Held Rapt

It may have come to your attention that I find the minutiae of detail and complexity in the natural world utterly fascinating. It also happens that the place I currently reside is a convergence of many interwoven ecosystems.

Sea

A few minutes inland all was sunny, brilliant and clear.

Every seen sandstone with ripples in it? Here's the process in motion....

Unfortunately....

....the snail shell I wanted to take home was occupied.

The very next morning and viola, you can see the Canadian Cascades...

Crabs are molting (undergoing ecdysis) and leaving behind carapaces with eye casings intact

Flats, sloughs, estuaries....

Thrilled as I was to see the first two, imagine my glee at seeing trees full of Bald Eagles (mostly juvenile)

 There was a lady out with her dog. Here she is preparing to scare away a bald eagle.

 And here it is making its escape...

Northern Pygmy Owls (small and diurnal hunters but still a ?)

Martha asks "how do you know they were owls?" Well apparently other raptors can digest bone so when you find one of these beauties and see a vole's pelvic bone in it, its probably from an owl.
Also...

Northern Harrier who repeatedly got harried by that stationary owl.

Never an end to red winged blackbirds

Someday I'll have a fancy telephoto lens; this will have to so for now.

Juvenile bald, surveying his vast and magnificent world

Blue herons make a terrible squawking ruckus, in case you were wondering...

Forest

This is my favorite kind of moss, it looks almost fernlike

Skeletal remains of a maple  leaf

Some delightful fungus

Plenty of beaver action

We saw a belted kingfisher in the little lakes, this isn't the same one, but you get the idea

Bits and Bobs

It hit home recently (when I was requested to update my drivers license which you can do online if between the ages of 24 & 70, which category I then did not fit) that I have been in Washington rather a long time. This is year six!

Tulips are one of my favorites; early, without strong scent, and long lived, and best of all, phototropic (growing about an inch a day in the direction of the best light source).

Baking is still a thing I like to do. Unfortunately finding the energy or motivation to do so has been lackluster of late. 

Have an aggregating anemone, and a lovely day!

Let me Boast a Little

About what a tremendously wonderful group of friends and family I seem to have collected. They (you all) are pretty great. I felt veritably showered with love on the days preceding and following the actual main event: my birthday. Now I know its not every day that the Phoebasaurus ages up a little, but for most of my life I have willfully denied, lied about, and generally swept the date of my birth under a scuzzy little rug. Its not a big deal, and I am not someone who enjoys big deals being made of me. But this year (for who knows what reason) I decided I would quietly advertise my birthday and coerce my sweet Otter into arranging a birthday party for me.  And man, was it stellar!

There was a dinner party. I spent a tedious number of hours making tiny marzipan cake decorations, I am still baffled by my patience.





Extraordinarily large and beautiful orchid which began to bloom in the next few days, gifted to me by a consistently insightful friend. You may remember Jenn, we jammed together this summer.

There was a stuffed owl looming over my desk at the office (who keeps his eye on you wherever you go), not to mention Bald Eagle cake pops and a book (a whole book!) of bird stickers.

















I took most of the actual day off to hike

 (Its been chilly here lately, and windy)

and play with my 132 new colored pencils (still a little stunned, Otter dear)






and receive an unexpected delivery





and discover quite a few cards in our mail slot.









Here we see the Phoebarsaurus in a previously undocumented setting akin to birthday festivity. It is ultimately the most flattering photograph ever recorded of a Phoebasaurus; in which she is bemusedly, overwhelmingly, happy and content.

(There you go Rachel, I wrote you a blog)