Finding my way forward

Romanesco broccoli

Isn't this a beautiful plant? It's a fairly new (at least to me) cross between cauliflower and broccoli, called Romanesco broccoli and looks like a fractal to me. That link from Wikipedia tells me this:

The pattern is only an approximate fractal since the pattern eventually terminates when the feature size becomes sufficiently small. The number of spirals on the head of Romanesco broccoli is a Fibonacci number.

I find that to be incredibly interesting, and since I've actually eaten this plant, I can also tell you that it tastes a little more like cauliflower to me than broccoli. I took this picture last Saturday at the Farmers' Market. Since I tried to grow this plant during our springtime warmth, I was sure impressed with these guys. Mine almost immediately bolted, and I've since learned that it doesn't like a lot of heat and direct sunlight, so farmers around here grow it in the fall.

A week has passed since the election, and I'm feeling less fragile, but still can find myself weeping at unexpected times. It's part of the grieving process, and I'm pretty good at learning how to cope on a daily basis. I have decided not to allow myself to be bitter. Maya Angelou said this:

You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.

So I'm talking to you right now. I've decided to start giving a monthly allowance to two deserving organizations that I hope will help to mitigate the denial of climate change, which is a real threat to our world stability. Although I'm old enough that I won't see the worst of it, I fear for the young ones.

And I'm wearing a safety pin on my clothes. I read in another blogger's post about the first effect she experienced of wearing her safety pin. She is an elementary school teacher, and one of her students asked her about it. She said that it is to let people know that they can talk to her about anything and feel safe. The child said to her, shyly, "I didn't want anybody to know, but I haven't eaten anything since yesterday, and I have no money." The teacher suddenly realized why this student had been struggling in class, and she immediately took him into the cafeteria and bought him lunch. She also arranged to get him into the program for disadvantaged kids. Maybe he's homeless, I don't know, but that safety pin gave him a chance to talk about his hunger.

But it's just a tiny little symbol that means little in the scheme of things. Actually giving money to those organizations made me feel a whole lot better!
:-)

Pinning ourselves together

Lynn, me, and Lily

Once again this morning, lots and lots of women gathered together to walk in the rain, this time because we needed the fellowship of one another in our grief about the election. More than twenty of us went out on a windy and rainy walk, right around five miles. Last night I finally got a decent night's sleep, and that has made a huge difference in my state of mind.

From Heidi's b00n00k Instagram page

Then we three went to the Farmer's Market and I asked someone to take a picture of us so that I could send it to Carol in North Carolina. It turned out to be Barbara, a talented potter, who was wearing a safety pin on her collar. Lynn (who always seems to know everything before I do), praised her for the sentiment. In fact, Barbara was passing out safety pins to those who asked about it and felt they wanted to let people know that we, too, are friendly to the cause. The movement started with the "Brexit" vote and has now come to us in America so that we can let immigrants, refugees, and Muslims know they are "safe" with us.

One of Barbara's beautiful plates

On this, the fourth day after the election results, I am now finally beginning to come out of my despair and feel that there will be many good things to come that it's just not possible to know at the moment. I was surprised to learn that only 54% of the electorate even bothered to vote. The citizens in so many countries around the world would give anything to have that privilege.
:-(

Happy to be together

Joy, Barb, Rich, Jim, Dave, Sue, Kirk, Peggy, Carol, Victoria, Lisa, Bob 

Today, eighteen Senior Trailblazers met at the Senior Center to share comfort with one another after the terrible election we, along with the whole world, have just endured. Heavy hearts needed to get into the High Country one more time this year to enjoy the rare sunshine. It's a funny thing about exercise: I started out feeling pretty blue, but by the time this picture was taken, at the end of our hike, I was feeling downright happy. I took the picture while we were waiting for some laggards, when I begged for a photo op on this lovely bridge.

Climbing toward Herman Saddle

We hoped that we might be able to complete the Chain Lakes loop, even at this late date, if the snow cooperated. Down low, we saw none, but it was there up high, as we discovered. We started at the Heather Meadows parking lot and went around Bagley Lakes on our way up to the saddle. If we could complete the loop, we would have seven miles or so of hiking, but if it got too bad we would just return the way we had started. We had magnificent views the whole way.

Mt. Shuksan and Bagley Lakes below

The higher we climbed toward Herman Saddle, the sunnier it got, and the more we hoped we might be able to complete the loop. But as we approached the saddle, you can see that the snow had increased. It doesn't look too bad from here, and we were hopeful. Note the "mark of Zorro" on the trail below.

See the Mark of Zorro above us?

At this point we thought that it might be possible to go over the top and down towards Iceberg Lake and make the loop. We should have realized that the snow on the trail was increasing as we went ever higher, but it looks pretty benign from here, doesn't it?

Mt Baker peeking over the horizon

As we finally saw our first views of Mt. Baker over the horizon, we began to deal with more and more snow. New snow early in the season is not well compacted, so we kept falling through and fighting our way upwards. The saddle is in view at the middle of the picture.

Carol, Chris (in background) Victoria, Jim

Nope. By the time we struggled in the increasing wind and snow, we decided to have a fairly early lunch at Herman Saddle and go no farther down the other side through unknown snow depths. Plus it was almost noon by the time we got here. Time for lunch!

Carol took this picture of me in front of Mt. Baker

There were moments of complete absorption into the moment, since the wind up here was so strong that at times it almost blew me over. I was so pleased that my Tilley hat refused to leave my head in what had to be gale-force winds. There were moments when I felt like I had to stop just to keep myself upright as I leaned into it. And then it would subside for a bit.

Kirk and Joy at lunch, enjoying the view

I realize now, looking back, that I never got a picture that shows how treacherous it was on that snow as we descended. It was downright scary at moments when one misstep would mean a tumble down a very long slide. But after awhile we had passed the scary stuff on our way back, and we began to relax  a little as we made our way back the way we had come.

By the time we reached the cars, we had covered around 1,300 feet up and down, and almost five miles total. But it felt like more, with the snow we had to deal with. And then it was time to head back down to our usual ice cream stop In Glacier, one last time for this season, and bid a fond farewell to the area, at least until the snow begins to pile up for snowshoe excursions.

Bagley Lake in the foreground, Table Mountain behind

It was a day that I won't soon forget, since I felt restored and renewed by the time I walked in the door to my apartment. Life is good, and I hope that everyone who reads this will remember how much better you feel when you get out into the wilderness. Love and light to all.
:-)

Just another Tuesday

Japanese maple outside my apartment

...Not! It's Election Day, and the end of this awful season is now coming to an end. I woke this morning and walked to the bus under blue skies and exceptionally warm weather. It feels almost wrong for the temperature to be in the mid-sixties on its way up to 67 for the day. And sunshine! It was so warm when I walked out of the gym at 10:00am, I had to take off my jacket.

As I walked home, I saw the sunlight coming through the Japanese maple tree right before I walk up the steps to my apartment, with blue sky and clouds and a bit of green to complement the picture. It's such a nice day today, with a little rain expected tonight but another nice day possible for Thursday, that maybe another "last" trip to the High Country will be the cards. We'll just have to wait and see, but everywhere I look people are smiling and walking around in shirtsleeves! Magnificent!
:-)

Another rainy Saturday

Mt. Baker and the Nooksack River

This magnificent picture was taken from inside the car on our way back from the lovely day we had last Thursday in the mountains. I needed to look at it, since this morning was the exact opposite: I listened to the rain and wind all night long and got up to torrential weather to begin my day. And the morning walk with the ladies (and one man) was pretty much all in the rain. I got my first real test of my new rain jacket, which worked just fine. There were nineteen of us, even with the not-so-wonderful weather.

I'm home now, though, nice and dry and getting ready to watch a special on Netflix my sister recommended by Dana Carvey. And I've got a couple books to see if I can lose myself in, so I can somehow get through the next three days without a meltdown.
:-)

A really wonderful day

Trailblazers heading up the Goat Mountain trail

Fifteen Senior Trailblazers met to explore where we might go today, our first sunny and non-rainy Thursday in more than a month. We decided to head to one of our favorite places, Goat Mountain, up the Mt. Baker Highway. This picture was taken on the trail right after our first shedding of coats. Although it's November, and we were already up in elevation by a couple thousand feet, it was amazingly warm.

Up the trail we went

I saw these leaves on the trail under a deciduous tree, but most of the trees on this trail are evergreens. As we hiked upwards, we were reminded of the incredible amount of rain this area received during October. I've never seen so much moisture on this trail, and the streams we crossed were swollen and roaring. I like to think of this 3-and-a-half mile trail as having three parts: first through a lovely wooded forest, then through a wet and marshy section, and the final one in the meadow that takes us to the overlook, our destination.

Logs of mud

As we climbed in altitude, we got more and more muddy places to cross, but onward we climbed, until we reached the final third, the ascent through the meadow. Very steep.

Climbing through the meadow to the overlook

Although when we started the hike the skies were clear, because of all the moisture in the atmosphere as we climbed, we saw plenty of clouds among the periods of full sunshine we enjoyed. When you're climbing uphill, you don't mind clouds because they keep the temperature down. It was actually quite perfect hiking conditions.

Doug and Ellen in front of Mt. Sefrit

And then we reached the overlook, our lunch destination. You can see there's a little snow underfoot, but I suspect most of it is gone because of the warm rain that has been falling up here for some time now. Time for lunch!

Our lunch spot, and Mt. Baker is hiding behind those clouds

There was a little breeze, but nothing we couldn't handle as we settled in for a nice lunch break. The clouds came and went and I tried to capture Mt. Baker when she would allow a little peek of her summit behind the clouds, but it wasn't easy. You can see, however, we had a nice place for our rest spot.

Doug enjoying the view

Here's Doug enjoying the wonderful view while we stopped for lunch. I think those clouds were nothing short of amazing. In the picture below, looking out at Mt. Sefrit, Peggy and Richard are also enjoying the view.

Peggy and Richard with Mt. Sefrit behind

And reluctantly, we realized it was time to start back down the trail and retrace our steps back to the cars. It had been a wonderful trip to one of our most favorite spots, with some of our favorite people. Before we started back down, I captured this picture of Carol.

Dear Carol looking glamorous

Although she might not like it, I simply love this picture of her and after I finish with this post, it's going on Facebook, whether she likes it or not. That is Mt. Sefrit on the left and Mt. Shuksan on the right. We covered seven-plus miles and almost 3,000 feet elevation gain and loss before we got back to the cars. It was a wonderful late-season trip to the High Country, one I will not soon forget!

:-)

Our Halloween fun

Chase as Maleficent barista

I sure had a good time going about my usual daily routine on Halloween. My first stop was at the coffee shop, where Chase had a good Maleficent costume going. He said that one youngster thought he was dressed as a yak. Somebody who didn't see the movie, obviously.

Les sporting some spider earrings

Then off to my exercise class, where Les was wearing some cool earrings for the occasion. Unfortunately, nobody else was dressed up. I looked to see if he had pierced earlobes from an earlier incarnation as a hippie, but no, these are the clip-on kind. I remember how painful they were (are).

Another one of my friends asked if I liked her costume, which was, she said, the attire of an old woman. I liked that idea so much that I used it myself. And then last night I was all ready for the few trick-or-treaters we usually get, but not one showed up. I was forced to sample the wares myself and will use the rest for treats on my upcoming hikes. Hope you had a great Halloween!
:-)