Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
A Visit to Bremerton and Harborside Fountain Park
Across Puget Sound, just a ferry ride away from Seattle is Bremerton, home of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
On its waterfront is lovely Harborside Fountain Park, where you’ll see water shooting out of what looks like a giant submarine, at least during the summer months.
I squared the pictures above for #GeometricJanuary while there’s still time.
But arguably the best part of any trip to Bremerton are the views of Seattle from the ferry,
and the grand mountain next door.
~ Susanne
My Anna’s Hummingbirds
As temperatures continue to plunge, I’m taking extra care to keep the hummingbird feeders thawed out and replenished. That means remembering to bring them in at night and returning them first thing in the morning; otherwise they are frozen solid. My sweet little birds perch in the trees before and after coming to feed, so I’m able to capture them at rest, these below, from yesterday ~
I caught the shining one in the maple tree out front this morning.
I love them all! 🙂
Sharing with #SundayStills, Watching and Feeding the Birds.
~ Susanne
Windshield Art – Frosty Squares
This morning when I started my car, I saw lovely ice crystals on the windshield of varying shapes and sizes.
These are extraordinary, I thought to myself, all the while realizing how very ordinary, they were. Works of art, I thought, so I explored them more in color.
We haven’t had any snow this year but the icy ferns and frosty flowers looked like snowflakes to me.
Snowflakes and frost crystals are geometric so I squared the pictures above for GeometricJanuary.
I didn’t square the one below as I liked seeing the frosty crystals gallop along horizontally.
~ Susanne
A Getaway to Bellingham – Fairhaven, Lake Padden, and WWU
A few days away does a body good and so it was for us this week, when we headed north to Bellingham.
Ninety miles north of Seattle, close to the Canadian Border, Bellingham is home to Western Washington University, where I went to school back in the day and fell in love with the town and the campus.
We stayed in Old Fairhaven, a unique, historic district where we could walk to our favorite bookstore, shops and restaurants.
Our first full day there, we woke early and went to Woods Coffee on Bellingham Bay. Then we drove to Lake Padden, a few miles away, a popular park, that for some reason we’d never been to before. Wow! We loved it! We walked the trail around the lake, through the forest, a perfect length of 2.75 miles.
There were a handful of people on the trail, including runners in shorts and t-shirts, though it was in the thirties; must be students we thought, young and hearty. (We were bundled up.)
There were lots of ducks and birds in the lake,
but what caught my attention was a Great Blue Heron hiding in the trees.
After our walk, we returned to Fairhaven for lunch at the Colophon Cafe,
then headed to Western, just before sunset. Western Washington University has a beautiful campus, surrounded by woods, and holds the sweet memories of youth. Old Main is still standing, where I registered each quarter, in person, from a paper catalog, long before the internet.
We walked through Red Square, surrounded by buildings where I took my classes. I especially loved the first two years of school when I had to satisfy general liberal arts requirements. Yes, eventually, there were Business and Accounting classes, which I enjoyed too, but not as much as English, Western World Literature, and History of the Middle Ages.
Across the street from Wilson Library, the large sculpture is still standing, near the Viking Union Building, overlooking Bellingham Bay,
where we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.
We passed more sculptures on our way back to the car (Western is known for their collection,) including these little people,
and stairs to nowhere.
The sun set quickly, and it was dark by the time we were back at our hotel. After freshening up, we walked to dinner, adding to our totals for the day, 17,000 steps, or 7 miles according to my fitbit. (I hadn’t walked that many steps in a day, since our trip to NYC last fall!)
A couple of days away was just what we needed. Time to head home.
~ Susanne
More Birds in the Winter Garden in all Sizes
As the temperatures have dropped, I’ve had to keep the water thawed and available for the birds, and the hummingbird feeders, as well.
Today they appreciated it as dozens of birds, visited throughout the day.
Starting with Chestnut-backed Chickadees,
and Golden-crowned Kinglets.
Townsends’ Warblers, showed up unexpectedly, covered in even more gold than the kinglets.
A Rufous-sided Towhee, dropped by as well, mostly staying in the shadows; similar but more distinctive than the American Robin.
A male Flicker swooped in and dwarfed them all, landing on a Douglas fir tree, to hunt for bugs.
And of course, Anna’s hummingbirds came to feed,
waiting patiently in nearby shrubs,
perhaps the handsomest of all.
~ Susanne
Squares from Spokane – Remnants from a World’s Fair
I was born and raised in Seattle and have traveled extensively throughout Washington State. But I’ve only been to Spokane, Washington’s second largest city, a couple of times, usually on the way to someplace else. Sorry, Spokane. (Granted it’s a five-hour drive east.)
So when we actually stopped and spent the night there a few years ago, I was surprised to find a charming city center, mostly on the site of the 1974 World’s Fair.
After looking back at photos from that trip, I realized they would work well for Becky’s GeometricJanuary challenge, so I squared them.
I’ll start with the 1902 Clock Tower, a remnant of the Great Northern Railroad Depot. Though the depot and railroad next to the Spokane River was demolished in advance of the 1974 Expo, the tower was saved and is now part of Riverfront Park. The blocks add a nice touch, don’t you think?
The Pavillion and Sky Ride also come from Riverfront Park, the site of Expo ’74: you can read more about it here if you like: World’s Fair in Spokane
The Red Flyer Wagon (the largest in the world) was built in 1989, not part of the fair, but a welcome addition to Spokane, for children of all ages (including my husband.)
World Fairs seem to be a thing of the past, but they left behind some interesting geometric structures, like this one, from the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962.
And that will do.
~ Susanne
Cat Stickers 2 – Benji and Tiger
Having already shared with you my handsome Benji in sticker form,
I thought it only fair to share Tiger as well, so here he is posing.
Just peel and apply cat as needed.
I’m obviously having too much fun with these edits; anything goes on a Caturday!
~Susanne, Benji and Tiger
Geometric Fields – Daffodils and Tulips
January is a dreary month if you live in the Pacific Northwest, there’s just no way around it. The days are short and gray with lots of rain, it makes me long for spring!
Fortunately, it won’t be too much longer till I can visit the wonderful fields of daffodils (March) and tulips (April) in the Skagit Valley. In the meantime, I’m looking back at previous years to share some pictures to brighten your day, and I’ve squared them for GeometricJanuary
Why not? Just look at those lines!
All these pictures were taken at my favorite farm, Roozengaarde, in Mt. Vernon, Washington, in the Skagit Valley. And I’m sharing them with Cee’s Flower of the Day.
~ Susanne
My Tiny Backyard Birds
I love birds of all sizes, especially the tiny ones in my yard.
These black-capped chickadees were perfectly camouflaged in the tree while I watched them through my office window. Chickadees were my gateway birds, the first I learned to identify by their sound (chickadee-dee-dee) and are still one of my favorites. They range in size from 4 – 6 inches long.
Similar in size to the chickadees, Juncos visit in great numbers throughout the day, all seasons. The males have dark black heads, females, lighter shades of brown. These friendly birds make themselves at home; I’ve had to discourage their nest building too close to the house, for their safety.
I see more of them than any other birds in my yard, or maybe I just notice them more, because they’re ground feeders. You wouldn’t think there’d be seeds in the grass this time of year, but they found some yesterday.
I love the burst of gold when golden-crowned kinglets show up. These are some of the tiniest birds that visit, only 3 – 4 inches long. They flit around quickly, moving from the grass, to garden pots, even the deck, so it’s harder to get a clear picture of them.
After looking for food below, they often fly into the evergreens above where they hang on to the branches looking for insects.
Anna’s Hummingbirds, are similar in size to the kinglets, perhaps a bit larger. As you already know, if you follow my blog, I never get tired of posting pictures of them.
And that will do for birding today.
~ Susanne
White and Wonderful, Snow and Clouds
For this week’s photo challenge, Sunday Stills, #White I’ll look to the pure driven snow and the snow-white clouds for inspiration.
No snow so far in Seattle this year, so I’ll use some photos from past year’s glories, accented with two of my favorite things: Benji,
and Anna’s hummingbirds.
No problem with clouds, which we have plenty of in the great Northwest, all times of year.
My first cloud photo hails from the other side of the mountains near Wenatchee, where despite the backdrop of mountains and rolling hills, the sky’s the thing.
Next up is the mountain in my backyard (figuratively speaking) where it seems Mt. Rainier is no match for the gobbler overhead.
Sometimes it’s only about the clouds, as in the next photo, which I call cloudbursts. Don’t they seem joyous?
Finally, I’ll close with a picture from high above the clouds, where thankfully, the sun is always shining.
~ Susanne
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