Howdy Beaver
By Alkali Springs Correspondent
You, gentle readers, won't believe this, but after the week or two from hell so far as heat and drought goes, it is actually raining outside this morning and has been since early. Nothing major, mind you, but more like a soft and gentle mist that has everything acting more like normal.
For instance, looking out of our bird-feeding window these days in the late afternoon of a hot day, there are usually a couple of rabbits sort of sprawled in the heat like they have croaked. The only way we know they have not is that they have gotten up and wandered away as the evening cools down. And even the pheasants, which used to announce their presence loudly, just sort of skulk around, paying no attention to us looking out of the window at them. Highly unusual.
Today, though, animals are bounding around like there is no tomorrow. Rain is just what they have needed and even our old dog suddenly is frisky, sniffing the rain-soaked air. He seems to be smiling as he dashes around the yard chasing those rabbits.
However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the old saying goes. This blast of heat has put out a big array of wildflowers not normally seen in such profusion.
A word about Bear Paw wildflowers: To some ranchers, wildflowers are not flowers at all, but weeds, and when a hay meadow is filled with them, it is not filled with cattle-happy hay. That saddens folk who make their living feeding cattle hay.
But for the traveler through Beaver Creek meadows, never have the lupine looked like they have looked this July. Why, they are just simply all over the place. Huge bluish to purple clumps of them. It looks like a scene out of a movie to see whole meadows so lush with those showy flowers.
And in our coulee, wild geraniums, larkspur and shining penstemon still are giving lavish displays of color against yet verdant green foliage. Most beautiful!
So, in spite of hot and dry conditions that sort of boggle the mind, there are lots of pockets of beauty and they surely do look better on a rainy day!
And whatever happens in the next two months, in just the twinkling of an eye, we will be seeing a blizzard out of the window and wishing for a return to summer. Such is life in the beautiful Bear Paws.
