Favorite Place to Visit

This is the Header theme for our little challenge group this week as presented by Mac. If you have followed my blog or my Facebook or possibly y 365 project you will not have to guess. I can show you that I might visit any month of the year.

January

February

March

April

May

June

Shoveling Snow on the Fourth of July

Cousin Camp 2010--The favorite PLACE with the favorite people--grandkids.

more July

August

August

August

September

October

November

December

Favorite place to visit--Mt. Rainier National Park .

Only surpassed by anyplace where my grandkids are.

Even best, Mt. Rainier with my grandkids (that is where we will have Cousin Camp this summer.)

Where is the favorite place chosen by other Headbangers? I can guess one--Mac will post St. Ives. We can check them out from the links in m sidebar.

Our Header theme for this week is recent pictures

I've had plenty of opportunity to for pictures this last week as we have been traveling. There are a lot that I have missed because I was the one driving most of the time. I do not encourage taking pictures while you are yourself behind the wheel. There were quite a few times when I would think, "oh, that would make a great picture!" So often then you have to emblazon it on your memory for your own gratification either because you must concentrate on the driving or else you were well past it before you could get the camera out.

We have had wonderful weather--almost too hot--and enjoyed the delight of presenters at our conference who had come from Chicago or other snowed in parts east. We followed that with a side trip to Arizona where our grandchildren were on Spring Break.

Here are some of these recent pictures--I must choose one for the header by the time I get to the end of the list.

Ranney was driving as we topped Satus Pass and saw Mt. Hood in the distance. Hood was not our only mountain view.

 Hi Neighbors. Two of the curious who peeked out when we stopped for gas.

 Lunchtime

 Looking down from the Convention Center balcony.

 Ears.

 More ears. We picnicked with the kids at the park for supper.

 Sunset ducks.

 Spring growth

 When we returned to the house I spotted the artwork at the new neighbors. The kids moved here in 2008 and much of the neighborhood remained vacant until another developer came in last year and filled in all the vacant lots.

Our theme this week was chosen to fill in Craver Vii's turn in naming the theme. We miss his participation in our challenge, as he added some wackiness each week. I hope that when his job responsibilities settle down, he will return to join us.

The other headbangers, in the meantime, are linked in my sidebar. Give them a visit.

White

 

All my WHITE pictures came from trips here.

 

Mt. Rainier is home to 26 named glaciers and a lot of snow. The snow depth at Paradise is about 25% of normal this year. Paradise held the record for most annual snowfall for quite a number of years. Something like 91 feet. It lost the record to Mt. Baker, a neighbor to the north in the Cascade range. The lenticular clouds which are seen often enough to not be considered rare are another bit of white.

 When conditions are right, steep slopes can be subject to avalanche danger. This is just such a slope. No avalanche, but the snowballs that roll down the slope on their own are a sure indicator that you had better be careful.

 If you look at them from the side, they look like snails or cinnamon rolls.

 Higher up on the mountain, are these trails from similar balls? Yikes!

The header theme of WHITE came from Tom the Fishing Guy.

I hope I can get my header up. My laptop does not want to edit the images I saved here without being connected to my external hard drive. It keeps searching for pictures that are there--back at home.

The rest of the headbangers will be posting white as well, so check them out from their links near the top of the sidebar.

Headers--Repeating Pattern

When I proposed the theme of repeating patterns I was thinking of patterns in nature, in agriculture, and in quilting. Most of my pictures here  are from the first two. I am still divided between two of these for my header. I hope I have decided before I get through this post.

I went back to November for this one, from our visit to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on our Thanksgiving trip to Arizona. The spines on this cactus form a pattern, as do the shadows of the spines.

The rest of the outdoor pictures  are from around here and taken within the last two months.

The hop yard across the road provides me with a lot of graphic interest. Its repeating pattern of poles and wires can be fascinating. I am getting a bit tired of being surrounded by poles, but at least during the winter you can see past them. I am documenting the changes in this horizon on my A Year across the Road tab.

On this sections of poles down the road from us they are preparing for the spring. The irrigation lines are strung on each end pole, waiting for time to stretch them out through the field.

The tractor that distributed the irrigation lines left its own pattern in the soil.

 This has to be my favorite hop yard photo. We had days and days of heavy fog in January. The angles formed by the poles and lines  fades into the distance.

When we spent Sunday of President's Day weekend up at Mt. Rainier, we hoped to do the Carter Falls hike that we often take during the summer. This involves crossing the Nisqually River on a footbridge. Alas, the footbridge was out. This is the surface of the log chiseled out by hand tools to create the footbridge surface. I find the pattern of the tool markings to be interesting.

The we looked up in the sky and saw this interesting pattern in the contrail. What must the winds have been doing up there!

A couple of "blocks" over from us we saw a pattern of fruit boxes lined up by the pattern of trees in the orchard. Seems a little early--I thought they put the boxes out near harvest time.  The quotes on the word blocks is because the word is a bit deceptive. You see, the blocks around here are a mile each, but they really are blocks.

 And these trees lined up for a windbreak seem each to be almost identical. A pattern of branches which will also change with the season.

I had better include a quilt pattern here. This one was made by my grandmother Della, and is in possession of my cousin Ruthie. The blocks are pinwheel, and the signatures are relatives and neighbors of Grandma's in San Gabriel so many years ago.

We say hasta la vista to Craver vii who is leaving our Headbanger group because of time constraints in extra responsibilities at his work. He has be a crazy fun addition to the group and I hope he visits frequently and returns when things settle down for him. The other members are listed in my sidebar with links to their blogs. Please visit them.