Another Season is Underway

This blog is suffering from an absence of blogger!  And while I've been "absent" from the blogging, fall has come and gone--and winter has arrived.  Snow in the mountains, followed by temperatures just above zero, turned the nearby mountain landscapes into breathtaking scenery.

Western Larch, more commonly known here as Tamarack, can be an ugly tree.  It's rather scrawny; it turns "rusty" in the fall (after a beautiful yellow phase) and then drops its needles.  But when the snow and ice cover it in winter, it is a lacy beauty, towering high above many other conifers.