rmcnair-huff@qwest.net
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Week Twenty-Five, September 3-9
Sunday, September 9, 2001
Natalie and I returned to our tourism in the natural world today, venturing south to the McLane Creek Nature Trail near the Capitol Forest and Olympia. I have been wanting to visit this place of my childhood years ever since I read Wintergreen by Robert Michael Pyle earlier this summer. He wrote about a visit he made to the nature trail and watching wildlife in the marsh there in the 1980s, and it struck me that even though one summer I worked cleaning up the bathrooms and picnic areas at McClane Creek, until today I had never actually walked the 1.1-mile trail around the wetlands and through the large, second-growth forest. It is a pretty cool site, and one that Natalie and I definitely need to include if we end up writing a book about places to go bird watching in Washington.
Saturday, September 8, 2001
We did another work party at Puget Creek this morning, with a small group of folks including M and her family helping us pull morning glory while the misty, dew filled early hours gave way to a sunny late summer afternoon. I snapped my photo today of the tiny dew droplets on a leaf near the creek...
Friday, September 7, 2001
The pumpkins and squash in the front garden plot alongside the street are in full bloom. I have my doubts that we will actually end up with any pumpkins...I think that the bees are not plentiful enough here in the heart of the town to work over the blooms and lead to a winning pumpkin. But the blooms are a sight to see, mingled in with the stickery green folliage. We do have a couple of small acorn squash on the vine nearby, and those are likely to be edible before too long!
Thursday, September 6, 2001
Just like yesterday, my photo today was taken while on the trip downtown to pick up Natalie from work. As we drove back toward home we saw a rowing scull at the mouth of the Thea Foss Waterway, so I pulled off the road near the railroad tracks and the grainery and snapped shots of the rowers as they trained. This must be a Puyallup Indian Tribe crew, because they were rowing to the beat of a drum at the head of the boat, with the industrial buildings of the Tacoma Tideflats in the background.
Wednesday, September 5, 2001
I took a short walk at Puget Gulch today while on my way to pick up Natalie from her temp work downtown, and along the way spied the apple in today's photo nestled in the leaves of a tree in the lower part of the park. There were no butterflies or other subjects to snap today, so I took this shot and then wandered over near the lower pond to eat a handful of blueberries from the bushes along the creek before departing to pick up Natalie.
Tuesday, September 4, 2001
I took a morning walk in Tacoma's newest park, Dickman Mill Park along Ruston Way, on the way home from taking Natalie to her work in downtown Tacoma today. And I was able to get fairly close to a great blue heron as it perched on a piling above the remains of the old mill, as seen in the photo above. This new park is pretty impressive. I want to visit when we have a really high tide, when the water will rise in the lagoon and alongside the native plants placed along the edges of the park. It should be interesting to see how this park fairs over time...
Monday, September 3, 2001
After a weekend of running all around the southwestern portions of Washington, we settled down at home today and just played home bodies. I did some gardening, taming the tam juniper that has been encroaching on our property from the neighbor's place along the front sidewalk, but otherwise I didn't spend much time outside exploring nature today. This was a chance to take a deep breath, to soak up the early fall and recharge.
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