Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
I’d Rather Be in Arizona!
Earlier this week I was loving springtime in the Pacific Northwest. I went for a walk at Coulon Park and enjoyed brilliant blues skies, happy birds, and a joyful turtle!
And I thought to myself, ‘there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here, right now, in the Great Northwest.’
Until today.
When I woke to rain and wind and gray and said to myself, ‘take me someplace where it’s hot and dry!”
Call me fickle, but today I’d rather be in …
Arizona!
As that’s as close as I’ll get for now.
Sharing with Sunday Stills, I’d Rather Be.
~ Susanne
New PC and MS One Drive – Yay or Nay?
I got a new Desktop PC last week and I like it. It’s All-in-One so takes up little space, has all the extra storage I hoped for and it’s fast, really fast.
But one thing irks me, and it’s Microsoft’s pushiness with OneDrive. It comes loaded as the default for storage; documents and photos no longer save to the hard drive; they save automatically to OneDrive.
I already have a system in place for my photos and I back them up to an external drive. I have no desire to have them in cyberspace, as secure as they claim that to be, nor to be pestered continually about syncing them up across devices.
I checked with the boys as many of the pictures are of them.
“You mean my pictures would be floating in a cloud?” asked Tiger.
“I understand your concerns perfectly, Sue,” said Benji. “It’s a control issue.”
Maybe I’m old fashioned, but that’s it, indeed.
I need to make a decision before I’m too far down the OneDrive path. There’s plenty of information on the web about undoing this default, so others must also be unhappy with it.
How about you?
Do you use OneDrive?
How do you manage your photos?
~ Susanne
Happy Spring in the Garden and the Finches are Courting!
Spring has finally arrived in the Great Northwest after a cold and rainy winter. We got a head start over the weekend when we hit 60 degrees for the first time since last November. It was worth waiting for.
There’s much to be done in the garden but fortunately nature takes care of much of it. My Indian Plum is blooming with no help from me. I’d been admiring this native in the woods for years, not realizing I had one growing wild in a forgotten corner of my yard. I transplanted it to the back where I could enjoy it, and it’s thriving.
I did manage to plant something new last week, Lenten Rose, another early bloomer. Tiger found it soon afterwards during one of his daily sojourns, and appreciated how it collected water for him.
As the garden is waking up, the birds are courting! I especially love to watch the house finches. The little lady perches, waiting for the male to appear.
He does – dressed in bright red-orange – and begins singing.
Okay, I’ll leave them alone.
~ Susanne
Junco in the Spring Garden
I love all the birds who call my garden home, including this year-round resident, the Dark-Eyed Junco, looking quite dapper surrounded by green.
~ Susanne
You Don’t Say! For #Wordless Wednesday
`~ Susanne and Benji
Washington my Home – Waterfalls from the Evergreen State
I was born and raised in Washington, and I LOVE being surrounded by green! Though officially known as the Evergreen State, you wouldn’t be wrong if you called it the Waterfall State; it has more waterfalls than any other state in the country, over 3,000, according to my official google research. Who knew??
So, for this week’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge I thought I’d share some of my favorites since they are indeed surrounded by green.
I’ll start with perhaps the most famous – Snoqualmie Falls – the go-to falls for visitors. A 45-minute drive east of Seattle on I-90, just walk to the overlook and gawk. No hiking required though there’s a trail down to the bottom if you like.
The next one is even closer to home though less well known, near Black Diamond, on the Green River Gorge. Those rickety stairs you see will take you down below for a mere five dollars. We did that once.
It was worth it.
Rocky Brook Falls is on Hood Canal. My mom took me there many times when she lived in Brinnon back in the day, and I took my husband to see it earlier this year.
You’ll find Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park, after a hike through the forest. It’s one of my favorites.
The next set are from Mt. Rainier National Park, where there are over 150 waterfalls. We hiked to Silver Falls last year. Wow.
We’ve stopped by Narada Falls many times before but hadn’t hiked to the bottom until recently when we caught a rainbow.
Christine Falls is gorgeous from the road. Hiking is optional.
I’ll close with Myrtle Falls, overshadowed, or perhaps, showcased, by the mountain behind, just a short walk in Paradise.
There are many more I could show you, but this will do for now.
~ Susanne
Saturday Caturday – Happy Birthday, Tiger!
“Really Sue? It’s my birthday? How old am I?”
“You’re 15 years old, Tiger! If you believe the charts, that makes you 76 in people years!”
“Wow! No wonder I’m so tired!”
“That’s okay, Tiger! That’s the great part about getting older! You can nap whenever you want. Or read or watch TV and nobody will judge you.”
“That sounds great, Sue! What else?”
“You don’t have to worry about your weight anymore. It’s good to have a little extra for the lean years! So let’s celebrate! Have some more cat mint.”
“Thanks Sue. I like birthdays.”
~ Susanne and Tiger
Moonscapes Above and Below
I’ve always enjoyed the night sky and love capturing the moon when I can.
In fact, this post was already in the works when late last night, my eye caught a bright moon rising in my backyard, the Worm Moon. I wasn’t well prepared – no tripod and I’m rusty on my settings – but I grabbed my camera anyway and went out in my robe to practice.
Here are those shots – bright and mysterious.
You can see my backyard is full of trees and they often reach up to grab the moon – you may mistake them for aliens.
The moon can elevate a scene even if it’s not the center. I caught the moon rising over my garden shed a few years ago – you may have seen it before – it’s one of my favorites.
And we were lucky to come across Mt. Rainier bathed in moonglow one winter night.
Sometimes you’ll find a moonscape on earth as we did on the top of Haleakala on Maui.
and on Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, where my husband was shining with the sunset.
That’s all for now.
Sharing with Sunday Stills #Out of this World.
~ Susanne
It’s Springtime in the Garden and You know what that Means
If you’re Benji –
“Let’s get at it, Sue! There’s work to be done!”
If you’re Tiger –
“Have at it, boy!”
“I’ll just take some time to smell the flowers.”
Which one are you?
~ Susanne
Back with the Eagles of the Skagit Valley
On our trip to the Skagit Valley last week, in addition to the thousands of swans and snow geese, we saw dozens of bald eagles – in the farmlands, in the trees and in the skies.
They come from northern Canada and Alaska to winter in Washington, drawn by the salmon in the Skagit River. I’ve seen them there before, but not in great numbers. Perhaps my timing was wrong. But this year I headed west, where the river flows into Puget Sound, and found dozens in the valley and farmlands near Bow, the most I’ve ever seen in one place.
What more can I say? It was fabulous.
You can find more about the birds of winter in the Skagit Valley, here.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 