Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Blackberries are Free for the Picking!
It’s August and the blackberries are ripening.
I like them myself but not quite as much as my mom does.
I think she loves them not only because they’re sweet and plentiful, but mostly because they’re free.
Free food for the picking appeals to someone who grew up during the Great Depression.
Which reminds me of the last time I went berry picking with mom. She was 89. Today at 95, she still enjoys the blackberries my friends and I pick for her.
~ Susanne
Things that Made me Happy this Week
A lovely bouquet from my husband.
A kitty returned in a rainstorm, the same kitty who walked across my keyboard while I was playing, improving the sound from piano to strings, now sitting on my lap,
while I watch the hummingbirds.
~ Susanne
It’s Gotta be Licorice
If it’s on the menu, it’s my first choice, much to my husband’s chagrin.
It turns my lips, tongue and teeth not black exactly, but a strange purple or green.
‘You can walk ahead of me, dear, if it bothers you.’
It’s always on the menu at Scoopers in Long Beach, and best enjoyed watching the waves roll in.
Sharing for Sunday Stills #Taste of Summer.
~ Susanne
HBC and Union Jack
I rarely post twice on the same day but wanted to drop by for the final day of #SimplyRed.
We stopped by Fort Vancouver on our way home from Portland and I found the history fascinating.
The Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver under the British flag in 1825 as a fur trading post. Only the ‘gentlemen’ lived inside the fort; the workers who hailed from many different tongues and tribes (native tribes, European trappers, and Hawaiian islanders) lived outside.
Conflict arose when Americans began to arrive in the region and by 1846, the US and Britain settled the international boundary, putting the fort into American hands.
Fort Vancouver today is a national historic site on the Washington side of the Columbia River, and archeologists are still mining the objects and stories in the region.
This handsome bird still calls it home.
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was founded in 1670 by royal charter and controlled the fur trade throughout English and later British North America.
What began with fur trading eventually evolved into a Canadian department store chain, which after 355 years, closed June 1, 2025.
~ Susanne
Kitty Fix
On our getaway to Portland, we stayed with my sister and were delighted to meet two additions to the family. Still kittens, fluffy and silky in black, they greeted us every morning with tiny meows and kitty antics.
I’ve never had long-haired black kitties, and I was immediately captured by their beauty. If they were mine, I would give them names of royalty, perhaps Sheba and Victoria would do.
I’ll have more to share from our trip in later posts, but the visit with the family was the best.
~ Susanne
Knowing we’re Going
He always knows when the suitcases come out
and resigns himself to his fate.
Poor Benji.
Back soon.
Susanne
Hike to Marymere Falls, at Lake Crescent
Lake Crescent is my favorite lake in Washington, the USA, and maybe the whole world, though of course I haven’t seen them all.
An ancient, glacier-carved lake over 600 ft. deep, we never get tired of visiting this beauty any time of year.
Even though we didn’t stay there on our recent trip, we did drop by to take the hike to Marymere Falls, .9 miles one way through old-growth forest to a 90 ft. waterfall.
It was a hot sunny day (a heatwave meant temperatures in the nineties) but the woods kept us cool.
I captured Bob with his fishing pole surrounded by the sun’s rays.
I left him behind at the stream to try his luck,
while I continued up the trail to Marymere Falls.
A few switchbacks up the steep trail, and I arrived at the falls.
Here it is flowing.
Every trip to Olympic National Park leaves us wanting more, so we’ll return again this fall after the crowds have thinned, hopefully to stay at Lake Crescent or nearby Sol Duc, where Bob will try his hand again at some catch and release.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 