Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Unexpected Beauty: The Song of the House Finch
While walking in the garden one morning this week, I heard the lovely song of the house finch in the trees above.
A common bird in the Pacific Northwest, its real beauty is in its song!
Sharing for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected Beauty.
~ Susanne
Morning Tour of the May Garden
I woke early to find the sun rising in the garden.
It shined on the garden beds anchored by the clematis which is still the star of the show.
Other plants are waking up too like this old fashioned fragrant rose.
The strawberry bed is full to overflowing as Benji points out here. In a month or so we should have some for eating.
Next to the strawberry bed is the picnic table that Bob built last month – solid and made of Doug Fir – we’ll be eating here soon!
Opposite the garden beds is the stream – more of Bob’s handiwork.
I turned it on and enjoyed the beauty and sound of its flowing. Benji joined me to freshen up,
alert to the squirrel activity overhead.
The old bike nearby is being swallowed up in green, more of Bob’s artistic touch.
You might say these ferns are too. No, he didn’t plant them but he asks me to please let them be. They spring up every year, tall and gangly and I remove the most offensive ones. Still, the new growth is interesting and beautiful in its own way.
The fence is up along the back and we like it. Sweet woodruff surrounds the birdbath and the feeders are for the hummingbirds who visit daily.
In the middle of the hummingbird garden is my favorite azalea. Don’t you love the color? It finally opened this morning releasing its sweet honeysuckle fragrance.
On the other side a thimbleberry anchors the corner. My sister gave me this native and it’s spreading nicely just where I need it to. Soon enough red berries will appear for me and the birds. The candytuft in front makes a nice contrast. You never know for sure what will work, but this did and I am pleased.
Well that’s enough for now. But before I go, here’s a lovely finch to serenade you with birdsong.
Did you hear it?
I hope you enjoyed this tour of my garden! 🙂
~ Susanne
A Photo a Week Challenge: Clematis Three Ways
I planted this clematis in my garden many years ago and it’s been happily climbing ever since – up the fence, around neighboring shrubs, and over everything in its path. It doesn’t ask for fertilizer or any special care, just a place to spread out and display its glory.
Here it is three ways – from far and near and different times of day.
For this week’s Photo a Week Challenge Three of a Kind.
~ Susanne
Catnip or Catmint? Let the Cats Decide! — Katzenworld
Catnip or Catmint? Let the Cats Decide! A Story of Tiger and Benji on the Katzenworld site today. You may remember it.
I used to have a nice patch of catmint growing happily next to the fence, wild and messy looking at times but enjoyed by both kitties. Here you can see Tiger having a bite for lunch.…
via Catnip or Catmint? Let the Cats Decide! — Katzenworld
~ Susanne
Spring Color at Soos Creek Botanical Garden
It’s been a long week and I needed to get out for fresh air and an easy walk. Soos Creek Botanical Garden was just the ticket so after a quick coffee stop I drove south to the lovely Botanical Garden in Auburn, to walk the paths and trails seen on the map here.
I started at the Schaefer Pond Garden which anchors the Carlmas Long Borders promenade.
I paused nearby to watch a hungry visitor feed from the blossoms of a large rhododendron.
I walked the path next to the border where rhododendrons and azaleas of all colors were in various stages of bloom,
including this fragrant azalea sweet as honeysuckle,
and this one a brilliant purple.
There were many shades of pink too
including this one joined by a matching clematis.
Not to be outdone, there were yellows and greens in abundance and hummingbirds found their flowers as well.
I walked to the native woodland area where delicate bleeding hearts were thick as a carpet
and down to Soos Creek
before heading back up the other side to the pond where I could have sat and stared all day.
Instead I found the Plant Sale and picked up one of the fragrant azaleas for my own garden.
It was the just the right amount of walking in the wonderful color palette of spring.
It was time to go home and tend to my own garden.
~ Susanne
Beautiful Cat Eyes
For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge Eyes, here’s the handsome Benji resting in the garden bed, clearly focused and seeing all.
~ Susanne
The Ducklings of Clark Lake
Last week we thought we’d walk someplace new and discovered Clark Lake Park a short drive from our house. Though it’s a small park, what it lacks in size and services it makes up for in tranquility and diversity, with 126 acres of meadows, forest, wetlands and a freshwater lake.
We took the path to the lake,
and were delighted to find a brood of ducklings, tiny and fearless, swimming with enthusiasm and the energy of new life.
So suited were they to their environment I found it hard to find them in my pictures as they blended into their island home,
often under mama’s watchful eye.
We watched them as long as we could before starting back through the woods
passing over this stream perfectly reflecting the trees overhead.
Historically Clark Lake and its outfall stream had a population of Salmon (Coho and Chinook) and Bull Trout. Conservation efforts are currently underway to remove invasive species and replant native plants along the stream corridor to restore habitat for salmon and other wildlife. This park is mostly for them.
But it’s still a lovely place to walk and made better by the ducklings of Clark Lake.
Shared for Jo’s Monday Walk.
~ Susanne
Benji is the Best Medicine
I’m in bed today with a bad cold (are there any good ones?) but Benji wants to play.
“Come on, Sue!” he says. “Bet you can’t find me.”
“Bet I can’t either, Benji.”
“Over here Sue!”
Of course I can’t resist and I’m up taking pictures of the cute boy with the wild eyes.
As I head back to bed he’s racing round and round the room
and by the time I’m tucked back in I feel something behind me (how he got there first I don’t know.)
They say that laughter is the best medicine so as long as Benji’s around I should get better soon.
~ Susanne and Benji
Flaming Geyser State Park, A Missing Flame and Steelhead in Training
In the middle of a rainy April we picked the sunniest day for a walk at Flaming Geyser State Park where instead of a flame we found a flowing river, luscious forest and steelhead in training – who knew there was such a thing?
To get there we took the scenic route from Auburn through the quiet pastures and farmland of the Green River Valley, which eventually led to the bridge into the park.
There we took the trail into the forest alongside the Green River where all was fragrant and lush and mossy green.
We emerged later near the Flaming Geyser for which the park was named – though we were a few years late getting to it.
According to Wikipedia, “The park was named for a flame which burned through a concrete basin, fueled by a methane gas pocket 1,000 feet below the surface. When the pocket was discovered by prospective coal miners in the early 1900s, the test hole hit gas and saltwater, shooting water and flames 25 feet into the air. The same methane pocket seeps gas through a mud hole to create the “Bubbling Geyser” nearby. Both “geysers” can be found along a short hike, though as of 2016 the flaming geyser is no longer lit due to depletion of its methane source.”
But we did get to see summer steelhead sporting about in the conditioning pond which prepares them for release.
Flaming Geyser State Park has over 500 acres including three miles of shoreline. There were many other trails to explore but we were running out of time and would have to save them for another day. We headed back to where we started, taking a different route next to marshy wetlands filled with birdsong.
It was still and quiet, but at the same time full of activity. I walked slowly hoping to capture pictures of the frogs and birds but they moved too quickly or managed to stay hidden.
While I lingered Bob went ahead and found a place to sit, then called me over when I caught up with him to look at these.
“Daisies,” he said. “Aren’t they pretty? Everyone walks by without really noticing them. I think they’re happy when someone stops to appreciate them.”
And so we did.
Shared with Jo’s Monday Walks.
~ Susanne
Something there is that loves a Bridge!
I don’t love walls but I do love bridges so I had to share a few favorites for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge.
I’ll start in my home state of Washington and move down the coast.
First up is the Vantage Bridge carrying Interstate 90 across the mighty Columbia River near the town of Vantage and George (yes, there is a George, Washington!)
Moving south but still crossing the Columbia at its mouth, is the Astoria-Megler Bridge connecting Washington to Oregon at the historic city of Astoria.
In California I have two bridges to show you. First up the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge connecting, you guessed it, San Francisco to Oakland, and more often simply called the Bay Bridge.
Next door is that other bridge you may have heard of – San Francisco’s Golden Gate.
Bridges – still better than walls.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 