Snowy and Sunny

Here I am up on Mt. Baker snowshoeing last winter. Let me tell you, it is hard work--you need to have some stamina and a good lunch to eat in the sunshine. Lots of layers of clothing, so you can take it off and put it on, and determination. I only did one trip this year, but I have hiked across snow at Hannigan Pass and Yellow Aster Butte. Today, here by the bay in Bellingham, rain and wind. I heard high winds--but we'll see.

Recently I've seen a coyote and trumpeter swans, oh yes, mallards, Canada geese, Bufflehead ducks and loons. Oh and 12 great blue herons huddled in everygreens down by the water.  
Happy New Year!
Nan

Orcas Island

Here I am sitting on a tree hanging over Mountain Lake.  I've taken a lot of photos of reflections at this lake, beautiful ones that have become paintings. It's a pretty little lake on the way to Doe Bay, one of my favorite places on Orcas. I've stayed at Doe Bay more than once, kayaking out to the Pea Pods with a friend one weekend, doing a memorial to his mother. It was lovely. A giant Steller's Sea Lion slide off the rocks and into the water when we passed. Very cool.

Nan

Reindeer

Well, it isn't really, but being just after Christmas it could be. This is up at Hart Pass. There was snow at the top and couldn't proceed, but turned down this road and sat for a long time watching this buck wander toward us, feeding, watching us, feeding some more. The woods had burned up at the top at one point, near a little ranger cabin. I have some cool pictures of those trees, bark half black and bare. Very pretty in a way.

I love the woods. Back in the 70s I lived at Priest Lake in Idaho with my husband at the time. We worked at Hill's resort and when not working or playing music or skiing, we'd be up wandering back in the mountains. The roads get piled pretty high with snow up there. Beautiful

Nan

Ballard Camp 7-4-2010

Here's my friend David when we camped at Ballard Camp on the other side of the mountains. It was the fourth of July weekend. We'd been up to Hart Pass and had come back, gathered wood, made some dinner. It cools quickly in canyons along rivers, so we needed our jackets. The fourth is always my favorite weekend of the year, better than Christmas. I just love fireworks. Not everyone likes the racket or the sulfur in the air, but if I can get out to fireworks, I do. I've had several amazing experiences lying on the ground watching the blooms overhead. Truly amazing.

Up here on the 4th of July, a bit of rain, and cool.  We gathered wood, so much down wood that's dryer than a desert, I just wondered how quickly fire could race through.  We kept the fire small and we did get some nice heat from it and  cooked part of our dinner there.  Well, re-heated I think, since we'd brought along cooked chicken on ice.  Up at Hart Pass we picked up some containers of snow to help refrigerate our food for the rest of the weekend.

This was the weekend Sid had just had the silt from his bladder washed out and had been put on special food.  I'd watched him for the day and he was doing better.  They wouldn't have been able to see him until we got back, so I decided it was okay to go away.  I must say I was a nervous cat mom the whole time.

I hadn't camped for years and now will camp.  It just gets some taking used to again.  The hard ground--even though I have a pretty good mat, it's my hips these days, getting older. But seeing the stars at night, man-oh-man, it is worth it.  Nature makes me feel good, no great.  It truly feeds my soul.