Ridgway's studio updates, latest paintings, photos, and adventures.

Birthday party for a one year old.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 01:48:00 +0000

One of our great grandsons had his first birthday party on Saturday. He's such a good little guy, and he's full of action, so it was a fun time watching him open presents and eat cake. My dad is 94 and he was there also, he's holding the baby in this photo. My daughter is in the red shirt, a friend in the green.

Robert with our granddaughter Hannah.

The birthday had a cow theme, Holy Cow you're One! So the cake was a Scottish Highlander cow, very cute.

Kids having fun making bubbles.

Here's that first bite of birthday cake!

The day after the birthday party, we went to the Bison Range to watch the bison. They weren't very lively, about the most action we saw was this bull taking a dust bath. Always fun to watch them, even if they just roam around eating.

We'll be setting up at an outdoor art show on Sept 10. It will be at the Paris Gibson Museum in Great Falls, Mt. We dug out our upright supports today so we could begin to get ready. It takes a lot more preparation for an outdoor show simply because of wind and weather. We're trying to figure out the best ways to tie the supports to heavy sand bags or cinder blocks. The tenth will be a busy day!

Over 3000 artist reference photos on our Patreon site.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Tue, 24 May 2022 01:47:00 +0000

We started a Patreon site for artists. We have over 3000 photos uploaded to our site, most of them are Montana wildlife, some are scenery and other things. Some dog portraits, some interesting things but mostly wildlife.

If you are looking for photos, there are so many there, that are like having exclusive photos without having to purchase an exclusive license. The photos are exclusively for artists to use as reference and that is what the license there states.

We are not finished uploading photos, I've only gone through a couple of years worth of photos. I haven't begun on our older hard drives yet.

So if you are looking for reference photos for your art, come join our Patreon site. You'll hardly ever run out of something to paint.

Artist reference photos for you to use.

And if you like to paint elk, there are hundreds of elk photos there. Elk, deer, mountain sheep, bears, and more!

Montana Outdoors Photo Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 20:52:00 +0000

This photo of a porcupine's quills was published in the Montana Outdoors photo issue this year. I was following the porcupine below, begging him as I went along to turn his little face toward me for just a second. He finally did do that, but not before I gave up and told him if he wouldn't turn around, I'd just take a photo of his rear end. In the end, pun there, I sent the quills in to be juried as I liked the patterns they made as the porky raised them. He sure was a cute little guy. And I was glad he gave me the photo that made it into the issue.

This burrowing owl was also published in a Montana Outdoors Photo Issue. The photo issue comes out each year in December and there are 10,000 images vying for publication so I am always honored when one of my images is chosen. Subscribe to Montana Outdoors and you will see that issue when it comes out each year. It's only something like $12 a year and it's a great magazine.

More tribal, southwest horses paintings.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 19:56:00 +0000

War Horses Welcoming Spring

Mother Earth is bursting full of spring and beginning to shower the meadows with flowers and spring colors of new grass and plants. This painting is 16x20, it is unframed, but it's on a half inch wrapped canvas so you can frame it if you wish. I have a wide golden frame here and this painting looks fantastic in that frame. As of December 5, 2021 I've got it listed in my Etsy shop.

"One Herd, Many Colors"

Horse herd racing across the prairie, many horses, of different colors, but all one herd.

This painting is 22X28 and is on a flat piece of masonite. It would require special framing. It's available in my Etsy shop.

"She Carries Light to her Horses"

What is this world without light? It helps us see, and it makes things grow! Mother Earth is doing her job.

This painting is small and is in my Etsy shop.

All three of these paintings are available as of Dec 5, 2021. I won't update this post as things sell, but all links go to my shop, so you might find something you like there even if these are gone.

I also have paintings represented by Equis Art Gallery, Red Hook, New York, and Paris Gibson Museum, Great Falls, Mt.

Horse paintings going to Equis Art Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 19:07:00 +0000

Another box of paintings is heading out today to The Equis Art Gallery in Red Hook, New York. These paintings will be represented by Juliet Harrison at the gallery so all inquiries go through the gallery. I'm honored to be in her "stable" of artists.

War Ponies

Meet N Greet

Horses of the Plains

Three Black Buffalo Runners

One Purple Horse

If you're near Red Hook, stop in and see the gallery!

The Soap Gypsy

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 16:04:00 +0000

Long time ago, we had a bar of soap wash down to this shape. It looked like a gypsy fortune teller to me, so I did this little painting from looking at the soap. Robert likes the painting so he keeps it beside his chair.

And here are some funny faces I painted on rocks and hid for people to find. I don't usually do faces, but a couple of years ago, I began to draw people for practice. It's enjoyable and a nice way to sharpen drawing skills.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Sat, 28 Aug 2021 14:18:00 +0000

When I was a kid, on the farm, we had an old Dodge Power Wagon. My dad would send my brother, sister and I out to the field to pick rocks. Where we lived rocks, the size of your fist covered the top of the ground. There was no end to how deep those rocks went under the surface, they went on and on forever. Our job was to fill the box of the power wagon with rocks, then take it to the rock piles at the edge of the field and throw them out. When empty, go fill it up again. We spent days doing that. I hated it. Most boring job in the world, right?

Now I'm painting on rocks. My husband and I get in the truck, head out to a field and pick rocks for hours, lol! We pick and hunt for rocks that are just right, we don't have to pick up every single rock, I guess that's why it's more fun. We can come home with a pickup load of rocks and have the greatest day ever. Somehow that tickles my funny bone. I can laugh right out loud when I think of being a kid and hating those rocks so much.

In the photo above, you'll see a rock painted a neutral grey, with the beginnings of a bull elk drawn there. First I found the angle of the slant of his head, then began to draw the shape of his body and the antlers.

Now I'm finding his facial features, and laying down a basic color on his body.

Just adding and correcting his shape here.

Now I added in some background color. This elk was on a sagebrush flat, so he was surrounded by that soft green color of sage.

Here are a few more details, and placing darks next to lights, and vice versa. Just to emphasize the elk from his background.

Adding in some sagebrush details and background work.

And here it is finished. It was so nice, the way his antlers wrapped around the edges of the rock, he just fit! If you've ever spent time with elk during the rut, you can easily "hear" the sound of that bugle coming from his mouth! It's the wildest, free-est sound in the world. I love it. I can't get enough of watching the elk, and the rut is coming upon us quickly! I can't wait.

If you want to see more bugling elk, visit our store, where you can find rustic wildlife decor for your home!

Thank you for coming by my blog, I hope you enjoyed seeing this bull elk come to life in a painting on a rock! :)

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 22:27:00 +0000

I had a few more interesting photos from our trip up the Teton Canyon the other day, here's a black bear walking down the dappled trail, looking back at us. We rarely see bears on our excursions so it's extra fun when we got to spend time with this one.

We've watched this tree growing from the rock since we moved here in 2003. In real life, it looks 30 feet tall. We'd feel sad if we took this drive and saw where it was broken or it gave up on life. It's hard to imagine it can live and thrive in that place, but it does!

There are little streams alongside the road along with empty beaver dams. It seems odd they trap the beaver out of there and don't let them live. The dams they create are beautiful, the water is so clear there....they make this soft deep green color.

I loved seeing this shaft of light come through the forest and light up this patch of thimbleberry bushes. It only lasted a second! I was glad I caught it!

This little squirrel was running around a campground where we stopped. Of course he was a busy fellow, up and down trees, throwing pine cones to the ground then coming down in a streak to hide them in the ground or tuck them into hidey holes.

Here's a stump where the squirrel sits to eat when he gets hungry and needs a break from storing food for winter.

Hope you enjoyed the photos, we're planning to take another photo trip before long, possibly up the Sun River Canyon to Gibson Dam. If we're lucky we'll see more bears in the chokecherries, and possibly the mountain sheep! We never know when we'll be lucky and see wildlife.

Photos and art prints for sale in our Wildlife Indoors store.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 15:35:00 +0000

Here are some of my latest paintings. This one is named, "On the Cave Wall". It was represented by the Equis Art Gallery in Red Hook, New York and is sold.

"Carrying Sunshine to her Horses"

"She Reaches out to Many Things but Only Touches the Horse"

This is how some of the paintings begin. I painted the canvas black, I added a thick layer of white paint. I drew and scribbled into the white paint, threw water on it and picked up the wet paint, and I dropped India Ink into the surface. That created the black and white image you see above.

"Oh How They Danced When The Horse was Created"

When I began to add color, I noticed those wild figures dancing in the background. This kind of reminded me of the days when I was in high school and I loved reading Greek Mythology. One figure is kind of devilish with horns and a tail but I left him in there as some horses are kind of full of mischief and devilish, they're not all perfect, lol!

When I'm painting, I have learned to step myself back and let a painting become what it wants. They just about always let me know. A day or two after I've created a painting, I can not recall the process of painting it, it feels like someone else must have done it. It's hard to explain what happens when a painting is being created. The process takes over and I'm just a conduit.

"Thank You for the Blessings of the Horse"

Through much the same process a painting is created, the horse came about and Mother Earth loves her creation.

If you happen to come across this blog, I hope you enjoy it. It began many years ago and has a lot of posts. Take a minute to look back on some of them! And thank you for being here.

Donna

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 15:15:00 +0000

Robert had his right shoulder replaced August 11th. It's healing nicely and we were tired of sitting in the house so we took a drive up the Teton Canyon. We'd barely entered the canyon when we spotted this bear in a huge chokecherry bush. When we drove forward to see him, he backed up, when we backed up-he went forward. So we were laughing and playing peek a boo with a bear. It was pretty fun after a couple weeks of staying tight to the house.

When you drive by the ski run and continue on down the pass, you enter the burned area and find an elephant!

Thousands of Montana forests look like this now. It would be a much needed miracle if we could return to the days of well managed forests and prevent this needless waste.

Trees that are this warm color really stand out in the burns. As a photographer, I like the interplay of the warm and cool colors.

This little guy was zooming around in the rocks at the edge of the road. I think they're so cute. We don't find many of them anymore for some reason or another so we're always tickled when one comes out where we can see it.

Ear Mountain, pretty well obscured by smoke in the air from forest fires.

Skinny legged hawk flying off a post. I almost missed a shot at him. :) All in all, it was a good day along the Rocky Mountain Front and we enjoyed it a lot.

Auto ISO do I like it or not?

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 01:54:00 +0000

Grain bins on the Montana prairie. They kind of looked like little hats sitting up there on a hill. That cloudy sky set them off to perfection. I took this photo last night. Most of the time, I use all manual settings on my camera. Sometimes I miss a shot because I don't have time to change settings as the situation or the light changes. Last night, I decided to use auto ISO and change f stops and shutter speed as needed. I didn't miss any shots, as far as exposure goes, but I did have to lighten most shadows. I will now have to master exposure compensation. In this hobby of photography, I sure have a lot to learn.

I took this photo last night, using auto ISO also. It was fairly close in exposure although I did lighten shadows again. The golden light was beautiful and made these ordinary looking trees shine!

This photo was from last night also. The light was gorgeous, and streaked the land with warm and cool tones. I did adjust color vibrance and lighten shadows to create what I saw when I took this photo.

I took this photo Christmas Day. I think this moment was our Christmas present! It was wonderful to see these rams connect with such force. I was using all manual settings that day.

This is another photo from Christmas Day.The ram and ewe were in the cool light shadows of the forest floor.

Not sure if I like this photo. I thought if I placed it here, it might help me decide. It seems very blah to me. It still seems that way even after I see it here. What do you think?

So on the topic of auto ISO I guess I will keep that setting on my camera. It does help a lot to keep from totally missing a shot. At least the ISO was close enough, that it only took a small adjustment in Lightroom to correct the photos.

Do you like using auto ISO? Do you use manual settings on your camera?

We have Montana photos of landscapes and wildlife on our website. Come on over and check it out! Affordable images for your home.

Photo trip to Freezout Wildlife Game Management area.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 04:59:00 +0000

Our bison, published in Montana Outdoors, photo issue this year. The magazine is out on the stands now. I feel so honored to be a part of that issue.

I took this photo during a snowstorm, so far the only one we've had this winter! It's the grass and willow branches along the Sun River, at the Largent Bend Fishing Access site.

This looks like a funny bug but it was debris caught in the willow branches after the flood. It has snow on it's back here. I loved the way it looks like there are legs sticking out in all directions.

This is looking toward Ear Mountain from south of Choteau, Montana. A storm was brewing over the mountains. That was a fascinating bank of clouds.

The same cloud bank from a new angle, I was east of Choteau when I took this one.

Love these yucca weeds when they're all dried out.

We've had 50 degree weather for most of this winter so far. It seems odd to go out without a coat, and be warm in January. The country is very dry, I hope we get more snow before long.

Donna

Photos within 15 miles of my home.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 15:10:00 +0000

Robert and I were here at home, sitting in our chairs, watching the news. I keep an eye on the sky as we do this because as far as I'm concerned the news is nothing but depressing and worrisome. I'd rather find something uplifting and fun. So when the sky began to change and a sunset began to happen, I grabbed the camera and headed for Largent Bend.

Night before last, the sunset was absolutely amazing, but we were in town, and my camera was home. So that didn't work so well. :)

I took these photos looking east, and looking west, the sky was beautiful in both directions.

Largent Bend is a blessing in my life, it's only a few miles from the house, so I have almost instant access to a tiny slice of nature. I don't see many animals there, but I see tracks of raccoon, deer, bear, mice, voles, and others. During nesting season, the Canada geese are there, along with other birds that come in spring. Osprey nest not far far from there, and come fishing in the ponds in summer.

There are hiking trails which I like way better than the treadmill in the back room! It's a simple cottonwood type forest, along the Sun River, not as exciting as hiking in the mountains but it's still a good place to go.

There's an eagle hanging out down there right now, I've got distant shots of it but it takes off before I get within half a mile of it. One of these days it might get used to me being there and I'll be able to show a photo of it.

As always, we have photos for sale on our website, along with Robert's poems. Come on over there and see what you can find. There are prints and gift items of all and sizes.

Wishing you all the best in 2019.
Donna

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 16:29:00 +0000

Heart Butte

Rocky Mountain Front at Sunset

Horse near Ear Mountain

Square Butte from First People's Buffalo Jump State Park

Near Teton Canyon

Ear Mountain in Autumn

Square Butte near Vaughn

Here are some random photos of places I love in Montana. Different seasons, different places, all much loved.

Donna Ridgway

Photos within 15 miles of my home.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 20:52:00 +0000

I needed some generic photos for a project so I left home around noon and went looking. My camera was hungry for new fodder!

There were challenges. The day was dark, heavy clouds hung down, and when I had light, it was prone to disappear quickly between the gaps in cover. If I saw a scene that delighted my eyes, I had to get my settings right in a hurry and take the photo before the picture changed.

My camera is set on manual, so one shot can be totally different than another, requiring settings to change a lot.

When it got so dark I couldn't shoot anymore, I came home. Those deer were my last photos of the day. They were so cute, I was glad I could get them.

Donna Ridgway

Big horn rams, mountain sheep.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 19:06:00 +0000

The mountain sheep are pretty fun to watch. A lot of times, they remain where they are when you see them, they don't take off as fast as elk or grizzlies do. Which means you might get to spend a bit of time with them, just watching them graze, and interacting with each other.

Their eyes are so expressive! It's a great feeling to be looking into those eyes. You wonder what they're thinking and if they're enjoying this experience with you.

I hope to see some more of them soon!
Donna Ridgway

Travel in Montana

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 22:57:00 +0000

These are some of the roads we were on this year taking photos. I'm glad I married an old log truck driver, lol! Nothing scares him when it comes to the roads, we take it easy and go where and when we want to go. Most of the time we have the fifth wheel camper with the horse trailer behind it.

We like to take the four wheelers and they just fit in the horse trailer.

In the old days, I had a horse trailer full of horses going to the mountains. But back then I had no camera! I wish I had for I'd have some good photos from those times.

Of course I would not trade what we do now for anything. I love having the freedom to do what we like to do. No matter what the weather might be doing!

Donna Ridgway

Time for some Montana scenery.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 18:07:00 +0000

Robert was busy working in the yard,so I went to take photos by myself. There are times when it's good to go alone for it's so much easier to think of camera settings and what you are trying to do with each photo you take. When we're together, we're so busy visiting sometimes it's hard to think about what I want my camera to capture.

I had planned in the begining to stay kind of close to home and didn't think I'd roam further than Freezout Lake. I didn't find many birds, or animals there so I took the road that goes behind Priest Butte, hoping I'd see a coyote, maybe a bear, hopefully some deer or at the very least a raven or a gopher! Nothing. So I concentrated on scenery.

Got back to Choteau, had hardly any photos so I headed toward Pishkin because the mountains were calling to me. I ended up on the Peebles Cut Across Road and took photos of Ear Mountain as I went along.

The landscape was totally bare of animals. I didn't even see birds. I came back toward Choteau and when I got to Eureka lake, I ate my lunch and hoped some birds would fly into or around the trees. Sometimes I see Pelicans on the water there. No such luck so I enjoyed my cheese and ham, and came home!

Do you love to roam about the countryside? What do you see when you're "out there"?
Donna Ridgway

Nature photography

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 17:59:00 +0000

You might say that nature photography equals patience. I can not tell you the hours I've spent, sitting without moving, just watching and waiting for something to happen. It also requires a knowledge of when and how things might happen in nature.

I give credit to my patience for watching to the hours I spent on a tractor or swather in the wheat fields, or hay fields when I was a kid. From when I was young we went to the fields early in the morning and outside of a lunch break we were there all day. The more you went round and round the more bored you became and the more you learned to notice each and every thing that happened around you.

You saw when a fox crossed the field, you saw when a sea gull caught a mouse, you noticed if a fly landed on the tractor and watched how tight he could hang on in spite of the vibrations of the engine. You noticed things, and you learned to sit still, because you can't really drive machinery any other way! And you would have died of boredom if you hadn't had nature and it's wonders to view.

You also learned how to deal with the weather, screaming hot in the summer, windy and cold in the fall, it didn't matter, you learned how to take care of yourself and have what gear you might need to be at least a little bit comfortable, or if nothing else, you kept from freezing.

So when I saw the clouds in the photo above, heading toward the top of the mountain, I sat and waited. I watched and waited for quite a while. I kept thinking, if this happens like I think it might, there will be twin towers of sunset clouds over Sawtooth Ridge and won't that be wonderful?

Finally it happened! It doesn't always turn out this way, but this time it did.
I was happy!
Donna Ridgway

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 14:42:00 +0000

I do love creating these objects of art (for lack of a better name for them) from sardine cans and found objects. I did the froggy theme a couple days ago, and yesterday I created the cowboy theme. I was making my Cream of the West hot cereal, and enjoying the artwork on the box, when I thought, "Hey! I could make a cowboy sardine can using that image.

So I took the box to the studio and began by cutting out the cowboy and the word WEST. I was off and running. I found some heavy string, twisted it to resemble rope, for all cowboys use their ropes, right?

After I painted the inside of the can with copper paint, I placed the cowboy from the cereal box and glued him down, along with the WEST sign. After that things got complicated, I knew I had to find a horse that fit into the box. I looked in all the drawers and cupboards, looked in the computer room, looked in the back of the trailer where all my Breyer horses stand on shelves. Sure enough, finally! I found a little rubber brown horse.

Digging through the drawers where I keep jewelry bits, I found a snap from a leather purse that looked like a sherriff star. I got out my tools, pliers, knives etc and separated the bottom of the snap from the top of the snap and the leather that held it all together.

I found the long horn steer on a belt buckle, once again, I used all my tools to separate that steer from the rest of the buckle.

The little antique cowboy on the front was floating round in the western jewelry drawer. I dug him out. Then I was thinking of something to do with coffee, couldn't find anything that worked, but did find a key chain with the Jack Daniels whiskey info. I took it apart and it fit just right in that left hand corner.

Then I went looking for beads and tiny things to fill in empty spaces and jagged edges.I wanted blue and turqoise colors to set off the orange of the first cowboy. After much digging, I found the right stuff and the piece came together!

Would you enjoy something like this or would it drive you crazy? I love these projects, they are so involved, you don't think of anything else when you work on them. They take your mind to a fun new place!
Donna Ridgway

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 14:17:00 +0000

I'm sitting here in my chair looking through my photos, wishing I was with my little tin can camper way up on the mountain somewhere. Waking up in the camper is cold this time of year, I would have spent the night curled up tight in my good sleeping bag. Getting out of bed, in 20 degree temps makes you feel so alive! I love it.

Next I'd light the stove and make coffee, and the fire from the stove, warms up that tiny camper. If that didn't warm it up enough, I'd light the Buddy heater and watch the condensation run down the windows while I'm waiting for my coffee.

By this time, the sky might lighten enough for me to see the outline of trees.....pine and aspen, no details just outlines of their beauty against the sky.

I take my hot coffee and go outside to sit in my chair, hoping a deer might walk by, listening to the tiny sounds of awakening birds. The coffee warms my hands but it's cooling fast...I drink it down and go get another cup.

Finally, the sun breaks over the mountain top, and I can grab the camera, jack up the iso and hope to catch some early morning wildlife!

That's heaven on earth to me, what makes you happy?

Donna Ridgway

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 19:31:00 +0000

We drove to Hot Springs, Montana to pick up some paintings I had there on display. When we got to the Flathead River, we saw this bear in the water fishing. As we watched him, he came out of the water, to eat berries in the chokecherry bushes along the river.

He munched on berries quite a while, then he crossed the road in front of us, and followed a trail along the road, to go to some berry bushes higher on the hill. It was great fun to see him, and have him allow us to spend this time with him.

Do you see bears where you live? We don't see a lot of them, so it's exciting for us when we do...even though they live all around us.

If you like our photos and art, visit our website! The holidays are coming and we have a lot of good shopping there!
Donna Ridgway

Frogs in a sardine can

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 19:09:00 +0000

I go back and forth between creating fine art, to creating art from found objects, and my photography. I love my hobbies equally! Yesterday, I went to the studio and noticed a drawer I'd labelled "frogs". I opened the drawer and here were these frogs! My mind immediately went to the idea of creating a "watery" world in this sardine can for these frogs. So it's full of shimmery sparkles and colors of water. I think the frogs look very happy in their new world!

When I create sardine can art this is what it involves...first there are many visits to second hand stores, and yard sales. That seems the best way to find objects that might fit together in a can. It takes a lot of searching, a lot of sales and trips to town to find similar objects, such as the six frogs that are in this can.

After we purchase the objects, I sort and store them in my studio. I use plastic drawer combinations, along with the metal tool boxes mechanics use in their shops. If I get several similar objects, they go in a drawer with a piece of tape across the front of the drawer, such as this drawer I had labeled "frogs". As time goes on, I get enough of one thing to create a themed can.

First step in creating a can art piece, is to cover the entire inside of the can with either paint, or the papers etc that will form the background colors and textures. From there, I gather items that seem to fit the theme I'm looking for. It can take a lot of searching through drawers to find exactly the right things!

Once the items are assembled, I place them in the can, exploring different ideas as I go along. At last I decide on the final placements, and begin gluing the art together. I use glossy accents glue, epoxy glue, fabric glues, and poke holes for wires and attatchments. Sometimes I think I'm finished, only to go back and add more pieces, I love the richness of all the different colors and textures. Sometimes at the end, I'll hang a cute piece from the edge of the can, such as the little frog on top, he hangs down separately and independently to dangle in front of the piece.

What do you think? Do you like this idea and think it's fun and interesting? Do you think you'll try this for yourself? It's great fun!
Donna Ridgway

Chipmunk taking a bath.

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 18:43:00 +0000

Did you know a chipmunk is an expert at getting it's fur clean and neat for the day? We came home from Helena, Montana and we took the old highway. There's a place on top of a hill, with some huge granite boulders and in those boulders, are some chipmunks. I told Robert we could stop there to see what photos we might find. We got lucky and this chipmunk was sitting on the rocks, taking a good bath. It was a rare treat to watch him as he groomed his little body!

What wildlife do you enjoy watching? Do you watch the big guys? Elk, bear, deer, mountain sheep, or do you enjoy the little things also? For me, I love watching all of them. You learn something new each and every time you watch an animal going about their daily life.
Donna Ridgway

Fall is coming to Montana

noreply@blogger.com (Donnaallen) — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 01:46:00 +0000

It's been hot and dry in my state. Fires are burning millions of acres of timber land. It will take a hundred years or more for the land to recover and for us to have forests like we had. The beetles killed miles of trees, now they're standing dry fuel for fire. Loggers are not allowed in our forests to clean and preserve them. It's a sad state of affairs. Our entire state has poor quality air from the burns.

The burrowing owls have grown up and left for parts unknown. I wish I knew where they migrated to. They were so entertaining...I'm hoping they come back next year so we can watch them some more.

Bears are roaming the woods filling their bellies for a long winter sleep. This one was near Gibson Dam, in a tree that hung heavy with choke cherries.

I hope it's peaceful where you are, no fires, no floods, just normal life happening....
Donna