Gray Days as 2011 Ends...

As an old year fades and a new one dawns, we're greeted by Montana skies that are gray with fog, clouds, snow and rain -- all happening at the same time, some days! What to do? Get out in it!!

Late morning along the Bitterroot River in Lee Metcalf.

So, we walk through the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/leemetcalf/) on one of the grayer mornings and see mountains, icy water, ducks, eagles, hawks and an eerie sun through clouds.

Ducks up a Lee Metcalf creek ("crick," as many here pronounce it).

Ice, a hint of blue sky and bird(?) footprints in Lee Metcalf's riverbank snow.

Next, it's off to River Rising (http://www.riverrisingbakery.com/) in Hamilton for a warming drink. AND, as it turns out, warming colors. Because right there, on the walls near the barista, are beautiful, colorful handwoven rugs made from durable, washable fibers by Jenny Harrold of the local Skalkaho Rugs! (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Skalkaho-Rugs/148009561915436) 

Weaver Jenny Harrold pictured over one of her handwoven rugs.

We need rugs!!  We look her up on Facebook, we "Like" her posts, of course, and we contact her for a  meeting in her home/workshop. It's another gray day when we take off for her address, on the legendary Skalkaho Highway (http://dangerousroads.org/north-america/349-skalkaho-highway-usa.html). She, her husband and five children, with one on the way, live on the safe end of that road, just a few miles from Hamilton. More about the dangerous part of the road later.

We begin looking through her wares while she tells us that her Mom, in Nebraska, taught her how to weave and still comes out to Montana for the grandkids and the looms.

Jenny at the loom.

Her raw material: balls of selvage edges of fabric that Jenny sources in the Midwest. 

Flipping open rugs in her workshop.

Jenny's nearly nine months pregnant and yet she flips all recent rugs out onto the floor for us to see.

 

The "Hippie" rug is a local favorite.

She's sure to show us the "Hippie," a rainbow-colored rug that's always a big hit at her booth in summer's Hamilton Farmers' Market (http://hamiltonfarmersmarket.webs.com/). We like it, we admit to being old hippies ourselves, but we move on. We end up buying three gorgeous rugs in muted colors for our kitchen, our mud room and our main entry. Then we leave, turning east toward the "dangerous" end of Skalkaho.

A snowy surface, rain and clouds meet us.

We get to a point where this "seasonal" narrow mountain road closes for the winter

.

Snow mobiles and cross-country skiers take over from here. Alex chats up a couple (on the least-noisy snowmobiles that I can remember).

Alex and the 'mobilers.

Then they take off up the circuitous route to Skalkaho Falls (http://www.waterfallsmontana.com/waterfalls.aspx?id=11), where the road narrows, several unsuspecting drivers of automobiles have been lost off its edges and a constant round of repairs is underway.

Snowmobiles may be safest! Good luck in 2012, we think to ourselves; we may even see you up there with our newly rented cross-country skis!

'Twas the week before Christmas...

...and all through this place, many creatures were stirring...

(red-tailed hawk, sailing)

(mule deer, grazing)

(elk, lazing)

 ...if at a slow pace.  The Bitterroot shone, barely dusted with snow...

...and ice on the river began building its floe.

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Okay, okay, I'm fresh out of Christmas rhymes!

But all of this is to say what a great time I had, snapping these images on a two-hour drive with the fantastic photographer Mel Holloway of Corvallis.  I've known Mel since my last trip here.  He posts Bitterroot pictures regularly on Facebook. On this particular day, he had an errand to run south of Hamilton and more pictures to take.  He invited me along!

Mel, on a photo safari.

First we went to the ranch and new apple orchard of the aptly named Lee McAlpine.  Mel had Christmas gifts to deliver -- a bottle of bubbly Italian Secco and a plate of home-made cinnamon rolls baked by his wife, Mary Alice.

Mel comes to the McAlpine ranch bearing gifts.

Lee McAlpine is cider master of a hand-crafted hard cider made with fresh Bitterroot apples. Her
business is Montana Cider Works. She shows us her fermentation equipment and soon-to-be tasting room.

Then we drive north and home to Hamilton on the Old Darby Road, high above the valley. Here and there are lonely fence-row trees, cattle grazing and mounds of soft blonde-on-blonde high-country grass.

Happiest of holidays, from the land of velvet hills (and icy peaks)!

Becky's Back in the Bitterroot

Polar bear and coffee

I am sipping coffee on a Delta Skywest regional jet and sitting next to a young hipster dressed all in black, his dark hair messily swept back and up, his vintage black, square eyeglass frames making him look even more grungy and adorable. He's slept the whole way, mouth open, oblivious to mountains peeking through clouds below. If I were a mean person, I would snap his picture against the window's glorious Bitterroot Valley. But, I'm not. I finish my coffee and only then notice a polar bear on my napkin. An omen of colder things to come in my new Montana home?

Not yet, maybe not at all. I step outside the airport door to a balmy 36 degrees and part sun. Alex appears  from a nearby parking lot and I realize how long it's been since we've seen each other -- two full months! We hug and kiss. It's so sweet to see him all Montana-ed up in his leather gloves, jeans, boots, puffy jacket and favorite cap from Fords Department Store in Hamilton.

Freshly grilled Pacific salmon on salad.

When we go grab some lunch in Missoula, I realize that I've had a breakfast of Starbucks coffee at Lambert-St. Louis airport just before 8 a.m. (and a Delta flight to Salt Lake City), and here I am in Montana at 1 p.m. (Mountain Time) some 1,800 flight miles away, eating freshly grilled Pacific salmon and taking in the local Missoula scene. Amazing!

Moisture off of the Bitterroot River gives a smokey look to the valley.

We drive the 40 or so miles south toward home and through glorious scenery, with moisture adding some atmospheric "haze" to the valley. Only a dusting of snow covers the valley floor; even the miles of cycling path to one side of U.S. Highway 93 are clear of ice and snow.  Record temps on this day for the nearby town of Victor are a high of  56 °F (recorded in 1924) and a low of -12 °F (1972), just fyi.

Roses await at home!

Alex has two dozen red roses waiting for me and when we're home in Hamilton, I put them in a stainless steel thermos in lieu of a vase. They sit amid the detritus of construction tools, rags, mops and other cleaning stuff.

We put off some deep cleaning and build a fire. We sit by it to open two boxes and several Christmas cards that have come in the mail. I take a dark little picture with my iPhone...

Fireplace, evening of Dec. 14.

...and it includes not one but two bear-themed candlestick holders found in St. Louis by my friend John Mareing and shipped to us here. We love them, especially considering our recent bear sightings! Cards are from family and friends. And, ahem, the mule deer antlers are a little joke from Victor friends Marie Anne and Kim. I squealed with a mixture of delight, horror and surprise when I saw them. They'll look great in Alex's new study, I'm thinking! By the way, the fireplace brick, grill and wall above all will get a unifying coat of paint, and a new hearth is coming soon. I'll send pictures then. For now...

...I sign off with a shot of me in the relatively clean master bathroom, preparing to go out and help Alex vacuum, dust and inspect all aspects of the house renovation. More about that soon!! Maybe we'll even get ourselves a sofa for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza!