Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Whatcha Doin’ Up There, Benji?
“Nothing much Sue. Just hangin’ out on the fridge.”
~ Susanne and Benji
Rosy Red Flowers
Outside a light rain is falling and the beautiful white covering we enjoyed the past few days is drip, drip, dripping away and will soon be gone. So I had to reach deep into my archives to find rosy red flowers for this week’s Sunday Stills Photo Challenge. Here’s what I found.
A flowering currant – looking quite like a lilac don’t you think? – I love that both the flowers and stems are rosy red. I think I’ll get one for my garden.
I love fucshias and you can find them in all shades of pink and red – the hummingbirds love them too.
They also love rhododendrons – our Washington state flower – as I discovered one day at Soos Creek Botanical Garden. Scroll through the pictures below and see the Anna’s hummingbird feeding.
Finally, I’ll close with the dahlias that were a gift from my mom – transplanted from her garden to mine and coming up reliably every summer since.
Yesterday was Valentines Day – it came and went without much fanfare as we’re still in a pandemic and also snowed in. I told my husband I’d take a rain check (correction ‘snow check’) for a steak dinner with a view, sometime this spring.
~ Susanne
The Promised Snow Has Finally Arrived
It started with a fury overnight – tiny flakes of ice blown sideways.
It’s falling still – larger and softer – more gently but determined – blanketing everything in white.
The hummingbirds waited patiently while I brought them fresh nectar; I’d forgotten to bring in the feeders last night and the contents were frozen.
I won’t forget tonight.
~ Susanne
Of Camera Woes and Cats and Birds
My favorite camera – the Sony RX10 my husband bought me almost 4 years ago – bit the dust. I can turn it on but after that everything is stuck – none of the controls work.
It happened a few days ago when we were on a walk and the zoom wouldn’t work. I’ve tried whatever I could think of to jolt it back to life – turning it off and on – removing the battery – replacing the SD card. After standing on my head (okay not literally) I got the Menu to return for a short visit and I tried to do a reset. Froze up again soon thereafter. I googled online looking for others who might have had similar problems – not much there. Last thing I’ll do is replace the battery – new one is in the mail – I doubt it will make a difference. Sigh.
Some of my best pictures of Benji and Tiger were taken with my RX10.
Not to mention the hummingbirds.
I’ll replace the battery and if that doesn’t help I’ll check in with repair shops. Maybe contact Sony. The latest version of the same camera costs double what we paid 4 years ago so there won’t be any cheap solutions. In the meantime I still have my compact Sony RX100 which takes good pictures too but without the zoom and other nifty features.
Big snow still in the forecast for tonight.
We’ll see.
_~ Susanne
Blue Skies and Eagles before the Snow
Snow is in the forecast – promises promises. It only arrives when it’s unexpected.
When I worked downtown this was always the case. The snow would begin to fall in the afternoon leaving the city surprised. We left work early and roads would be snarled with snow and traffic. We told our stories later of being trapped on buses, leaving them to trudge home on foot, becoming part of Seattle folklore.
I once sat on a snow covered freeway for 10 hours – completely stopped by a rollover truck miles ahead – I finally made it home at 2 in the morning. A memorial to Seattle!
Even so, I still love the snow and winter just isn’t the same without it. And so we wait as the arrival date is pushed out. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. Could they be wrong again?
Yesterday I went for a walk at Coulon Park and found children in the playground, boats in the lake and eagles against the clear blue sky.
The calm before the storm? We shall see!
~ Susanne
Nature’s Fallen at Rialto Beach
For this week’s Sunday Still’s Photo Challenge I remembered the fallen at Rialto Beach.
We first discovered Rialto Beach on a trip to Olympic National Park in 2017 and it instantly became my favorite. Wild and remote, it’s littered with fallen trees and logs.
And ghost trees stand precariously, ready to fall during the next storm.
A mile up the beach is Hole-in-the-Wall, a sea arch passable when the tide is out.
I walked to Hole-in-the-Wall on our last visit to Rialto Beach, passing giant sea stacks, including the slabs of one fallen.
The 50 ft. sea stack known as ‘Cold Water,’ was toppled by a powerful storm sometime in the winter of 2015/2016, after standing on the beach for hundreds of years.
Sea stacks are formed when wave action erodes headlands. They often start as a sea cave, that when broken through forms a sea arch. When the arch collapses a sea stack remains and can last for hundreds or thousands of years. I was too late to see this one.
~ Susanne
Flower of the Day: Debutante Camelia
There never was a more fitting name for a flower than ‘debutante,’ one of the earliest camelias to bloom. I found her waiting next to a bench at Flower World and was enchanted by her pale pink ruffles and pearls.
I should have brought her home and may yet go back and get her.
~ Susanne
Rainy Day Workout with Benji
We are having another record breaking rainy start to the year in the Pacific Northwest. I don’t mean to complain as the rest of the country has been hammered with snow. Still, the rain is dreary and keeps us all pent up in the house. One member of the household can be particularly troublesome under these circumstances – you know the one.
Benji and I hangout out in the office every morning, a place that is boobytrapped with all manner of temptations, especially the cords that dangle everywhere. It’s too much for him to refrain from grabbing, chewing and wrapping himself up in them and I get tired of yelling at him to stop – BENJI NO!
But I’ve finally found the best way to deal with it and it is by way of distraction – enter the measuring tape.
Obviously he’s the one getting the workout – unless flinging the tape with one hand while juggling the camera in the other counts as a workout.
Hmmm, maybe it does!
~ From the office of Susanne and Benji
Tiger the (teenage) Senior Cat
A reblog from 2017. Though Tiger’s going on 13 now not much has changed. He’s still young at heart! 🙂
Incredible Landscape of the Canadian Rockies
It’s hard to find as much beauty mile for mile – or should I say kilometer for kilometer – as you will find in the Canadian Rockies.
Indeed the travel bug has hit again and assuming Covid is contained and we no longer are – and the border reopens – this will be one of our destinations in 2021.
So as a kind of mental preparation for the trip – and in response to Sunday Still’s Favorite Landscapes – I thought I’d share pictures from our last trip to Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, Canada.
I’ll start with Banff where we camped at Tunnel Mountain and found wonderful views of Mt. Rundle with the Bow River winding in front.
We got another view of the mountain on a walk at Vermillion Lakes just before sunset where all was peaceful and serene.
On our way to Lake Louise we stopped for a hike at Johnston Canyon where a kind gentleman took our picture. We rarely get pictures of us together (I’m no good at selfies) so I was happy to get this one.
Later that day we arrived at the Queen of the Rockies – the lovely Miss Lake Louise. Depending on the time of year and from what angle you view her, you will find her waters milky green or turquoise. Or perhaps white if you arrive when she’s covered with snow as we did on one of our earlier trips!
If this lake isn’t enough for you there’s serious competition nearby at Moraine Lake and either one will make your jaw drop. Trust me.
To get from Lake Louise to Jasper we took the Icefields Parkway, one of the most beautiful drives in the world!
“The Parkway is dotted with more than 100 ancient glaciers, cascading waterfalls, dramatic rock spires, and emerald lakes set in sweeping valleys of thick pine and larch forests” according to the Icefields Parkway website.
Click on and scroll through the pictures below to enlarge them.
As if the mountains and the glaciers weren’t enough there are several must-see lakes to stop at along the way including these two: Peyto Lake
and Bow Lake.
We also stopped at roadside waterfalls like this giant,
before we arrived at Jasper National Park where we were surrounded by more of the Rockies and pristine lakes like the one below, Medicine Lake.
And with that I’m ready to go!
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 