Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Long Beach Peninsula and Long Beach, the Town
Long Beach is perhaps my favorite place on the Washington Coast and good for a visit any time of year.
The beach proclaims itself to be the longest in the world.
Perhaps it is if you count the entire peninsula which is 28 miles in length; or maybe it’s only the longest drivable beach, who knows for sure?
Either way, I prefer walking, and these sandcastles greeted me one morning.
I also found birds in abundance, of all sizes and persuasions, including the usual gulls and shorebirds,
and the not so usual and unexpected vulture!
The boardwalk is nice for keeping sand off your feet and the paved path below great for riding your bike. We took the boardwalk one night to watch the sunset,
and the moonrise!
One block over from the ocean is Main Street where we shopped, enjoyed the murals, sculptures and quirky Marsh’s Museum, and especially the bakery!
We also visited the two lighthouses nearby,
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse from Waikiki Beach (left), and North Head Lighthouse (right) with views of the ocean below. Both lighthouses are still operational.
And no trip to Long Beach is complete without crossing into Oregon via the 4.1-mile-long Astoria-Megler Bridge, over the mouth of the Columbia River, so we did.
Views from the bridge are great, these are looking from Astoria towards Washington.
I’ll save the highlights from Oregon for later, including the wreck of the Peter Iredale (I never get tired of seeing it) and Cannon Beach, arguably the most famous of Oregon’s beach towns.
~ Susanne
American Goldfinch
I rarely see a Goldfinch in my yard; I guess the accommodations and food supply are not to their liking. So, I was happy to see our state bird recently in Westport on our way to Long Beach. Happier still that this handsome male posed for me.
~ Susanne
A Conversation with Tiger – concerning Benji
“Thanks, Tiger.”
“Sure, Sue. For what?”
“For being so accommodating these past few months. I’ve had to spend so much time with Benji (understandably so) I feel like I’ve neglected you.”
“No problem, Sue. He always was high maintenance. Even before his mishap.”
“I suppose. But I appreciate you giving him the space he needs while he’s healing. And not taking advantage of his disability.”
“Disability? He’s still faster than me!”
“Well yes, he’s still Benji, isn’t he? And that’s a good thing. Anyway, I want to make it up to you. What’ll it be, extra snacks? More time on the bed?”
“Both would be great, Sue. But honestly, I’m easy to please. I’m just happy to live here with you.”
“Aw, thanks, Tiger. You’re the best. By the way, would you keep an eye on the boy when you’re outside? He still has the inclination to escape.”
“Will do. He won’t get away while I’m around. I’ve still got all four, if you know what I mean.”
“Thanks, Tiger. I appreciate it.”
~ Susanne & Tiger
P.S. In case you missed it: Here’s the story of Benji from earlier this year, when he became a tri-pawed. https://catsandtrailsandgardentales.com/2024/06/07/time-to-tell-you-about-benji/
On the Wing at Willapa Bay
Last week I spent a few days in Long Beach, perhaps my favorite place on the Washington Coast (you’ve already seen sunset.) I’ll have more to say about our trip in the coming days, including our excursions into Oregon. But for now, I’ll focus on the birds at Willapa Bay for this week’s #Sunday Stills Challenge.
According to Wikipedia, “Willapa Bay is a bay located on the southwest Pacific Coast of Washington state in the United States. The Long Beach Peninsula separates Willapa Bay from the greater expanse of the Pacific Ocean. With over 120 square miles (310 km2) of surface area Willapa Bay is the second-largest riverine estuary on the Pacific coast of the continental United States.”
“Willapa Bay is known for its biodiversity and much of it, including the entirety of Long Island, has been set aside as part of the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. The oyster beds help the ecosystem by providing habitats and filtering water, improving the quality of the water. The refuge is home to several endangered and threatened species including the snowy plover, marbled murrelets and brown pelican. Other birds that are commonly spotted throughout the refuge include bald eagles, great blue herons, peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks, marsh wrens and golden-crowned kinglets.”
Leadbetter Point State Park is adjacent to the wildlife refuge with easy access to the mudflats, so that’s where we went to see the birds.
Honestly, I don’t think I can tell one shorebird from another, but I love watching them just the same: eating on the mudflats, flying to and fro in unison at some mysterious command.
I can identify an eagle and managed to capture this one soaring high overhead, always welcome.
Not bad for July. I’ll have to visit again in the spring or fall when thousands of shorebirds stop by on their way to and from the Arctic.
~ Susanne
Blog Testing and Sunset and Moonrise in Color
I noticed recently that one of my posts did not show up in the Reader, which resulted in fewer views. I logged a case with WordPress and after a few denials (I was assured it was there, though I knew it was not) it was fixed, without explanation.
It happened again with my last post, which I created on my phone, using the Jetpack application. Some of you saw it anyway, as apparently you receive notifications by email, others may not have, if I believe the stats. Might Jetpack be the reason it failed to appear in the Reader?
So bear with me while I do some three-fold testing and also share with you the post in question.
#1 – To see whether today’s post, shows up in the Reader. I can check this easily and suspect it will if my suspicions are correct; I’m not using Jetpack; I’m creating it on my desktop.
#2 – To test a feature I’ve never used before, PressThis to share with you that post.
#3 Comparing PressThis above, to inserting a direct link to Sunset and Moonrise in Color
By the way, I’m ‘testing in production,’ which in the real world is an absolute no-no. When I worked in software testing and quality assurance, software code was developed, migrated to a test environment for thorough testing, then migrated to production when users were out of the system, before it went live.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice; there’s no good test environment for my blog, at least on my plan, other than preview. And it’s only after posting that you can really see it as it is. But the risks are low and only impact me so who cares; and I can update a post (yes, in production) if I really want to. Quite unlike the catastrophic failure earlier this week where better testing might have prevented a global outage when a patch was rolled out by cloudstrike. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Anyway, I’m curious. Do you use the WordPress Reader for blogs you follow? Have your posts ever failed to appear in the Reader? Do you use PressThis?
~ Susanne
Sunset and Moonrise in Color
At Long Beach.
#WordlessWednesday
– Susanne
Day in the Life of a Tri-Pawed
It’s a cat’s life. A three-legged cat, that is.
I took Benji outside to the backyard for his morning constitution.
Sometimes he’s content to rest in the grass and watch the birds; other times he only has escape on his mind. This was one of those days, so I came up with Plan B.
How about a chaperoned trip to the front? No, it’s not fully fenced, but it’s set back from the road with a long driveway and lots of trees. I would watch him carefully while he enjoyed a change of scenery. What could go wrong?
He settled under the trees and we both enjoyed the birdsong. I didn’t realize the greater variety of birds out front, due to different spaces, trees, and shrubs.
All were out and about, robins, towhees, hummingbirds, juncos, wrens, chickadees, and nuthatches, all quite vocal.
It was a peaceful time and I imagined a new morning routine.
And then.
In the midst of this peaceful setting, the local wanderer suddenly appeared in the driveway, the (dreaded) orange cat, intruding on Benji’s territory. My worst tri-pawed nightmare!
All of our instincts took over. Benji on the chase, fast as a 4-legged cat, me trying my best to hang on to him, managing only to grab his tail, (sorry, Beni) while he slipped my grip.
The orange cat disappeared while Benji pursued him, and I pursued Benji.
I chased him two houses over; he was riled up, and so was I. I picked him up, wrapped in my windbreaker, despite his angry protests, and carried him back home, up the stairs, and into our shared office. I put him on his perch and closed the door so we could both recover; it took me longer than him.
There would he no more forays out front. Escape routes might still be found in the backyard, but at least the orange cat is less likely to find his way in.
All is forgiven and we are out back.
Just a day in the life of a tri-pawed who still can’t understand what all the fuss was about.
#SaturdayCaturday.
~ Susanne & Benji
Views from Mt. Walker – Finally!
I don’t know how many times we passed by the road to Mt. Walker, perhaps dozens! The signs on 101, north of Brinnon point to the summit. I spent lots of time in Brinnon, a tiny town on the west side of Hood Canal, as my grandparents lived there for years when I was growing up, and my mom moved there later.
We did start up the road once years ago, only to turn back when we realized it was one-way and pretty rickety at that. It still is, but on our recent camping trip to Dosewallips State Park, instead of passing by, we finally said, ‘let’s do it.’
There were only a few other cars on the road, and no close calls. It was a beautiful drive up the mountain and there were massive numbers of rhododendrons, more than I’ve ever seen in the wild, magnificent in pink and thriving in the shade.
At the summit (2,804 ft,) we took the short trail to the South Viewpoint
for a look at Hood Canal below, and Mt. Rainier straight across, shrouded in the clouds.
The skyscrapers of Seattle could be seen off in the distance.
The views at the North Viewpoint were tremendous, of the Olympic Mountains, including Mt. Jupiter and Mt. Constance.
“Mt. Walker is densely covered with 100 year-old Douglas-fir trees that have grown up in an area once burned by wildfire. Native Pacific rhododendrons grow along the road and at both North and South observation points. The large flowers are bright purplish-pink and bloom May to June. Mt. Walker is the only peak facing Puget Sound that has a road to its summit. Both viewpoints have short trails to the viewing area with interpretive signs. The south viewpoint has short, compacted gravel accessible trail out to the lookout area that also provides a nice bench.” Olympic National Forest website
Now that we’ve broken the ice, we’ll need to return on a cloudless day.
~ Susanne
Handsome in Green
The indomitable Benji.
#WordlessWednesday
~ Susanne
An Assortment of Red, White, and Blue
For this week’s #Sunday Stills Color Challenge I went looking for red, white and blue and found it firstly in my own backyard.
I’ve been trying to capture hummingbirds in flight (not as easy as I’d hoped) and got an unusual silhouette that will work for white and blue.
I found many more shades of white and blue on a ride at Disneyland.
We drove home from that trip, on Highway 1 and stopped by Morro Bay for a look at the rock. (We were glad we did.)
We enjoyed the views and hues around Morro Rock; I admit to enhancing the blues.
We ate at a restaurant overlooking the bay and the food was great, but it’s the dessert that works nicely for red and white.
Finally, no challenge on red, white, and blue would be complete without a look at our flag, Old Glory.
The first one hangs behind John Wayne at the small airport named after him in Santa Ana. I’ve been through that airport many times on trips to Southern California and I always stop to say hello to the Duke.
The flag below is from the Coho Ferry as we sailed for Victoria from Port Angeles, with the Olympic Mountains in the background. (A trip I highly recommend.)
Lastly, I’ll close with an interesting shot of a windblown flag I took near Wenatchee, in the middle of the state.
And that will do, for red, white, & blue.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 