Heat wave and minus tides

Kayaker at low tide

This morning Lynn and I headed out to meet the walkers at the ferry terminal in Fairhaven. As usual, we were early (a failing of mine) so we went down to the nearby beach and watched this young woman put her kayak into the water and paddle away. There was more beach than usual, because both today and tomorrow we will have minus tides. It means the tide is below mean sea level. They always come with the new moon, which happens tonight at 8:00pm. Right about now the minus tide is happening in Bellingham Bay, with tomorrow bringing an even more minus tide. I found this information on line here.

Padden Creek this morning

We ladies (and one man) walked from the ferry terminal to Arroyo Park and back, around six miles. It is a warm and sunny day, with the entire west coast getting temperatures way above normal for a few days. I found this Public Alert on line for Portland:

Excessive Heat Warning remains in effect from 10 AM today through 10 PM Sunday for much of interior Southwest Washington and northwest Oregon. An Excessive Heat Warning remains in effect from 10 AM this morning to 10 PM Sunday.

Fortunately for me, we are located near the Canadian border but still, we will be having much warmer than normal weather, with the temperature right now (around noon) hovering near 80F (26C). And this is after having been freezing cold in snow just two days ago! Of course, we were way up there in altitude, and now I'm at sea level.

Hula hoops sparkling in the sun

I got the idea for this shot from the Furry Gnome. He recently visited a Farmers' Market and took some colorful pictures. Lynn, Judith and I wandered around the market for awhile, ate a few tasty bits, and then went home. I'm now fulfilling my final Saturday duty, a blog post. Then I'll have some lunch and find a way to keep myself cool and comfy for the rest of the day.
:-)

Excelsior Pass, almost

A damp forest and hikers

Today ten Senior Trailblazers met at the Senior Center to discuss our options on this rather rainy Thursday. Of course the only day during the week when rain was forecast was today, so we decided instead of trudging up Goat Mountain and then not having a view, we'd venture up Excelsior Pass from the Mt. Baker highway. This is a strenuous hike, going up around 3,500 feet (1,000 meters) over four-and-a-half miles. The group attempted this hike three weeks ago, when my knee could not possibly have taken the strain, so I missed it. That made me rather happy to be going today, to see how my knee would fare.

Our route today

This map shows where we went today. First an hour drive up Highway 542 to the trailhead, and then up the Excelsior Pass trail, just about in the middle of the above map. Starting at 1,825 feet, we slogged up the red wiggly line on the map to right around 5,000 feet of elevation.

Our beautiful forest

Starting out, it was raining gently, not hard, nothing to give us anything we were not prepared for. Now and then, as you can see from the above picture, the clouds thinned and occasionally gave us brief moments when the fog in the trees lighted our way upwards. It was really rather beautiful.

Rich in his rain skirt in the snow

But as we climbed, we finally hit patches of snow that eventually ended up being a deal breaker for reaching the pass, as you can see here. Rich is getting ready to have his lunch, with the only view we had today behind him. The view came and went, but the rain lessened until it was almost nonexistent. Not completely, but almost. We stopped here, at 5,000 feet and less than a mile from the summit, to have our lunch.

Our lunch spot

The snow made the summit possible but not likely to give us anything we had not already experienced. We refreshed ourselves with food and piled on every bit of warm clothing we had with us and then started back down the way we had come. It took a bit of hiking before we were all warm and toasty again.

Out of the snow

Finally we descended enough to be out of the snow. It makes it quite difficult to walk safely and took all my energy just to make sure I didn't fall. As you can see from this picture, it never did get sunny. But not long after this picture was taken, we began to see patches of sunshine and the misty rain came and went, sometimes completely.

The trail 

This final picture was taken at our last stop before we returned to the trailhead. The light green foliage, combined with the misty trees, were lovely to see. We were truly bathing in the forest. We talked about how wonderful forest bathing is for the soul, and today ten of us were scrubbed clean by Shinrin-yoku (森林浴).

And now I am home, filled with joy and happy to be off my feet, drinking my well deserved wine, and rejoicing that my knee did not complain much today! Between yoga and proper rehabilitation, I am well again!
:-)

More community garden

Abundant raspberries

Tomorrow is the first day of June! And our community garden is doing very well indeed. We will have raspberries for everyone, it seems. Last year Rob took cuttings from his raspberries and planted some in my plot, and they are heavy with fruit. At first we worried we wouldn't have any pollinators, but then suddenly three different kinds of bees were all buzzing around our plants. You can see one raspberry beginning to ripen above.

A row of something

One of our gardeners, Lily, has planted several things from seed. I smiled when I saw this little row of seedings looking very happy in her garden. I don't have a clue what they are, but I'll let you know later on in the season.

Garnet and black kale

I have already harvested some collards, kale, and a few ripe strawberries from my garden. This pretty garnet kale is next. I love looking at it and know it will be very flavorful when we do get around to eating it. The slugs don't seem to like it as much as the black kale and the collards. I'm not sure why.

A segment of Carol's plot

I couldn't find a good place to take a picture of Carol's entire plot, but here you can see broccoli in the lower right, luscious parsley in front of that, and I'm not sure what the purple leaves are. Everything she plants does very well.

Copper tape around my strawberry patch

I ordered some copper tape from Amazon and have placed it around my strawberries, hoping to keep the slugs away as they ripen. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me at the time that any slugs already inside will not be able to leave, either. I guess I'll have to creep out to the garden before dawn some morning to capture them. It's a constant battle!
:-)

Wildflowers and more

Abundant daisies

Right at the beginning of our hike last Thursday, there is this field of wild daisies that just took my breath away, there are so many. It almost looks like dandelion seed heads, which is what I thought I was seeing at first. But no, it's nicer than that. Daisies always win out in my mind over dandelions.

I didn't go walking with the ladies this morning. They were headed over to Lummi Island for a nice seven-mile walk. I went last year and wrote about it here. It was the same time of year, the Memorial Day weekend, but when I woke this morning it was pouring down rain, and I decided to skip it. Instead, I went over to the coffee shop and visited with my buddies before going to the gym to have a nice dry bike ride. Of course it stopped raining rather quickly after I made that decision, but it was still windy and not exactly inviting.

Goat's beard

Peggy was the one who told me that this is called "goat's beard" and grows profusely when it becomes established. I found a Forest Service page that gives a little information about it:

Native to the northern hemisphere in North America, Europe, and Asia, this plant generally grows in moist woods, meadows, and along streams. It is also known to grow in moist to wet ravines, rocky ledges, and avalanche chutes. 

No wonder I see so much of it in the wild areas around here, the operative word in that paragraph being "moist." It's also called "bride's feathers," according to that link. I like that name better!

Banana slug

We also saw this guy, a HUGE banana slug. The front is the solid colored area and if you look closely you can see his eye stalks. In the back you can see his skirt, which is how he ambulates slowly along. I learned all this from that fascinating book, The Secret World of Slugs and Snails. You too can learn all you ever wanted to know about these strange creatures. Peggy picked this guy up with a leaf (so she wouldn't get slimed) and put him out of harm's way in the bushes.

They are native to the area, unlike the black slugs, and I believe that the invaders are taking over. Around here banana slugs are treated well. In fact, the banana slug, I learned, is the mascot of UC-Santa Cruz in California. Who knew?
:-)

Olsen Creek/Stewart Mountain hike

Peggy, Melanie and Al on the trail

Eleven Senior Trailblazers went on a hike today, meeting at the Y Road parking lot. I hesitate to call this hike, labeled "Olsen Creek'" as that since we never crossed Olsen Creek today, but headed up the trails that lead up to several different views from high up on Stewart Mountain. We hiked this trail on my 69th birthday, and I got some great pictures. Over the years, we've done this Stewart Mountain area in sunshine, rain, and clouds; today we never saw the sun but we never got wet, either.

Carol and me, with Lake Whatcom behind

I have an earlier picture of Carol and me taken in this exact same spot, so I asked for it again. You can see the low clouds behind us,  but also that we are not wearing any rain gear. You know we had our gear close by.

New Guy Larry and Ward on the trail

We had a new hiker with us today, Larry. I think he'll be back, and it was sure nice to see someone other than Al who had a GPS and could show us the area on his phone. He knows Stewart Mountain well but this was a new way up to the top for him.

A nice part of the trail

After we left the area where we could see Lake Whatcom, we entered into a dense forest of salmonberries and stinging nettles, sometimes over my head. Once that ended, we had to navigate an area with plenty of downed trees, and this area seen above, which was so nice to reach. And then some ascent through a lovely forest, until we got to our final destination.

Peggy, Carol, Chris, Melanie, Rich, Sue, Linda, Ward

From this vantage point, we realized that we had no view at all, as the trees have obscured the view of Lake Whatcom and beyond. We were tired by the time we got here, having ascended more than 2,500 feet of elevation (around 800 meters) and were hungry, so we sat down for our lunch repast. Al, New Guy Larry, and myself are not in the picture. They were elsewhere while I took it. When we got ready to descend, we decided to skip the dense overgrown area and hike on the old logging road instead.

Ripe salmonberry

As we made our way downwards, I realized that my knee is not 100% healed, as the jarring on the road caused it to hurt a fair amount. I was careful, though, and by the time I reached the cars I was pretty sure it was not re-injured. However, I've got a few painful itchy spots on my hands from brushing against the stinging nettles on the descent. I know they will be uncomfortable for awhile but are nothing to worry about.

All in all, it was a very good day, and we covered around eight miles with plenty of elevation, not to mention a difficult trail with downed branches and trees. I managed to bonk my head at least twice as I looked down at my footing and missed some well-placed branches. Now that I am home, drinking my wine, things look so much better! A good day indeed.
:-)

How does our garden grow

Standing in Rob's plot

I just went out to water my garden plot and saw that several other people had just done the same. It's cloudy but dry today, perfect conditions for our plants to soak up some moisture. There are five plots here, bottom to top: as I said, I'm standing in Rob's for the picture, with my plot the one with the purple flamingo just beside his. Then Lynn's, which is finally beginning to look quite nice. Nathan's is next, with the chair strategically placed for him to sit and admire his veggies. And last of all is Keith's, which just got planted this last weekend.

Keith's newly planted plot

Keith likes to start most of his from seed, and I notice with a bit of envy that he's also got two raised beds this year. I almost always get my plants from purchased garden starts, because I'm just not that handy with plants and like to have someone else start them. Plus, slugs seem to decimate those little tender shoots that come out of the ground.

My strawberries

And look! My strawberries are already starting to ripen! I've ordered some copper tape from Amazon to put around the patch so I won't come out to find that the slugs beat me to them. My slug bait (just add beer!) container is catching plenty of them, but there are still so many more.

Harvested kale plus garnet kale

I harvested my first kale from the garden yesterday, with Russian kale and black kale (on the right and in the middle) steamed and absolutely delicious. I let the garnet kale (on the left) alone so it can continue to get a bit more robust before I harvest it. The good thing about kale is that you cut all the leaves off and they grow back even more abundantly. In the upper left you can see the collards that I will harvest next.

So, as you can see, our gardens are growing wonderfully! The other side is doing well, too, except there are only three planted plots and the center section. We've got one dormant, and one that is just too wet for much success until much later in the season. I'll show you those other plots soon.
:-)

Showery but lovely Saturday

Little cuties with Mom

I snagged this picture off the internet, taken here in Bellingham by Pat Buhl, a member of the Whatcom birding group. They are so cute! I tried to get a couple of pictures myself while at Lake Padden on Thursday, but they ran away from me. Maybe I should consider getting myself a small camera with a good zoom. My friend the Furry Gnome mentioned a Panasonic with a 30X zoom, but when I read the reviews, I think I'll look around for something similar to it, but not that one.

Poppies doing their thing in the sunshine

Yesterday when I got off the bus, the sun was out and shining gloriously. Figures: it rains on Thursday (my hiking day), is sunny on Friday, and Saturday it rains again (my walking day). We had been dry for such a long time that nobody seems to be minding the rain. As I walked up towards the steps to my apartment, I saw this lovely picture of my apartment (top) and Linda's (bottom) with everything in full bloom.

Showing my front porch garden and Linda's blooms

That red rhododendron doesn't last long once it blooms out like this, so I was happy to have captured this picture. Maybe later in the summer I'll take another. Notice that the tree that was so scalped two years ago is now looking very good again. I guess they did know what they were doing.

I'm going to a yoga retreat for three hours this afternoon, so I guess I'd better get ready. It's at my yoga studio and is taught by a master teacher, Felicity, who I understand is 83 and still teaching. I'm looking forward to it and will probably write about it on my other blog in the morning.
:-)