Smoke, mountains and a whole lot of gas... A hodgepodge of events

Doubtlessly some day I'll find getting up at 3am to drive for eight hours a ridiculous endeavor. But I'm still young. The smoke didn't start until just north of Weed. Then it got thick fast.

I survived. I found a wild Otter, and we went on a short adventure to Mirror Lake at Mt. Hood

Some reptilian thingamajig. I have no training in that field.

More pine sap! On the right we have a delicate little Scouler's Harebell (Campanula scouleri)

Chipmunks are pretty cute... for being rodents. This fella displayed its acrobatic skill in the huckleberry bushes, snatching up berries and munching away on them with its chubby little cheeks expanded.

A very common orchid in these here parts, the rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera oblongifolia). While photographing these a man approached me and asked if they were orchids. When I confirmed his suspicions, he informed me that he had run an orchid nursery in Florida... for years. A little part of me wondered how he couldn't tell they were orchids, even if he had been selling their much showier developed cousins. Come on man... Its so obvious! (But not really)

Pink Wintergreen (Pyrola asarifolia) is the first wintergreen I've ever seen in bloom. Its very exciting!

Minding our own business then comes trundling along this little crustacean

Ahhhh so pretty.

There were rather a lot of dragonflies winging around at the edge of the lake. Even one apparently laying her eggs.

Brandon being picturesque, a currant (the stinky one I think) ripening up.

Dragonflies! Everywhere! Zipping around and colliding in a papery sounding crash of wings, delineating their lake-side territories... The amount of time we spent trying to get this one picture is a little disgusting. But hey, look, dragonfly in flight!

And eventually, Bellingham reclaims me.

Jammin' Jenn! 

There are particular things I look for when I form friendships. Sarcasm (or some rudimentary grasp thereof), loyalty, common interests, willingness to spend the entirety of a day picking berries and converting them into canned goods... Of course my priority upon returning to Wa again was to find raspberries.To my complete and utter joy we were able to scrounge some up at Bjornstad Farms, a marvelous location for U-Pick berries in Lynden. I say scrounge and I mean it. Even with two people it took us a little under two hours to seek out enough raspberries for just about two batches of jam. In an additional half an hour we got over a gallon of blueberries. Ahhh scrumptious!

Considering the raspberries you can get here when the season is in full swing, these are pretty measly. But we worked hard for them, and the jam still tastes marvelous.

Jenn actually ended up doing most of the work. I have a hard time sharing kitchen space, and we managed the tiny kitchen dance with some finesse, for which I am grateful.

Life continues on. We went to the fair. Its about like I remember, but more expensive. We mostly looked at animals and shared very fatty food. I also acquired some very flattering pictures of my friend with food all over her face, should I ever need to blackmail her...

My guess is that these are all the eggs the hens had been laying the last few days in the poultry barn...

 A very fluffy bunny

 Thankfully we decided to share the pure fat fair fare between several girls, it worked well.

 Lots of goats, lots of working size horses. Enormous creatures!

Some very amusing chainsaw art pugs (like... why?)

And best of all... was absolutely the cup I got my lemonade in... It has an amazing bendy straw, and yes, I still have it! So here's a dorky Phoebasaurus and her lemonade cup. Have a smashing weekend!