Leo is growing fast

Leo's mom took this on Sunday

It's quite amazing to me that Leo is growing up so fast. I took this picture exactly a year ago, and it looks to me like Leo has grown several inches. His two front teeth are also completely grown in. It's hard for me to believe that I've known him since he was six months old and not yet walking, but now he's outgrown his playtime with me. He's always got his nose buried in a book, or he's drawing something.

Surrounded by lots of green goodies

Leo is not the only thing growing around here right now: here I am in my garden, surrounded by lots of tasty treats. We harvested that kale in the foreground and it's now steamed and in the fridge. Next to me is my incredible sugar snap peas that have grown past the top of the barrier! And behind me on the right are heavily laden raspberry bushes. In my lap is one of the last two starts of the scarlet runner beans I got from John, who grew them in his garden last year. You can also see them over my right shoulder, ready to climb the fence.

Yes, June is busting out all over, isn't she? Sorry, I couldn't resist. Hope you're having a good day, staying cool if appropriate, since I see there's a heat wave happening in the southwest, while we will be lucky to reach 70°F today. I'll take it, even if I have to deal with a little liquid sunshine (read: rain).
:-)

A wonderful day

Whatcom creek this morning

What a beautiful day! I woke in the best mood and here it is, noon, and I'm still feeling great. We ladies met for a nice walk in Whatcom Falls park this morning, with filtered sunlight and cool temperatures. Just perfect, if you ask me. I also noticed on my blog that I have reached 200 followers on the sidebar app. First time! You may not see it because it does vary, but it's never before had that magic number on it.

Young buck

On the walk through the park, this young fellow joined us for a short time. He displayed no fear of us, since so many people walk through the park I guess he knew we were harmless. If you look closely you can see his fuzzy antlers, which is why I figured it must be a buck.

Raven Breads

Then Lily and I headed over to the Farmers' Market and I bought some of Sophie's wonderful bread. That's her leaning behind, setting up for the day. She hauls all that stuff to the market on her bike with her cargo trailer. She is an amazingly accomplished person, and I love her Volkornbrot (I call it my Vulcan bread) which is made with only rye flower, sunflower seeds, and salt. Yum!
:-)

First wilderness hike of the year

Heading up to the Church Mountain meadows

Only eight Senior Trailblazers gathered today to head up for our first hike into the High Country, up the Mt. Baker Highway to the Church Mountain trailhead. It's a long drive, and we figured the entire time outside would be spent in our rain gear, since the projection was, once again, for heavy rain for the entire day. It had been so long since we'd visited some of our favorite hikes that we went anyway. We first did this hike last year in mid-May, and there was much less snow than what we encountered today. It varies from year to year. We went last year a second time in early June, and it was more like today, but the weather was better. Check out last year's hike to see what I mean.

We hiked for most of the early part of the day, before we reached the meadows, in either no rain or light mist. Nobody, you might notice in that picture, was wearing rain gear. Yet. That would change, but we sure felt blessed by the lack of it to start.

We met our first snow not far from the meadows

It was still not raining, and we had hiked up most of the switchbacks that lead us to the meadows, and only a very light sprinkle caused most of us to keep going upward without rain gear. As soon as we came out into the meadows, however, the light rain began to pick up and we got ready for the snow and rain.

Reaching the meadows

Rich's cool umbrella setup has been modified again, based on last week's test case, and it seemed to work really well. He didn't have to put on any more rain gear (except a pack cover) until we ventured out into the snow. Several people put on their "spikes" or traction gear on their boots, but unfortunately mine was left behind; I just forgot.

Church Mountain Meadow today

By the time we got to this spot, it was raining and blowing quite hard, with nobody really wanting to go much farther. We weren't going to have a chance to do anything but trudge upward and go nowhere. So we stopped for lunch, since it was already noon anyway.

Today's lunch spot

We found a place mostly out of the wind in the trees and settled down for a quick lunch. I found that my poncho was much warmer in the wind than my rain jacket, and as I hunkered down in the trees, I was able to capture this shot that shows our attempt at staying warm while we replenished ourselves with a little food.

Mountain Man Jim

Before we left, I got this picture of Jim, looking happy and content in somewhat difficult circumstances. Although Jim hasn't been with us long, he's made himself someone I look forward to seeing every week. Plus he was my helper today, holding my gear while I rearranged things accordingly.

Thanks to Jim for the picture

His picture turned out so well I asked him to take one of me, in my red poncho and rain hat. If you can believe it, I was warm and toasty when he took it, but just a bit anxious to get going before anything changed. Standing around was not a good idea, since it was anything but warm.

Returning to the trailhead

We hustled pretty quickly down through the snow and onto the safe and secure path to return to our cars. It was raining a little harder by this time, but we were on our way back to the cars. We knew that all eight of us had managed to deal with the challenging conditions, and nobody was hurt or hypothermic. Yes, a good day. We covered just over six miles of distance, but elevation gain and loss of 2,700 feet (823 m). Not shabby at all. A good hike with great company, and I'm excited about more visits to the High Country in the coming weeks!
:-)

Gardening news

My scarlet runner beans 

A couple of weeks ago I planted two of John's scarlet runner beans in each of 12 squares in one of those things you use to start plants. Usually I get mine already started from a local garden store, but these beans from John required me to do it myself. I've never done it before, and once I got them all planted and covered, I was impatient to see if the magic would work for me. (You can check out the early garden pictures here, from May 23.) One of the great things about blogging is I can go back and find out the exact date I did something, and these were planted three weeks ago. You know what they say about a watched pot never boiling? Well, I became convinced they were never going to sprout. How wrong I was!

My sugar snap peas in full bloom

Also on that same post, you can see how much these peas have grown in three weeks. These are undoubtedly the sweetest sugar snap peas I've ever enjoyed, and it won't be long now before we're harvesting them. In June!

Soon they will be zucchinis

See those two pretty buds in this picture of the zucchini plants? In a short while they will also be harvested as springtime treats. I am so looking forward to showing you a picture of the garden once I've got the scarlet runner beans planted. I understand they grow up to ten feet tall, so I've got to get some sort of trellis for them. Everyone tells me that the hummingbirds love them, too. If anybody has ideas about how best to plant them, I'm all ears!

:-)

Clouds cleared and it turned gorgeous

From our beautiful green walk this morning

It was on the chilly side with a chance of rain when Lily and I set out for our walk with the ladies today. Since it was the grueling walk up Taylor Street and down the 104 stairs, we didn't have much of a turnout, just ten of us. I was glad it was cool and overcast while toiling up that street. Then down the stairs and a quick walk over to the Interurban trail, somewhere around 4-ish miles.

A private garden

I was so delighted to see this wonderful front-yard garden on the way back, showing that (dare I say it) June is busting out all over, everything in full bloom, including that pretty ground cover on the left, little star-shaped lavender flowers.

First strawberries from my garden

Once I got home, I went out to check the condition of my own garden, and figured I'd better pick the ripe strawberries before they catch the eye of our local slug population. Sweet and bite free, they were a wonderful treat before I headed to the movie theater to see Wonder Woman with my friend Judy. It has gotten great reviews, and it takes a lot to get me to see a superhero movie, but I was curious about this one. I enjoyed it very much, although it was a tad long and, as one of the reviewers from the Atlantic said, (Christopher Orr),

The final big action sequence, as now seems always to be the case, is a messy and overwrought CGI extravaganza. But at least the movie that precedes it involves actual characters—likeable ones, even!—exhibiting recognizable human emotions.

And I have to say that it deserves its 93% freshness rating from Rotten Tomatoes (the link above). It made me feel very good when I walked out of the theater to have seen a good strong woman kicking some serious butt!
:-)

Back to the Chuckanuts

Our choices from the North Chuckanut trailhead

Ten Senior Trailblazers met at the Senior Center to discuss whether or not to head into the High Country today as scheduled, when nothing was expected for the entire day but rain, and lots of it. Reluctantly, we decided to stay close to home and do the Madrone Crest trail in he Chuckanuts. It was already raining when I left home, and although it was quite warm, I figured I'd better take all my rain gear, just in case.

Frank and Rich, a study in contrasts

We had a new hiker join us today, Frank. He is dressed completely in cotton, with no rain protection. We talked about what we expected to happen today, and he was comfortable without wearing anything more. On the other hand, Richard took the opportunity to try something different to stay dry: a clear umbrella hooked to his left shoulder with a long stick, so his hands would be free to hold his trekking poles. Along with his rain skirt, I think he might have been one of the drier hikers today.

Jim, Peggy, Melanie, Rich, Chris, Carol, Jay, Frank, Al (and me)

Although the rain was light, it mostly continued steadily during our hike, but the warm temperatures kept any of us from being too uncomfortable, even though I did get pretty damp under my raincoat. Whether it was from sweat or rain, it made little difference.

Can you see Al?

As we made our way to our destination, I thought this natural arch would make a good picture, but when I looked at it later, Al is almost not even visible in his rain poncho of the same color as his surroundings. Can you see him? Someone suggested the title of "Where's Waldo?"

Misty forest

The rain also gave me another chance for a magical forest shot. I love the way the mist softens the edges of the world. It's almost better than when I take off my glasses, since being nearsighted the world gets much less defined when I do that.

Madrone Crest trail

By the time we had reached our destination, the "viewpoint" at Madrone Crest (obviously the view was lacking today), we decided not to sit down and have lunch but start back, going by way of Huckleberry Point and maybe have a quick snack there. That's just what we did, because other than maybe an hour when the rain lessened, we enjoyed rain the entire time.

We covered somewhere around eight miles and 1,700 feet up and down. Not bad for a rainy day in the Chuckanuts. Maybe next week we'll be able to get into the mountains. I'm more than ready, but today wasn't the right time. We had a really good day in spite of the weather, and nobody melted.
:-)

First goodies from the garden

Just one so far

The strawberries and raspberries will be abundant this year. I'll be fighting the slugs for the strawberries, although not so much with the raspberries, since they are on bushes above the ground. The fine weather we've been having has helped quite a bit.

Sugar snap peas are beginning to flower

Look how much my sugar snap peas have grown. They will be forming the first peas for me to snack on in in a week or two, and I harvested my first Russian kale (in the foreground) yesterday. My most excellent cook steamed them up and they are incredibly tasty. It will only get better from here. How did I ever get along without gardening? I love it.

Unfortunately for me, the fine weather will deteriorate on (you guessed it) Thursday, just in time for our hike. The temperature is forecast to reach 80°F today, and only 62 on Thursday, with a half inch of rain. Good thing I will be able to imagine how happy it will make my garden while I trudge along in my rain gear.
:-)