Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Until Next Year
Just a few pictures of Benji, who despite the cropped ear and missing leg, remains as cute as ever.
May we all be as content as he is.
Taking the rest of the year off. Hope to see you again in 2025!
~ Susanne
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A Special Walk at Coulon Park with Bald Eagles
I needed the walk. I was feeling a bit under the weather, and perhaps the weather was feeling a bit under me.
So I headed to Coulon Park to be revived; it was cold and cloudy but not raining and the air was fresh and clean.
Actually, it was perfect.
The Olympics provided a gorgeous backdrop for the play that was to unfold.
I walked the path around the lake and saw hundreds of ducks and geese and birds of all colors and sizes.
But the best were high above
bald eagles soaring above the lake,
then diving into the water, again and again.
I watched from a distance then went to Bird Island where I could see them close up when they landed.
Smart birds, those bald eagles, hanging out where the salmon are. I could have watched them all day.
“South Lake Washington is an important nursery for juvenile Chinook salmon. Adults lay their eggs in the upper reaches of the Cedar River. Once the eggs hatch, the juveniles swim out of the mouth of the Cedar River and rear along the southern shorelines of the lake between January and June.”
I’ll be back.
At Coulon Park on the south shore of Lake Washington.
~ Susanne
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Festive and Metallic at Wright Park
Earlier this week we went to Tacoma and while we were waiting for our new sheepskin seat covers to be fitted to our car, we took a walk at nearby Wright Park.
In addition to the large trees, walking path, fountains and pond,
there was a conservatory, filled with interesting plants and festive decorations, many metallic.
There were many poinsettias, not only in traditional red,
but in hybrids of white and pink,
my favorites.
Now for some history:
“Poinsettias have been a symbol of Christmas in the United States for many generations, but what we know as the “poinsettia” has a true name – Cuetlaxochitl – and a deeper story. Cuetlaxochitl (kwet-la-SHO-she) is native to Mexico and was cultivated by the Aztecs for medicinal purposes and as a dye. The Aztecs also grew extensive botanical gardens which included cuetlaxochitl. Motezuma (the last Aztec emperor) would send caravans of the plans to the capital for all to enjoy.”
In 1828, John Roberts Poinsett, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, “discovered” cuetlaxochitl and brought cuttings back to the U.S. and it was then named after him.
Most poinsettias in the United States today are grown in California. The beauty is in the colored leaves or bracts, the tiny flowers in the middle mostly go unnoticed.
I used to bring poinsettias home for winter color but stopped when I learned they were mildly toxic to cats. Now I just enjoy them where they are used for holiday decorating everywhere.
Sharing with this month’s #Sunday Stills Color Challenge, Metallic and Cee’s #Flower of the Day.
~ Susanne
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Would You Like to Live in a Rainforest?
Anton Kestner did.
Back in 1891 he built his home deep in the rainforest on the north side of Lake Quinault.
After taking the Maple Glade Trail, we visited the old homestead.
Looks cozy to me, the low clouds like smoke from a still-burning wood stove.
In the early days he would have arrived at his home in the woods by crossing the lake and likely traveling on foot, not by this charming old truck, which now decorates the property.
“The Kestner Homestead Historic District is a complex of structures and landscape features which
provides a strong sense of the period of early settlement in the Quinault River Valley beginning in the late 19th century and continuing into the early 20th century, a theme significant in Olympic National Park history. The spatial arrangement of the building cluster in relationship to the cleared pasture areas and orchard provides important information about how these early homesteads were organized and functioned in this remote part of the country. Although the buildings and fencing is in various states of deterioration, the homestead overall exhibits a high degree of cultural landscape integrity in its location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.” National Park Service, National Historic Register
Though the homestead has long been abandoned and is now part of Olympic National Park, there are others like it in the area where people still live surrounded by woods.
I wouldn’t mind it myself, if only occasionally.
~ Susanne
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Clam Lights are Back!
Every year I look forward to the beautiful holiday lights at Coulon Park on Lake Washington, and we went down Saturday night to see them.
The lights were gorgeous as always, but it was especially nice to have the clams running again! For many years, Ivar’s sponsored Clam Lights – the video below was taken in 2019, the last time they ran.
Five years later they are back – I assume the hiatus in 2020 was due to Covid – remember those days?
After our walk and dinner of fish and chips, the darkness deepened, and the lights took over.
Holiday Lights are a tradition at Coulon Park, just like Ivar’s is a Seattle tradition. Ivar Haglund opened his first seafood restaurant on the Seattle waterfront in 1938 and it has been the place to go for fish and chips, clams, and chowder ever since. There are several locations in the Puget Sound area, including the one at Coulon Park where we often stop for lunch, after a walk around the lake.
Sharing with #Sunday Stills Holiday Traditions.
~ Susanne
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Happy Caturday!
It’s cold and rainy outside, and winter is just around the corner.
Time for a catnap.
Happy Caturday from Susanne and Benji!
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Olympic National Park – Two Nights, Two Roosevelts, and Two Lakes
It was a short get away, but we packed in most of our favorite spots in Olympic National Park, starting with Lake Quinault.
We stayed at Lake Quinault Lodge where FDR stayed. It was Franklin Roosevelt who visited the area in 1937 and signed the act the following year that created Olympic National Park.
We took a walk nearby for a look at the largest Spruce tree in the world, which I showed you pictures of in an earlier post; what’s a few more among friends?
On the north side of the lake, we saw elk grazing, Roosevelt Elk, not named for FDR, but rather for his distant cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt. It was Teddy Roosevelt who established Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909 to protect the elk, the largest in North America, before the national park was created.
We had the Maple Glade Rain Forest Trail totally to ourselves as we absorbed all the green that we could, forest bathing I believe it’s called!
The next day we headed north for Lake Crescent, my favorite, and arrived to find the sun setting over the lake. (We took our time with stops by Ruby Beach and Hoh River Rain Forest, which I’ll save for later.)
FDR also stayed in this lodge, and we found signs of his visit everywhere.
We’d eaten a late lunch before we arrived so settled on dessert in front the fire.
The next morning, I rose at sunrise and wandered around snapping pictures of the lake.
“Lake Crescent, a cold, clear, glacially-carved lake, owes its existence to ice. Its azure depths, which plummet to 624 feet, were gouged by huge ice sheets thousands of years ago. As the ice retreated, it left behind a steep valley that filled with the clear blue waters of Lake Crescent.” Olympic National Park
Snow could be seen far off in the hills, a sure sign of winter coming.
That night we were back home and snug in our bed again.
~ Susanne
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I brake for Roosevelt Elk – on the Olympic Peninsula
Last week we spent a few days on the Olympic Peninsula and I was impressed once again with the raw, natural beauty of my home state of Washington.
So much so that I don’t know how to unpack the pictures I took, how to show you the beauty of the lakes, rivers, ocean, rain forest and wildlife. So rather than try to cover it in a single post I thought I’d devote this one to the Roosevelt Elk which inhabit the land.
We saw herds of them feeding in the Quinault Valley, Hoh River Valley and near the Dosewallips River on Hood Canal. More than I can remember on previous trips.
Did you know that Washington’s Olympic Peninsula is home to the largest natural population of Roosevelt Elk in the world? Neither did I. One of the reasons I love traveling, even to the same places again and again as I always learn something new.
Fortunately, these beautiful animals are protected from hunting in the sanctuary of Olympic National Park.
~ Susanne
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Memories of Turkey Day
When I was growing up my favorite part of Thanksgiving wasn’t the turkey. Neither was it the dressing or the sweet potatoes which are my favorites today but not then. What I remember most are the hors d’oeuvres and the wine flips and the trip downtown for football.
First the hors d’oeuvres, which is not only the hardest thing to spell, but also may be too grand a word for what we made. We started with crackers, then squirted on the cheese from a can. (Do they still have that?) Next, we added cold cuts like salami and pepperoni, topped it off with olives and pickles, and used a toothpick to hold the tower together. We placed them on a tray and delivered them to our guests in style. When it was empty we ran back to the kitchen to build the next batch, all the while enjoying a few direct squirts of cheese into our mouth. Tasty little treats they were.
But dinner was not yet, for while the turkey was in the oven, my sisters drove us to Seattle’s Memorial Stadium for Turkey Day, to watch their high school football team, the Chief Sealth Seahawks, play in the championship game. And I – the little sister – got to tag along with them and their friends. I loved every minute I was in the presence of those confident teenage girls and couldn’t wait to be their age.
The ride home was exhilarating if we won, as we shouted out the windows to the losers driving by, “Seahawks Rule!” Whatever the kids from other cars would yell back, we would always counter with, “who won the game?” and that would silence them.
I remember the year Chief Sealth lost to the Roosevelt Roughriders, 10 to 7.
The ride home was quiet, and we rolled up our windows. But by the time we made it back home, the sting of the loss was over, the turkey was ready, and its aroma filled the air. As we ate our dinner, mom pulled out the special beaded wine glasses and filled ours with 7-Up and a splash of wine, turning our drink a lovely pink (promise not to tell.) Next year we said.
Interestingly, it would be those same Roosevelt Roughriders that I would root for in high school, not the Sealth Seahawks, as we ended up moving to the north end right before my high school years started. But that is another story.
Happy Thanksgiving!
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 