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Week Eleven, May 28-June 3
Sunday, June 3, 2001
Final efforts to finish the Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula have consumed the last week, and it hit a head today, but not before Natalie and I went back out to the Peninsula for a visit to Elandan Gardens, where I took the lilypad photo above. We went out to the bonsai gardens with Natalie's parents. And the shot below is of a killdeer that has made a nest in the gravel off to one side of the parking lot at Elandan Gardens...
Saturday, June 2, 2001
Thunderstorms may not have made it this far south this evening, but I spent some time watching the dark clouds roll over the north end of Vashon Island nonetheless. I noticed the clouds gathering as I biked back from making a quick run to the grocery store, and although they didn't look horribly threatening, I figured I would rush home, grab the camera, and head back to my viewpoint at the top of Mason Gulch to watch the clouds and see what I could see. By the time I walked the four blocks from our house to the head of the gulch, the scene had changed considerably. What had been a mostly clear sky marked by a few large, ominous clouds was now a mostly cloudy sky with tiny patches of blue here and there. So, the sky was not nearly so impressive. I snapped a picture anyway, showing the view from the top of the gulch over Commencement Bay to Northeast Tacoma and points north toward Seattle...
I did get a treat for spending 20 minutes or so along the edge of the gulch. I could hear the distinct buzz in the air from a hummingbird, so I tried to locate it and sure enough saw a male rufous hummingbird sitting in the top of a bush just 20 feet away. That was cool, but what happened next was more interesting. A swallow started to fly into the same bush below the hummingbird, and immediately the hummingbird went on the chase - flashing its bright red throat and buzzing the swallow out of the bush and for another 20 or 30 yards before the hummingbird went straight up into the air and then made one last dive at the swallow. From its behavior, I wonder if there is a nest in the bush where the hummingbird was sitting? I searched carefully as best I could with my naked eye, but I couldn't see a tiny hummingbird nest.
I walked off to another vantage point and watched the clouds some more, but on my way back home I stopped at the same place to see if the hummingbird was around, and once again it was sitting in the top of the bush, standing guard. My Nikon Coolpix 950 isn't the best in the world for shooting such a small subject, but I snapped the photo below anyway...
Friday, June 1, 2001
This was a June 1st fit for lettuce. After yesterday's warmth, we had a cool and breezy Friday with a few sprinkles. So, I snuck outside during one of the breaks in the weather to snap a photo of our about-to-be-eaten leaf lettuce.
Thursday, May 31, 2001
With clouds rolling in overhead adding a backdrop to a pleasant summer evening, Natalie and I took a short walk down along the Tacoma waterfront tonight. I thought that a walk along the water would be a good idea, especially since when I think back over the last three months that I have been doing this Weblog project I realized that we have only walked the waterfront once in all that time. I think I have taken just two photos for my nature journal along the waterfront that is less than a half a mile as the bird flies from our home, although a good 300 to 400 feet below our home in elevation.
I snapped tonight's photo along the Old Town fishing pier. A child walks the pier in the foreground while the tiny specks in the background are the Washington State Ferry making its run from the south end of Vashon Island back to the landing at Point Defiance and a couple of pleasure boats. Boats were everywhere in Commencement Bay tonight, likely because everyone was trying to cool down after a day when temperatures rose into the 80s and because the weather is supposed to get cloudy, wet and breezy over the next five days or so. The boats and their owners shared the scenery with terns, gulls and crows. And once we got accustomed to what we were looking at, Natalie and I were able to spot fish swimming in small schools under the pier. The tide was pretty low, so it allowed us to walk some of the sandy beach to the east of the pier, where Natalie picked up bits of broken glass that have been etched by the saltwater and by rubbing against the rocks and sands of Puget Sound.
It is hard to believe it is nearly June...and the summer solstice is just around the corner...
Wednesday, May 30, 2001
We returned to Puget Gulch to gather plant clippings and walk the trail this evening. It was nice to spend some time down there after a long while without a visit. The sun was shining, but the canopy of leaves on the trees has made everything so shaded that it is hard to take closeup photos without the subjects either washing out from the flash or being blurry without the flash because of low light conditions. So, I had to give up on my customary close glimpses of nature today.
We walked about three quarters of the way up the trail before lingering a bit, hearing an owl somewhere on one of the hillsides above us. At one point a hummingbird flew up to us on the trail, took a look, then flew off into the thick undergrowth. No food there. We also spent some time checking out berries that are ripening on the vines. Some are clearly salmonberries, but others, with similar leaves to the salmonberries, have bright red berries like the one I snapped a photo of last week. These berries are scattered along the trail in quite a few places...maybe some kind of wild raspberry. It's time to consult the plant books...
Tuesday, May 29, 2001
I returned to shooting photos of recently opened flowers in our yard today. I spent some time outside cutting back tall grass along the south side of our yard, and while cleaning up this small area that has been allowed to grow wild for at least three years, I noticed the flower above, a small tea rose growing in the upper terrace area along the sidewalk in front of the house.
I was a bit torn about cleaning up this wild portion of our yard, but it needed done. The main reason - a neighbor cat has been using the area as a staging ground for plucking unsuspecting birds from our bird bath and feeders. The pure white cat would sit in the tall grass and hold still for minutes on end, waiting for its chance to snag a snack. Now it won't have the grass to hide in, so either it will give up or change hunting tactics.
While looking at the tea rose in front of the house, I also noticed the carnation that I snapped a photo of below...
Monday, May 28, 2001
Nearly a quarter of an inch of rain fell today, and the torrential downpours of the morning combined with the damp winds whipping up this afternoon kept me from spending much time outside at all on this Memorial Day holiday here in the U.S. Instead, I spent time editing the final page proofs for Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula and hanging out indoors. I did spend a lot of time watching the winds whisk the clouds past our front window. Across the street is a mangled Douglas fir tree, mangled a few years ago when, in preparation for a windstorm, the homeowner that belongs to the tree scaled the side of it and started randomly lopping off branches. Now, every time the wind kicks up and I see its remaining six main branches waving in the wind, I am reminded of that storm and watching as he held on for dear life in the precursor breeze, cutting off branches so that they wouldn't fall on the solarium below.
Today's photo was actually taken from inside the house, in between a rain squall, when the sun highlighted the neighbor's flag in his front yard. It seemed like an appropriate image for the holiday...
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