It’s a rainy afternoon at Pippin’s, where I am now, having journeyed up the state and into the mountains a couple of days ago.
The Professor has been waiting for wet weather in which to set fire to his burn pile, which has grown larger than ever with the addition of large tree limbs broken in the snow.
I was able to help Ivy and Jamie a tiny bit by forking clumps of wet leaves into carts, from a leaf pile across the yard, for them to haul to the fire.
Ivy had just pulled a batch of popovers out of the oven when their dad called all the children out to help.
Yesterday I took two walks, first with Jamie and later with Scout. The forest floor is covered with pine cones, and also with cute sprouts of Ponderosa pine, each topped with the seed or seed case, presumably from which it sprouted.
Ivy peeled a few of them for me to eat, and one looked and tasted something like a commercial pine nut.
The pink and white flowered manzanitas are in bloom all around, and the Squaw Carpet lovely in violet.
Pippin drove a few of us even farther north to do another fun thing in the rain, but I will come back later to tell you about that. Completing a post on my phone is a challenge, and I want to publish this one before something goes wrong!
Gladsome Lights 
These pictures look just magical and make me wish I was in the mountains. Have you ever read Kipling’s poem The Sea and the Hills? It’s one of my favorites, and these hills brought it to my mind, although I believe he’s writing about the Himalayas and the Tibetan hillmen.
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Manzanitas and Squaw Carpet are new to me of course. They wouldn’t grow here. I had to look up Squaw Carpet and was surprised to find it is a kind of ceanothus….prostrate ceanothus. The regular ceanothus grows here so maybe the prostrate one does too.
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I’ve never made popovers. They look delicious! You all had your work cut out for you. I see those piles of wood and branches and shudder when I think what is waiting for us at the lake after the ice storm. The photos aren’t promising!
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I have yet to post via my phone. Congrats to you for doing it! When you live amongst the evergreens it is nice to be able to have a burn pile when it is safe. My grands were just showing me something similar to the ponderosa pine sprouts that are popping up on their property. I’ll have to show them your photos. Your mountain time looks like fun.
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