Good news, bad news...

Bad news first...
We close the house tight and leave Hamilton around 2 p.m. on Monday (9/10) to get away from wind-driven clouds of heavy smoke. There are lightning-caused wildfires in craggy granite mountains outside of town. We've only driven a mile or so north when blue skies re-appear. But we crane our necks back to see what we've left. It looks like a sandstorm in the Sahara, slowly blowing our way! And yet, it seems to be lit from within. We stop in a parking lot with a few other folks to stare and take pictures. "This is so cool," says a pre-teen, her mother smiling and rolling her eyes. What we are seeing is a reflection of flames in the distance! We high-tail it to Missoula for the night; I don't plan to breathe that stuff a minute more than I have to. The fire, we read and hear, is affecting folks on wooded lots in foothills farther to our south and west.  Containment fire lines on the other side of the Bitterroot River -- east of fire and helping to protect our town -- are now set up. As of this writing, more than $2 million has been spent on man- and woman-power, helicopters for dipping buckets into mountain lakes and dropping water on fire, even infrared flights at night to track progress through smoke. This is a difficult fire to fight, but houses in town -- like ours -- will be fine.

A sandstorm-like cloud of smoke from wildfires to our south and west on 9/10.

Fair News... a new category of news in between bad and good (again, none of the really bad stuff is happening to us!)

Sept. 12, 2012 9:53:AM -- KPAX-TV
DENVER, CO- There's some federal money coming to the Bitterroot as crews continue to battle the Sawtooth Fire outside of Hamilton.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Tuesday morning that they have authorized federal funds to be used to help with firefighting costs.
FEMA Regional Administrator Robin Finegan approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) after receiving a request from state government officials.
The blaze has prompted a stage 2 evacuation of over 320 homes, affecting between 800 and 1,000 residents. The fire is also threatening cellular communication towers and water sheds near the area.
The Regional Administrator, Robin Finegan, determined that the fire, which began as the result of a lightning strike on August 30 and grew rapidly earlier this week due to high winds, "threatened such destruction as would constitute a major disaster," according to a news release.
The approval means that FEMA funding is available to pay 75% of the state's eligible firefighting costs for managing, mitigating and controlling the fire. However, the grants do not provide assistance to individual home or business owners and do not cover other infrastructure damage caused by the fire.
The latest figures made available by fire managers showed that it's cost $2.2 million to battle the blaze so far.
The Ravalli County Commission declared a State of Emergency earlier this week, and the American Red Cross set up an evacuation shelter at the First Baptist Church.
Large animals and livestock are being accepted at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds while the Bitter Root Humane Association is accepting small pets that have been evacuated.

*****

Good news is, we made it quickly to the clear, blue skies of Missoula and had a fine meal in an unlikely place -- the dark-and-handsome wine bar at Red Bird (http://www.redbirdrestaurant.com/), located in a renovated Art Deco hotel called The Florence. And that's next door to the historic Wilma theater (http://thewilma.com/) and performance space where hip films and live music play. You gotta love Missoula.

The lamp above our seat at Red Bird's bar had a fire-like look (yikes), but superb red wines quickly dampened such thoughts.

We walk streets of downtown at dusk. Missoula is an old mill town that became a lumber/forestry hub and now is best known for the University of Montana.

Stately old buildings in downtown Missoula.

Art galleries and chic little shops line South Higgins Avenue. I especially want to return to see the exhibit "Lost & Found Montana," by an associate professor of photojournalism at UM.

A photo exhibit of vanishing Montana communities (http://www.lostandfoundmontana.com/about.html).

Our stay at Blossom's Bed & Breakfast (https://www.blossomsbnb.com/) is perfect. It's an old/new Craftsman bungalow. We have a room with a door onto the little backyard -- with hills beyond -- and we sleep with the door wide open to fresh, cool air.

The next morning, we drive north. It's Alex's birthday -- 9/11 is -- and we want to get into beautiful mountains to celebrate. We almost get lost on old national forest roads south of the Mission Mountains. But both of our iPhones are able to keep us on track. Our destination is an Amish general store in St. Ignatius. The route takes us through an old burn. We can't get away from fire this month!

Old burn beside a road in the Flathead National Forest.

Our road looks desolate at first, but quickly we begin to see life among the ruins.

Two Mountain Bluebirds (tiny dots of blue in the center of this picture) fly about the road.

Vegetation grows up around burnt tree stumps on the forest floor.

An even bigger "garden" of fall colors tops a mound of burnt branches.

We get home in time to harvest vegetables from our own garden (including Green Zebra, SunGold and Black Cherry tomatoes started from seed back in St. Louis!)

Home in Hamilton, MT, is less smoky some days, more smoky others. Inside our little bungalow all is fine and cheerful.  However, we're making plans to celebrate Alex's birthday tomorrow with friends Kelsey and Mary who also have a September birthday to honor, at http://sleepingchildfarms.com/ south of town. And we have an invitation for next week to spend two nights at a Forest Service cabin in the beautiful Magruder Corridor. This cabin once was the residence of the district ranger, his wife and five children. The daughter in that family -- Mary Alice Schumaker -- and her husband Mel Holloway have invited us to stay with them in this rugged, beautiful place that Mary Alice once called home.  We're brainstorming garden-fresh meals, as I'm sure Mary Alice is, too. Life is good. It's smoky but it's good. Rain/snow soon will bring all back to normal here.

The two-story, five room Magruder Ranger's House.

Smoke, the sequel

Normally, a drive in the Bitterroot Valley features crystal-clear views of mountains, snow-capped and breathtaking many months of the year.

Breathtaking, however, has another connotation for the moment. The sun often gets clouded by a wall of smoke. Sitting in a neighbor's backyard and watching bits of ash falling around us is not a great feeling, even if the beer and wine are first rate. And occasionally, the smoke can take your breath. The Sawtooth Fire is about 7 miles west of town and not a direct threat (http://inciweb.org/incident/3227/), but it's the fires farther west in parched wilderness that often send thick smoke our way.

So we plan short getaways until rain or the snows of late fall end this annual event. We take a picnic up the notorious old logging road called Skalkaho, looking for higher altitudes and fresher air. The road is improved and widened beyond one lane in spots (still no guard rails to protect from the ravines as we get higher).  But air at Skalkaho Falls -- our destination -- is crisp and clear. The falls is expertly engineered now to run under the road. We meet a guy about our age and his 87-year-old mother from Michigan who loves to travel west each summer. They hand Alex a camera and ask him to take their picture next to the falls. I wish I had taken a picture of that scene; very sweet!

Skalkaho Falls (http://www.waterfallsmontana.com/waterfalls.aspx?id=11)

 On another day, we brave some lesser smoke to catch a last day of the Ravalli County Fair. Carny folks are closing down the rides...

Ravalli County Fair ride

...and we see them on the highway driving north, as we do so, too, to get to a less smoky Missoula for lunch and shopping.

Lunch outside, at Caffé Dolce (http://www.caffedolcemissoula.com/)

It seems only appropriate that, at The Good Food store in Missoula (very much like Whole Foods elsewhere), we find a coffee just right for this interesting and unpredictable region of the country:

Smoke Jumper coffee beans, at http://www.goodfoodstore.com/

Where there's smoke...

       

...there's fire, wildfire, that is, in Idaho just across the Bitterroot Mountains from where we live; it's smoky here, with wind bringing the sooty stuff our way. But we're safe and staying mostly inside to watch movies and to read over Labor Day weekend. The outlook early next week is for clearing. This spectacular photo is from NASA: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79021.

St. Louis, send some of today's heavy rain this way, minus the lightning!

*****

But smoke in the Bitterroot Valley doesn't delay other activities, such as the annual parade in downtown Hamilton that's a prelude to the Ravalli County Fair. We march in it for local and statewide Democratic candidates.

A woman from our group hands out candy to kids! Smart!

The Missoulian newspaper gets a great shot of kids anticipating a candy barage -- http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/feature-photo-parade-kicks-off-ravalli-county-fair/article_89429fb0-f2ae-11e1-9374-001a4bcf887a.html.

As it turns out, I try shooting the same scene from a distance, with my left hand on the banner for the wonderful Pam Erickson, Democratic candidate for State House District 88, while my right hand juggles an iPhone.

Quite a difference, huh? (See kids in the middle of my frame?) But look at all the people lining a rather smoky Main Street, as far as the eye can see!

Before the march, some Dem marchers pose for pictures (Alex, not shown, is way up in front with a banner for the great  U.S. Senator from Montana, Jon Tester).

The star of our part of the show is a husky named Willow, wearing a Ravalli County Democrats T-shirt and howling -- to the delight of children -- each time we pass another pooch. The whole event is a slice of Americana (even with a dose of  Republican Tea Partiers thrown in !?!).  Check out the Democrats' musical accompaniment, below.

True blue bluegrass, from folks who are part of the annual Hardtimes Bluegrass Festival. (You know I'm biased, but I'm hoping for hard times for Republicans this year!).

Little Garden, Big Garden

Mine is a tiny Montana garden. Dive under the leaves of our one small row of crookneck squash and you see another world, one with possibilities for lots of good, fresh, yummy food, such as http://mixedgreensblog.com/2010/09/01/seasons-eatings/fannie-farmer-my-squash-casserole/.

Come back to our compost pile and look northeast toward the house. The garden still has a sizable look, with 6-foot-tall vines of Sungold and Black Cherry tomatoes against the garage. This means more food prep, such as: http://mixedgreensblog.com/2010/08/25/in-the-garden/happiness-is-a-bowl-of-sungolds-mid-winter/

Step away from it and into the lawn and you see how really tiny it is. We're still harvesting spring-tender lettuce plus squash, cucumbers, eggplant, herbs and tomatoes. Cauliflower is coming on (zucchini totally got away from us). http://www.inerikaskitchen.com/2010/06/spring-salad-with-cherries-and-goat.html

So here's a recent white-bean soup, made with our rosemary, parsley and tomatoes, plus Hamilton Farmers' Market carrots and kale from Pat and John's garden next door (we didn't get here early enough for a spring planting of kale). http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tuscan-Ribollita-355570/

We even take our garden cucumbers and mint and remake a cocktail that we loved at the Seattle restaurant Revel (http://www.revelseattle.com/): Called the "Lazy Gardener," haha! It features cucumber-infused gin, fresh mint syrup and fizzy ginger beer. Especially good on a hot and smoky (fire season is upon us) afternoon.

Now, to the real vegetable gardens in the Bitterroot Valley...

I had the honor to visit Bill Kindzerski's garden in early June 2011, and Alex joined me for a visit there last week. Wow! The long-time gardener has acres to work with and brilliantly uses his mostly wide-open space for plant and compost experiments and for using/creating micro-climates. (Cold, for instance, comes down from the mountains and gets trapped by significant trees at the back of his property; he's eliminating varieties that he can't grow -- but nextdoor neighbors can! -- and focusing on rebuilding a hoop house for more varied tomatoes.)

A morning's watering lingers on Bill's cabbage.

Yellow cauliflower shines in the intermittent sun.

Bill tells Alex about his favorite onion varieties, including Redwing, Whitewing, Copra, Sweet Spanish, and Multiplier. Bill explains that he uses long-day onions that bulb only when they receive at least 15 hours of daylight, "being so close to the North Pole" as we are, Bill says, we get those longer summer days. Short-day onions are for much farther south.

Yukon Gold potatoes fill a large patch., at left above. His other favorite vegetable varieties include the celeries Utah and Tango; corn, Extra Sweet; carrots, Scarlet Nantes and Chantenay.  Early Girl tomatoes are his best performers for the short season here -- even with those extra-long days!

Bill's relatively new worm bin takes all of the kitchen waste and is eaten by the little red wigglers, digested and turned into a beautiful black soil booster of worm castings; it gets surrounded by straw bales against the winter cold and covered with a neat layer of loose straw.

Bill's wife, Virginia, meanwhile, takes care of many different flower beds, including this clever one accented with ornamental cabbages up by the road. What a gift it is to get to see this couple's Montana garden first-hand!

Happy Birthday to Me

So, I've decided to post a few pictures from my birthday -- celebrated yesterday in Seattle.

We walked some of the streets of the city, on a cool and sunny afternoon. Here's a dahlia that I loved, planted in a median near Pete's (http://www.peteswineshop.com/store/) where we bought some interesting Washington state wines. More about that later.

Likewise, artichokes are everywhere in street-side vegetable gardens (take that, Ferguson, Mo.! http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/ferguson-resident-wins-fight-for-front-yard-vegetable-garden/article_a5452134-2a26-5dc5-9c16-0c1c212c8ff3.html ).

Salted caramel ice cream from Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream shop (http://www.mollymoonicecream.com/) topped off a surprisingly ho-hum lunch elsewhere (http://whereyaatmatt.com/, celebrated as a New Orleans food truck here, not so much by us but especially not by Alex, who's from New Orleans). We made up for what we didn't eat from Matt's at tables in front of the Molly Moon store (Alex had lavender-vanilla). And when we looked up, we saw "Ice Cream" in the sky.

Later, we took plastic glasses of one of our new wines to a beach on Puget Sound, in Discovery Park (http://www.seattle.gov/parks/environment/discovery.htm). If you look closely at the center left of this photo -- where two islands seem to join -- you'll see a hazy Mount Rainier.  That mountain is extremely impressive when you drive closer to it, as we did coming in from Montana. We'll view it up close and personal again Saturday, on our drive home (http://www.nps.gov/mora/index.htm).

A pair of eagles also took in the scene, near the Discovery Park lighthouse.

Dinner came late, at the seafood restaurant Chinook's (http://www.anthonys.com/restaurants/detail/chinook-at-salmon-bay/). I had halibut cakes -- very light and totally YUM! -- and Alex chose the seafood platter. All in all, a more than acceptable birthday was had by me! Oh, and I bought myself two mini-, black-stemmed, purple-flowering dahlias at a garden center on Fremont (http://emeraldcitygardens.com/) just to round out the day.

Bungalow-mania

I came here for the weather -- a cool mid-60s most days.  It's close to 90 in our town of Hamilton, 102 in our city of St. Louis. (Truth: I'm with Alex, and he came here for a music workshop; I tagged along.) But I also wanted to be here for more access to cool bungalows -- so many bungalows in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle that I may be suffering a bit from bungalow burnout. That's not a bad thing if you're renovating a bungalow in a small town (Montana, in our case) and are in need of inspiration for cool exterior color and even cooler front-yard gardens. A friend in St. Louis says of her daughter in Seattle, "She complains that she can't stop things from growing."
Below, find a baker's dozen of bungalows and their gardens.  I'm posting this from a WiFi-friendly, winsome spot in Queen Anne called Macrina Bakery (http://macrinabakery.com/). Get it? Baker's dozen, from a bakery?? The coffee's great, but, oh well, on to creative cottage design...

For starters, I just love this summer plant color added to an otherwise gray entry. I wonder what they do in winter?

Here's more gray but updated with bold slashes of chartreuse.

May I have this one, please? This adorable little house is right atop Queen Anne with spectacular views of water from the back. (I also like the glossy white woodwork and red door on this one, plus the no-lawn look of a bermed and shrub-planted landscape.)

Enough with the gray! Here's color for you, on house, yard and easement.

And this is a money bungalow, with expanded privacy lattice and sweet garden among the rocks.

This bare-bones taupe (much like the color of our Montana house) has the crisp white trim that we're going for. This one just needs those fabulous Seattle flowering vines and perennials to wake it up.

Maybe we will strip our front door to wood, or paint it a nut-brown color, as done here (rather than ubiquitous red).

Blue was an option for us for a short time. Now we're back to gray or a dusty olive green (or the taupe that we inherited, with all our existing trim repainted in a crisper-than-crisp satin white).

Another money house on top of the hill. Love the shrubbery. Love the windows. Adore the balcony!

Gray and white, again, with red accents on the porch.

More taupe and white (do you sense a neutral theme going here?).

And again with the neutrals, plus an ornamental grass alternative to turf.

Color, finally, but too much for my taste. Someday we may have our little Montana house finished and even listed on The American Bungalow Registry (http://www.ambungalow.com/). I can dream, can't I?