….do I love this place, you ask?

Where else can you go from this:

to this:

with a few bears and pelicans inbetween.

A marvelous critter car ride today…back to work tomorrow.

Bison so own the park.  They are the meat and potatoes, the plain vanilla pudding, the cake without the frosting.   Bears and wolves are the Chateaubriand, the Crepe Suzette, the fine red wine.   Bison are part of your life everyday.  Yesterday we hit our first true bison jam….the jam was all coming towards us, so we just pulled off to the side of the road, watched the poor ranger trying to manage the traffic and sat back and laughed.

Then, of course, you find yourself next to this guy….he was huge—with freshly dried mud all over  him…and a real reminder that bison OWN the park…and though they “Go placidly amid the noise and haste…” they can also move at 35 MPH.

It was another great day in Lamar; 6 bears, cubs and moms, more baby bison and lots of pronghorns.  I’m off to see if I can go a few miles up the road and get some pix in today’s snow  (the sun was shining 2 hours ago)

Have a wonderful weekend

On Sunday we took our first major critter  trek through the park.   We saw LOTS of critters—but I thought I’d share with you the hidden reality of the trip. (the highlights are, of course, posted to flickr…these, for obvious reasons, didn’t make the cut)

Bears…well, yes, we saw a black bear–he looked like this for most of the 60 minutes we watched him….he occasionally rolled over and showed us that he, most assuredly, was a male black bear.

And then, of course, we saw a cinnamon black bear…Tim dropped me at the side of the road, as we typically do, but clearly we need more practice…my knitting tangled around me foot and I had about 50 feet of Cascade Heritage Silk running down the road. The Australians thought it was hysterical.

And then, of course, there was the grizz w/ 2 cubs….well, we’re fairly sure that’s what they are.  Sometimes these are great moments though.  You put your camera down, grab the binoculars and just watch the cubs roll, bounce, spring, pounce–do anything except walk.  We’re heading out again tomorrow–maybe they’ll be a little closer to the road–one thing’s for sure–we weren’t violating any park rules about getting to close to the animals. (Click on picture for larger view)

The big  horn sheep were no challenge at all….they were right on the road–the hardest part is getting them to show you something other than their butt….and getting the people out of the camera view.

We always eagerly await the first of the baby bison (red dogs) to be born.  We’d heard of a few–can you find them in this pic–it’s about as close as we came…but “we saw red dogs!” was the report when we got home.

There’s been bits and pieces of snow almost every day this week.  Usually it’s a dusting, just like powdered sugar on a brownie–that melts away into a gorgeous day…and we’ll see what the next week brings.  The Snow Lodge (Tim’s job) opens tomorrow and I finally start my training on Sunday.

OK–it’s time to “fess up”   the entire trip so far has been one big yarn road trip…I’m probably the only person with a traveling stash.   This is one of the 2 skeins of mountain goat that I dyed at Mt. Colors last week..and then there’s the blue blobs of mill ends that I’m going to use to make a hat; some BFL in the colorway Thunderstorm and my other custom colorway

I also picked up some of their regular colors–spruce and opsrey and northwind….I love the way they work colors (and the osprey have really been out and about in the park–double joy!)

I’m also the proud owner of 2 new drop spindles–and spent almost 2 hours practicing using a spinning wheel (an Ashford Traveler) at Josephs’s Coats in Missoula….The owner made my day when she said “would you like a job”—after I spent a little time showing one of her other customers how to use the spindle….it was so tempting to say “yes”  (or actually to shout it at the top of my lungs).

I then stopped by the Bozeman LYS, wound my mountain colors and picked up more fiber–this time dyed with natural dyes—just to play with.

I love taking my drop spindle with me–the folks in the employee dining hall just look at you really strange–and it can take them quite a while to get up the courage to actually come ask what you’re doing–and their reactions vary from “cool” to “huh?”

I finally realized that the dorm room really didn’t have a nice space in which to knit so today Tim & I rearranged things…we now have a really BIG bed  (it’s a double mattress combined with a twin mattress) and, with a little bit more space the room is just a touch friendlier..and easier to knit in.

I don’t yet know whether the Old Faithful Inn will work its knitting magic  this year.  50 years after the 4-fireplace chimney collapsed they have finally found the $ to repair it…so the magical fireplaces in the Old Faithful Inn will be swathed in plastic for almost all of the summer….I’m thinking about organizing a yarn bomb–just to give it some color.

Mountain Colors was my first “sin yarn”;  those  budget-busting beautiful yarns from small independent dyers.  The ones that make you realize that the stuff your local craft store is second-rate.   I fell in love with it just after I started knitting.  Their Mountain Goat is my favorite…the sheen and the depth of color just make  want you to fondle it and smell it and immerse yourself in it.  That’s why you knit it–so you can wrap yourself in it. (not to mention, of course, that their colors are named after things I love:  mountain thunderstorms, osprey, redtailed hawks,…)

For the first time in 15 years, I’m on a road trip by myself.  Wolfie & I decided to go see where the magic happens.  The staff of Mountain Colors was wonderful, and they just let us hang and watch.  Wolfie got to hide in all of his favorite places and we both reveled in the color.  Everywhere you look the colors have left their mark–it’s as if a slightly deranged mother nature had learned how to use her wand by  practicing on the studio.

And if it couldn’t get any better–tonight I get to go back for a dyeing workshop!  Wheeeee!

(addendum:  the dyeing workshop was wonderful fun–I have 2 custom skeins of yarn and met a really nice new group of knitters, 3 of whom were escapees from the DC area-smart people!)

Click on each individual pic to see it full-size or go to my flickr site

It usually takes a few days to get used to driving out here.  70 mph on two lanes roads feels “not right”  initially. After a few hundred miles it begins to feel right.  The top down; the wind in your hair; your newly short hair just barely wisping into your face; the tug of the breeze on your baseball cap…absolutely wonderful. And then you notice the big rig ahead of you on the road.  The gap between the two of you slowly diminishes and you realize that you need to pass it.  The road is clear and you gently apply a little pressure  on  the accelerator. The car responds without a momen’ts hesitation..   Before you realize it, you’re doing 90.  You’re flying down the road–this must be what a little bit of heaven feels like.  Your heart says “just stay here” but slowly your more rational self takes control again and you slow back down….and begin to wonder when you will get to do it again.

I LOVE my car!

It  never really feels like you’re here until you sit and watch Old Faithful blow….No matter how many times you’ve seen her, it’s never the same.  Being good geyser gazers Tim & I looked up the eruption times, so we new it would go off in about 20 minutes…in contrast to the other 20 or 30 folks waiting.  Tim ended up explaining everything to a group of Chinese tourists…they were most interested in statistics and numbers and were quite puzzled why this major tourist attraction did not have an airport closer  (They had flown into Cody, picked up a car, drove to the East entrance–which is closed–and then had to drive to the North entrance–they must have been on the road for 5-6 hours just to see Old Faithful).
This is actually one of the most wonderful things about being here–it’s helping other people understand more about what they are seeing and why it’s so amazing…it’s also a chance to welcome foreigners to this country and to help them see America at it’s best.

Tim excels at it…and thoroughly enjoys it.

Here are a few other pix from our opening day.

Whew,  3700 miles in two week; but we are finally at our second home.  We got into Gardiner Friday night but it never truly feels like we’re here until we take a quite drive into the park up to Mammoth–so that’s what we did.  The elk were out in full force; they are just now beginning to migrate back into the park.  There was an elk carcass about half-way up to Mammoth–and about 25 people waiting to see if the wolves would come back to finish their meal.

Just past the church, however, was the highlight of the day–the Canyon Pack (2 blacks and 4 greys) in full force..and then they started howling.  It’s a sound that’s chilling in an awesome-mother-nature kind of way;  not at all scary.  It’s also a sound you will not soon forget–and one that you will want to experience again.

We came straight down to Old Faithful this year, instead of spending time up a Mammoth so we are already unpacked and in the dorm room. Tim’s training starts today; mine starts in 2 weeks.   I’m looking forward to doing some exploring this upcoming week–and spending time up in the Lamar Valley next week (looking for wolves, of course).  They say that the baby bison has just started to drop–and I hope to have those pix soon.  While I love the convenience of shooting with the iPad, we’ll now be shooting with real cameras–so it will take a little longer to get things posted–but the image quality will be a lot better.

What I love most about this time of year is the unexpected.  Yes, all our parks are full of color, all the regularly groomed places–but it things like this…you pull into a grungy, cheap storage facility, that has some very random small, low-overhead businesses in it, and you find these boxes full of blazing color—a feast for the eyes, made even more so by their drab location.

OK. I admit it.  Lately I’ve thought of nothing but yarn…..to the point where I have acquired way too much yarn this past month.  It’s odd, though.  I rationalize part of it as supporting a cottage industry.  I buy  mostly hand-painted yarns from small independent dye studios  such as Tanis Fiber Arts.  I like supporting small business people and I like supporting artists–so the 2 blend together perfectly in my mind.  I’ve bought from dyers as far away as Australia (Skein)  and as close as Baltimore (Neighborhood Fiber Company)  There’s even a woman who dyes yarn in her bathtub in her Cleveland Park apartment in DC (Wandering Wool).   I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by several local yarn shops that specialize in hand-dyes.  Fibre Space in Alexandria is amazing!

I envy these people who have the self-discipline to work for themselves from home.  I always tell myself that I could do it too, but have discovered that, in order to get much done, I need a structure and deadlines that are not self-imposed…..I’m going to have to work on that over the next y ear–and we’ll see how it goes.  I’d love to run my own craft shop on Etsy–with handmade knitting supplies and hand-crafted journals.  We’ll see how it goes.  I have the ideas….but do I have the self-discipline?