Hike

We set out to go hiking yesterday. I had read about the hike from Sunrise Point down to Clover Lake and several other lakes and this was our goal. We have often looked down to Clover Lake from the point but never done the hike nor seen the rest of the string of lakes. We didn't yesterday either. The hike description mentioned that there were a couple of places where the hike back up was steep. Because I zoomed in on the lake this picture does not show how far down it is. We took one more look and changed our destination.

 Well, maybe not a destination as such, but a route. We headed up this trail along Sourdough Ridge. We have done this hike before, the entire distance. That time someone dropped us off at the point and we hiked all the way to Sunrise. Yesterday, not so much. Besides having a time crunch, we did not have a ride back and were not up to the entire round trip.

 This is the ridge looking back toward Sunrise Point. You can see the lake at the left and the white spot up to the right on the top is Sunrise Point parking lot. We had decided that what goes down must come up, and you can see how up that would have been. The ridge stretches from the point clear to above Sunrise--I think it is about six miles.

 Fall is fast arriving on the Mountain, and soon the road to Sunrise will close for the season. Yesterday was a brilliant warm sunny day, however, and some popular spots were very crowded. We didn't have a lot of traffic on the ridge trail, though.

 We probably hiked only about a mile and a half, then the trail started up the side of one of the peaks along the ridge and we decided that we would go back. It's not that we have anything against hills, but age and his cancer between the two of them can slow you down. Most of the wildflowers are spent, but these pussy toes lined the wall at the parking lot.

 Later we drove on up to Sunrise and took a stroll down to the Emmons Viewpoint. The parking lot was not the only place that drew a crowd. Can you see the no-see-ums? They were swarming in several places along the way.

 They didn't interfere with the view, though.

 Down into the White River Valley.

 Over to Little Tahoma Peak. (Little Tahoma Peak, if it were a mountain unto itself would be the third highest in Washington.)

 Bye Bye summer.

Diptych

I presented the headbangers group the topic "Diptychs" and this article from the Digital Photography School with lots of lead time, so we should see some very interesting headers this week. I didn't have anything planned in advance when I gave it, but I knew I could combine some pictures from my files to pull together some great ideas and probably get some new shots. Life got in the way in the meantime, but I think while I was working on it I came up with some cool stuff.

The definition of the diptych being two images juxtaposed that tell a story. It might be a contrast, a different perspective...lots of possibilities.

Here are the combinations I put together.

Then and now:

Living in a rural area in the West and traveling frequently by car, we see lots of examples of the old and the new. The windmill on the left is one we saw at the San Tan Regional Park in Arizona, though I could have used a shot from Washington, Oregon, California or possibly Idaho, Utah, or Nevada. Though sometimes still in use to pump water, most of this type of windmill that remain are a relics of history and the early electrification of rural America.

The wind machines on the right are a descendant of the old ones, producing electric power in many parts of the world. These happen to be in South Central Washington. They are in the Goodnoe Hills where wind turbine research took place for many years before the scene shown here became common. We have seen such wind farms in other parts of Washington, in Oregon, and in more than one area of California. We are scheduled for a tour of a wind farm (good Lord willing) this coming weekend and I expect to have some great pictures to share.

Bengiraffe

Giraffes are my favorites. Well, and so are my grandkids. This is Benjie doing his best to be a giraffe at the San Francisco Zoo a couple of years ago. You can see that I did some work on this one to edit in almost the same background, as Benjie's ears and horns were painted on a white wall. Too bad I didn't get him with his tongue out, but the grin is infectious.

Mt. Rainier is infectious, too.

I label my Mt. Rainier blogposts Mountain Madness, because that is what I must have. Can't get enough of it, but unfortunately haven't been there since October. The picture on the left was taken on a hike earlier last year, July if I recall correctly. The other view was about ten years ago when my flight to Arizona took us over the top of the mountain on a relatively clear day. Another grandkid was involved in that as I was a surprise guest at my daughter's baby shower.

Hmm, a diptych of summer and winter in the same location would be excellent as well. Or of the same plants in different stages

Anemone or Pasque Flower

 The one on the left was take mid-July and the one on the right mid-August. (I admit they are not the same plant, but the same kind separated by about a month in time--well in different years.)

From a tiny acorn a mighty oak...

Somehow I think that this one does the best at the part of the definition of the diptych telling a story. And once again a grandson--the youngest, Anthony, who was 3½ at the time we took this last summer. What might he do with those acorns, and if he were to drop them and come back fifteen, twenty, forty years later would he see...?

If this were a triptych I might have put this oak in the middle.

I wonder how long it had been since it was like the acorn in Antosha's hand. (Antosha is a Russian nickname for Anthony.)

 

 

It was a challenging theme. Check out my headbanger friends whose links are in my sidebar. They post anytime up to noon my time on Wednesday.

Shadows

Lew gave us the theme of Shadows for this week's header challenge. I remembered a header I used some time ago with the wildflower shadows. The image is actually rotated 90º--the shadows were of the flowers along the trail ahead of us.

Ant shadows would be fun to work with.

We recently did shadows at Stonehenge. No, we haven't been to the UK again. This is Stonehenge overlooking the Columbia River in Washington state.

 

(My granddaughter learned in her Washington State History class that they did not name the state Columbia so that it would not be confused with the District of Columbia.   Hmm. Like that worked.)

 

This shadow of a frog picture was taken at Shadow Lake (pictured below.)

 

Cloud shadows show up when you look down on the Valley...



 

...or up at the mountain.



But I determined that the best shadow picture for today would be a picture of Shadow and his shadow.

You've heard of a churchmouse? Well, Shadow is a churchcat. He first showed up at the door of the classrooms at church about four years ago. Trying to get kids in the door and  cats not in the door, I shooed him away.

 

Next day he got smart. He found his way around the other side of the church to the rectory, where he was adopted by Fr. Jaime and his secretary Terri. Shadow is now a pampered fixture around the parish. If he had cooperated with me and posed, I would have even shown you his little Roman Collar. Somewhere in his ancestry is undoubtedly a tuxedo cat, but all he has is a little white marking under his chin.

 

The rest of the Headbangers will be along by Wednesday afternoon--well, except for Mac who is cruising again. You can find their entries by clicking their links in my sidebar.

What's the Buzz?

Tom gave us the theme of "What's the Buzz? for this week's Headbangers competition. As I will be camping with the grandchildren this week, I am preparing this post to arrive on Wednesday--Headbanger Day. I doubt I will get a new header up by Wednesday, but it would be among these buzzing bees and other bugs.

I don't know if these guys buzz, but here's looking at you!

There in the bloom on the left.

Hmmmm! Maybe the buzz has stopped.

There's gotta be some buzzing going on here.

Bumble Buzz



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Check the other headbangers through the links in my sidebar.

Skywatch

I haven't done a Skywatch in a while. This was take Sunday on my way home from the coast.

Find Skywatch here.

ABC Wednesday--Z is for...

Zones

I used the ecological zones of Mt. Rainier for the letter z last year, too. The idea came to me again this weekend as we made a day trip to the park. Snow was still deep at Sunrise--in the Sub-Alpine ZONE. As it melts out quickly in the warm days the anenome is one of the first flowers to bloom.

About three thousands feet lower in elevation, the Lowland Forest ZONE is almost snow free.














The early blooms there are the trillium.

ABC Wednesday winds down its eighth round. Little did Denise realize when she first suggested it four years ago. Will you join us on Wednesdays in round nine?

Gairloch forest and farm stroll

Our day in the Gairloch area took us along a lovely pathway past a manor house...

...and a horse farm--there was a riding class in session.

Both homes shared in the abundance of wildflowers to be seen in the neighborhood.

We got beyond the inhabited area and Shaun pointed out the lone cottonwood (I think it was cottonwood) tree.

That one there on the hill. Once there was a forest.

As I mentioned, we were on our way to a waterfall. There it is.

Name? Waterfalls here don't have names.

We actually did take shelter --all of us--under this uprooted tree's extensive root system when a sudden shower came along. It was the only serious rain of the day.

It was there also that I changed memory cards in my camera, so the rest of the hike are in another folder. Up to this point I had taken 654 pictures. I have two more cards which will take us through the rest of Gairloch, the rest of the Highlands, our trip back to Edinburgh, down through Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, to Wales and finally London. The trip isn't over yet.

ABC Wednesday---Z

Coming to the end of another alphabet--Z is always a little more difficult than some of the other letters. I must thank Dina from Jerusalem Daily Photo, whose Zones of Silence post suggested the idea of some other zones to me, the ecological zones of Mt. Rainier National Park.

We start at the lower elevations, with the Forest Zone, where abundant rainfall and melting snowpack from above provide for a lush dense growth of a wide variety of green plants.


Hiking through the old growth forest on a warm day is a cooling experience. Ferns, fungus, mosses, lichens, and a variety of cool weather wildflowers carpet the ground. Nurse logs provide a new base for new saplings.

Critters in the forest include some you might be squeamish about.

So, now lets go up to a higher elevation--the Sub-Alpine Zone. Once the snow melts, the lush meadows are home to a rainbow of wildflowers, starting with these Avalanche Lilies and their companion yellow Glacier Lilies, the first to pop through the snow.

Further up the slope we reach the Alpine Zone--conditions so severe that the few trees are only a few feet tall after a hundred year's growth. The soil is thin and rocky.

The area is similar to Arctic tundra. Growing season is so very short...

So, as you see, are the plants. The variety of lupine that grows in this area has leaves that measure--yes, those are centimeter marks, not inches, on the walking stick. Lupine leaves in the sub-Alpine zone measure three to four inches across.

In the rocky reaches of the Alpine Zone, we saw dozens of pika the other day.


So thank you again, Dina, for suggesting that Z is for Zones. Thank you to Denise for another successful round of ABC Wednesday. Thank you to the team for keeping us going. You will find the other ABC-Z entries listed here.