Wednesday March 12, 2008
Sandi Burt and I drove up to Tollgate to check out the snow. She runs around with Native Plant people and Audubon Society people so knows a lot about plants and birds. Last Thursday Ellie and Gary had visited their elderly friend, Stan, near Tollgate and had taken pictures of snow/ice flowing from the roof of his cabin. I had to see it for myself and get pictures.
Stan is 91 years old (birthday is June 9?) and still mentally alert though very hard of hearing. He broke his hip last summer which has slowed him down considerably! So sad. Sandi and I had a nice visit with him and I gave him copies of pictures Ellie had taken of his cabin and ice and snow when she was up visiting which he appreciated. I gave him 2 small loaves of Amish friendship bread. I asked if I could take pictures of his ice flow, which he kindly allowed. We found out the cabin and property will be left to his 70 year old daughter (he has 3 children). He showed us pictures of her and her husband, son, and two grandsons and of her sky diving. Her skin is so smooth, she doesn't look 70 years old! Gary knows Stan from when they both worked on the dams on the Snake River.
Then we drove up to (and beyond) Langdon Lake. The signs up there were all hidden by snow so after we'd gone downhill quite a while I asked Sandi if we'd passed the lake. She said, yes, a long time ago!! So I turned around and we parked on a wide spot of the road and walked around the houses by the lake. Had to be careful walking since the snow is quite deep there. When we stayed where motor vehicles had been it was safe, but I ended up with one foot down around a foot one time. That wasn't too bad. Sandi was telling me on another trip to snow elsewhere with cross country skis she was caught with one leg up to her hip in the snow. Quite an awkward situation! =o]
On the way back home we drove back to the beginning of Harris Park looking for buttercups, but didn't see any right there. On the way out she saw some high up on the steep slope on the north side of the road. I drove further down the road and she spotted some Dutchman's breeches which I've never seen in real life--just in pictures. So we stopped. Again, they were on a steep slope so I climbed up trying to get them from the top, crossing a downed barbed wire fence. Then I saw a pickup pull up behind my car and heard a mans' voice shouting, can't you read?!?!? I said what? He pointed out the "no trespassing" sign just to the right of where I had climbed up with my camera. I apologized and said I was concentrating on trying to get a good angle to take a picture of those really cool flowers. We found out his name is Dale Cosper.
(Sunday evening Gary told us Dale’s wife, Kate, had worked at the community college—taught English and Italian. Sunday I googled Dale’s name and came up with a lot—he had an interview with a local newspaper and told lots of his history and history of others he knows. Also found when he retired from Whitman.)
Sandi and I calmed him down and learned a lot about him in the process. He grew up in Montana, son of a communist father. Lived in France for a while, became a French professor at Whitman college in the early 70s and bought the property there, near Harris Park. He has over 20 horses and some mares who will be giving birth in April and May. He isn't teaching any more, but wouldn't mind teaching one class which he and the college are in discussion about. He showed us the skeleton of a deer in the meadow which had been killed a while back by a lion. He said they usually don't bother the horses, but follow the creeks knowing the deer will eventually be coming to them to drink.
I managed to get a decent picture of the Dutchman's breeches, but want to go up when the sun is higher so there is more light.
March 16, 2008 around 3 pm.
The sun kept coming and going and the rain wasn’t serious, so I went back up the South Fork of the Walla Walla River and found quite a few Dutchman’s breeches on the hill side which were closer than Dale Cosper’s place. I kept track and, going via Powerline Road it’s only 20 miles minus .2 There were a whole bunch of white and pink ones near a sign saying ‘5 miles’. It’s just east of the official looking concrete buildings which have something to do with Milton Freewater’s water system.
Sandi Burt and I drove up to Tollgate to check out the snow. She runs around with Native Plant people and Audubon Society people so knows a lot about plants and birds. Last Thursday Ellie and Gary had visited their elderly friend, Stan, near Tollgate and had taken pictures of snow/ice flowing from the roof of his cabin. I had to see it for myself and get pictures.
Stan is 91 years old (birthday is June 9?) and still mentally alert though very hard of hearing. He broke his hip last summer which has slowed him down considerably! So sad. Sandi and I had a nice visit with him and I gave him copies of pictures Ellie had taken of his cabin and ice and snow when she was up visiting which he appreciated. I gave him 2 small loaves of Amish friendship bread. I asked if I could take pictures of his ice flow, which he kindly allowed. We found out the cabin and property will be left to his 70 year old daughter (he has 3 children). He showed us pictures of her and her husband, son, and two grandsons and of her sky diving. Her skin is so smooth, she doesn't look 70 years old! Gary knows Stan from when they both worked on the dams on the Snake River.
Then we drove up to (and beyond) Langdon Lake. The signs up there were all hidden by snow so after we'd gone downhill quite a while I asked Sandi if we'd passed the lake. She said, yes, a long time ago!! So I turned around and we parked on a wide spot of the road and walked around the houses by the lake. Had to be careful walking since the snow is quite deep there. When we stayed where motor vehicles had been it was safe, but I ended up with one foot down around a foot one time. That wasn't too bad. Sandi was telling me on another trip to snow elsewhere with cross country skis she was caught with one leg up to her hip in the snow. Quite an awkward situation! =o]
On the way back home we drove back to the beginning of Harris Park looking for buttercups, but didn't see any right there. On the way out she saw some high up on the steep slope on the north side of the road. I drove further down the road and she spotted some Dutchman's breeches which I've never seen in real life--just in pictures. So we stopped. Again, they were on a steep slope so I climbed up trying to get them from the top, crossing a downed barbed wire fence. Then I saw a pickup pull up behind my car and heard a mans' voice shouting, can't you read?!?!? I said what? He pointed out the "no trespassing" sign just to the right of where I had climbed up with my camera. I apologized and said I was concentrating on trying to get a good angle to take a picture of those really cool flowers. We found out his name is Dale Cosper.
(Sunday evening Gary told us Dale’s wife, Kate, had worked at the community college—taught English and Italian. Sunday I googled Dale’s name and came up with a lot—he had an interview with a local newspaper and told lots of his history and history of others he knows. Also found when he retired from Whitman.)
Sandi and I calmed him down and learned a lot about him in the process. He grew up in Montana, son of a communist father. Lived in France for a while, became a French professor at Whitman college in the early 70s and bought the property there, near Harris Park. He has over 20 horses and some mares who will be giving birth in April and May. He isn't teaching any more, but wouldn't mind teaching one class which he and the college are in discussion about. He showed us the skeleton of a deer in the meadow which had been killed a while back by a lion. He said they usually don't bother the horses, but follow the creeks knowing the deer will eventually be coming to them to drink.I managed to get a decent picture of the Dutchman's breeches, but want to go up when the sun is higher so there is more light.
March 16, 2008 around 3 pm.
The sun kept coming and going and the rain wasn’t serious, so I went back up the South Fork of the Walla Walla River and found quite a few Dutchman’s breeches on the hill side which were closer than Dale Cosper’s place. I kept track and, going via Powerline Road it’s only 20 miles minus .2 There were a whole bunch of white and pink ones near a sign saying ‘5 miles’. It’s just east of the official looking concrete buildings which have something to do with Milton Freewater’s water system.
2 comments:
are the dutchman's breeches in the same family as bleeding hearts? they look similar.
Jess
According to my 'Wildflowers of the Northwest,' they are in the Fumariaceae and Dicentra family as are the bleeding hearts and steers heads. Now all I need to do is find the steers heads! The flowers as well as the leaves look very similar, don't they?
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