Maybe I Should Rename This the Procrastination of the Phoebasaurus...

We have to jump back to mid June to keep up with the adventures. We had training out in the woods again, I did wilderness survival. I managed to make a fire with a bow drill, make cordage from dried stinging nettle etc. etc. None of these pictures are from the actual class of course, because that would be silly. Instead, feast your eyes on some inside-out flower (L) columbine (R), and the ghostly yet magnificent Indian pipe, below. 

 These will eventually turn their flower cups up and die/dry to black.

 Little old penstemon

 Lorquin's Admiral on some oxeye daisy.

 The Cispus River, which the 'campus' is next to.

 Anemones grow on land too, did you know?

 I don't know what either of these flowers are. They were in the river flood plain which is easy for non-natives to invade, so that confuses identifying them even more.
There were quite a few swallowtails flitting about. They particularly liked some of the rhododendrons blooming around the buildings. I even make up-close & personal friends with one later that week.

 Bloomed out and seedpod split orchid on the left which had been blooming in March, and Corydalis.

 A delightful beetle, one of many insects enjoying the heady nectar of the blooming Goat's Beard.

 These cheesy sun-through-the-trees shots epitomize why I love the PNW.
 Vibrant monkey flowers abounded. Is that a word?

A couple years ago, Brandon and I went on a road trip to California, and somewhere along the way in northern CA we found wild ginger blooming. I have been looking for it ever since so I could get a better shot of the flower. Of course I found this patch at dusk, but it's still better quality...

 Often when I wander about with people in early summer, they are befuddled by my gleeful squeaks of "orchid!" possibly because so many of those orchids look about like the below.

One evening I went for a stroll to see some waterfalls. That's when I found the ginger, as well as these wintergreens. I've only seen one other wintergreen before, and it had quite a different countenance. And here's our friendly swallowtail, saying hello. (I can't do anything about that gap up there, sorry. Sometimes the formatting on blogger doesn't play nice.)

Later in July we revisited my old stomping grounds in Port Angeles and the Elwha. The upper dam that created Lake Mills has been completely removed and the site is open to the public. And it has grown so much! This is February, 2013....

And here's June 2015.  A lot has changed. 

Parts of the dam remain, on which a walkway out has been opened for folks to stare 200+ feet down to where the river runs now.

I was pretty excited.

Alders that were waist high 2 years ago are now 12 - 15 feet... Otter for scale.

Some areas have been seeded with grass and forbs mixtures, resulting in large patches of enormous lupine bushes. The pods were popping that day, ejecting little black seeds hither and thither, intermittently pegging us in the legs. I figured I could help, and be an animal seed dispersal mechanism...

Some planted areas in the coarser sediment are struggling, presumably because of the lack of water retention in the highly porous 'soil'.



It was hot and windy down in reservoir bed, so when we got back to camp we shimmied into swimming gear and walked to the river.

The next day we went up to Hurricane Ridge to look for flowers and wander about. I know it's an old tale by now, but there's no snow, and that was June!

For perspective, here's what it looked like in August 2012.

We encountered this majestic deer in the parking lot. And found a sneaky moth, doing it's best to convince us that it was bark.

It was a bit early for flowers, but there were some, a well as butterflies.

White flowered rhododendron, a pretty little shrub in full, vigorous bloom. It was a moth kind of morning. 

And another unidentified flutterby.

I find monkey flowers very enjoyable and mildly entertaining. I hope you do too, otherwise you're probably getting a little fed up with the repetition...

We went down in elevation a little, and found some more pretties in bloom. Brandon is a very patient man, for which I am increasingly grateful. And what do you know, more orchids! And enormous larkspur. At least I think it's larkspur.

Upon seeing another too-tame deer making it's way ponderously along the trail, we hopped off the path to yield to the creature, and found ourselves in a patch of Clintonia.

One more orchid photo. Just cuz. 

Common Butterwort, a new one for me.

At some point whilst grocery perusing, in the seafood section I found a stack of cleaned beheaded fish with Wohoo! labels on them. Meaning I got a 3 lb Alaskan Sockeye for just a hair under $14. I was a little nervous, having never cooked a whole fish before, but it came out quite well, and we ate decadently.

Also that orchid way in the left background? It now has eight open flowers and the original flower is still holding on. First success at getting an orchid to rebloom, boom! As you can see I am not terribly coherent, so goodbye, enjoy the fish skeleton!

Added bonus, a murder of crows for your viewing pleasure, brought to you by our friendly neighborhood woods.