Back to work, Hi-ho Hi-ho

 Well, back to work I go, with rain, frost and snow. But not without good food and a few flowers. The rose bushes around this house keep on flowering, so we keep on picking them. I thought this was a decent little bouquet for early January.












I tried my had at making a tart from a wonderful baking book Rachel passed on to me. It was lemony, and fluffy, and so very very delicious. I think it was a success. It made about twice what I wanted so my coworkers got to scarf some too. Tonight, I shall make flan. We'll see how that goes.

Work has gone back to same old same old, with some excitement thrown in. And if its excitement in the Pacific Northwest, surely it means getting drenched! Sure enough...Like with Lake Quinalt, the ONP has been acquiring properties around Lake Cresent and restoring them.

That usually seems to entail demolishing whatever structures were there before, removing invasives (that people like to plant in their gardens) and planting into the site.Tuesday's site might be called a large puddle or a small pond. It rained. And then it rained some more. Oh and guess what happened next! It rained. Thankfully it wasn't particularly cold or windy. Just another beautiful day in the PNW.

Leonie helped me weather Tuesday in fine spirits.Thursday was quite wonderful weather wise. It was cold, but the ground was easy to dig (on Tues your holes filled with water and well... yep) and there was a beautiful view to be had. Few clouds and all those mountains covered in snow, even sunshine by the end of the day.

We also found some bulbs rooting into the edge of the lake so I quickly pulled some out and stuck them in my sandwich box. And now they're growing in a sour cream container on the kitchen windowsill.

As the previous post may indicate, the birding did not stop when I got back to good old Washington.
The back yard is a surprisingly good spot to watch, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that our neighbors have a couple feeders up.

I finally got a decent picture of a Steller's Jay   (Cyanocitta stelleri). They seem fond of scaring off all the smaller birds that come and hang out in the same cherry tree. Or maybe I'm anthropomorphizing. Either way.

I don't know what either of those are. Some little thing and a flicker type bird who preened until it realized I was stalking it. Whoops. 

It has been an eagle week . We saw this one at Lake Crescent slowly circling and watching the water.

 There was one hanging out on top of a Douglas Fir at the nursery for at least an hour and yesterday, we saw two at the the mouth of the Elwha. They looked like they were going into some mating ritual.

Then there was this little critter flitting about, if you can spot it. I think it was a female ruby crowed kinglet.




We also saw this guy (a river otter?). The water was so murky it kept poking its head up so it see, or that's my guess.
 It was pretty glorious yesterday. Frigid, with bright pale blue sky and blinding sun. We took cuttings of all kinds of shrubs and trees, and that was about it. Excitement indeed.

The mouth of the Elwha, with murky silt water, and snowy Vancouver Island as a backdrop.