Naturalizing on

Beach, whale, lavender.

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Some time had passed since our last visit to Dungeness Spit so with good weather predicted we trekked out to “where people can spit?”.

lavender fields

The Spit is located in Sequim, which has the distinction of being extremely dry (relatively speaking) year-round owing to its location within the Olympic Mountains’ rain shadow. Among Sequim’s other attractions are numerous lavender farms benefiting from the dry, sunny environment. And, we were soon to learn, some pretty cool marine wildlife.

Scenic Beach, water, mountains.

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

On Sunday, off-island ventured the budding naturalists – with dreams of sticks, water, mountains, birds and fun – to Scenic Beach State Park.

picnic

The afternoon started with a great picnic and views of the Olympics – the clouds and fog added an early eery feel.

kayakers

We were soon greeted by some kayakers with whom my daughter engaged in a waving and “Hi!” competition while we finished eating.

Mallards, white, blue.

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

My daughter loves to toss leaves into water, ducks love to storm to thrown food, perfect.

ducks, leaves, seattle

The posse circles waiting for food.

male eating leaves

action

juvenile

Action!

I noticed not all the what-I-believed-to-be-Mallards were of identical coloring, some having white bibs and no white band around the neck. I consulted Cornell:

Water, marsh, Foulweather Bluff Preserve.

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In need of some sun, sky and water, we traveled to one of our favorite places off Island – Foulweather Bluff Preserve.

moon and madrone trees

The grove of Madrones hanging over the bluff are losing their summer green.

water and sky

The highlight for us is the beach, 3800 feet of prime digging-a-hole-with-a-stick public access. We’ve been twice, neither time did the weather allude to the naming, but an ID-wearing member of The Nature Conservancy told us to check back in the winter for storms and migrating birds.

Mushrooms, Bloedel, fungar.

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We enjoyed our last trip to the Bloedel Reserve enough to become members and membership has its privileges – an annual mushroom walk.

wide view of the meadow

I love the meadow.

First, our guide, Andy, was outstanding – extraordinarily knowledgeable with fantastic stories of growing up on BI, hunting for mushrooms and fungar: knowing where to look for mushrooms.