Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
A Walk with Ducks and Turtles and Eagles
It was earlier this week, silver and cold.
The rain was over and gone, but clouds still filled the sky and reflected upon the lake.
A flock of ducks swam together in a most orderly fashion,
while turtles were out to catch some rays.
I heard an eagle overhead and as I looked for him in my viewfinder, a crow landed above.
Clearly annoyed, the eagle maintained his dignity and stoic look so I could get another picture.
A wonderful walk at my favorite local park, Gene Coulon Memorial Park, in Renton.
~ Susanne
Quartz, Minerals, Rocks, and Other Gems
Who can keep them all straight?
I’ll start with the largest hunk of quartz I’ve ever seen, an 8,000-pound slab from Arkansas, newly obtained by the Smithsonian.
“Quartz is one of the most common minerals in the Earth’s crust. As a mineral name, quartz refers to a specific chemical compound (silicon dioxide, or silica, SiO2), having a specific crystalline form (hexagonal). It is found in all forms of rock: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. Minerals Education Coalition
This next piece was touchable, also at the Smithsonian.
“Pure quartz is clear. Color variance due to impurities: purple (amethyst), white (milky quartz), black (smoky quartz), pink (rose quartz) and yellow or orange (citrine).” Minerals Education Coalition
We found this heart-shaped amethyst at the Perot Science Museum in Dallas.
We found more quartz inside in the Gems and Minerals Hall. The Eyes of Africa is a gorgeous specimen of quartz adorned with ‘alien eye’ fluorite.
This may have been my favorite display of minerals anywhere. Here are a few more, they may or may not be quartz, as I’ve lost the labels. Still, aren’t they beautiful?
I love collecting rocks, but I’ve never been lucky enough to find hunks of quartz lying around. But when I’m walking on a sandy beach, I’m walking on tiny particles of quartz and feldspar, minerals grounded down over millions of years from igneous and metamorphic rocks.
Rocks? Minerals? Crystals? Who can keep them straight? Not me, so I’m including one more definition before I close.
“A rock is any two or more minerals bonded together, while a mineral is a naturally occurring inorganic element. A crystal refers to the structure of a mineral, and there are many different kinds of crystalline structures. A mineral can be part of a rock, and a crystal can be a mineral, but the terms are not synonymous.” How to find Rocks
So there you have it.
Sharing with #Sunday Stills.
~ Susanne
Little Anna’s through the Window
I have many other things I could be sharing on this dull Monday morning, but instead, I bring to you this flying jewel, a handsome Anna’s Hummingbird, seen through my office window.
A welcome distraction.
~ Susanne
Lots of Activity at the Mason Bee House
The mason bees have emerged from their little house, which hangs under the eaves of my big house.
Mason bees are solitary pollinators that nest in tunnels that they seal with mud or clay.
They lay female eggs in the back of the tunnel and male eggs in front, so males emerge first when they hatch in the spring, followed by the females. (Smart little bees, aren’t they?)
After mating the males die and the female looks for a nest.
Then she collects pollen from shrubs and flowers and deposits it inside the chamber. Once she has a sufficient nugget of pollen, she lays an egg on top, then follows up with a partition of mud to seal off the compartment – hence the name mason bee.
She does this repeatedly until the chamber is filled with eggs, then plugs the entrance to the tube.
Inside, the larva eats the pollen, then spins a cocoon and enters the pupal stage, maturing and hibernating through the winter. In spring the males exit the nest first, then females, and the cycle of life continues.
Just another miracle of nature!
~ Susanne
The Daffodils of the Skagit Valley
Though the Tulip Festival in April gets more press, daffodils are the stars of the Skagit Valley in March. But neither adhere strictly to the calendar so when we visited the tulips at Roozengaarde last week, plenty of daffodils were still in their glory.
“According to Brent Roozen, owner of RoozenGaarde and the Washington Bulb Company, RoozenGaarde grows more than 450 acres of daffodils, compared to 350 acres of tulips. Fields of daffodils are left intact through the bloom cycle and beyond, unlike tulips which are ‘topped’ toward the end of their bloom cycle.”
~ Susanne
Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, Rain or Shine
Last week while enjoying our unintended staycation, we traveled north to the Skagit Valley for the Tulip Festival. The weather was fickle – it rained off and on, leaving dark gray clouds hanging low over the fields. But it didn’t matter, the flowers lit up the sky!
This year’s brochure described the event as follows:
“The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is a month-long celebration centered around the blooming of millions of tulips and our agricultural heritage. The festival is comprised of multiple display gardens, tulip fields, events and activities spread throughout our beautiful valley.”
All the pictures above were taken at the largest of the gardens, RoozenGaarde.
Sharing with Sunday Stills, #April Flowers.
~ Susanne
Vacation – Staycation- A Sampling
Last week we headed down the Oregon Coast, intending to end up in Northern California and the magnificent Redwoods. We’ve made this trip many times before and never get tired of it; there’s always something new to see, beach to explore, and Redwood grove to hike in.
It was a gorgeous, sunny day when we arrived in Seaside for the night, a quintessential beach town on the northern Oregon coast. Condos and motels line the beach and shops and eateries line the small town’s streets. We found the best ice cream in town, and I was happy to find my favorite flavor – licorice! – fortunately for Bob, without the color that usually turns my lips and teeth a lovely shade of charcoal-green.
We were too full for dinner so turned in early, which meant rising early the next morning and having the beach to ourselves.
We continued south with stops at Cannon Beach and the tiny towns of Nehalem and Wheeler,
and lunch at Pacific City where we enjoyed wonderful views of Cape Kiwanda, a large beast of sandstone.
We crammed a lot into those two days and it’s a good thing, as just past Lincoln City, we got a call that would cut our trip short, life happens, right?
We returned home and after our personal universe settled down, we were left wondering what to do with the rest of the week. We didn’t want to resume the typical cares and responsibilities of home, so we decided upon a staycation, which is really just a state of mind, to those who are retired.
Still, it meant we could eat out with abandon and find local things to do, starting with bicycling the Foothills Trail in Buckley where I tested out my new bike. (The battery died on my old bike and refused to be resurrected.)
What to do next? We considered going up in the Space Needle (it’s been years) or going to a Mariners (baseball game) also years. But then I remembered the Tulip Festival in the Skagit Valley so off we went to the town of La Conner for lunch and shopping, then to Roozengaarde, my favorite tulip field. Which, honestly deserves its own post, don’t you think? Me too. So I’ll save my pictures for later, except for this sneak peek.
Suffice it to say, the week didn’t go as planned but we managed to salvage it and enjoy it just the same.
Back soon with more daffodils and tulips!
~ Susanne
Beachwalk at Seaside
Does wonders for the soul.
For #Wordless Wednesday
~ Susanne
Cat in the Bag
No fooling.
~ Susanne and Benji
Cities Come in All Sizes
For this week’s Sunday Stills Challenge #Urban I thought I’d share a few of my favorite cities starting with the largest.
London
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
– Samuel Johnson
Surprisingly, London was never at the top of my list of travel destinations, but when the opportunity came, I finally went to one of the world’s most visited cities and fell in love with it. I’ve been there twice but only scratched the surface so I hope there’s another trip in my future.
Chicago
Chicago never made my list either, so its beauty surprised me as well! I’ve been many times now and whenever I visit, I’m impressed all over again with the city of big shoulders, rising out of nowhere on Lake Michigan in the Midwest.
Seattle
This one didn’t need to be on my list – I didn’t have a choice – I was born and raised here! You might call it a smaller, large city, the largest in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest. I love the cityscapes including the Space Needle, Pike Place Market and Sculpture Park. But mainly I love the amazing scenery surrounding it, with water and mountains everywhere. (Keeping it real showing you blue skies and plenty of gray as well.)
Bellingham
Another favorite of mine is the city of Bellingham, north of Seattle and close to the Canadian border. I’d never been before I moved there to attend Western Washington University. It has all that Seattle has to offer in a pint-sized form. I used to walk everywhere back in the day, from home to the campus, and downtown to work. And if I needed to take the bus, a dime would do it!
I have many other favorite cities in all different sizes, but time will fail if I include them all! Even so, here’s two more. Can you guess what they are? Shouldn’t be too difficult.
I think I got carried away. So that’s all for now.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 