Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Three it is!
For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge I went looking for threes and found these!
Three turtles sunning –
Three chairs waiting –
Three foxgloves growing –
Three giants standing –
~ Susanne
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Blue and White at Coulon Park
Every time I walk at Coulon Park there’s something special to enjoy. And though my feet were firmly planted on the ground, today it was the sky.
For Jo’s Monday Walks.
~ Susanne
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Poor Tiger – A Conversation
“Tiger?”
“Yes, Sue?”
“About yesterday…..”
“Yes, Sue?”
“Just an apology of sorts Tiger. I want you to know that I didn’t really want to coax you into the box but sometimes we do what we must rather than what we want.”
“You know how I hate the box, Sue ”
“Yes I do Tiger. Your howling told me so. But the good news is, you’re all up to date. No more trips to the Vet for many years to come – cat years that is.”
“Glad to know, Sue. But I still don’t see why it was necessary. I’m healthy and happy, you know that.”
“Right Tiger. But I hope to keep you that way. So anyway, you can relax now and go back to what you were doing.”
“Thanks Sue.”
~ Susanne
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Reflections on the Cedar River
Last week we took a walk on the Cedar River Trail. It had rained the night before and heavy clouds remained overhead.
But the river was still and placid,
reflecting the loveliness nearby.
For Sunday Still’s, Stillness.
~ Susanne
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A Drive to Black Diamond and the Green River Gorge
Bob and I have been unloading some things by consigning them for sale at a collectible store in Black Diamond. So once a month we make the drive to the old coal town to collect money from our sales, hopefully greater than what we spend while there. 🙂 Hey – it’s all for fun.
Regardless, the drive’s the thing. We head down the Maple Valley Highway and if the weather is decent we stop by Nolte State Park for a walk around Deep Lake. But even if we don’t have time for that we always swing by the Green River Gorge and walk out on the one-lane bridge and peer over the side.
After oohing and ahhing over the views – which are incredible this time of year – and promising ourselves that someday we’ll hike to the bottom, we move on to Black Diamond which looks like this in case you wondered. Well at least that’s what the museum next to the collectible store looks like. I have yet to visit as it’s only open a few days a week and somehow we’re always there on the wrong day.
Next time, we tell ourselves. When we do, I will share it with you.
~ Susanne
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A Trip Through Grand Coulee Country
You’ve no doubt heard of the Dam – the largest hydropower producer in the United States and one of the largest concrete structures in the world.
But there’s more to Grand Coulee than the Dam.
“Appropriate as the word grand is for the dam, the name Grand Coulee actually refers to a unique geological feature created thousands of years ago when Ice Age glaciers blocked the ancient riverbed of the Columbia River. When water eventually traveled under the ice dam, great floods scoured out hundreds of miles of deep gulches, or coulees, in the Columbia River Basin. One of these, the Grand Coulee, is four miles wide and bordered on three sides by steep cliffs.” For more on the Dam see the National Parks website.
We visited Grand Coulee last week – dramatic, arid, vast and empty – starting from Wenatchee Confluence State Park where we were camped next to the Columbia River.
We headed northeast toward Grand Coulee Country where there were roads with slow moving tractors,
and lonesome farms,
and fields growing wheat and electricity.
We passed through small towns including Waterville,
and Douglas, where we found a fire truck for sale.
There was a stop at Dry Falls, where a giant waterfall once flowed during the last Ice Age
which I told you about previously – here.
From Dry Falls we headed to Banks Lake, a 31-mile long reservoir filled in the 1950s to provide irrigation water to the Columbia Basin.
We passed by Steamboat Rock, which you can hike to the top of, but we did not.
Instead we continued our drive around the lake
through scablands with sagebrush and canyons
until we approached Grand Coulee Dam from behind, where the Columbia River was backed up waiting to become hydroelectric power.
We stopped to admire its awesome size and watch the movie at the Visitor Center.
Then we continued on our way south through the heart of Grand Coulee
and west again to where we’d started, arriving back to our campsite in Wenatchee as the sun was about to set.
It was everything we wanted in a road trip – amazing geography, deserted roads, and small towns, all under blue skies and brilliant sunshine.
We vowed to return.
~ Susanne
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Tiger – from the Jail!
Before there was Benji there was Tiger. This is one of his earliest stories and reminds me it’s time to make another appointment with the jail! 🙂
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Why I Don’t Take Selfies
Because I want to look like this.
Not like this.
(Sorry Benji.)
~ Susanne and Benji
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My Little Backyard Chickadees
In the heat of the day I turned on the stream and sat under the shade of the Douglas Firs.
It wasn’t long before I heard the chickadees calling to one another, flying overhead, finally daring to stop by the precious flowing water.
We were all refreshed.
~ Susanne
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One Old Fire Truck for Sale
On our recent travels through Eastern Washington we passed through the tiny town of Douglas and found this old fire truck for sale.
We stopped to inspect it,
but decided against the purchase.
Shared with Cees’ Fun Foto Challenge – One.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 