Shopping the Valley

We suddenly need a shot of color to brighten our white-on-dark winter days. So we go shopping.

We should be hitting Costco and Target and the Good Food Store in Missoula as well as grabbing a great meal there. But we decide to wait. We're trying to keep most of our shopping confined to the small mom-and-pop stores that still flourish in the Hamilton area. They are, after all, among the citizenry who kept a Wal-Mart from locating in the valley, or so the story goes.

And so, we visit one of a series of rooms in a Hamilton antiques shop called the Mall on Bedford. There we see a pair of reproduction, mid-century-modern, red-leather chairs. They have nothing at all to do with our current vintage-Craftsman decor. Leather is the only common denominator with such Arts and Crafts style in the West. And still, I fall in love! Could it be the red, in context with a lack of color outside? Am I thinking that with the right pillow, they'd be great bedroom/guestroom additions?  Or would I like to see both of them in Alex's office, as he sits and plays music with a friend?

The color red and the shape of this little chair warms my heart.

We don't buy the chairs, not yet. They're a bit pricey and not old. I talk with a lovely woman named Donna who operates the niche where these chairs sit. Her daughter now lives in my hometown of Louisville, Ky., and loves it. Donna says that she also used to live near New Orleans, Alex's oldest haunt. We have other things in common, except a reduction in price for the chairs. So we go to Murdoch's.

This is not for buying furniture or anything else house-related. We go to Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply (http://www.murdochs.com/hamilton/storeinfo) for free live entertainment!  Alex had stopped in once before, thinking it was a hardware store. Well, if you want hardware for your horse...

Murdoch's horseshoe bin.

Or, you hanker for some beautifully colored rope...

Each one, 50 feet of "polyblend"...

Or, some brightly hued "field scoops"...

Murdoch's does merchandise its colors very well!

Or a toy of a different color for the dog (that's my voice in the background of this video, as I try to film via the iPhone -- so accomplished!)

Or, of course, a cowboy hat or two and other Western wear...

Yee haw!

A poster on the Murdoch's bulletin board describes a perfectly fitting event -- a first-annual fundraiser for improving rodeo facilities at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds in Hamilton...

(rc.mt.gov/content/fair/documents/cowboyball.pdf)

And it's near the checkout (we buy only a set of bungee cords for securing skis to our old car's new roof rack, a pair of Bogs brand mud/gardening clogs for me -- http://www.bogsfootwear.com/shop/index.html, fleece-lined slippers for Alex) when we spot an item that fits with a bumper sticker we've seen in the Murdoch's parking lot...

For the hunter on your gift list.

The parking-lot bumper sticker reads P.E.T.A.  And, at first I say, "Oh gawd, should we park somewhere else?" That is, until we get a little closer and see that it stands for "People Eating Tasty Animals." Too funny. And wholly Montanan. I look online and find a very basic Web site explaining that this particular P.E.T.A. organization is "a resource for those who enjoy eating meat, wearing fur and leather, hunting, and the fruits of scientific research (and more!)."

When we finally get back to our Hamilton home, one more colorful item meets us in the mail. It's a tasty one, waiting to be brought to life next spring...

My mail-order seeds often come from the wonderful Baker Creek -- http://rareseeds.com/.

Quiet...

...or, "The Joy of Quiet," as a New York Times opinion piece recently put it (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=quiet&st=cse).

We have it, in spades. Shhhhh.

It's just outside our windows today. An unusually heavy snow is falling on Hamilton, Mt.  There is a "Winter Storm Warning" for the Bitterroot Valley --"today through Thursday afternoon...an additional 8 to 12 inches are possible...locally up to 14 inches." We'd planned to drive to Missoula and scrapped that plan pretty quickly when the reality of road conditions settled in.

A ceiling lamp in hour house reflects in the window as I shoot north; the filmy circle actually is a Ziplock bag, cut open at the end to form a protective circle around my camera (no special effects intended).

We step outside as we consider whether to walk or to drive. We stand still. After the snowplow passes by, we hear not a sound. We look north again and see more black-and-white gorgeousness, shot in color, of course, but turned monochromatic by snow and bark.

Snow-shrouded trees, just north of us.

Then we look west. More trees, tons more snow and this is just noon time. It keeps falling all day...

Baker Street, plowed but covered over again with snow.

We despoil the quiet by choosing to get into our car to look for more pictures. The silence -- except for crunch of snow tires on packed streets -- is beautiful.

A shot through the front windshield.

A stop for a latte is another time to reflect.  Cafés may be steamy and bustling in cold weather, but I enjoy screening all of that out to feel the heat of the drink and to stare quietly into the foam.

Coffee with a heart.

But a final decision needs to be made. What to do next. And the choice is clear. It's home. That's the place to be on a day such as this. There are new library books, magazines, a new sofa, a fresh pile of firewood, a full fridge and pantry. And, have I mentioned? No TV!!

Firewood, safe underneath the car port, by our garage.

Quiet, only interrupted by a snap-crackling fire.

We rekindle a fire from morning coals. It takes time to warm up. So do we. In the end, we sit quietly there, toes finally thawed, books opened. But all we do is look out at branches that are heavy with wet, white, crystalline stuff. The beauty of the scene overwhelms. It needs no words.

Ansel Adams AND Frank Lloyd Wright?!

Images of impossible beauty are swirling around in my head.

Many are colored in black and white. They are are, in fact, Ansel Adams' extreme black-and-white exposures of Yosemite and other Western landscapes. Twice, I've seen the current 138-piece exhibit of Adams' work at the Missoula Art Museum (http://www.missoulaartmuseum.org/index.php/ID/57d0e4036786886013093f0a535cd473/fuseaction/experience.detail.htm). My second visit includes a lovely little lecture from an art historian. And a crowd of more than 50 people turns out on an overcast afternoon to hear her say that Adams did have critics of his darkroom techniques.

Portrait of Ansel Adams, which first appeared in the 1950 Yosemite Field School yearbook. Photo by J. Malcolm Greany (print is in public domain, from the Wikimedia projects).

All I can say at this point is, Wow! And, critics schmitics! Adams is a man who pioneered the more-than-artful documentation of wild lands in this country. He helped not only put national parks and wilderness on the map but he also worked to get photography recognized as a true art form.  And last but certainly not least, his eye for composition, texture and range of tones is impeccable and should, in my opinion, be honored by anyone with even the slightest interest in photography. (http://www.missoulaartmuseum.org/index.php/ID/57d0e4036786886013093f0a535cd473/fuseaction/experience.detail.htm). Harrumph! So what if he did a darkroom burn-out of one of those mountain monograms -- the letters "LP" installed on a hill above Lone Pine, California, in his 1944 print "Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada." One of these prints is in the Missoula exhibit (I try but I can't find traces of the "LP") and another is on the Christie's auction Web site http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=1978689).

Art historian and crowd at MAM's Ansel Adams exhibit.

Says our historian, simple choices of composition are in themselves ways to manipulate images, not to mention all of the "enhancing," retouching and effects-adjusting techniques that now are available in the digital-camera/computer age. I find that I am delving into "edit" on my computer to straighten  images more often than not, as if I had been shooting on a rolling sea (?). And I occasionally crop and/or slightly adjust contrast or exposure. I do no color enhancing or retouching. I find that I can see those edits in others' photos from a mile away.


Just fyi, and like every amateur photographer, I also miss lots of good pictures. The girl, below, is blowing big pink bubble-gum bubbles as she looks away from Ansel Adams and down into the more-interesting (?) lobby of the museum. I shoot a dozen images BUT miss the irreverent orbs of goo.

Girl with bubble-gum, at the Ansel Adams showing.

The Missoula exhibit runs through April 15. There are no Montana photos here, by the way. Instead, the connection is an Ovando, Mt., couple -- he, retired as former Dell Computer chief financial officer, she, a photography buff. They own this collection of Adams photos and are sharing it with others. (A story on the couple is found at http://missoulian.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/article_cd6fbc04-f093-11e0-a433-001cc4c03286.html).

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Beautiful photographic images aren't the only things occupying me these days. Beautiful architectural ones --  from books and documentaries as well as from local houses and other buildings -- have become a bit of an obsession.

Just down the block from us in Hamilton, Mt., is a purported Frank Lloyd Wright house. Its prairie-style lines of hipped roof and board-and-batten horizontal siding speak of the Wright aesthetic. Currently, the house is unoccupied and for sale.

Prairie-style house on South 3rd Street, Hamilton, Mt.

Wright certainly was in the area during the early part of the 20th Century. A quarterly issue of the Frank Lloyd Wright Association's newsletter includes a long chapter on "Wright in the Bitter Root Valley of Montana."   He designed many fascinating projects.  Wright had a Midwest friend who was one of the promoters of orchard development in the Bitterroot Valley around 1910, including the Bitter Root Irrigation Company canal (also referred to as The Big Ditch). The canal was to furnish water from Lake Como north to a new town to be called Bitter Root, east of Hamilton. Wright was employed to lay out the town and plan buildings for this mountain valley, with profitable new orchards surrounding it. His most beautiful extremely horizontal building, the Bitter Root Inn, later burned down. It's reported than an apple blight plus an irrigation-company bankruptcy helped kill the orchard development.  Wright also got the job of designing bungalows for another model town south of Hamilton, around gorgeous Lake Como. It was linked to the so-called Apple Boom as well as to Midwest investors hoping also to escape from steamy Chicago summers. That, too, fizzled, although at least one prairie-style cabin remains.

I decide to tour our neighboring prairie-style house with a favorite local real-estate expert, and we see rooms full of beamed ceilings, magnificent woodwork, fireplaces and built-ins. I snap a few pictures.

Built-ins and dining room of our neighboring Wright-style house.

I go to the Ravalli County Museum at the Old Court House to confirm the Wright provenance and find that the Montana Historical and Architectural Inventory named the architect of record for this 1914 structure as "Frank Lloyd Wright School." Could that mean a design by Wright's many draftsmen and women in his Chicago studio? Or, is it a reference to Wright as designer, or to his style of design?

I look further. There are abundant newspaper stories naming Wright as the architect. And the Montana Historical and Architectural Inventory calls it a "house of primary historical significance" for "being an example of a style unique to the famous American architect." The house has "excellent integrity," it continues. As the only prairie-style building in Hamilton, it is, therefore, eligible for registration on the National Register of Historic Places, says the Inventory. "Local history contends that Wright actually designed this residence," it says. "However, veracity has never been completely confirmed. Prairie-style features are seen in the floor plan and massing with overhanging roof maintaining simple horizontal lines while the plan actually has reliefs. This smooth roofline and generous overhang develop the horizontal repose of the building.  Wright's buildings typically had a stronger horizontal which may indicate some interpretation on the contractor's part."  Hmmmmm?


I, meantime, am as hooked on Wright as on Ansel Adams. I stream online via Netflix (I'm enjoying a lack of TV in our house) the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary "Frank Lloyd Wright" (http://www.pbs.org/flw/filmmakers/index.html). I learn that he was quite a brilliant, difficult and controversial character. There's no mention of his early Montana visit in the film. I decide that I believe he was involved to some extent in our neighboring home but not the architect of record. I'd love to be proven wrong!

Shuffling Along the Continental Divide

Our first ski trip together -- up to cross-country grounds at Chief Joseph Pass, south of Hamilton, Mt., and near the Idaho border -- takes us to a gorgeous trail on the Continental Divide.

I have to admit that getting onto cross-country skis for the first time in 20 years is a bit daunting, especially at 17 degrees and 7,264 feet.

Me, shuffling along the Continental Divide Trail.

But whew! We get to the warming hut -- called the Gordon Reese Cabin and maintained by volunteers plus U.S. Forest Service crews -- just in time for our own packed lunch.

Kitchen at Gordon Reese. No cooked food for us. We snack on our own crackers, cheese, nuts and chocolate. After a morning on the trail, it's absolutely delicious!

The warming room and dining area couldn't be more welcoming. There's even a place by the stove to clothespin our wet socks and gloves.

Volunteer overnight "hosts" have left a good fire going us and for the rest of this day's round of skiers and snowshoers. (We get to host overnight at the end of Jan., as new members of the Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club.)

Gordon Reese is a relatively new feature of this cross-country ski area, with 17 miles of groomed trails.

And we check out the back-porch view before heading home. For more information on this unusual spot, go to http://bitterrootxcskiclub.net/cabin-reservations.htm; to http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Gordon_Reese_Cabin/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=75219; and to http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccaellen/4357743930/in/photostream/.

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!