Drizzly Thursday

One big pumpkin

I went back and forth trying to decide whether or not to join the Senior Trailblazers today, since they decided at the last minute to head back into the High Country and try to wrest one more trip before staying down at sea level for the duration. It was when I realized that the weather had deteriorated and that it would be rainy, or at least not wonderful up there, and with a car shuttle in the plans, I decided to stay home. On the way into the Food Coop this morning for a breakfast sandwich, I saw this huge pumpkin (they do this almost every year) and are offering a gift certificate to whomever gets closest to guessing its actual weight. (I'm thinking maybe 650 pounds? Or more. Or less.)

Instead of joining my friends on the hike, I went over to the Senior Center to attend the Zumba Gold class. As usual, I could only make the first forty minutes of the hour-long class before I left, out of breath and tired. Then I walked home the long way, giving myself all the steps needed to close my fitness rings. The day was living up to the forecast, with a light drizzle accompanying me all morning. I had neglected to wear a raincoat, because I was hoping that the light rain would finally relent. Nope.

Gold and rainbows

We have recently had the kind of weather that causes such gorgeous scenes as this one, which was captured by one of my favorite artists. She posts frequently in the Seeing Bellingham Facebook group, Emily Polis Gibson. She also has a website, linked here, with wonderful scenes and stories that she shares. I wanted to find something that shows the incredible beauty of our region, and this picture did just that. Yesterday between rain showers, I saw a scene similar to this one, but before I could capture it, the light had changed and it was gone. So, thank you Emily, for this golden gem.

I also had a wonderful acupuncture treatment yesterday, which always helps to bring me back into a place of equanimity. That, and limiting the amount of news I allow into my day, has helped me cope with the awfulness going on in the Middle East. Most of the time, good news is overlooked because it doesn't cause visceral reactions, but rest assured, every moment of every day there is peace, joy, and happiness lurking within the crevices of our world. And here is a little bit of wisdom from someone who has given the world an enormous amount of all those things:

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams. —Jimmy Carter

:-) 

Sun and rain make rainbows

Taken by Eric Jean Weissenborn

Knowing that when it's raining all day long, there are likely to be rainbows when the sun comes out, I found this wonderful picture, taken Easter Sunday and posted on Facebook's Seeing Bellingham Group. I snagged it for this post. If I had been proactive and not actually getting ready for bed myself, I might have been able to capture something as lovely as this. Bellingham Bay sure looks good through the rainbow. I thank Eric Jean Weissenborn for having shared it, and I hope he had a wonderful rest of his Easter Sunday. The Facebook group is filled with rainbows from Sunday, if you want to spend some time looking at them. I love rainbows.

When I went out this morning, it was raining, but it gradually let up and by the time I was heading home, there were no rainbows to be seen. I looked just to be sure.

Heavily laden with blossoms

I did see, however, lots and lots of blossoms everywhere. Spring is in full swing in these parts, and sometimes I think it's my favorite season, but then again, each one has its own charm and delightful moments. So I won't pick one but instead will just enjoy them as they come, and be grateful that I am able to be in this wonderful place. 

And I did look to see what's happening in the Tulip Festival fields, which were also on display in that Facebook group. Yes, the tulips are now beginning to open and give plenty of color to those fields. I'll be getting there soon, hopefully. I'll be posting plenty of pictures when that happens, never fear.

:-)

November is here

Favorite tree

I've been walking by this tree almost daily ever since the YMCA closed down during the pandemic and I switched to getting in a three-mile walk most days. The Y opened again last year, but without my favorite hi-lo aerobics class, and they just let the instructor go after decades of service. She's still not over it, I hear, and I can't really blame her.

Anyway, they never reopened the women's locker room, and my locker still sits there with much of my workout clothes that I left there so I wouldn't have to carry them back and forth. I went there once to take out a few things, but I had to be accompanied by a worker in order to even open it. I gave up, hoping it wouldn't be too long before I could get back to the gym, but here it is three years later and it's not looking promising.

About that tree: I had been looking for signs of its leaves turning in the fashion of past years, a little at a time. But day after day, nothing had even begun to change. Until yesterday, when I walked by the tree to see it aflame! It was a rainy and overcast day, but nothing kept me from seeing the beautiful tree in its fall glory.

We received well over two inches of rain during the atmospheric river, but today is dry and even showing some sun in between the clouds. Oh, and I found out that what I thought was a raincoat is nothing of the sort, and I got home yesterday soaking wet everywhere, except my feet (my shoes are definitely waterproof). It wasn't all that cold, but that's coming very soon. 

Today I hauled out the carry-on bag I'll be using for my trip, which is now only three weeks away. I measured it to make sure it meets the new carry-on standards. By this time next month, I'll be on my return journey, if all goes as planned. Nothing is ever certain these days, especially when thinking about airplane travel. It's hard for me to imagine that I once had little to no problem flying anywhere, or even jumping out of airplanes for decades, but now I'm just a little old lady not anxious to leave home.

Last night I dreamed I was in Florida with all my siblings, and it was chaotic. I kept trying to find a bathroom that wasn't occupied, or somewhere to sleep comfortably. Perhaps I'll get all those jitters out of the way before I actually travel there. (The sun just came out in full force, and it brought a smile to my face. Florida should have lots of sun, right?) Fortunately I will not have to take many changes of clothes, since my sister and I are the same size and I'll be using her stuff mostly, which is good since I don't have much to wear for warm weather. The trip is getting closer by the minute!

:-)

Who doesn't love rainbows?

Rainbow on Bellingham Bay

I hadn't seen this picture of me capturing this rainbow, and yesterday Lily showed it to me while we were quaffing some wine together. It was on one of our Saturday walks with the ladies, I'm not sure exactly when, but I wanted to share it with my pals. I'm late again getting a Tuesday post up (and I completely neglected to do one last Tuesday, election day).

It's been a good day. I'm sitting here after having "enjoyed" a visit with the acupuncturist and a lovely yoga class before that. So now I will have accomplished all my Tuesday tasks and can just sit back in the few short hours before climbing into bed, tired and happy.

You can never have too many rainbows.
:-)

A good omen

Me and Lily with lovely rainbow

Ten ladies set out from the Farmers' Market area to walk to Fairhaven and back. The forecast was for some light rain showers in the morning, changing to a steady rain in the afternoon. I grabbed my rainhat and a light jacket when we left to begin the walk. It wasn't raining at all, but before too long it did live up to the hype: just a little occasional rain.

When we were on the boulevard over Bellingham Bay, the sun came out. We looked around to see if there might be a rainbow anywhere, and lo and behold, passersby had cellphones out so we turned around to see this lovely rainbow.

We asked one of them to take our picture, since it sure seems to be a good omen to me. Lily, who is from Guatemala and knows English as a second language, had never heard of omens before. After explaining, she agreed that this was indeed a good sign, perhaps of many more splendid things to come.
:-)

Short and dreary days

Railroad Avenue this wet morning

This picture was taken right at sunrise today, not that you could see any sun. It has been raining for days and will continue for many more. I was walking to the coffee shop in full rain gear, feeling the wind and rain in my face as I navigated my way down the dark street. At this time of year, our sunrise is at 7:28am and sunset is at 4:23pm. That gives us less than nine hours of sunlight, if we could see it, that is.

And we are on our way to the winter solstice, which happens a month from now, when we will have just a little over eight hours between sunrise and sunset. (I was going to say eight hours of sunlight, but that is a little optimistic, given the amount of rain we are likely to endure.) At least in the High Country, it'll be snowing, and I will hopefully get a chance to get out there and use my new Microspikes. Down here it's just rain, rain, rain.

Wet leaves are pretty, though

I will be wracking my brain trying to think about what I might write about on Thursday, since I won't be hiking. Oh, wait! I know, how about Thanksgiving? Have a great one yourselves.
:-)

Rainbows and fogbows

Taken by Melvin Nicholson on a Scottish Moor

I found this amazing picture of a "fog bow" while looking for something in particular to tell a story of a skydive I made many years ago. I got it from this article in the Daily Mail. It also describes how a fog bow is formed.

A fog bow is a colourless rainbow made up of tiny water droplets that cause fog. Due to the small size of the water droplets it has very weak colours, with a red outer edge and bluish inner edge.

I was looking to see if anybody had ever captured a picture of a phenomenon that I saw on a skydive long ago. Skydivers are not supposed to intentionally jump through clouds, but sometimes it happens and there's not much you can do about it, once you're out of the airplane and in freefall. The sun was directly behind me, with a solid-looking cloud underneath me. As I got closer, I saw my shadow, and around the shadow of my body was a rainbow. I was close enough to see each separate finger before I closed my eyes tight, since it looked like I was approaching something solid! But poof, all I felt was the coolness of the cloud.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the cloud dissipating and the ground coming into focus. I quickly looked at my altimeter to make sure I still had time before I needed to deploy my parachute. Yes, I was fine, but I had seen something I will never forget: my shadow on a cloud, with a perfect halo all around it.
:-)

Women's March on Bellingham

A small portion of the crowd

This morning, after the walk with the ladies, we all joined the crowd of women and other people gathered a few blocks away to protest the likely loss of many of the liberties we have taken for granted for quite awhile, such as reproductive rights and Social Security. From the website:

We march in solidarity, raising our collective voice, and lifting up the most marginalized among us recognizing that this new administration will affect us all in different ways. This march is the first step toward unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up.

This march was one of hundreds held across the country (and some in other nations), with the largest in Washington, D.C., as a counterpoint to the inauguration of President Trump yesterday. I cannot speak for the mood and the feeling of community at any of the other gatherings, but we had a celebration of diversity, with plenty of men and children joining the group, along with lots of women in pink "pussy hats." Before we started off on a mile-long march, there were poets and speakers and music. Since the crowd was so much larger than expected, many of us couldn't get close enough to hear any of it. I just enjoyed chatting with people around me.

My friend Barb, her daughter and son-in-law

Barb, one of the walkers, was there with her daughter and son-in-law and some really great signs, I thought. I lost all of the other people I knew who were in the throngs of people, but it didn't really matter. We walked and smiled and truly enjoyed the beautiful morning. And just by chance someone looked up at a beautiful rainbow overhead, and I was able to capture it just before it left.

So pretty

I had a little trouble with all the standing around, for more than an hour, before we got started walking (you couldn't really call it a march, there were so many of us), so just before the last turn back to City Hall where we started, I snuck out and made my way to the Farmers' Market, which was open today. I grabbed some good bread and came home, where I am sitting now, writing this post.
:-)

You can't stay home because of the forecast

Al and Rich leading the Intrepid Nine

Who can second guess the Senior Trailblazers? Last week when the weather (and forecast) were for sunny skies, only six showed up. Today, when the weather forecast was beastly, with intermittent to heavy rain expected for the entire day, nine of us met to tackle the Rock Trail and Gates Overlook from the Larrabee parking lot across from Clayton Beach.

Nice little waterfall near the beginning

We groused about the weather, but we were all prepared with plenty of rain gear, and it was only lightly sprinkling when we set out. We all had our pack covers on, raincoats at the ready, only to be happily disappointed with mud puddles from the previous night's downpour but no rain to speak of. We expected it momentarily, so of course it never came.

Red tree wood

Look at the color of this tree bark. Steve said it is a red aster, but I couldn't find anything on line about this tree. It had been cut into pieces because it obviously had fallen across the trail and had been moved to the side of the trail. It's an amazing color, whatever the tree. Perhaps one of my commenters has an idea.

Rock Trail

This hike takes us down the Lost Lake trail and up to the Rock Trail, which always allows us to enjoy these massive and beautiful sandstone cliffs. It's a fairly new trail, and I never tire of seeing the views of moss, rock, ferns, and its magnificence.

Looking at a lovely scene on the Rock Trail

Although we never saw the sun, we never saw the rain. We also heard some strong wind in the trees above us, and occasionally we would feel the strength of it. And then we would be protected and only heard it as it roared overhead. The Rock Trail ends at Gates Overlook, where, wonder of wonders, we had a view!

The view from Gates Overlook

We are looking out at Bellingham Bay, with the sky showing some clouds, but nothing threatening. We had a nice lunch here, and then headed down the road to the Fragrance Lake trail and made a nice loop of more than 8 miles, maybe even another half mile or so, with 2,500 feet of elevation gain and loss. Nothing to sneeze at, a fine day, with great company, and guess what?

When we reached the cars, it started to rain. Yes, we were blessed today with mild temperatures, a breeze that stayed out of our way most of the day, and rain that also waited until we were done. I am still smiling as I sit here writing this post. Yes, a very good day.
:-)

Noisy Creek was fabulous

Lucky 13 (if you count Mt. Baker)

Twelve of us met to hike to Noisy Creek, one of our favorite and most beautiful places to travel. It's a long drive, more than 70 miles from Bellingham, and Rita brought two friends along who are visiting her from Virginia. They had never experienced the Pacific Northwest and I believe they had a day to remember. I know I did.

Maidenhair ferns (left) and deer ferns (right)

The scenery was more than lush, temperature in the low to mid-seventies (a little on the warm side for those of us accustomed to cooler weather), a stray cloud now and then, and everything green and abundant as we hiked from the trailhead to Noisy Creek. This hike takes us along the east side of Baker Lake until we reach the Noisy Creek campground. We saw several people hiking out after having spent a night or two at the campground. We crossed a suspension bridge to reach our trail, and our first major stream crossing was at Hidden Creek. After having full sun and feeling a little warm, once we reached this crossing, the temperature dropped by several degrees!

Rita, Sharon, and Sandra on the Hidden Creek bridge

After this well-constructed and sturdy bridge, we still had to cross several more streams that didn't have the luxury of a bridge across them, and we all found our trekking poles to be more than a little valuable to navigate them.

Sandra, Rita, Linda, Diane, and Sharon

I wish there were some way to communicate what a wonderful time we had, all twelve of us, as we laughed and trudged our way to the campground. It's funny: traversing the more than four-and-a-half miles to our destination felt like a piece of cake. But we still had to return, and it seemed it would be a moderately easy day. But then we decided to hike an extra half-mile to look at the oldest of the old growth trees in the area. It was a very steep quarter-mile upwards, but well worth it to pay homage to these old trees, which have never been logged and could be as old as 2,000 years!

Steve, the tree hugger and a beautiful old growth

We not only had these wonderful trees to enjoy, but also some spectacular views of the east side of Mt. Baker. Bellingham lies directly to the west of this view of Mt. Baker. We never see this side unless we travel all the way around. There is a vent between those two peaks on the old volcano that spews steam now and then.

Those little puffy clouds were formed from that vent, and they continued to form the entire time we were there. That low spot between the two peaks is where the steam formed. We could see it quite clearly; it was pretty wonderful to see.

Once when I looked up to capture a picture of a big tree, I saw this rainbow, which I think probably continued right around the whole circle of the sun, but I can't be sure because this is all I saw. Isn't it cool? Maybe one of my readers knows what caused me to see this, I sure don't.

All in all, by the time we had finished our rather long day, we had covered around ten miles and traversed around 1,200 feet up and down. It wasn't an easy day, but it was filled with amazing sights, wonderful company, and more than I could have hoped for on the first week in June!
:-)

A fine beginning to the week

Pedro (top, 3rd from left) with La Hacienda Family Restaurant staff

When I got to the Drop Zone in Snohomish on Sunday, the clouds were beginning to break up, but it still was not clear enough to skydive. Remember we can't jump through clouds. While waiting, I visited with these wonderful people who were all getting ready to make their first skydives ever. But what was even more impressive is Pedro was not only making his first skydive but also his very first airplane ride! He was going to get his feet off the ground for the first time AND jump out of the plane as well! I don't know how his skydive went, or what any of them thought of it, since they were just landing as I was going up with my own buddies. By the time I got back down, they had left. Peter had given me a keychain from his own restaurant in Renton and told me that although they don't have their own website, the one in Everett does, so I linked it under the picture. They were all so excited and I was just a bit sorry I didn't get to hear all about their experience.

Christy, birthday boy Kevin, and Linnie

I made two skydives on Sunday before heading home around 4:00pm, worried about the trip north with the I-5 bridge out. It was Kevin's birthday, the first time he's been able to make a jump on the exact day in years, so I was happy to have been on a jump with him. And of course Christy and Linnie are some of the best people in the world to play with. They stayed and probably made another three skydives after I left.

It was a good thing I left when I did, because the traffic around the bridge detour was horrendous. Next time I will try the alternate route. Sunday afternoon all the Canadians are heading home after being south of the border, and the short route (the one I took) had all the trucks on it as well. It added more than an extra half hour to the drive, making it more than two hours to get back to Bellingham. Going south at 10:00am was a breeze, only a few minutes longer than usual.

Bee busily buzzing the borage

This morning I went out to check my garden and water it, since the forecast shows no rain for the next week or so. Very nice to see such a forecast, and the bees were buzzing all around the flowers on the borage plant. You can see one in this picture if you enlarge and look in the bottom foreground. I'll try to get a better picture next time (he's not quite in focus). Several of the blue flowers have already fallen off the plant. I hope it's healthy; I gave it plenty of water and some Miracle-Gro.

From Wunderground

Although it says there is a 20% chance of rain on Friday, I am working on willing it to stay sunny. It says today will be partly cloudy, but there's not a cloud in the sky! All of us Pacific Northwesterners are ready to join the summer season. Some people say that summer doesn't start around here until July 5th, but I've been pleasantly surprised before.

I finished Jodi Picoult's latest book and started Eben Alexander's book Proof of Heaven today.  I had to tear myself away just to get this blog post written, it's extremely absorbing. It's interesting that I had six books on hold at the library for the past two months, and four of them came into the library all at once! I can't renew them, so I'll be sitting around with my nose in a book for the rest of this week, it seems. I would say when it rains... but I'm not even going to THINK rain for a while.
:-)

Flowers for Leontien

{{Hugs}}

I am offering this perfect rose from last summer's Farmers' Market to Leontien, a woman I had never heard about until last week, when Theresa from the Run*Around*Ranch invited me to be in on yesterday's surprise for her.

Although I didn't participate, I checked into what was posted yesterday and the surprise bunch of blog posts with flowers for Leontien and am sitting here simply overwhelmed with what I've learned about the power of the blogosphere. Here's a bit of background.

Leontien is battling cancer and has determined that she will fight it with all her might, inspiring three bloggers with the idea of providing a list of blog posts that would make her realize that she is not alone in her struggle. Not having known anything about her until I looked at her blog (Four Leaf Clover Tales), I felt a bit reluctant to participate. Until today. The beautiful and overwhelming flowers and posts that have been created here cannot help but inspire anybody. Please take a look at Nancy's blog called A Rural Journal where you too can join the caravan (she's hosting the gift page) and give Leontien your flower, your hopes, a virtual hug, whatever. As soon as I've finished this, that's where this one is going.

This was all the brainchild of Buttons, who enlisted the help of Theresa and Nancy. I received an invitation to be part of the surprise from Theresa and, as I said, I declined. That said, the power of the blogosphere, of love and hope has given me the desire to spread this to Leontien from any of my own followers who might not have heard about it. At this moment (it changes continually), there are 186 flowers and posts on the site. The inspiration I've gained from a random sampling just fills my heart with joy. I'll spend a bit more time crying healing tears, not only for Leontien, but for all of us who have joined together to spread some love.
:-)

Lunar fog bow

I'm heading off to the Seattle Flower Show (with camera) today, but this morning when I read my usual websites, I realized that you might not know about the Astronomy Picture of the Day. This is what they had on there yesterday, and it just took my breath away. Here's the description, from that page (all those links are from APOD):

Arching across the lower part of the image is a rare lunar fog bow. Unlike a more commonly seen rainbow, which is created by sunlight reflected prismatically by falling rain, this fog bow was created by moonlight reflected by the small water drops that compose fog. Although most fog bows appear white, all of the colors of the rainbow were somehow visible here. The above image was taken from high atop Haleakala, a huge volcano in Hawaii, USA.

And that lovely shining star is Mars, taken two weeks ago when it was very bright. Enjoy! Tomorrow, lots of flower pictures!
:-)