Yes, I am Alive.

You know, when I started this blog, I did not envision people getting so attached to it. While not bad, it was rather unexpected and thus the sibling badgering might have been avoided some had I not started this thing. Nevertheless... It is a great way to share some of the photos, and accompanying stories of my intermittent escapades.
In an effort to get up to speed, we'll have to delve into what I did this summer.
In July, I did a hike near Mt Baker called Skyline Divide, which I have wanted to do for quite some time. It was marvelous, and all my huffing, puffing, and grumbling to myself about my excessive sugar consumption was well worth it for the stunning vista.
I saw a suite of orchids... Do you see that there is a dancing man in one of them?

A small Clintonia (spp uniflora?) type lily that lined the lower wooded trail (left). Here and there in wet areas were currants blooming away. Flowers were spare til the very top where there were glacier lilies (right)

 This spider was just waiting for a tasty bee or butterfly to land on it's flower. 

 There were what one might call OMGALOT! of glacier lilies

 The marvelous Mt Baker. It looked like there had been an avalanche that striped part of the right side of the dome. When we drove to Bellingham last weekend it had already snowed in the mountains and Baker looked pristine and beautiful. See that little hill/peak on the left? I, being of indomitable spirit once reaching the main summit, thoroughly believed that I ought to climb it. You can't tell from here, but it's a few hundred feet higher.

 Heather flowers

 This was early July, lots of snow fields to slip across.

Mt Shuksan was also out and about. 

 Good thing I mastered that hill, because that's where all the butterflies were hanging out.  This poor critter looked like it got snagged by a bird. It was an easy one to follow.

So, that was that. 

In August, I got a phone call from Rachel. She had barely escaped hospitalization because her spidy senses told her to up and run right before a sizable tree limb took out her stall and a neighbors. My secret plan to arrive at the farm the next day could not have worked out better.  I am very grateful that no one was hurt, and the material loses were minimal.

Anyway, I went to the farm. Fig season was in full swing. I met the character below, who quite possibly adores figs more that I do. She certainly squeals louder when you give them to her. The estimates are that she is now over 200 pounds, and I cannot fathom what will become of all that meat come butchering time. The thing that freaks me out most about pigs (other than their intellect) is their incredibly human looking eyes.

 There are always mantises lounging in mom's flower beds, waiting for bees and butterflies, or whatever unsuspecting prey might bumble passed.

Grapes were ripe too, so I got to gorge on two fruit categories that do not do so well in my cool damp climate. There are still an abundance of these leaf-leg bugs, this guy is missing one. They sure are pretty (for being a pest!). Then I drove my butt back to Bellingham.


September found us moved out of our little apartment and staying with friends Katie & Peter (you rember Katie. I worked with her.) in Bellingham as Brandon finished up his job and we both applied like mad people to jobs all over the west coast.

On the left is the day that I a) learned that not being able to independently close your left eye is uncommon and b) hooked a baseball cap over my bun, used said cap as an eye-patch, and learned to shoot a bow.




We did find time to go on wanders together,  like to the Stimpson Family Nature Preserve.
Frogs on  lily pads! Its like a fairy tale!

The longer we looked, the more we saw. 

 The preserve is a series of beaver ponds that are very important habitat for amphibians

 Brandon had never hiked near Mt Baker in the summer, so we went back to Artist's Point and wandered out along the ridge for a while.

 See that smudge on Brandon? That's the devastating scratch in my camera lens. Yup.

 From here you can see Shuksan...

 lots of cool geomorphology...

and Mt Baker. 

We proceeded on that day to go mushroom hunting. No gathering happened, but we sure saw a lot of curious fungus. On the left is a chanterelle-like growth (no eating!) that was enormous, we think it was some kind of Pig's Ear.

 Angel wings, gorgeous and ethereal white in the dim old growth, but too young to pick.

 A little lily with it's developed seed thing, which I had never seen before. Shiny and blue! To the right is bunchberry being all bunchy. The bloom is white and being a dogwood, looks like a mini dogwood blossom.
Below are some pretty to admire aminitas.

 The last few photos were from along this 'creek' that feeds into the North Fork Nooksack River. I've seen smaller rivers.

 Since then we moved. To Olympia. Because Brandon got a job. AND I got a job! Working with... SALMON! Haha! And to think I thought I was through with fish...

While preparing my little bio for work I experienced some difficulty when searching for an appropriate photo (must be smiling but not being a dork, close enough to see my face, solitary, preferably not cuddling a dog/cat or lets face it - frog, fungus etc...) to accompany the text. Probably because it's much more fun to take photos like this:

Happy Daylight Savings!