SURPRISE! ~ FLOWERS IN THE BACKYARD ~ TREE WALK AT THE ARBORETUM ~ PARTING SHOT

SURPRISE!

Last Wednesday afternoon Linda opened the front door to go outside and found two small packages left there by FedEx, one for her and one for me. She brought them in and we immediately opened them. We were delighted to discover that it was part of our Mother's Day gift! On Sunday we had both received an E-Card from Audubon letting us know that Emily, John and the girls had adopted a bird for each of us. It is a well-known fact that Linda and I love birds, so it was a most appropriate gift. Little did we know then that we would be receiving these cute little guys below in a couple of days.

Two sweet little birdies to wish us Happy Mother's Day!

The bird on the left is a Red-Tailed Hawk and that was Linda's bird. This is a bird that is found across the United States. Whenever you look up and see a hawk soaring above on the thermals, chances are it is a Red-Tailed Hawk. Linda saw one just the other day swoop down on our feeder and snatch up some little unsuspecting sparrow or finch for his lunch. Unfortunately, a bird feeder can feed birds in more ways than one.

The bird on the right is none other than the Northern Cardinal, which I think is my all-time favorite bird. We used to have loads of them in our backyard in Lumberton, and we so enjoyed it when they would bring their babies to our yard every Spring. Our backyard in Lumberton was a sanctuary because we did not have the Summer Girl back then, and Precious Baby was always an inside-only kitty. Sadly, the Cardinal does not live as far west as Yakima, so we haven't seen one in person since we left North Carolina. Still, we have fond memories of our Cardinal families. And now we can always hear its song.

FLOWERS IN THE BACKYARD

We have had some absolutely gorgeous days lately, as they sometimes are in the Spring before the heat sets in. The temperatures have been in the mid-80's and some days there hasn't been a cloud in the sky. This is when I like to sit out under our Catalpa tree in the backyard and just enjoy nature. I usually take my camera with me because you never know what is going to show up that might be picture-worthy. Sometimes, though, I have to wander around the yard and look for things to photograph. Thanks to Linda's green thumb, I don't have to go very far to find some beautiful subjects.

The picture above is of a plant called Gaillardia. These do really well here in Yakima and seem to love the hot, dry climate, which is a good thing when you live in a high-desert area. The fuchsia-colored flowers below are Snapdragons, which spring up in our yard all over the place, in a multitude of colors.

Snapdragon volunteers!

Below is a picture of our two Mary Rose bushes, named after my mother because they are actually from a cutting of one of her rose plants. I can see the original plant right now in my mind. She did love her roses, as evidenced by the fact that they were all around our house. Having been raised on a plant nursery in Florida, she had TWO green thumbs. I think if she had stuck a stick in the ground, it would have grown into a lovely plant loaded with beautiful flowers.

The Mary Rose bushes

More colorful Gaillardias

It's still fairly early in the season for there to be very many butterflies around, although I have seen one or two Tiger Swallowtails flitting about. They always move too fast for me to get a picture of them! My Butterfly Bush does not even have any blooms on it yet, but when it does maybe I can get a picture of one perched on it. My search for subjects on this day did manage to produce one little Cabbage White butterfly, who looked a bit worse for wear.

Cabbage White on Salvia blossom

Close-up of Mary Rose

TREE WALK AT THE ARBORETUM

In keeping with our efforts to get out and about more now that the weather is nice, we took a "Memorial Tree Walk in Honor of Memorial Day" this past Saturday at our local Arboretum. This beautiful green space is such a treasure and we are so lucky to have it in Yakima. Even though it is way on the other side of town from us, we still like to go as often as we can. We're only talking about a 15-minute drive, though. It's not like we live in a major metropolitan area such as Seattle! As soon as I saw the Facebook post last week about the Arboretum having a "Tree Walk," we made plans to go.

One of the Arboretum Naturalists led the walk all around the grounds of the gardens. He explained to the group about the Memorial Trees that have been planted in the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Arboretum in Arlington, VA. The Yakima Arboretum has some of these same species of trees planted in their gardens as well. We walked from one to the other, pretty much covering the main area of the grounds. We definitely got all our steps in that day. Below are a few pictures of some of the trees we saw while on this walk.

Osage Orange Tree

American Persimmon Tree

Although this tree below was not one of the Memorial Trees, it was one of the more interesting trees I saw. The bark was a deep rust color and was peeling off the tree in places. Hence the name Paperbark Maple.

Paperbark Maple

Close-up of bark

This tree below was all the way at the edge of the Arboretum grounds, but Linda and I took the long walk over to where it was when we were told the name. It's an American Sweetgum tree, also known as Liquid Amber. Our neighbors in Lumberton used to have one in their back yard, and we could see it out of our kitchen window. In the fall it would turn the most beautiful yellow-red-gold color, earning the name of Liquid Amber.

Liquid Amber Tree

At one point in our walk we came close by the Jewett Pond at the Arboretum. I spotted a couple of juvenile Canada Geese alongside their parents. They are the smaller ones towards the left in the picture below.

Canada Geese Goslings

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk among the trees at the Yakima Arboretum. Our guide mentioned that he will be holding another tree walk at the end of June, to be in honor of July 4th. Depending on the temperature that day, we may just decide to join in on that walk as well.

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl has been pretty lazy lately. She's just biding her time until the garden plants get bigger so she can hide from me. I caught her napping in the flower bed using a concrete edger as a pillow.

Necessity is the mother of invention

I am hoping to give you an update on the garden next week. I walked through this morning and was so disappointed to see that some mean bug has been gnawing on my little plants! I put out some organic Bug & Slug Killer, since it is most likely those nasty Earwigs that have been feasting on my hapless little plants.

More next week...

TRIP TO BELLEVUE ~ PUZZLE UPDATE ~ GARDEN UPDATE ~ BIRD UPDATE ~ PARTING SHOT

TRIP TO BELLEVUE

This past week Linda and I decided to take a quick trip to Bellevue, over on the western side of the mountains, to go shopping at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. It was a beautiful morning when we left Yakima, bright and early. It was perfect weather for taking a day-trip. We were both dressed in warm-weather clothing, but we each had a fleece jacket with us because grocery stores are notoriously cold. As we neared the pass over the mountains we could feel the temperature beginning to drop. Also, the clouds greatly increased in number. We should have known that the weather would be different on the western side because we have taken this trip many times, but we always seem to forget. Anyway, it wasn't too chilly and rainy while we were there, but we were glad we had a fleece with us.

One thing that keeps getting increasingly worse every time we travel over to the Westside is the traffic! We do not have much traffic in Yakima as it is located in a rural area and isn't a very big city. Over on the Westside there is traffic everywhere! We got a little bit turned around going to Trader Joe's, but we finally made it there, then on to Whole Foods just down the road. After lunch and completing our shopping, we got back in the car to head home. But, we had decided to do something we had always wanted to do on one of these trips over the mountains, and that was to go to Snoqualmie Falls. We passed the sign on the interstate every time and always said that we need to go there. Now that we are retired, we have the time. So we headed that way. It didn't take long to get there as it isn't very far off of the interstate. They have a nice parking lot (which was almost full) and a covered walkway over the highway to get to the falls. There is a quaint hotel there beside the falls called Salish Lodge. I have only seen a handful of waterfalls in my life, the most notable being Hickory Nut Falls at Chimney Rock in North Carolina (404 feet), and Multnomah Falls (620 feet) in Oregon. I would put Snoqualmie Falls (270 feet) right up there with those two in terms of impressiveness, even though it is not nearly as high.

Snoqualmie Falls

I didn't take my camera with me on this trip because I forgot we were going to go to the falls, but luckily I did have my phone. In the picture above you can see the falls, and over to the top left-hand side you can see Salish Lodge. It's kind of spooky-looking in this picture, almost like a haunted house. This lodge took it's name from a Native American group of the Pacific Northwest, the Salish peoples. It is owned by the Muckleshoot Tribe and was used as a setting for  the TV show Twin Peaks.

As if the falls weren't impressive enough, there are beautiful garden areas to walk by and enjoy the flowers, which looked like they were at the height of their blooming. Some of these flowers lined the walkway beside the falls, which led down to another viewing area. We checked it out and the view of the falls was even better at that point...but you did get some of the spray from the water!

We found a little side area that had some more flowers so Linda and I ventured in there. The weather was a little overcast, but that made the light give the flowers a sort of glowing quality.

Beautiful colors

The colors were absolutely stunning! This flower above kind of looks like an orchid, but is probably an azalea or rhododendron, as were most of the flowers we saw. I have read that the best time to view Snoqualmie Falls is in the spring, due to the snow melt. I've seen pictures of the falls when the water level was low and there was a big difference. I think we went at the perfect time. Below are a few more pictures of flowers we saw while there.

I had to take a selfie while there just to have as proof that I actually went, and then I made Linda pose for a picture as well. I was having a bad hair day, but Linda looks like she just came from the hairdresser! Oh well, we work with what we've got. 

What's up with that hair?

Looking good!

After we left the falls we decided to ride through the nearby town of Snoqualmie. The name "Snoqualmie" is derived from the English pronunciation of a Native American word meaning "moon." Funny, I always thought it had something to do with snow. Anyway, we rode through the town and were greatly impressed by the amount of traffic! Although there were no signal lights, the traffic on the side opposite us (heading towards Seattle) was bumper-to-bumper. We had no idea why there was so much traffic in this small town, but we guessed that it might have something to do with people leaving the nearby town of North Bend, where a lot of factory outlet shops are located. We found our way back to the interstate and our trip home was uneventful.

PUZZLE UPDATE

We finally finished the puzzle we had been working on, so here is a finished picture of it.

The latest finished puzzle

This one is called "Reader's Paradise" and is one of Linda's favorites. That's because it's all about books, her favorite thing. This was our second time doing this one. We have now moved on to another puzzle that we've done before. We seriously need to get some more puzzles because it only takes us about 2 weeks to put one together, so at this rate we will be doing them over every couple of months. We only have the border done so far so I'm not going to post a picture because you wouldn't be able to tell anything about it. I'll try to post one next week.

GARDEN UPDATE

I have been working hard the past week to get all my plants in the ground and into pots and I have made great progress. I have all the plants out in the garden now, and in the side areas along the fence. But I still have to plant my Basil plants into pots. I have planted all my plants out in the garden BEFORE Memorial Day only one other year. Most years I have to wait until Memorial Day or later due to last-minute frosts. This year there was not frost predicted, so I started early. I still have to get my hoses put down and then straw on top, but that's not hard. Yesterday, I saw my first volunteer tomato plant out there, and I think it is a Sweet 100. We now have 8 volunteer potato plants to go along with the 12 that I planted. So there will be loads of potatoes again this year. I didn't plant as many pepper plants as usual, and you will be glad to know that I don't have a Baby Hab to obsess over this year (although I do have 2 regular Habanero peppers). The garden has the usual things this year with the exception of a Yellow Straight-Neck Squash that I planted from seeds a friend sent me from NC. As a matter of fact, she sent me a whole box of various kinds of seeds, and I was going to get them started inside. I didn't get to do that because I got sick once we got back from Dad's memorial and by the time I felt well enough, it was too late. Our growing season here in Yakima is way shorter than it is in North Carolina, so in order to give the plants time to mature and produce before frost sets in, you have to start them indoors as seeds in about March. So I am hoping that I can do that next year. At least I did get some squash seeds planted as they usually come up pretty quick and produce well here in Yakima. We will see how these NC squash seeds do.

I like to try something different each year, so this year I have a cilantro plant in my herb garden area. I know some of you are probably saying, "Yuk! Cilantro!" This is one of those herbs that you either love or hate. I don't like it in everything, but some Mexican dishes do benefit from a little bit. I also planted a few parsley plants, but I have grown those before. I remember when Linda and I first moved here to Yakima, we were all excited to get some parsley plants and get them in the ground so we could raise some butterflies. Then we found out that the butterfly that used parsley as a host plant for its eggs back in NC, the Black Swallowtail, is not found in Washington. So sadly our parsley was without butterfly eggs. This year I am growing it for us.

I almost forgot one other new thing I am trying this year: micro-greens. I got a package of seeds and planted them in a flat this past week. Yesterday morning I saw about 4 little green things just starting to poke up over the soil. As the day went on that number grew, and overnight we had an explosion of growth in that flat! Looks like I will be harvesting some of them pretty soon. They are great to put on sandwiches and in salads.

Is this some kind of alien landscape?

The micro-greens

BIRD UPDATE

I was pretty busy this past week with my planting and I didn't have much time for watching the birds. Still, I got out there one afternoon and sat in my chair under the tree. The quail eventually showed up and started pecking around under the feeder and out in the garden. They are so cute when they scratch around and take dirt baths. We got a bag of cracked corn just to see if they would go after it, but it seems like the sparrows and doves like it so much, I'm not sure the quail have had a chance to check it out.

Papa quail on lookout

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl has been diligent in protecting the house and yard from all those errant birds that are threatening to eat us out of house and home. Here she is on alert status in her favorite spot...my lap.

I think I hear something!

That's all for this week, join us again next week for more exciting news from the Northwest!

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATORY BIRD DAY ~~ PARTING SHOT

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATORY BIRD DAY

Audubon and more than 100 other organizations have joined forces and designated 2018 as the official "Year of the Bird," to celebrate birds and focus on ways to help protect them. Last Saturday, May 12th, was International Migratory Bird Day, and a celebration was planned at the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge, a 45-minute drive for us. As soon as we heard about this celebration we put it on the calendar for a day out. When Saturday rolled around it was a beautiful morning so we left as soon as we could and got there around 10:00. There was an exhibit inside the Ranger's Station, so we headed there first. They were giving away beautiful free posters commemorating Bird Day, pictured below. We are going to frame the big one and hang it on our back porch.

2018 is the "Year of the Bird"

Bird Identification Charts

We walked around outside looking at the exhibits of bird information, before deciding to take a short walk with one of the guides out into the bird refuge itself. He had a spotting scope that brought the birds right up close so you could see their beautiful colors. I managed to get a few pictures with my camera, even though the birds were pretty far away. Below is a shot of a Tree Swallow sitting on a reed near the nesting box where they have built a nest.

Tree Swallow

As we walked out into the refuge a little way, the guide pointed out various bird calls and told us what birds were making them. We also saw a few birds perched in trees, but they were too far away to get a decent picture. As we were walking, I spotted a flock of geese flying overhead. Their formation reminded me of the USAF Thunderbirds.

Geese in Formation

We crossed over a little bridge and the guide pointed out a butterfly down among the fallen-over reeds. It was impossible to see him until he unfolded his wings, and then you could see the beautiful colors of a Monarch Butterfly.

A rare sighting for this area

At 10:30 we planned to take the hayride out into the refuge, so our walk ended and we all headed back to the station to wait for the tractor. Someone there had picked up a small turtle in the grass, so they were offering photo opportunities before he was taken down to be released in the water. I rarely pass up a photo opportunity.

Turtle Photo-Op

The hayride was the main reason we came because we wanted to seem more of the refuge. Linda and I had been to this refuge before, not long after we moved here. But the day we had gone, the Ranger Station had been closed, and so we had just walked along a pathway close to the station. While at the Bird Day celebration, we found out that the public is not allowed out into the refuge very far, except during hunting season. Now, this sounded quite odd to me, because here we are at this celebration to focus on birds and ways to protect them, and I find out that they allow hunting on what is supposed to be a "refuge." Sounds counter-productive to me, but that's the way it is in this state. I wonder if the birds know that it's not a refuge during hunting season? They should post signs for the poor birdies.

Anyway, we loaded onto the tractor and found seats on hay bales. The sun was quite bright and hot, so Linda and I were both glad we had worn hats, as there were a lot of people on the hayride with bare heads baking in the sun. The tractor pulled us slowly out into the wetlands of the refuge, where we saw birds flying all around . There were three or four very knowledgeable people on the ride with us, and they pointed out certain birds and were able to put a name to them. We would have been clueless without their help! Not too far into our ride (which was slated to last 1.5 hours), the tractor stopped beside a marshy-looking area where there were a lot of Red-Winged Blackbirds flying around. All of a sudden someone exclaimed, "There it is!" I looked where they were pointing and saw something I have been looking for ever since we moved to Yakima. The Yellow-Headed Blackbird! This sighting made my day! There were several of them flying around, and we even got to hear their call, which the guide said was like the sound a rusty gate makes. I knew they were in the Yakima area but we had just never been to the right place to see them.

Yellow-Headed Blackbird

At the start of our ride we had been urged to pick up a copy of the "Field Checklist of Common Birds" that was at the station. Linda got one, and as we went along on our ride, she was able to check off a good number of the birds listed. Some of them we had never seen before, so we had several to add to our life-list when we got back home.

Field Checklist

I actually got pictures of most of the birds we checked off, but I'm sorry to report that not all of them were close enough to include in the blog. Still, when we got home my pictures did help us identify some of the birds we saw, so it wasn't a total loss. I did get a pretty good shot of a pair of Cinnamon Teal, a species of dabbling duck that is found in the western parts of North & South America.

Cinnamon Teal ducks

Another interesting bird we saw was the Northern Shoveler. This dabbling duck is appropriately named because his bill is very large and resembles a shovel...the better to dabble with. In the picture below, he's the one with the white body. You can just barely make out the large bill.

Big-billed Northern Shoveler

I took a lot of pictures that day, but in most of them the birds were too far off to be able to tell much about them. But sometimes when you get home and put the pictures up on the computer, you come up with a surprise that you didn't see when you took the picture. Check out the lower right-hand corner of this picture and you can just barely see a familiar friend...Mr. Red-Winged Blackbird.

An old friend

On one part of our ride we happened upon a pair of Pheasants, who crossed the road right in front of the tractor. I just caught a glimpse of one of them before they ducked into the bushes, so I didn't get a chance to get their picture. I did, however, get one of this Killdeer, who was busy trying to distract us from wherever the nest was located. The female was several yards away doing the same thing, so I suspect their nest was somewhere in between. But, due to the camouflage terrain, you probably would never be able to see their eggs!

The tractor finally took us back to the station around noon, and we were ready to head home. Even though the temperature was pretty warm that day, we had a good breeze during most of the ride so it was not bad at all. It was a wonderful day all around and we were so glad we got out and attended the celebration. Needless to say, when we got home we were both worn out!

PARTING SHOT

Spring is going by fast and Summer is quickly approaching here in Yakima, as the temperatures steadily climb into the 90's. This past week we had two back-to-back days of 91 degree highs, so who can blame Summer Girl for stretching out and taking it easy in the shade?

Summer Girl showing off her summer figure

That's all for this week, my friends. Check back again next week for more happenings from the Northwest!

WALK AT RANDALL PARK ~ BIRDS AT THE FEEDER ~ GRILLING SEASON IS HERE! ~ BIRTHDAY PUZZLE ~ ARTY PHOTOS OF THE WEEK ~ PARTING SHOT

WALK AT RANDALL PARK

This week we decided to take a walk at Randall Park since we hadn't been there for a while. As soon as we got there, we ran into a lady walking her dogs. This little cutie was bringing up the rear and we just couldn't resist stopping and petting her. Her name is Miss Minnie and she is a Brussels Griffon. I had never even heard of this breed, let along seen one, but she was as cute as a button! I had to take her picture.

Miss Minnie

Apparently it was "dog walking time" as we also encountered a couple walking this cute little dachshund. I have a soft spot in my heart for this particular breed since we always had doxies in our house when I was growing up. This furbaby's name is Carmen.

Carmen

Both of these dogs were excited to have someone stop and talk to them, so it was difficult to get a picture in perfect focus. I figure a picture that's a little bit fuzzy is better than no picture at all.

Dogs were not the only animals we saw at the park. There were numerous geese and ducks there, as is the norm at this park due to the pond. We passed this Canada Goose who was resting on one leg.

Is he doing the Hokie-Pokie?

Over at the pond, there was a brood of ducklings swimming around with their mother. She had her hands (wings?) full with this bunch. You can hear the Red-Winged Blackbirds in the background.

The park is currently undergoing a make-over of the walking path. It looks like it will be a very nice path when they are done with it.

Renovating the Park

BIRDS AT THE FEEDER

Since we brought home the bird feeder that was at Dad's house, we have had a lot of birds in the back yard. This year Summer Girl doesn't seem to be too interested in them, which is a good thing. In year's past, she regularly left us "presents" on the back porch, which was quite disturbing. I hope she is over that phase of her cat-development.

I have managed to get some pretty good bird pictures so far. I just got my hummingbird feeder put up as we saw one buzzing around the patio last week. It seems that they know when I am out there with my camera, because they always seem to fly away as soon as they see me. I'm hoping I can "sneak" up on them at some point. Since I didn't manage to get any hummer pictures, here are a couple of pictures I took this week of other birds.

Mr. Red-Wing Blackbird. You can just barely see the red on his wing.

Male Goldfinch

One morning I was looking out the bedroom window, which affords a great view of the backyard feeder. There were a couple of male Red-Winged Blackbirds on the feeder, but I also saw what looked like a really large sparrow. I ran for my camera and got a picture so I could look it up in my bird book. I found that it was the female Red-Winged Blackbird. As usual with female birds, she was not as colorful as the male, but still possessed a beauty all her own.

I also was able to get this video of a male Goldfinch at the thistle feeder. I was sitting quite close to the feeder, so he was a little bit wary and kept his eye on me the whole time. I love the way you can see the beautiful black and white markings on his wings. A female Goldfinch joined him near the end of the video.

GRILLING SEASON IS HERE!

One reason I love to see Spring roll around is because it is the beginning of grilling season. I know, people say, "you can grill any time of year!" But, trust me, you don't want to be outside grilling during a Yakima winter. Last weekend I got my little Lodge Sportsman cast iron grill out, oiled it up, and grilled one of my favorite things in the whole wide world...asparagus! You are probably wondering how my asparagus patch is doing. Well, I only have 5 plants that survived the winter and they did not produce any asparagus spears big enough to pick. I found out that I need to put some dirt around the crowns and fertilize them, so I plan to do that this summer. Hopefully they will produce some bigger spears next year. I had to content myself with asparagus that we bought at the Big Red Barn, which is also known as Washington Fruit Place @ Barrett Orchards. Doesn't this look yummy?

Asparagus!!

BIRTHDAY PUZZLE

We finally finished the puzzle that I gave Linda for her birthday. It's a panorama puzzle, and I almost didn't get it because the measurements were 2 inches wider than our table. But I loved the picture so I went ahead and got it. It was a lot of fun to do but was quite challenging. We have found that the hard puzzles with a lot going on in the picture are the most fun to put together.

Only 700 pieces but still a challenge

We finished it a couple of days ago, so now we have put together all of our new puzzles. We have a "re-run" set up on the table now and are just getting started with it.

Any guesses? And don't cheat and look at the box

ARTY PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

We've had some pretty warm days this past week, a couple of them up in the high 80's. That's the kind of weather when I like to sit under the tree in my lounge chair and just do nothing...except take pictures and watch nature.

Sunshine through the leaves

Hosta, up close and personal

PARTING SHOT

We have several framed prints of bird paintings by Anne Worsham Richardson, an artist who lived in Charleston, SC. Whenever we went to Charleston we always made a point to go by her gallery and look at all of her beautiful bird paintings. Sadly, she passed away in 2012 at the age of 92. Apparently Summer Girl approves our choice of this print that we bought at her gallery, titled "Pileated Woodpecker with Dogwood Berries". Visit this website to view more of her paintings: ArtNet.com.

The cat has good taste

I hope everyone enjoyed all the pictures and videos on this week's blog. Be sure to visit again next week for more of the same!