Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Happy 4th to You!
See you next week. 🙂
~ Susanne
Ducks, Herons and Swallows on the Cedar River Trail
As the temperatures are heating up and summer is in full swing, I’ve enjoyed getting outside for some exercise and nature therapy. This week, I managed to get in two walks on the Cedar River Trail where it flows into Lake Washington. The first day I was greeted by a family of friendly ducks, teenagers I thought, as they headed toward me.
‘Hello,’ I said. ‘Welcome to the world! Sorry I’ve got nothing to give you and they don’t allow it anyway.’
They seemed to understand, and I continued on my way.
Further on, I stopped by the river and watched a heron standing completely still, staring into the shrubs.
I thought maybe he was facing the wrong direction, but I’m not a heron so what do I know?
He paid no attention to the kayakers going by, though he did seem to glance in my direction.
There were more herons near the bridge but too far away for me to capture with my phone. And when I returned the next day with my camera there were no herons to be found anywhere. Go figure.
There were still plenty of ducks, so I captured this family sunning themselves.
I continued my walk to the end of the trail where the river flows into the lake.
I saw swallows launching themselves from their nesting place in the boathouse.
They were too fast for me to capture in the air, but fortunately this handsome one posed for me. Isn’t he a beauty?
The duck posed for me too, bottoms up.
And that’s the end.
~ Susanne
In a Rose Garden At Point Defiance – Now and Then
Yesterday was a perfect day for visiting the Rose Garden. Temperatures were in the mid-seventies where we like it, not in the upper eighties as forecasted for next week. I had promised to take my mom to Point Defiance to see the roses, and a signboard, too. I’ll explain why later.
The Rose Garden – Now
I don’t have many recent pictures of mom and I together so I will treasure these. (Thanks to Bob for playing chauffeur and photographer.)
Rose Garden Then
The last time I visited the Rose Garden, I came across a sign at the entrance with some history. But what caught my attention was a photo in it that I recognized from our collection of those taken by O.T. Frasch, an early Seattle photographer.
What’s special about the photo is not merely that it’s taken by O.T. Frasch, my mother’s grandfather, but the subject matter: her mother as a young girl in the early 1900’s, with her grandmother, whom she never met as she died in childbirth a few years later.
Here’s a close-up of the photo I have at home.
Dedicated to my mom, grandma, and the great grandma I never met.
And that is the Now and Then from the Point Defiance Rose Garden.
~ Susanne
Waterfalls of the Snoqualmie River – Snoqualmie Falls, Twin Falls, and Franklin Falls
The most famous of course is Snoqualmie Falls, a popular tourist destination, and good for a visit any time of year, no hiking required, though you can take a trail to the bottom if you like.
We love to stop by when we’re in the neighborhood, just to enjoy the power, beauty and spray of the falls. But our favorite falls for hiking is on the south fork of the Snoqualmie.
Twin Falls
The trail is an easy to moderate 2.6 miles round trip, and starts out next to the river.
It winds through lush forest, filled with moss-covered trees and vegetation,
then climbs to a viewpoint where you see Upper and Lower Falls in the distance and the bridge above, your destination.
Look up and you’ll see a third waterfall, quite lovely, and wonder at the name Twin Falls rather than Triple Falls. No matter; it’s three for the price of two.
Look down from the bridge into the valley and you’ll see Upper falls beneath your feet flowing into the river.
So where’s the best view of Lower Falls? You may have passed it on your way up to the bridge. So if you didn’t stop then, be sure and stop on the way down at the Twin Falls Lookout.
Take the stairs down to the narrow platform and you’ll come face to face with Lower Falls, and perhaps the best views of the hike.
Franklin Falls
Lastly, I bring you Franklin Falls, also on the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River. It’s a popular hike so perhaps it’s surprising I’ve only been once, at least that I can recall.
We went on a hot Saturday in the summer, along with everyone else, it seems. The trail was nice, but crowded, as were the falls at the end. The spray was thick even from a distance and the rocks slippery, so I didn’t go to the pool underneath but left it to the younger ones to cool off.
We need to give it another chance I think, but will plan our return on a weekday in the spring or fall.
And that’s all for today from the Snoqualmie.
~ Susanne
Benji and Tiger Side by Side
Happy Caturday from the boys!
~ Susanne
Chasing Butterflies
They’re out and about in my yard, the yellow Swallowtails, teasing, flitting this way and that, changing direction on a whim.
I run for the camera, hoping they stay for the moment, however fleeting.
It’s only when I take a picture that I find the pansy. Do you see it? Perhaps to blend in better with the flowers it feeds on.
These little pansies grow faithfully, rough and rugged, nearby but are probably too small for a visit.
I’m covered with butterflies in Chicago, but only virtually, at the Museum of Science and Industry.
They too were fleeting.
~ Susanne
Feathered and Furry Friends
It’s a bit of a dilemma as both call my backyard, home.
They come as they please, my feathered friends, the regulars and seasonal visitors.
They find shelter, water, food, and many, a nesting place.
The furry residents call the same domain their kingdom.
I don’t worry much about Tiger who ambles slowly about the garden
before settling down to rest.
It’s Benji I worry about – don’t let his innocent look fool you.
So I do what I can to keep the furry ones inside during the day.
It’s mostly working.
Sharing with Sunday Stills.
~ Susanne
Chicago’s Magnificent Parks and Museums
Maybe I stole ‘magnificent’ in my title from the ‘Magnificent Mile,’ the famous boulevard that runs through the heart of downtown, where we stayed on Michigan Avenue.
Sill, I think the adjective fits to describe the parks and museums we visited in Chicago.
Millenium Park
I’ll start with Millenium Park and my favorite things there – the bean – the fountain – and the garden.
‘Cloud Gate,’ more often called ‘the Bean,’ was designed by Anish Kapoor, and is one of the largest sculptures in the world. At 66 feet long, over 30 feet high, weighing 110 tons, it reflects everything nearby including the skyline and you and me!
Here, everyone can take a good selfie,
from any angle.
Just around the corner is Crown Fountain, designed by Jaume Plensa, which spews water out of the mouths of Chicago residents!
Surprising the first time you see it, but fun, don’t you think?
Lurie Garden is Millenium Park’s secret flowering oasis, full of native flowers and other wildlife, including a family of foxes raising their young, safely hidden away while we were there.
Art Institute of Chicago
Just across the street from Millenium Park is the Art Institute of Chicago, so I explored that as well.
Too many marvelous paintings and historic artifacts but I’ll only share a few of my favorite paintings.
The first is The Child’s Bath by Mary Cassatt, 1893, full of tenderness.
Quite the opposite, is Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, which conveys a kind of loneliness in the night of the city.
A Sunday on LaGrande Jatte, 1884, by Georges Seurat, is cheerful and uses the technique of pointillism, small distinct dots of color to form the image.
American Gothic, the 1930 painting by Grant Wood, portrays the occupants of a house in Iowa. Supposed to represent a father and daughter, most see a married couple. The actual subjects were modeled after the artist’s sister and dentist (I wouldn’t have wanted him as my dentist!)
Museum of Science and Industry
We took the bus to Hyde Park so Bob could see his favorite exhibit at the Science and Industry Museum, the only German Submarine in the United States, the U-505 captured in 1944.
It was an interesting exhibit, and while he toured the inside of the giant submarine, I toured a tiny fairy castle from the outside.
“Silent film star Colleen Moore was always fascinated by dolls and doll houses. She owned several elaborate doll houses as a child, but later in life her father, Charles Morrison, suggested that she should pursue her passion for miniatures and doll houses by creating the “doll house” of her dreams.”
Museum of Science & Industry website
Shedd Aquarium
We love a good aquarium and this one did not disappoint. On Lake Michigan, the views of the city and lakeshore were great.
Inside were amazing creatures of all shapes and sizes from around the world, including the arapaima from the Amazon, that breathes above water using its lung.
I loved seeing these tiny garden eels that swayed in the water like grass, you can see their little faces. When disturbed they disappear into the sand.
Finally, did you know there were upside-down jellyfishes? Neither did I till I saw the Cassiopea.
Hope you get a chance to visit the windy city sometime yourself. And don’t forget the fabulous architecture which you’ll find in these earlier posts: Postcards from Chicago & A River and a Lake
And that’s all for now.
~ Susanne
Pink is for Petunias
This year’s June garden is bereft of pink, but these lovelies were growing last year, and I didn’t have a chance to share them – until now.
And by the way, did you see the monkey inside with a pair of binoculars?
Once you do, you will never unsee him!
Sharing with Sunday Stills, Pink and Cee’s Flower of the Day.
~ Susanne
Enjoying the Great Outdoors in Olympic National Park
When I stepped outside this morning, the air was fresh and cool, mingled with the fragrance of evergreen trees, summer was in the air and it reminded me of our camping days.
Waking up in the middle of the forest,
to a roaring fire,
and having that first cup of coffee which somehow tastes better in the woods.
Our camping days seem to be over since we sold our last rig a couple of years ago. Before then we managed to camp all across the country, as far away as the Badlands in South Dakota, the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, and the Adirondacks in New York.
But most of our trips were in the national parks of the west including Redwoods, Yosemite, Yellowstone, and of course the three in Washington State – North Cascades, Mt. Rainier, and Olympic National Park, possibly my favorite. So that’s where I’ll focus this post, starting with Mora, a remote campground in the northern coastal section of Olympic National Park.
Here we were surrounded by dense rainforest, dripping with moss,
and discovered Rialto Beach,
and were enchanted with its ghost logs and giant seastacks.
I do miss camping!! But fortunately, we can still enjoy the same gorgeous landscape with far less trouble, by staying in lodges like this one at Lake Quinault.
Where we still wake up to views like this,
and walk through splendid rain forest trails like this.
So even though the tents and trailers are gone, our experience in the Great Outdoors lives on.
Sharing with Sunday Stills.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 