THE MUSE WENT ON VACATION

04 Saturday Oct 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in At the beach, Camping, Clouds, Ephemera, Flowers, Fun in the Garden, Growing, Photography, Vegetable garden

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blues festival, Garden seating, hiking, Ice Caves, Musings, vegetables, wildfires

A late summer afternoon walk on the beach.

IT HAS BEEN A GOOD LONG WHILE SINCE MY LAST POST. At some point I felt like I had run out of topics to write about. The muse went on vacation. How many times can I write about the same plants in the same place in my garden with continued enthusiasm? If it is tiresome for me what about you, the reader? Best to take some time off and gather some new experiences, tackle some small projects, do some canning (a bumper crop of snap beans and apples), do a little local traveling and connect with the people and things I love. So here, is a short review in words and pictures.

Big Four Mountain; waterfalls, and snowfield

In July I had a birthday and it was my wish to do the short hike to the Ice Caves at Big Four, about 90 minutes northeast of Seattle, with our grandchildren. The snow slides off of the shear, vertical face of Big Four mountain and piles up at the base over the winter. As summer comes along, the snow at the top of the mountain melts, water cascades down the faces creating numerous waterfalls that undermine the piles of snow. The snow mounds melt from the inside-out creating caves. They are cool to stand in front of on a hot summer day, but notoriously unstable and known to collapse, so going into them is a bad idea.

One of many Winthrop area fires seen from the fesival grounds.

A week later we were off to the Winthrop Blues Festival where we heard great muscic (Charlie Musslewhite; Shemekia Copeland, Homemade Jamz, Too Slim & the Taildraggers) and watched fires burning in the Methow Valley; that part was strange. For a couple of days the only route to and from the area was Hwy 20 through the North Cascades. Scores of people lost their homes and the fire burned up 300,000+ acres.

Fire and smoke influenced the sunsets.

A member of Homemade Jamz playing his Muffler Guitar! (They were great.)

BACK ON THE HOME FRONT…

A quiet spot in the garden to sit and reflect

Back in April I shared a post about the redwood tree rounds that were saved from the cutting of our neighbor’s 60 year old redwood. In August I made a visit to my sister (RedClothespin) in Long Beach, WA and she sewed up the covers for the seat top cushions; she is a whiz with a sewing machine.

Weather resistant Sunbrella fabric. Only one drawback–they are under the canopy of a large pine and susceptible to pitch drips.

The view into the vegetable garden from the redwood seating.

I finished the second of the Steelcase chairs. I haven’t quite decided where in the garden they will take up residence. For now they are mobile.

Steelcase chair #2

Hibiscus hybrid “Cranberry Crush”

Two years ago I purchased a new perennial, this Hibiscus/Rose Mallow. It bloomed in August for the first time. It was spectacular. I was SO excited, I ran into the house to get the groundskeeper!

Too bad the flower lasts only one day. However, there were a total of five blooms. I am hoping for more next year. The plant should reach 3-4 feet in height at maturity; currently is it at about 24 inches.

The fall planting of snow and snap peas.

A late blooming poppy.

Lady’s Eardrops, hardy fucshia.

Dahlia “Awe Shucks”

Akane apples.

The muse is slowly returning. More later.

WHAT HAPPENED TO APRIL & MAY?

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Birding, Camping, Nature, Spring, Wildflowers

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basalt, central Washington, Crab Creek, Goose Lake, Potholes, Sandhill Cranes, wildflowers

APRIL ARRIVED AND THEN IT DEPARTED. AND THEN MAY CAME ALONG. And now it’s June! We managed to get to central Washington and the Potholes/Columbia NWR/Seep Lakes area the first part of April to see the last of the Sandhill Cranes before they flew to parts north. And boy did we see them!

Sandhills on a dike at the edge of Crab Creek

I don’ have a telephoto lens that is large enough to get in really close, but you can see the numbers. Just multiply by ten and you get the idea. They were spread out over a very large area. We figured there were 2,000-3,000 birds.

300 maybe? Multiply by 10.

The central part of Washington is so different from the west side of the Cascade mountains. It is considered Shrub Steppe. Towering basalt cliffs and potholes scoured out by the Great Missoula flood of the last ice age.It is an arid, desert like environment with cactus and cattails alike.

Crab Creek basalt cliffs

There is a lot of agriculture in this area too; a benefit of the federal government’s reclamation project in the wake of building the Grand Coulee Dam. There are acres upon acres of potatoes, wheat, corn, alfalfa, apples, cherries and vineyards for winemaking. All of this intermingled with bird habitat. It is a real jewel.

Lower Goose Lake

This is a great migratory stopover for the Sandhill Cranes as well as many varieties of waterfowl and songbirds.

Wildflowers like this Fritallaria pudica ,were just beginning to bloom

Beaver lodge at Lower Crab Creek

It is a great area to hike, camp and watch wildlife. And this trip was a nice four day break from a renovation project that began last month.

Zigadenus; also known as Death Camas. It’s quite .lovely

SEVEN WEEKS – 5 DAYS – 9,720 MILES

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Camping, Summer!, Travel

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Acadia National Park, Badlands National Park, black hills south dakota, camping, lobsters, Mt Rushmore, Niagra Falls, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, vacation

Quoddy Point, Maine–the first place in the U.S. to see the sun rise

WE DID IT. WE LEFT SEATTLE ON JUNE 1st BOUND FOR MAINE. We finished our trip in Winthrop, Washington at the 25th Annual Winthrop Blues Festival and returned home on July 23rd. We traveled east through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and into Maine. On the return trip we tracked south through Maine to Massachusetts, turning back west into New York and along the southern shores of Lakes Erie and Huron then into Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. We camped along four of the five Great Lakes; two National Parks, one National Lakeshore, state parks, and National Forests. We saw well known attractions and some not so well known–at least not to us! We hiked in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Adirondacks (and kayaked), and the White Mountains of New Hampshire; we biked some carriage roads in Acadia National Park and kayaked on Lake Superior. An amazing, great trip.

A few highlights below. (photos for first leg of the trip at Flickr. I’ll update in a few days with more photos.)

Zoomed in on the Bear’s Tooth, seen from 10,000 ft along the Beartooth Highway, Wyoming

Mt. Rushomore National Monument, Black Hills, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Niagra Falls, New York

A swallowtail at Seventh Lake in the Adirondak Mtns. in New York

I tried out my new Sony A57 with my old Minolta lenses and caught this butterfly. I shot over 1200 photos with the new Sony, a Nikon Coolpix S9100 point and shoot and an iPhone – I’m a shooting fool! I’ve whittled that number down to less than half. It was fun to shoot with the phone camera and share in real time with family and friends.

A quirky roadside invitation to dine

The church where the signal was given for ‘One if by land, two if by sea’ in Boston. We followed the history of the American Revolution along the freedom trail through Boston, beginning at Boston Common.

Foggy morning on Cobscook Sound, Downeast Maine

Dinner on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Now that’s some kind of great camping! We bought fresh lobsters direct from the fisherman on two occasions. Turns out lobsters are in plentiful supply this year.

A small segment of the 48 miles of carriage roads built by John Rockefeller, Jr. on Mount Desert Island, Maine, now part of Acadia NP.

Two residents of the park

Grand Marais dune, Lake Superior, Michigan

We paddled through this arch on Lake Superior, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan. The water is crystal clear and surprisingly warm.

The supposed geographic center of North America (not really).

The spectacular raging water of the Kootenai River at Kootenai Falls, east of Libby, Montana. Awesome!

Big thunderstorm about to move through on the first day of the Winthrop Blues Festival. Weather cleared before the first act went on that evening. But tents and awnings were flying! Home three days later. Then back to the business of canning and gardening. (More on that in a few days.)