Category: General

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Winter’s end or False Spring?

 

Catching up

We just walked in the door from Tip’s daily. There’s a winter storm warning in effect. However, the sun was out and it’s 50º. We’re beginning to think that we’ve seen all the winter there’s going to be.

Its the middle of March and while winter has returned in the past, that doesn’t seem likely this year.

Of course now we’ve jinxed it. Long range forecast calls for warmer than normal temperatures in the Northwest. So it’s a false spring or maybe the change of seasons?

Beautiful March day on the Crooked River

Any un-seasonal weather just means we get outside. A majority of the week was taken up with errands and finishing unfinished projects. But we picked the nicest of days and headed up to the Crooked.

Recharging on the river has become integral to our sanity. We’d expected to just enjoy the water and a picnic lunch. But the river had other things in mind.

There was increased water fowl population. We suspect they are getting ready to nest. And while JQ was capturing images, fish started to feed on the surface.

Geese often drag a foot as they paddle

It’s rare to fish over a surface hatch in winter months so we took advantage of the moment.

Fishing over a winter hatch

The sun warmed the air around us, but the water was really cold. That said, we got an hour of really good fishing before needing to warm up.

Doesn’t look like a March day

The week ahead offers more mild temperatures so even with cloudy skies we’ll have opportunity to do some more exploring, now that most of our winter chores are completed.

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New Year Resolutions?

It’s been a rather busy year around here.

As usual we are going to take a few weeks break from posting. Recharge and clean up. We’ll be back around the end of January.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday break and ready to meet a new year.  Thanks for your support in 2025.  JQ & js

Print Recipe

Cocoa Drop Cookies

Ingredients

Cookies

  • 1 3/4 cup AP flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup shortening at room temp
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans chopped

Brown Butter Icing

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 2 cups powdered sugar keep ¼ cup in reserve
  • 2 Tbls heavy cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

  • Sift together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together shortening, sugar and the egg.
  • Add in buttermilk and vanilla. Mix until combined and smooth.
  • Add the dry ingredients, 1/3 at a time, to the liquid and mix until combined before adding next third.
  • Stir in chopped nuts and refrigerate dough for one hour.
  • Preheat oven to 400º
  • Using a cookie scoop, place balls of chilled dough on to parchment lined baking sheets. 
    2 tablespoon measures (30g) will yield about 24 2” cookies.  1 tablespoon measures will give you 1 ½ inch cookies and yield about 45.

Brown Butter Icing

  • Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat, stirring regularly until it comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and continue stirring until it turns a golden brown color.
    Remove from heat and pour over 1 ¾ cup of powdered sugar in a medium bowl.
  • Add in cream and vanilla. Whisk until you have a thick, spreadable icing. You can add the reserved sugar to help get the proper consistency.

 

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Flora and Fauna

As a final post to our Look Back at 2025, it seems appropriate to end with a favorite subject  .  .  .  wildlife.

Every destination, regardless of the season, has interesting sights. Our attention usually focuses on the local inhabitants and their environment.

Young coyote hunting

Whether we came for that purpose or not.

Summer Lake from Winter Ridge

The drive to Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge is a destination specifically to bird watch.

A squadron of American White Pelicans

But other places we stop, say to collect a few rocks or catch a fish, present as much or more variety to observe and photograph.

Canada Geese goslings 
Merganser and ducklings

Hours have been spent sitting at river’s edge, camera trained on a clump of reeds offering protection to a family of Mergansers.

Young osprey and company
Redband trout

We watched a fledgling Osprey hold off a gang of Magpies and attempted to track the flights of butterflies.

With binocs and telephoto lens trained on a raptor we watched it devour a recent catch.

We noticed that the people parked two sites down hadn’t even looked up into the tree branches.

It’s important to take time and look around, to see what you’ve missed. An advantage to this slower pace is nature often comes to you.

Juvenile Great Horned Owl

A lunch on the rivers’ edge is filled with all manner of flora and fauna.   Thankfully we have the time to watch it unfold.

Camera gear makes sharing experiences, as well as getting a better look, possible.

Border Collie (domesticated canine)

BlackDogHair blog serves as a journal on how we spent the week. A month of looking back at those posts reminded us how lucky we’ve been for the opportunity.

 

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Fall in the Mountains

West side of Bachelor

Winter has started it’s slow walk down the mountains. The Cascade range to our east wears a fresh cap of snow and more is in the forecast. From our vantage point on the valley floor it’s still a spectacular fall.

Before the gates close off the Cascade Lakes highway we thought it would be nice to make the loop.

The recent snow has Mt. Bachelor dressed in its winter cover. It also left a skiff on the road, at its base, and dusted the trees near Sparks Lake.

Cascade Lakes Hwy, east of Mt. Bachelor resort

Meadow grasses on the lakes edge are an array of reds, browns and gold colors.

There are a few aspen and maple at this elevation flashing fall colors. it was a perfect day for landscape images.

We’ve been taking advantage of these clear fall days, bracing for the rains coming next week  .  .  .  snow is predicted  .  .  .  a foot on the passes.

Mt. Bachelor as backdrop to meadow and Sparks Lake

This only dampens the roads, not our plans. We’re used to late fall weather on the high desert. The Cascade Mountains become a backdrop, rather than destination as fall shifts into winter.