Skywatch Friday #1

Recent harvesting of wheat and barley puts a lot of impurities in the air.  These impurities create beautiful sunsets in Southeastern Idaho.

Hollyhocks

After two days of inservice meetings and the first day of school, I needed some individual space. To my flower and veggie garden I went this evening. One of my favorite fall flowers is the hollyhock and I have many colors and variations of them. One thing I love about them is the perfect star created in the middle of the flower. My favorite color is the light pink or the salmon color. Enjoy these photos from my garden.

The bees and hummingbirds are visiting them. On the one below, I love the veins that run through the petals.
Here is a very dark one - some almost are a black.

Some of the white ones have a green star while others have a deep red star.

My grandparents and parent raised hollyhocks along the creeks and they just grew "wild." A great way to grow up.

Have a great day.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are invading my yard. Front yard, back yard, fruit trees, flower gardens are all favorite. They fight with each other and they attack the bumble bees on the flowers. I took these pictures from my front door as they buzzed around the flowers.


This one decided to check me out and flared it beautiful neck as it came almost face to face with me. Notice that it is sticking its tonge out of me or is it licking its chops before the planned attack.

Working the flowers for a bite to eat as they prepare for the long flight to South or Central America can be a big undertaking.

Beula Lake in Yellowstone

I spent most of the week working on the "Teaching American History" grant and getting ready for school. My meetings start next Monday and school starts on Wednesday. The Student Body Officers' assembly will be on Wednesday so we will spend part of Monday and Tuesday finalizing it.

With summer coming to an end a fellow teacher, Lucas, and his son, Pax, decided to join me for a hike and a fishing trip. We hiked into Beula Lake in Yellowstone Park for some native cutthroat fishing. Here Pax and Lucas carry their float tubes for two and a half miles in to the lake. I did not take a float tube, but my heavy camera was enough weight.
Here Pax, a ten-year old, catches a nice cutthroat. All fish were released.

He a cutthroat, named after the bright red stripes on the bottom jaw, comes in after being hooked by a Black Rug Yarn fly. They were willing fish as we caught between 80 and 100 in about three hours of fishing.

We weren't the only fishermen on the lake. A pair of Common Loons, a Blue heron and an osprey all tried harvesting fish.

Yours-truely releasing a nice cutthroat. I waded out on a sand bar to where it drops off in deep water. I caught six fish in my first six casts and it did not slow down much.
It was a great way to finish the summer even though I will have a lot more fishing days before winter sets in.