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Week Seventeen, July 9-15
Sunday, July 15, 2001
I snapped today's photo in the failing evening sunshine of the first ripe tomatoes of the season in our garden. We only planted six tomato plants this year, and they see, to be putting on a lot of blooms. Fingers crossed that they come through...
Saturday, July 14, 2001
We ventured down to Puget Creek this morning for another of our monthly cleanup events. This time we gathered with kids from a late night YMCA group at the early hour of 8:30 a.m. to weed around the plantings we set in the ground a couple of months ago. Natalie and I also had a chance to look at the work of misguided vandals who took it upon themselves to tear the watercress from the lower part of the creek and then place concrete and rocks in the creek in some odd attempt at building a weir. Scott is investigating to figure out who did the damage, and meanwhile we await word from the biologists at the Department of Fish and Wildlife before we can undo the damage.
We worked at the creek until noon, but two of the highlights of the day actually happened before the kids arrived to do the work. We were talking with Scott when Natalie spied the downy woodpecker in a tree right next to us. I snapped the photo above that shows the woodpecker. The other creature we saw this morning was only actually seen by Natalie, likely a muskrat. She saw it briefly duck into the water in the lower pond, and by the time I looked all I could see where ripples on the pond's surface. We know that a muskrat hangs out in the ponds, because last year one burrowed into the side of the lower pond and ended up lowering the water level by at least six inches, and we fixed that damage this spring by building up the embankment near the outlet from the pond.
Friday, July 13, 2001
So much for Friday the 13th being a bad day. This was a good day, with some new work prospects working with a butterfly related Web site that I would really like to support. And, for the second evening in a row, Natalie and I went down to the waterfront. This time we took some great photos. We parked along Ruston Way and took advantage of the changing tide to walk along the water's edge almost directly down the hill from our house. And during the walk I saw a great blue heron along the same point where I have taken heron photos at least three times over the last year. At this point, I have no choice but to refer to the area as Heron Point.
I just love the photo from today though. The evening sunlight on Mt. Rainier was great, but capturing a heron in the foreground is a real bonus!
Thursday, July 12, 2001
We took part in what is becoming a tradition after each of our monthly meetings of the Puget Creek Restoration Society board by stopping along Ruston Way to wander the waterfront and snap a few photos tonight. There was another bright and colorful sunset, but rather than offering that kind of photo, this time I turned the camera on two reserve military ships that are docked in an off limits area just north of the Old Town part of Tacoma. The setting sun's glare and the reflection off the water caught my eye...
Wednesday, July 11, 2001
Natalie and I took an early evening walk over to the top of Mason Gulch. We lingered for a while in the hot sun, trying to see what birds were active at that time of the night. And once again, we wished we had thought ahead enough to bring along binoculars. We could hear a young hawk or eagle crying out on the opposite side of the gulch, somewhere below the house at the crest of the gulch in the photo above, but it never took to the air to give us a chance to guess at what it was. Here one of these evenings soon we need to go over with the spotting scope and see if we can find out what it is.
Meanwhile, this was yet another warm, dry day. I don't think we have had any rain in a couple of weeks, and as a result everything that isn't being watered by artificial means is getting pretty dry. On the eastern side of the state, forest fire season has started and last night four firefighters died when the fire they were fighting essentially exploded in their faces. The fire swept over fire crew members, and only one who made a last-second decision to run back to the truck rather than riding out the blowover under his fire shelter, which saved his life. I hate to say it, but it looks like a horrible fire season ahead...
Tuesday, July 10, 2001
A friend's birthday party and work kept me from spending too much time outside with the camera today, but I did wander out just before the star of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game (yes, I do indulge in watching baseball, especially in this year when the local Mariners are off to one of the best starts in the history of the game) to capture today's photo of a small wasp wandering around the bloom of a fennel plant.
Monday, July 9, 2001
Another nice day made for some great late evening light to snap the photo above of a yellow climbing rose in the back yard. I liked the clarity of the stamens in the evening light...
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