Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
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
Cat Sticker
I turned Benji into a cat sticker.
In living color.
Just for fun. Yes, I did.
Happy Caturday!
~ Susanne
Astoria Bridge, in Many Colors, in Many Ways
This month’s theme of Becky’s Square Challenge is GeometricJanuary.
“Geometric” includes the many shapes, forms, angles and lines surrounding us (that’s the general idea, I never was good in geometry,) but the trick is in squaring the photo.
I decided to do just that for the Astoria Bridge, the world’s longest continuous-truss bridge when it was completed in 1966, and still the longest in North America. The bridge is 4.1 miles long and stretches from the southern coast of Washington across the mouth of the Columbia River, to Astoria Oregon. We’ve crossed the bridge many times on road trips down the Oregon Coast.
We’ve seen it from many angles, at all times of day,
even from aboard our cruise ship one morning, where our first stop was Astoria.
The following shots of the bridge are otherworldly, against a scarlet sky, during wildfire season a couple years ago.
Wildfires are terrible, but in this case, they were far away and only the smoke made it to the coast, producing a mysterious sunset.
~ Susanne
A Burst of Color on a Dreary Winter’s Day
We’ve had a rather dull start to 2025, from the point of view of the weather: drizzly when not pouring rain, cold but not enough to snow. It makes me long for spring but we’ve quite a ways to go!
In the meantime, I wandered outside to see if I might discover something of interest in the garden.
I found raindrops hanging from the end of barren branches,
And a blur of berries.
I found a spider hanging in his web,
And Benji guarding the shed.
And I found a burst of color in my Anna’s Hummingbirds, looking quite dapper in purple
or is it hot pink?
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 