Two weekends ago marked our 1-year anniversary of moving to Pennsylvania, and this weekend marks the 1-year anniversary of moving into our home. So I thought I'd intersperse photos of us enjoying the great outdoors here in our new state with observations and anecdotes about life here.
I posted alot of beautiful, green summer pictures last summer. It was glorious! There is nothing quite like going from brown sagebrush desert to lush green woodlands. It was a little bit of heaven, even if the trees did feel overbearing much of the time.
I've found that I've had to come to a new relationship with the land here in PA. Back in Utah, it is barren, rugged beauty. Although there are imposing mountains, there are wide open spaces in between, endless expanses of sagebrush or grasses. Here the mountains are older, gentler, and green. (Yes, there are mountains, though the rolling hills in our immediate are are actually part of a plateau.) Here, you are rarely out of the trees, and you can never really get up above the hills to have a far-reaching view of any landscape. It can feel suffocating. I've tried to redefine that feeling, so that rather than feeling suffocated, instead I feel embraced and comforted, like the earth is cradling me.
I do miss seeing expansive sunsets, but at times they are still beautiful, even through the trees:
Autumn brought endless mounds of leaves to be raked. But as the leaves fell from the trees, we could see houses that we had not previously known were even there.
We thought the wildlife was prolific in the summer time, but as Autumn progressed, the number of squirrels, chipmunks, and deer in our yard increased 10-fold.
We thought winter wouldn't be too bad. The day after Christmas, Dallin practiced slack-lining in this beautiful weather. The children were bummed about the lack of snow.
Little did we know...
Our view for all of January and February and a good part of March looked like this.
We didn't see the road for over 2 months.
At first it was fun:
I've never seen as much fog as I have here, and luckily there is no air pollution associated with it.
That's close to a foot of snow on the deck, and it stayed there for months.
I've never minded winter, but I think that's changed. It took so much courage and fortitude to not just want to throw in the towel this time around. There was always a foot of snow on the ground that never ever melted. The sun rarely came out. A humid cold really does feel colder than a dry cold. Our cars continually got stuck in snow and ice, something that never happened in all our years of snow-driving in Utah. Church was cancelled three times due to weather, and the kids went almost two months without youth group activities for the same reason.
Every once in awhile, breathtaking beauty made an appearance.
I think I took this picture because it was about the first time I'd ever seen sunlight streaming through our front windows. That was a blessing of having no leaves on the trees. The room is literally always dark.
But winter ended, and as the sun shone again, my mood lifted.
We went to state parks for homeschool days and basked in being able to be outdoors.
In being able to ride bikes.
And take the dog on walks. (Though with melting snow comes mud. Lots of mud.)
This was our first trip to the "big lake" of the spring.
Now living in Pennsylvania actually seemed worth it again.
In May the weather warmed up even more, and we could gather round the firepit once again. I tell you, being able to roast hot dogs and marshmallows in your very own yard is about as good as it gets, especially if you are under the age of 14.
More homeschool days brought more enjoyment at more state parks:
And the flowers started peeking out:
Spring brings the reminder that Pennsylvania really is a place of stunning natural beauty. I've driven from my home to other cities for outings and been almost overcome with the scenery that surrounds me every single mile of the way.
Just some of the flowers blooming in my yard.
I came home one rainy evening in June and found this big, old guy right in my own driveway.
Animals and creatures we've seen since living here:
Squirrels, chipmunks, deer
Frogs, toads, salamanders, snakes, fish, turtles
Crows, woodpeckers,cardinals, bluebirds, hawks, bald eagles, wild turkeys, bats
Raccoons, groundhogs, woodchucks, river otters
Spiders, spiders, spiders! I've never seen so many webs!
Fireflies
Bugs, and creepy-crawlies in all varieties
Luckily, no bears yet! Although a few weeks ago, my husband and I were up in the middle of the night, and he heard some significan noises coming from outside, though he could not see what was making them. The next morning it was clear that an animal had been in our trash. Our neighbors last summer reported that there was a resident bear who came through the neighborhood on trash night; they had even been able to get video of him tramping through the woods between our two properties.
I've decided that I think June is my favorite month, because the whole state is covered with wildflowers.
Although I took this picture on a hiking trail at a nature center, it could have just as easily been along the side of any road I regularly drive on. Shasta daisies are all over the place. And now black-eyed Susans are replacing them.
Preston enjoying the flowers on a bike ride.
I don't know that I had ever actually seen what I would call a "meadow" until moving here. One day I saw a field of grasses mixed with flowers of all sorts and all of a sudden realized, "That's a meadow!"
Along with the flowers, the berries are prolific right now too. These are wild raspberries. But there are many fruit farms selling strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, and blackberries. These are things that I rarely bought in Utah because the prices were so high, and now I can go pick my own really cheap.
All the rain brings mushrooms of every size and sort. These were some of numerous varieties right in our own yard.
Preston discovered these giants while on a walk near home.
These are little fungi in our yard, both the orange and the gray.
I wondered if Preston would ever come to care about nature like his older siblings, but it has begun to happen. Every walk is now peppered with comments like, "Look at this mommy, look at this awesome leaf!"
June brought the rain. It rained almost every single day. At one point it poured for 36 solid hours with not one break.
It still rains every few days, but we are getting more and more sunny times. Still, the temperature has barely made it over 80 degrees, and mostly has been in the 70's, with still some days in the 60's.
Finally, we can see the sky!
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