The Traveling Mandolin: photos

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Monday, April 4, 2022

A Round-Up of Spring Flowers

Butterweed (Packera glabella), Asteraceae (sunflower) family

(4/4/2022: Reposting because we should celebrate flowers every year!)

Text from 4/14/20: This past week, Zach and I had a little vacation— we were originally going to visit family in Nashville, but the stay-at-home order nixed that. Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous, so we were able to take a lot of walks and hikes.

Portland 2019: Pictures from Yellowstone

Zach and I just returned from a whirlwind five-day trip to Montana, where we visited my brother Christian, who works at Yellowstone National Park (department of inventory— you never think about how many office jobs are needed to sustain a park of that size). Although it rained on and off the whole time we were there, we still managed to get in a few hikes and a bit of sightseeing. Here are some pictures!

The next several pictures are from the Beaver Pond Loop near Mammoth Hot Springs

Beautiful gumweed was growing everywhere!

Driving toward the Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone

Grand Prismatic Spring! We had never seen it before. Although we weren't able to get parking at the boardwalk that takes you to the edge of the spring, we were able to hike to this overlook.

Grand Prismatic Spring from ground level

We drove past this smallish male right after seeing a gigantic bull further up the road (and a stupid tourist standing ten feet away to get a good shot).

Driving down toward Mammoth Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs!

Looking up a hill toward the mountains swathed in clouds— this was on a hiking trail just outside of Gardiner, MT

Cactus!

Sunset on the Columbia River on our drive home

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Ice on the River

The best part of the lingering cold weather is the ice that has formed on the Missouri River. Every day there’s something new to see!

Thursday, January 4, 2018

This Month: In Pictures

We got an actual white Christmas this year! That hadn't happened since I was a kid.

The chickies aren't exactly happy about the weather, but they have held up well, even when it -6ºF outside.

Christmas tree #1: from a branch I found in the woods.

Christmas tree #2: a live spruce that we hope to repot and use every year.

Mikko the Elf got her picture with Santa!

Zach is still making sourdough bread regularly. I've also learned how to make whole-wheat sourdough sandwich loaves!

I made this wreath for our front door from hibiscus branches and bark, and yarrow flowers.
No twine, no wire, just natural materials. I'm very proud of it!

Sunset on the Katy Trail.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Snapshots of the Missouri River

I love this river.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Snapshots of Winter

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy 2015!

I was barely awake to hear the fireworks going off in celebration of the New Year. Zach was already asleep, since he had to wake up in six hours to go to work. It had been a good day— we had driven to Pere Marquette State Park and hiked, seen some bald eagles, come home and eaten Qdoba, watched Stargate, read The Silmarillion, then gone to bed. I was lying awake, thinking about what 2015 might bring.

The future right now is big and scary and very open. There are countless different paths we can take, and I don’t know which one is both right and feasible. But that night, I felt peace about it all. Whatever is supposed to happen, will happen, and all we have to do is take the steps that are right in front of us.

Kind of like a really long trail. And I know how to hike a really long trail.

Here are 15 photos of our non-metaphorical journey last year, in celebration of the most-likely-merely-metaphorical journey of life that we’ll take in 2015. Happy New Year, everyone!