Meadowlarks singing is a sign of Spring. Today Meadowlarks filled the air with song.

Karen, who is rapidly recovering from flu, and I hiked 4.5 miles to ridges and hillsides in Sage Hill Trails, Wenatchee, WA. Cascade Mountains' foothills on the east, sunny side.

I love it when the hills turn green in the Spring! It looks like Switzerland. The barn was built in the 1930s on the original 160-acre homestead.

This morning driving up steep Horse Lake Road, green hills were covered with bright yellow Balsamroot flowers. Breathtaking! I stopped the car to get the first photo, knowing I'd be shooting directly into the sun if I waited until afternoon.

Trippy brown Fernleaf Biscuitroot flowers looked like spaceships had landed on one hillside.

"This hill is where pink Shooting Stars bloom each Spring for a week or two," Karen said, stopping. Her memory and sense of direction delight me. Karen always gets us back to the car.

After four miles, the bicycle trail we were following dropped down into a deep gully, then wound back up.

"I don't want to go all the way down in that gully, do you?" I asked. "Bonnie is hot," Karen replied. I gave Karen's dog Bonnie some of my water. She gratefully lapped it up.

Then Karen led us across ridges on an old, grassy road, following an ancient fence line. We came out at the cars. Well done, Karen!

Western Meadowlark birds singing:

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