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Week Twenty-Nine, October 1-7
Sunday, October 7, 2001
Natalie and I spent this day away from home. We headed to north Seattle to visit my parents, and ended up making a side trip to the Ballard Locks to watch the boats go through the locks and to view salmon making their way from Puget Sound up into Lake Washington and further to their spawning grounds.
Watching some of these huge fish make their way through the fish ladders, it is hard to imagine that we may soon have salmon returning to Puget Creek as well. I look forward to it!
Saturday, October 6, 2001
I woke to another Northwest weather bonus day today. The morning started cloudy, but in typical Puget Sound area fashion, no sooner had I dressed for a cloudy day then the sun emerged and sent me scurrying back inside to change into cooler clothes.I wasn't up to anything Earth shattering today. Just finishing an update to the Tacoma Weekly Web site that I update weekly and doing odd jobs in the yard and around the house. And, in all of my rushing around doing projects, I neglected to take a photo for today. Natalie and I did immerse ourselves in the world of books for a while this afternoon when we ventured down to the main downtown branch of the Tacoma Public Library. We walked out of there with a huge pile of books, CDs and videos after spending a couple of hours hanging out and grabbing research for various projects. I also lingered in the magazine section, reading some of the titles that we don't receive at home.
Tonight I looked around on the Net at various book sites to see if they are updated to show that Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula is in stock, and sure enough it is! So, if you want to get a copy from your local independent book seller in the Seattle area, check out Elliott Bay Books. Their Web site shows it in stock and it can be ordered for delivery to ship within 24-48 hours.
Friday, October 5, 2001
Boy...this has been a week filled with walks. Marie and I ventured down to Titlow Beach and wandered the trails in the park and along the shore late this morning. This is the first time I have really explored around Titlow Beach. Years ago, I biked down there a couple of times while doing a mountain bike ride with Jason where we hopped onto a trail along the railroad tracks and rode underneath the Narrows Bridge to the tunnel that goes under the north end of Tacoma. There are some great waterfront views of the Tacoma Narrows and the Narrows Bridge from Titlow Beach. And the pilings in along the shore were dotted with cormorants in the morning sunshine.
Natalie and I need to add this park to the list of those we visit to observe the passing seasons. It seems like a pretty good place to do bird watching, with the saltwater habitat on one side of the railroad tracks, and fresh water ponds on the other side of the tracks. Those ponds were full of ducks, wood ducks and scoters on this day.
Thursday, October 4, 2001
Natalie and I took an evening walk at Puget Creek just before nightfall, and then rather than turning around and coming right back up the hill to home, we drove along Ruston Way to take a look at Commencement Bay. I'm glad we did. With a moderate north breeze blowing, the bay between our shore and Vashon Island was riddled with white caps. These can be seen in the photo above of two sail boats working the wind in front of the entrance to Quartermaster Harbor on Vashon Island.
It was interesting to be down along the shoreline with the waves crashing against the rocks, and especially interesting to watch Natalie's joy at the waves. She hasn't been down on this shore when the north breeze pushes the water into the rocks. I have seen some pretty impressive waves crashing against the rocks along Ruston Way, mostly in the cold winter months when snow and ice storms blow down from Canada and the sea spray can wash up over the sidewalk. This evening's waves, one of which can be seen in the photo below, were not that dramatic, but they were a good preview of what can be seen in real stormy weather. Boy, do I look forward to the stormy weather!
An exciting development this afternoon before our walk was the arrival of 20 copies of our book, Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula. Finally! The final product looks great. The publisher didn't end up using one of our photos for the main cover photo, which is a disappointment because we took some great shots specifically for the cover, but it looks like most of the last-minute editing errors were taken care of and now we can move into a new mode of promoting the book. I guess it is time to get busy with the last part of being an author - helping push book sales. And now I really can feel like more of an author. Yes, I already have my name on another book that came out earlier this year, when Mountain Bike America: Washington came out. But my name isn't on the cover of that book. I added 10 chapters to it and served as the revision editor, but if you search my name on book buying sites on the Net, you won't find me listed at all for my work on that mountain biking book. But you will find my name there as co-author of Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula.
Wednesday, October 3, 2001
During an early morning walk at Puget Creek I snapped today's photo of dew drops on the fine silk web of a spider. This was the first day that I walked the creek checking for any signs of early returning salmon. Nothing yet, but from what I have been told, it is still two or three weeks early.
Tonight I took a walk around my normal route that I walk Rhia on, this time without Rhia but to talk with K. It was a cold and clear night and great for watching the stars. I haven't done enough star watching lately...
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
I went for a walk this morning with M down at Dickman Mill Park, and this time the resident belted kingfisher flew in pretty close to us as we sat on a bench and watched the bird life along the edge of Commencement Bay. I am still not sure if there is just one or if there are two kingfishers living along this section of the bay. I am pretty sure that this is the same kingfisher that I heard and watched fly over the top of Natalie last weekend when we were down at the mouth of Puget Creek to do beach monitoring, and on that day it flew up into Puget Gulch. There is a chance that the kingfisher along with the occasional great blue heron that wanders up into Puget Park are one reason that the small salmon we have seen in the large pond in the park have been so scarce throughout the summer.
Monday, October 1, 2001
The sun is out and shining, and temperatures are high enough today that it feels more like summer than the beginning of October. It is normal that we have a prolonged spell of nice weather in September and even into October, but this fall has been unusually warm. And at least so far, other than the morning fog, the moisture that normally marks this time of the year has been largely absent. Of course, some of the lingering plants in our garden are benefiting from the extra sunshine, like the small pumpkin growing in the bed along the street in front of our house.
Tonight Natalie and I attended the monthly meeting for the North End Neighborhood Council, and this time it felt like we accomplished something. We found out last week that the city proposes to cut all the trees from the upper 100 feet of Mason Gulch, and Natalie and I both are making comments against this to the city engineer and the city arborist, but we wanted to bring this up with the neighborhood council to see if they want to support our approach as well. As it turned out, the council was behind us, and in addition they are taking action against the developer of a new housing community being placed precariously on the hillside above Puget Creek. I am not sure that our letters will be enough to stop the cutting or make the development halt until the project can be brought back into compliance with its contract, but it felt good to have some small impact and to hear the members of this council support our stance on the two projects.
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