Snake and Lizard !

Mark is home for a brief visit and he enjoys hiking more than we do, so we went out with Sarah and Hannah to hike Cowiche Mountain at Snow Mountain Ranch just west of here. Along the way we encountered a snake (I think it is a bull snake) and a lizard. Thanks to Hannah's keen eye, we saw them before we stumbled over them. They are well camoflaged so look carefully in the middle of the pictures. Notice the snake is spread right across our trail.
We also saw some interesting rock formations. Wish I knew more about geology.

Stormy Day

We went hiking up in the hills today and saw this rain storm moving in....

French Mission

In this morning's newspaper was an article about the first mission established in this area. It was founded by Catholic priests who from France in 1847. We'd never heard of French missionaries in this part of the country. The mission is not far from us, so we decided to go see it this afternoon. It was established in 1852 and called the St Joseph Mission at the Ahtanum. We found out that church services are still held here on the first Sunday of each month from April to October in the building shown. Here are some pictures and a link to an article about the St Joseph Mission of Yakima.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5285

Bald Eagle

We live in a golf course community called Apple Tree. This gorgeous bald eagle called Apple Tree home for a few weeks. A resident here captured these shots from his back yard on the 13th hole. The eagle was preying on Koi fish out of the greenside pond.

Llamas

One of our favorite sites along our morning walk is a field with several llamas. I should have taken a picture yesterday so you could see the contrast, because today they look totally different. They have now been shorn. Here's the 'after' shot.

Spring Time

Well, spring has finally arrived and the all the ice is gone from the trees. We went out for a walk yesterday and took some snapshots along the way. The apple, pear and cherry trees are all in bloom.

We came across this old house and in the distance is the steeple of a church dating back to the late 1800's. Drew and his family attend here.

Most of our walking route takes us along Apple Tree golf course......

and several orchards......

as well as, a pasture with a beautiful horse grazing in the distance.

More beautiful blooming trees along the golf course - our house is on the far right.

Here's the scene behind our house - our house is off to the right.

April Apple Trees

We went out for a walk this morning and saw these apple trees. They are coated in ice to keep the buds from damage. The growers turn on the sprinklers at night knowing the freezing temps will cause ice to coat the buds. I guess this is April in Yakima. I thought it would be a lot warmer by now. It still freezes most nights. Daytime temps are high 50's and sometimes low 60's.