Tag Archives: Heather Heights

Out on a Walk

Heatherwood From Above
Heatherwood Fall

Mary and I enjoy taking a walk from time to time. We really should do it every day. On the road above our home, we get a panoramic view of Heatherwood. I have recorded the view over the time that I have been back in Selah. It is interesting to see how the property has developed over the years.

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Thank You Neighbor!

“Neighbor’s Cherry Orchard”
Heatherwood Fall

Our neighbor’s cherry orchard provides a beautiful background for Heatherwood. It has seasonal interest throughout the year. Beautiful light pink blossoms welcome in spring. Lush green highlights the summer months. Striking orange-brown decorates the fall hillside. The snow covered trees provide a striking contrast in the winter. The orchard provides a nice place to take a walk throughout the year and provides a special sweet treat in July.

The orchard and hillside are a good example for “borrowed scenery” for Heatherwood’s Japanese garden. With the limited space in our garden, we wanted to make as much use of the surrounding hills borrowing their character and beauty. As we were laying out our garden paths and tree placements, we consciously identified surrounding areas that we wanted to highlight. We formed the path and placed trees to create framed scenes of the surrounding hills and valley below.

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360 Degree View

Selah Bluff
Heather Heights, Selah, WA

Aspens, cattails, grasses, and the dark sky frame this ridge on Selah Bluff. From the top, one has a 360 degree view. The Wenas valley is to the north. Mt. Rainier can be seen to the northwest, Mt. Clemens to the west, and Mt. Adams to the southwest. To the east are the ridges of the Yakima River Canyon. To the southeast are the Yakima Firing Center and Rattlesnake Mountain. Looking south I can see our neighborhood, the lower Selah Valley and the Selah-Yakima Gap. It is a place to put down my camera and just enjoy nature and the open area around me.

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Peaceful Walk Around the Neighborhood

Neighbor’s Pasture
Heather Heights, Selah, WA

It is nice to live in the country. Our home is right in the middle of an area of small pastures. On the east we have a neighbor’s pasture with cows. On the west, our neighbor has five horses and a small grove of apple trees. Farther north we have a riding stable and pasture with a cherry and apple orchard above. We can walk along the paved roads of the neighborhood and view the valley below as well as catch glimpses of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier. We can stroll through orchards and along irrigation ditches and flumes catching bits of nature. If we get ambitious, we can climb to the top of the ridge above us and get a 360 degree of the countryside around us. And of course, we can stroll in our little garden arboretum.

So, if we ever feel closed in, all we have to do is open the door and take a walk. It’s nice to live in the country!

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Looking Over the Valley

“Looking Over the Valley”
Selah Ridge, Washington

Living out in the country is a wonderful opportunity to get out and explore. I have no excuse to feel “cooped up” inside the house. A 20 minute walk and I am above it all, overlooking an old cherry orchard, the valley below, and the gap to Yakima. How peaceful it is to just stand up on the hillside and observe the wonderful area where we live. In a short time, this orchard will be covered with white and pink blossoms. It is one of the few “old stands” of cherry trees around. Each year they remove a section and plant new trees. Hopefully this section will remain for several years to come.

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Water in the Ditch!

Naches-Selah Irrigation Ditch
Selah Ridge, Washington

We decided to take a walk around our neighborhood hills and orchards yesterday. We discovered that our spring irrigation water had been turned on and had reached the ditch above our home. It is time to start our spring watering cycle. As I’ve mentioned before, this ditch was constructed and put in use in the 1880’s. This is one of the few open areas still remaining. The area directly above our house has an old wood flume. I am looking at it right now from my office as I type this post. It will be replaced by an underground pipe in the next few years. I will be sad to see the trace of our past removed.

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Belated Happy New Year

“Here Comes the Sun”

I have finally been able to get my website up and going again with all the malware removed. It has been quite an effort but it all seems to be working well again. So here is my first post of the New Year/ New Decade.

We rose early on the first of January to watch the sun come up. We were blessed with a beautiful bright sunrise filtered by the fog in the valley below our house. The sun was a bright spot on the horizon. Its rays gradually spread out through the foggy sky above and gently over the our yard below. It was a wonderful way to wake up, enjoy a nice cup of coffee, and discuss the potential of the year and decade ahead of us.

Here comes the sun
Lighting the world around us,
Harbinger of the bright decade ahead
.

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Winter Persists

“Silhouettes”

Hawks perched above
On high bare winter trees,
Waiting for dinner below.

Winter continues to persist.  Birds of prey frequently perch on surrounding trees looking over the snow covered pastures waiting for slight creature movement below.  It is a good time for bird watching.

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Beautiful But Cold!

Neighbor’s Pasture

How beautiful the snow is, but it is really cold.  Today was -6 degrees when I got up.  It is “dry” cold, so not too uncomfortable.  Since Punxsutawney Phil made his prediction of an early spring, winter has hit Eastern Washington hard.  We have had our first real snow of the year and the temperatures have dropped below zero.  We are in for more!

The only good advice I have heard is to not trust the groundhog.  Out of Phil’s 103 predictions, he has been right only 39% of the time!  I see that he has about the same prediction accuracy as our regular weather forecasters.

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