Juniper Falls Ranch
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Sunday Snippet: The Autumn at the Lake Edition
Autumn is my favorite time of the year, even though I’m often restless and sad in the fall. It’s an ending in so many ways, and yet there is that feeling of joyful beginning that comes with Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season, even when the world is suddenly a scarier and more uncertain place. Fall is sweatshirts and jeans and corduroy jackets and yoga pants and maybe even scarves now and then, but not yet heavy winter coats and gloves and hats. It’s walks in the neighborhood that leave you feeling smugly exercised, but not particularly sweaty. It’s trips to the orchard for apples and cider and…
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Author Spotlight: And … It’s Me!
We have a winner! Jonna Niles your name was randomly selected to receive my Montana goodies box! I’ll be in touch to get your mailing address. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to celebrate with me! I’ll be all over the place in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open–there will be other goody boxes to be had! Hello, mes amis. Today I’m in the Author Spotlight with my new and very first cowboy romance, Forever Cowboy! I’m so excited to share this book with you because it was a big step outside of my comfortable River’s Edge box and into a brand new setting in Marietta, Montana.…
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Sunday Snippet: The More Questions for the Universe Edition
Summer is almost over, and I’m damned if I know what happened to it. One minute it was April and we were opening up the lake cottage, and the next, it’s September and the leaves on our little sweet gum tree are changing. My personal life has been an upheaval of joys and sorrows lately, but I’ve been working practically nonstop all summer long. Editing gigs are always a good thing, except they interfere ferociously with my writing time. If I work for eight or ten hours, I’m loathe to sit down at the computer again after supper to write some more. But this week, I’ve been working on the…
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Sunday Snippet: The Anticipating Cowboys Edition
We have a winner! Germaine Corbitt–your name was randomly selected to receive the Montana goodie box! I’ll be in touch to get your mailing information so I can get this fun box of treats to you! Thanks to all who stopped by and commented–Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys are off to a fabulous start! Hi, mes amis! Well, the release of Forever Cowboy, my very first western/cowboy romance is a month away. I’m excited, nervous, proud, and more than a little anxious to share this book with you! I took a giant step out of my small-town Indiana box to write this one, and although Forever Cowboy is still my own brand…
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Sunday Snippet: The It’s a Real Snippet Edition
It’s been a healing week, mes amis. Trying to fight back the unholy tiredness that Covid has left me with and it’s slow going. Still not much appetite yet either, although that’s improving. I’ve found some things that sound good–cottage cheese, bread, fresh tomatoes, almonds, and water, always water. Had a glass of wine with lake pals, Mo and Cindy, last night and that was nice, too. On Thursday, Husband and I went by the winery here in our lake town to listen to music and discovered we were the only ones who were willing to brave the heat. We were so glad we did because we met an amazing…
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Montana Day 7: Purple Eater People
The bartender stopped in front of us. The drink he’d prepared was a creamy lavender beneath a white swirl of whipped cream. The Purple Russian, he explained, consists of huckleberry liqueur and local huckleberry whisky and vodka. Nan and I oohed and ahhed, although we weren’t tempted at that moment to order anything more than the iced teas we were consuming after our hike to Ousel Falls. We were too tired and thirsty for alcohol, no matter how pretty it was. Montana shops are full of everything huckleberry, and we’ve become fans. We’d already returned to the local grocery to buy more chocolate-covered huckleberry truffles. I purchased huckleberry-flavored lip gloss…
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Montana Day 6: More Yellowstone and We Shopped!
Today was an easy day–we drove back to West Yellowstone and wandered around the very, very tourist-centric town and shopped. We checked out several of the 7,896 souvenir and T-shirt and sweatshirt and Western wear stores (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but there were a LOT of stores!) West Yellowstone also has, interestingly, 40 restaurants in a town of only about 1,800 people. However, West Yellowstone gets at least 3, 375,000 visitors from all over the world every year, and I’m assuming they all want to eat. After all, we did. We had lunch at a fun 50s-style diner called Canyon Street Grill–black-and-white checkerboard floors, red vinyl booths, 50s decor,…
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Sunday Snippet: Day 5.5 Montana: Exploring Big Sky
Carol here, once again taking over Nan’s blog. We stayed local yesterday and started with Nan’s favorite vacation tradition–a shampoo and blow dry at the Hair Ninja. Leah was not only a terrific hair stylist (she calls herself a “hairapist”) but an excellent source of information about the area. Like many resort towns, Big Sky sees frequent turnover in local business staff and shortages in some critical fields, like medicine. The year-round population of 3000 quadruples in the winter months. However, housing prices are high, so skiers and snow boarders find it difficult to settle in the area for long. Some restaurant menus change year-to-year as chefs don’t return. There…
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Day 3.5 Montana: We Were Slugs…
Nan here. Okay, maybe not entirely sluggish, but after we wandered around Big Sky for a couple of hours and had lunch at a very nice country club with a fantastic mountain view, we decided not to try to go up to Ousel Falls right then. Our plan was to take our tired, altitude-sick butts back to the condo and rest. Then change into our jeans and hiking shoes and go up to the falls. Ummmm…not so much, cuddling up in blankets and reading and honestly, napping, it was after five when we both came back to the world. A brief discussion later and we were reminded we still have…
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Nan & Carol’s Big Adventure Montana Style
We’re here! After a combined 4 airports, we’ve arrived in Big Sky and wow! It truly is BIG here! Big mountains, big rivers, huge rocks and trees… it’s a little overwhelming but absolutely gorgeous country. I left my local airport at 8:30 a.m.; Carol left her local airport 10:15 a.m. and we met up in Denver Airport. Then we flew together to Bozeman–one of the cutest airports I’ve ever seen! There are bears and moose everywhere and some crazy huge bird hanging from the ceiling! There’s even a convenient bin to dispose of your bear spray, which made us laugh. The whole airport was mountain stone and cedar beams–really pretty…