Christmas From Our Side of the Mountain
©Bert Gildart: Who ever said it couldn’t snow when the temperatures dipped to into single digit figures? Throughout the week, despite the subzero temperature, snow has been piling up. It has accumulated in fields, around barns, on river ice, lake ice, and along peaks forming the Swan Mountains.
Swan Range, from our side of the mountain.
And there is another phenomena occurring. Steam is now rising off Montana’s Flathead Lake, and we see it any day we make the four-mile drive to the nearest settlement, which in this case is Bigfork.
Steam is due to the fact that this largest of all lakes west of the Mississippi is actually starting to freeze, and that means the lake has to relinquish all that heat it acquired during the summer. So dense now is the steam that we can not see more than a mile across this seven-mile-wide body of water. So thick is the steam that you might actually think you can hear it, but that is not the case.
Of course all that will change once ice covers the lake, and from the looks of it, that could happen soon.
Last year the American Automobile Association commissioned me to take Christmas photos of Bigfork, now featured in the December ‘08 issue. Our local chamber likes to call this small settlement of about 2,000, “Bigfork Village,” and certainly, it is a delightful little town, but now, quite artsy.
Bigfork Annual Parade set in town and all backdropped by Swan Mountains
All of this is by way of letting you know that we’re thinking of so many, and are grateful for all we have. We wish our troops scattered throughout hostile parts of the world God’s speed. We wish only the best for our elected officials and most of all, we want our friends, neighbors and family know that you all much in our thoughts.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
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December 25th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Merry Christmas to you up there in snow country! Don’t step into the paths of any avalanches.
From our side of the mountain (in this case, the Santa Catalinas in Arizona), we can also see snow up in the peaks above 5,000 feet. There will be more tomorrow. But down here, we are enjoying a very relaxing Christmas day among the palm trees. Come on down, the weather’s fine!
December 26th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
No snow here… but thank you for that gorgeous view of yours!
(temps at 70 today!)
I see you’re *Flickring* now..gonna add you to my friends list.
Merry Christmas from Tn!