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Sunday, April 29, 2001
Bring on the blustery spring weather! I had to sneak outside this evening before nightfall to catch a quick photo of these flowers underneath the about-to-bloom golden chain tree along the street in front of our house. Before the weather took a little break there this evening, we had winds whistling through our neck of the Puget Sound area at 38 mph. It wasn't inviting to wander down to Puget Creek. It was barely inviting to wander outside. But boy was it fun to watch the rain blowing past the front window in sheets, and the south window in our livingroom bowing with each gust. I can't get enough of the power of nature. It is energizing until it gets scary. Today was all about catching up from our drought and an entertaining windstorm...
Interesting news links for today:
Ron Judd of the Seattle Times takes a look at the newly imposed state park fees here in Washington...
An interesting story about the tunnels in the old skid road sections of Portland that may have been used to Shanghai unsuspecting laborers to sail ships to the Orient...
Saturday, April 28, 2001
Appropriately enough, on this blustery, rainy day, we found ducks hanging out in the lower pond along Puget Creek this morning after planting 40 more trees as part of the creek restoration project with the Puget Creek Restoration Society. The ducks, which can be seen in the photo above in the left side of the image, were swimming along when we wandered by the pond to see if we could spy the salmon fry that we saw dashing around near the bottom of the pond after tree planting last weekend. We couldn't see any fish this time around though. Either they are in hiding, have been eaten by birds such as these ducks, or have moved on to another part of the stream system.
One interesting thing about our tree planting today was that while we were joking around and placing the trees on the steep hillsides in an effort to stave off another mudslide like the one that swept down the side gulch a few years ago, a neighbor from up above was peering down into the gully and Natalie yelled up a hello to her. The woman then asked who we were and what we were doing. Scott Hansen, director of the restoration society, and I picked our way up the side of the gulch and spoke to the woman - ironically enough, the very resident from the top of the gulch who may have contributed to the slide that took place a few years earlier. The interesting thing in talking with this neighbor was that she is obviously interested in wildlife and the health of the park, but she spent all of her time explaning why she and her husband were justified in planting ivy to cover the hillside above the gulch, the same ivy that the restoration society is trying to eradicate slowly along with other non-native, invasive plants such as Himalayan blackberries. Here is a case where someone wants to do the right thing, but even though she realizes that planting ivy is bad for the environment and a non-native plant, she has dreamt up a drawn out line of reasoning to back up her faulty choice rather than adapting. We left her with a business card for the restoration society and invited her to come to a meeting of the group if she was interested.
Before the encounter with the neighbor, and while scaling the hillside planting trees in the gulch I found a fresh deer trail and deer scat left earlier this morning. I didn't see any other signs of wildlife though. With the trees swaying overhead and big raindrops finding their way between the leaves above down to us on the gully floor, who could blame the wildlife from staying holed up for the day.
Interesting news links for today:
Though not really a news link, I spent some interesting time going through the Home Energy Saver Web site from the U.S. Department of Energy. I found the link while trying to look up our home's historical energy use figures to give me an idea of how much we are cutting our power use in response to the 43% power surcharge we have been paying here since December. Unfortunately, the historical figures database wasn't working for me today, but running through the Home Energy Saver site and the more detailed Energy Advisor was educational and well worth checking out...
Friday, April 27, 2001
Rain made a brief appearance here again today, with just enough of the wet stuff falling to dampen the soil where I planted garden seeds earlier this week. Grand total of precipitation for the day, four one hundredths of an inch according to the reading on my Davis Weather Wizard III weather computer. But the rain provided just enough moisture to draw me back to the same lupine that I caught holding dew drops a month ago. This time there was water everywhere, and I love capturing that tension, the surface tension caused as the rain balls up and pools in the crooks and crevices of the leaves. This lupine alongside the sidewalk in front of the house is yet to bloom. I will make sure to return again once the colorful blooms emerge...
Interesting news links for today:
An old house, a new way of living - An author from the Tidepool Web site takes a look at one southwest Washington family's efforts to make the most of passive solar practices to reduce energy costs in an older home built in 1885. I want to incorporate more of these things into the older home where Natalie and I live in North Tacoma, which was built in 1928...
Solar power: Out of the shadows
And one last link to the review of a new book about the Portland area called Wild in the City that I would love to use as a guide for creating a similar book about Seattle, Tacoma, or the urban areas of Puget Sound. What better way to help people connect with nature in their own backyards, and to help them treasure what we see all around us, even in urban settings, as part of the natural world. How great would it be to help people see that they don't have to drive 50 miles to the nearest national park to experience nature!
Thursday, April 26, 2001
It seems to be bug week on The Equinox Project. My eyes and camera that have been trained on all things colorful, especially flowers, have wandered even closer to observe the just as colorful insect world. Natalie and I went for a late evening walk to take in the last few rays of sunshine before clouds are expected to move in overnight, and along the walk we wandered to the southern edge of Mason Gulch, about four blocks from our house. While sitting on a bench and looking out over the gulch, about 350 feet or so above Commencement Bay with views north to Vashon Island and Seattle in the far distance, I noticed spots of brilliant red on the grass just beyond a chain link fence. I had to hang over the edge of the fence to get the camera close enough to get the detail in the two ladybug shots I chose for today's entry, but it was worth the effort. The detail on the labybug is one thing, but I love the fine grains and detail on the blades of grass where the two colorful creatures basked in the last hour of so of sunshine.
I should probably write more, but the Spring 2001 edition of Orion magazine arrived today, and I am aching to spend some time reading the special section enclosed on one of my favorite topics with an article written by one of my favorite authors. Last fall and winter, while working on my own book about the Olympic Peninsula, I read Chasing Monarchs, an account of butterfly expert and naturalist Robert Michael Pyle's journey following the monarch butterfly migration from British Columbia down into Mexico. And this new edition of Orion has a special focus on the plight of the monarchs, including an article by Pyle.
It's time to read!
Wednesday, April 25, 2001
The photo I snapped today continues an inadvertant theme started a couple of days ago. I wandered out into the yard around 6 p.m. tonight, after spending an hour or so using an electric powered weed eater to cut down the too-tall grass in the back yard (the only mower I have is a human-powered reel mower, and it is not forgiving in tall grass), and I spied the blooming strawberry plants along the front sidewalk. I took a couple of pictures before realizing that once again, there were ants gathering pollen from the blooms. My photo from a couple of days ago was of ants gathering pollen from a salmonberry bloom down at Puget Gulch, and now I see another type of ant gathering pollen from strawberry blooms. Interesting that I never observed this behavior before now...
Tuesday, April 24, 2001
Another glorious, sunny spring day greeted those of us lucky enough to live in the Puget Sound area today. All of this sunshine is perfect for growing weeds, but by taking a closeup look at one of the most common weeds around, the dandelion, today's photo brings the intricate design of a dandelion about to release its parachute-like seeds to the breeze out for everyone to see. I am always amazed what a new perspective can offer in considering nature. Something as simple as a weed, a blemish in the landscape for all uptight gardeners and landscapers, shows its beauty when seen through the unbiased eyes of a camera.
I am glad that now, nearly a year after buying our Nikon 950 digital camera, that I can still be amazed at the pictures we can take with this little beast. Since purchasing the camera and using it to complete our soon-to-be-published book, the Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula, we have taken more than 2500 photos. Last year those photos were all work, all serving a purpose, all documenting a summer and fall in the life of the small towns on the Olympic Peninsula. Now these photos are ours, tracking the seasons, tracking life. And, thanks to things like this Weblog project, offering a glimpse inside the mind and behind the camera with a nature lover, environmentalist, budding activist, writer, computer geek, and general outdoor enthusiast...
Monday, April 23, 2001
Natalie and I returned to Puget Creek today for the first of what is sure to be many trips to the park in the coming months as Natalie starts her project to catalog the plants within the gulch. She gathered a few blooms and leaves and then we walked up the trail, cut through the brush to hang out and snap some photos at the place where the main creek emerges from under the ground in an area lined with at least two different types of clay (I grabbed a couple of small samples), and then continued further up the trail. All in all, we spent close to two hours wandering around in the gulch before settling in and simply watching a pileated woodpecker digging at a tree for bugs to eat and listening to bushtits and other birds flutter and chirp all around us.
While we were being quiet and simply listening and observing, I noticed the subject of today's photo. A group of small red ants were climbing to the very end of a salmonberry branch and collecting pollen from the bloom. The photo isn't as crisp as I would like, but you can see two of the ants hard at work in the shot. The second photo is a closeup of a salmonberry that has passed the blooming stage.
I wrapped up my time in nature this evening, with a visit to the garden as the sun started to sink behind the Olympic Mountain range to the west. Under the orange-yellow sky, I planted another batch of lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, giant chard, and collards. Then I did a little weeding to prepare a bed for planting carrots soon. The busy outdoor season is definitely here. Now if I could only find some time to mow the lawn...
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