cottage held up just fine, and so did the roof of my studio, probably because the pitch of both is so steep.  I did have to shovel off the roof of the cottage’s front porch though because it’s fairly flat.  

The street in front of my house.  The fence across the street is 7 and a half feet tall, you can just see the top of it peeking out.  

I kept the birds, squirrels, feral cats, skunks and raccoons fed during the storm and they all made it though just fine.  And, all of us who live inside my little cottage made it through just fine, too.  

And now the snow is melting and the creeks and lakes are full.  Every cloud has a silver lining, as my Mama used to say.  

Nothing is blooming up here yet, but the flowers at lower elevations are truly spectacular.      

If I never see this much snow again it wouldn’t bother me a bit.  Although, it’s really not the amount of snow that was so hard to deal with, it’s the fact that the County of San Bernardino was so slow in getting the roads plowed.  People died up here because of the County’s negligence.  (I thank whoever build my little cottage all those years ago for putting in a fireplace and a gas floor furnace).Trees and power lines came down and Edison couldn’t get in to fix anything because the roads weren’t cleared.  People couldn’t get out to get medications and died.  People ran out of food.  People who lived in all electric houses, and so had no heat, froze to death.  The County is trying to say that all of the deaths that happened up here during the blizzard are not storm related, but we all know that’s a lie.  During the blizzard of 1982-83 the roads were, mostly, cleared within three days because the plows were out working night and day, and that’s the way it has always been up here.  As soon as it started snowing, the plows were working.  But not during this storm.  I’m near town, one of the first places normally to be plowed, but my road wasn’t plowed for 10 days!  Sadly, probably nothing will happen to the people who were responsible for the County’s poor response because that’s the way things seem to be nowadays.  

I’m looking forward to when the lilacs that are all around my cottage bloom and I can pick bouquets.  The leaves are already showing some green, so maybe in a few more weeks they’ll bloom.  I can’t wait!  Spring has never been so welcome.  

Happy December

 The mice are making merry in Mouseford Falls, making snowmice, sledding, hiking, buying presents and drinking hot chocolate. 

The cats love to cozy up in front of the fire on these cold December days.  

I’m hoping for snow, but just enough to make the forest look pretty, not enough to cause problems.  Although rain would be gratefully accepted, too.  It seems like the California mountains that I live in are in a perpetual, never ending drought.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy December that’s filled with all the things you love!

October

 Malcolm says he’s ready to bypass Halloween and go straight to Thanksgiving.  He wants turkey!  Of course, he wants turkey every day.  And lots of other things that are only appropriate for him in very small amounts.  

Autumn is finally starting to get underway here in the San Bernardino mountains.  It’s arrival is very late this year, I think because it’s been so unseasonably warm.  This past summer was filled with brutal heat.  I hate it, but I suppose that’s the norm now in this time of Climate Change.

I hope everyone is having a joyous autumn, it’s my favorite time of the year.  

Late Summer

 There have been so many beautiful clouds around for the past two and a half weeks, but we’ve only had a few tiny drops of rain.  Big Bear and Forest Falls received so much rain some roads were washed out! 

I’m glad that some areas of the mountains I love so much got some much needed rain.  I’m hoping that the western end of the mountains where I live will get a good downpour soon.  

My hydrangeas did well this summer, although they have mostly lost all their color now and are just green.  

This has been the hottest summer I can remember, and I’ve lived in these mountains for most of my life.  It’s lovely to be out on the lake though.  

Charlie likes to climb trees to stay cool.  

The petunias appreciate a sprinkle from the garden hose once a day.  I didn’t buy many annuals this year to cut back on my water usage.  I’ve even stopped throwing out the water from the animals’ bowls when I give them fresh twice a day, instead pouring the old water into a watering can and using it on the plants.  It seems California is in a never-ending drought.  

But, the ducks are happy.  Lucky them, getting to paddle around in cool water all day!

Late Spring

 This has been a fairly dry spring and winter, too.  But Lake Gregory is looking beautiful anyway! 

My roses aren’t blooming yet, their buds are still forming.  Roses from the grocery store are sufficing for now.  

Down in Cleghorn Canyon, about 1,900 feet lower than where I live, the Bush Mallows are producing their delicate blooms.  

Here, the pink and white dogwoods are blooming…. 

    

Along with the lilacs.  There are lilacs all over the mountain valley where I live.  I’ve lived here since 1971,  and I often wonder who first planted all these lilacs.  In spring, if the day is warm enough, their scent perfumes the entire little valley, and to be outside on such a day is heavenly.  

And everywhere up here the wild Lunaria, or money plant, is blooming.  Spring is so beautiful, I wish it would last forever!  It’s over far too quickly though, and then we are left to endure the heat of summer and early fall.

Spring Lilacs

 Blogger is behaving in a way that makes me wonder if they really want people to post anymore.  It won’t recognize my iPad, so the only photos I can post are from a year ago.  However, this white lilac is in bloom right now.  

You can find me on Instagram at brushstrokes6400.  Hope to see you there!

Winter

 

Looking into my studio last night from a cold, blue, snowy world.  Christmas has come and gone for a lot of folks, but I leave my Christmas things up until Candlemas (or Imbolc) on February 2nd.  

The tree and fireplace in my little cottage.  I love my fireplace and cherish the cold months when I can sit by the fire in the evenings.  It’s so cheering and companionable.  

Summer

 Our summer skies have vacillated between normal, beautiful blue skies with white clouds, and this: 

smoked filled, that turns the sunlight a horrible amber orange color and makes it nearly impossible to breathe.  So far, knock on wood, we have been spared any fires bad enough that would force us to evacuate, but there have been fires all around us this summer.  

There have been lots of clouds around since June, but they’ve only given us thirty-three tenths of an inch of rain.  It’s also been far hotter than any other summer.  I long for cooler weather and rain. 

There have also been interesting creatures in my garden.  I think this is the caterpillar of a Hawk moth, although I have never seen them before in these mountains.  

The wild sunflowers are starting to bloom on the roadsides, so hopefully Fall weather isn’t far away.  

Part of a painting I’ve been working on.  I haven’t spent much time in my studio lately because the air conditioner in it doesn’t work too well.  I need to have it replaced, but hot weather seems to drain all my will power, and I find myself doing only what’s necessary.  Then I grab a book, a glass of iced tea and spend the rest of the day reading.  I’ll get my energy back when the weather cools off.  

We have had some beautiful sunsets this summer though, probably due to smoke particles in the air.  I guess that old saying is true, “Every cloud has a silver lining.”