Big Sky Country!

First view of Flathead Lake this summer.

Dave drove from Missoula to Polson so I got to take pictures
 out the window of the mountains in the evening light.

Back on May 17th I started a post and never got it finished. I begin today's musings with that post snippet as it serves to highlight just how much has changed for usin the past three weeks!

Driving through Polson along the lake our first evening back

"It's a balmy, hot day scouring wool for me. I'm in the wet studio at the house (aka the greenhouse) and I have the door to the outside--where it is 91 degrees F--wide open. Inside the studio it's 96 degrees in the shade. But I'm not working in the shade. I am smack dab in the middle of the room in bright sunny sun. Even the glass studio is cooler than the wet studio today. But I have to get these fleece samples all scoured and set out to dry today so I can sort and scour a whole fleece tomorrow. I hope I've processed enough of each of the samples. I didn't want to do it all as I might need more raw fleece for another one of the projects, and I only have to spin 20 yds from each sample. That's not very much to spin, but I also have to spin enough to weave two samples on a pin loom. Guess I had better spin up a test fiber to see how much I really need for 20 yds and the tow little woven pieces..."

In the weeks following that post the temperatures climbed higher and higher and stayed there. By the first of June we had already had 100 degree days and nights where it didn't get below 74. Welcome to Austin in the summer. Then one week ago we (the Griffiths) went through a total reset. Today marks the end of our first week in Montana and so much more has changed than just the weather--though that's dramatic enough on its own. No more 100-degree Austin days: It has been sunny and warm all week in Polson (till today) with days in the 70s and nights in the 40s. Ahh to snuggle under the down comforter again! It's been very hard to get up in the mornings. By the time we left Austin I was getting up at 6:30 or 7:00 so I could work outside and beat the heat.

Fresh snow in the mountains this morning

This morning when we woke it was 48 with a high expected of 55. There was fresh snow on the mountains and a nippy wind blowing through town. Dave and I took advantage of the coolness to walk down to our local coffee shop: Blodgett's Creamery and Coffee Saloon. It's three miles round trip, down hill on the way and uphill on the way back. (Not, as legend would have it, barefoot in the snow up hill both ways!) There are two photos on the wall of the coffee shop taken by my great grandfather, RH McKay. Only one of them is dated, but it is 96 years old.

Photo of the lake by my great grandfather in 1922

Photo of Polson taken by my great grandfather--not sure of the year

The front garden is in serious
 need of weeding

Now I'm cozy on the couch under a blanket and posting before putting a piece in the kiln and getting back to my spinning coursework. This week I need to start weeding the garden, plan the restaining of the front and back decks, begin cleaning out the garage and the back patio and getting the last of my things out of the metal building up at the lake property. While there are no bees and is no pond here, my routine is pretty much exactly what it would be if I were still in Austin--and I have no less to do. But it feels totally different! There is a huge break caused by the exhausting two-day drive up and the total relocation of household. It's still a household, and thus it's still a lot of work, but somehow it feels like starting from scratch with no backlog, no baggage, no stressors. Time stretches expansively in front of me--just like it did two years ago when I moved to Austin. There is something awesome and liberating associated with this not-vacation travel. Like on vacation, time slows to a crawl and it feels like you exist in a vacuum.

Then there are also the beautiful surroundings. Austin is lovely and our house there is beyond wonderful, but I am a mountain girl at heart and it makes said organ sing to be back in the midst of them again. I won't miss the cold and snow of winter here, but there is no place better in the summer. That said, I wish I had had the plumber verify the connections for the propane stoves upstairs and down so we could have some heat today, but my blanket is cozy and we have a space heater. And there are martinis, albeit in wine glasses...