Blue skies

The Pacific Northwest is also known for its gray, rainy days.  Fortunately for me, we reside in the small rain shadow formed by the Olympic Mountains.  The past few days were windy and rainy, like much of the country.  Today was not that at all.  Today was sunny.  The skies were blue.  The distant mountains freshly bleached with a blanket of pure snow.  Riding the bikes into Langley, proved very rewarding.

And from a week ago, the last picture is a reminder of wonderful PNW coastal mornings.

Fungus amoungous

One of the many enjoyments of the Pacific Northwest is the variety of fungus.  Such a wonderful creation.  What one sees above the surface is it's flower, its sex organ, its fruit of labor.  Underground, the fungus is a complex web of microbia that fills the soil gaps like grout in a brick wall.  But instead of inert grout, the fungus acts as a laboratory, chemically altering the soil, both mineral and organic.

Amature Photographer, T.Buck.

Here are some pics that Todd took the past week.  He has such a good eye for details.

More wilderness

 The cold start again, this one having the wilderness sign.  Notice the snow!

 The area we hiked into.  the first lake, Ferguson Lk, is in the divit along the right ridge near the center of the photo.  yeah, I walked to the lake.  Below is a picture Todd took above the lake that we stayed at the second night, Fred's Lake.

 This is camp #2.  a sweet place it was.  The morning was so cold, the water pump was frozen and for the first time in all my camping experience, we were out of fuel.  so the boy scout stepped up, started a morning fire and we had smokey oatmeal, coffee, and warm water for the trail.

And a post would not be sufficient without Henry!

Weekend finally

This past weekend, Todd and I hiked into the Paysaten Wilderness.  The morning we started out (Friday) there was a fresh dusting of snow on the ground, the wind was blowing at the summit/wilderness boundary, and it was cold, really cold. 

The hike started at the top and went down about 2000 feet to the Middle Fork Paysaten River.  From there we hiked back up 2000' to Lake Ferguson for our first night.  Total for day one was 8.5 miles.  My out of shape body was super exhausted.  We still managed to tool around the cirque.  Todd attempted to summit the ridge to look over to a different drainage but the steep terrain prevented it on this day.

 And that was day 1.  Stay tuned for day 2.

Meal time, again

Here is a fun post of the various meals I have devoured:
Breakfast of champs:

Dinner for kings:

Appetizers for lovers:

Harvest season

My oh my, its harvest season. 

 From Marv's Garden we obtained green beans, jalapeno peppers, acorn squash, and some other weird looking green squash.

Todd practiced his canning skills and now we have winter bounty.

Salsa!!! with lots of peppers.

Dinner is served

Here I am providing for my family:

Sunset glory

While my parents were visiting last weekend, we were treated with an amazing sunset.  WOW.

And of course, a picture of Henry doing what he loves best...fetching.

Shinning, part 5

I went downstairs tonight.  An innocent trip into the basement to put Scooby to bed.  there, on the wall of the basement was four letters, poorly covered in spackling, a pathetic attempt to hide a threat.

KI

KIL

KILL

Why? Its like a 1970's horror flick: the female is alone, on a lake, isolated, the phone does not work, sprained ankle, pick your movie, twins at the end of the hall, messages written in lipstick backwards, what the ^*(& was that bump, knock I just heard?
I am sleeping with the lights on tonight.

October 1

A new month and I am still not done with the thesis.

Here are a few more spider web shots, a baby snake in the grass (top left), and Henry stalking something in the rushes.

Such a gorgeous sunny day on whidbey is.