The Ridge and my garden...

The sun was just going down not he other side of Hurricane Ridge as the full moon was rising this last Friday night.  I think even though this picture was dark, it still is my favorite.  My neighbor and I sat outside at a picnic table having cheese and crackers while watching the moon, the deer and a couple of baby (like brand new) fawns leaping in the meadows.  It doesn't get much more tranquil than that!

We had planned on a full moon hike with an astronomer who didn't show up :0(  So, we went on our own hike.  Several other people were waiting for him, too.  At least, I knew I had the right day.  This photo is unretouched.  About 10 minutes later the reds were crimson.  This photo was taken atop Hurricane Ridge looking across from Port Angeles, Wa. to Victoria, Canada.

The probably get some pretty good snow up here.  I believe Hurricane Ridge is just under 6,000 feet. This is one of the snow patrol stations.  See the rescue toboggans.  At least, that's what I think they are.

I took this photo off our front porch.  The "green" is starting to turn brown for the summer and most of the wild, insane amount of daisies have withered for the season.  Now they have popped up all over my garden.  They are considered a "weed" here.  I have been pulling up daisies right and left.

This is another weed flower.  I don't know it's name. It is just as bad as the daisies.  It takes over everything.  I have been pulling a lot of these up, too.  Oh my aching back!  

This photo was almost a month ago.  That Chinese Elm went insane. I just spent a good 30 minutes trimming it back, especially on the back side, because I couldn't see the brick stairs anymore!   Okay, I went and took a comparison photo one month later after pruning and weeding for 90 minutes.

See all of the daisies.  I pulled up about 50 of them.

100's of daisies everywhere 3-4 feet tall.  They must grow a couple of inches a night! That is what I have been weeding out of my garden. 

I love the color of the Chinese Elm.  My friend with the sheep I work, has two "Smoke bushes."  They are the same color, a deep purple with white little flowers that resemble smoke.  I just purchased a couple of 4 inch pots of Smokes Bushes off of Amazon.  I hope they will grow for me.  The other plant I have a lot of are Rhododendrons.  We have them in every color.  In fact, behind the dog kennels at the back of the house, they are growing wild.  I am now keeping Champ and Yoko in the west side kennel at night to keep the deer out of my garden area on that side of the house.  They came down and chomped a few of my favorites flowers that I planted.  How dare they? Yoko and Champ are doing a good job keeping them away.  At about 4-5 AM Yoko sounds the alarm.  My bedroom window is right in front of their kennel.  I just say, "Good girl" through my open window at her.