Winter is Coming

Fall and the onset of winter sure is different in Montana from North Carolina.  Back in NC, I would be basking in 70-80 degree weather during the day, dropping to 50-60 at night.  Here in Helena, we are 'basking' in 50 degree weather with nighttime temps dropping below freezing.  There have already been a couple of 'snow' threats and there is snow on the higher elevations (like right behind the house), but nothing on my lawn yet except a normal freeze.

Yesterday, Texter, Lady K and I had to drive from Helena to Great Falls for Lady K to get her flu shot.  The day was gray and drizzly here in Helena and on most of the drive to Great Falls.  Texter took the camera or we would have been stopping every few minutes for me to take pictures.  So here are a few of Texter's pictures she took on the drive.

This picture (which she did a really good job of, by the way) shows snow on the higher mountain tops already.  But it also catches the low clouds we were seeing and how the grasses have already turned brown in the fall weather.

This is one of the views along the way.  There is no way to really capture how lovely the winding Missouri is on our way to/from Great Falls.  If you haven't ever watched "A River Flows Through It", watch if for the scenery alone and you might get an idea of what it is like.  Again, Texter did a good job of taking a picture.

On the way back, I did make her let me stop at a scenic overlook for a couple of pictures.  I need to get out in the car and drive around and take nothing but foliage pictures one day when the sun is shining.

I like this picture because the bridge over the road in the distance gives you a sense of just how big these 'hills' really are.      

Once you leave town and planned planting of trees, the color is many bright yellow of the aspen and birch.  It is beautiful against the white of the bark.

When I saw this picture from the overlook that I took, I had to laugh.  If you cut out the large pine trees on the right hand side of the picture, you would almost think this was a rock with lichen on it.  However, the brown, red and yellow are small trees and shrubs on the rock.  The green is a large expanse of lichen, however.

Hopefully, I will have a chance to get out and take more pictures before the snows start in earnest.