Planning A Hike At Cougar Mountain

Megan, Taraz, and Rahmat came on our hike on Sunday up at Cougar Mountain, near Renton. We took a trail along Cold Creek, a wide horse trail, that was a hard vertical climb for about a mile. It evened off, circling the mountain as it got to a higher elevation, and then it wound downward through a beautiful forest. Of course it rained the whole time, a light drizzle, but that didn't diminish the pleasure of a hard climb. As usual, I was taking off coat and sweater, eventually climbing in just a thin turtleneck shirt.

In this photo we've all gathered at the Starbucks, to coffee up before we start. While the guys were figuring out trails and locations, Megan and I visited with the sweetest young woman, Molly, who sat next to us in a dark corner, on a sofa with her husband and kids.

Just The Ladies Discussing Motherhood

Megan looks pensive here, as she listens to Molly talk about raising her two young children, a 3 year old girl and an 8-month old boy. Molly is a stay at home mom, and comes to Starbucks on the weekend with her hubby, for outings.

In the lower photo I'm holding out my hand to make a point about having 5 children. We compared notes, and Molly is a lot like me - likes a clean house, puts things away before bedtime. Being a stay at home mom is just like running your own business - to make it work you've got to have goals, get focused, and get organized.

Taraz perked up his ears when Molly talked about being sensitive to fabric, and clothing labels - I guess I am too, as I often will wear a tee shirt wrong side out to avoid feeling a scratchy label. It is fun to see others with the same odd tendancies. I really enjoyed listening to Molly describe her colicky baby, trying to use a snuggly and back-pack. We talked about all of our hiking excursions with toddlers and babies in tow.

She is already trying to integrate her kids into social events, and learning to teach them to stay busy....I had to laugh, because I pulled out a case of KINEX under the seat of George's car - a box of leggo-like shapes for children to put together. He takes them on his home visits, so that when he is talking with the parents, the kids stay occupied.

George handed Taraz my camera, and told him to shoot some photos. So, he got one of Molly and I and one of Megan. He took some others, and we'll be e-mailing them to Molly in a few days. It was a fun coffee break, discussing trails, kids, and getting to know someone new along the way. I wish Molly many wonderful years with her family - and I told her it really goes by fast....too fast.

The Cougar Mountain Hike - Sunday

Here is a sign at the trailhead on the way down the mountain, it indicates two options - going to an overlook two miles away, or finishing the hike at the trailhead. Taraz and Megan were interested in hiking the two miles to the overlook. We'd already done about three miles, some of it hard climbing, and we only had .09 of a mile to go before finishing. George and I were worn out from the climb, so we had to take a vote, using Rahmat as the deciding vote. It looked like he was going to side with his brother and Megan, so George talked about going to a restaurant for an early dinner, something we don't often do... That settled the score. We hiked down the mountain to the trailhead.

As you can see, we hiked to a beautiful waterfall within the Cougar Mountain Range. All of that water eventually flows into Lake Washington. Oh, speaking of signs, there was one warning us of bears, cougars, and cave-in dangers.

This area had at one time been a coal mining area, and there were pock-marked areas where underground mine shafts had caved in. You could also see mineral residue in the mud and rivulets in the road - just unsightly yellow and gold liquids trickling down the access road.

Mom! Come On - You Can Diet Tomorrow!

Owens Beach in Point Defiance Park

We walked along Owens Beach, in Point Defiance Park this last Saturday - but the day was a torrent of rain, then sunbreaks. We found a muddy trail in the forest, and it was so beautiful I hope to go back when the sunshine is out, and get some images. There were huge foot-shaped mud puddles everywhere, like a tell-tale gossip story of who had been there, and where they went. When the sun glinted onto them, it was really quite impressive - but, wouldn't you know, I left my camera in the car!

I followed George, as he tried to prance through the forest in a type of jogging routine. Why people try to do a running walk seems a little confusing to me...just relax and enjoy the forest. But, here he was with his arms up like a boxer, mincing his steps around the potholes and mud pies. I could almost imagine him wearing a pink lace tutu, cavorting thusly, and saying, "oh my, oh my".

We made arrangements with our sons Taraz and Rahmat, to go together on an extended hike on Sunday up at Cougar Mountain. They brought their friend, Megan, and we had a long afternoon hike along Cold Creek. I'll have photos of that hike at my 4:00 posting, when I have a chance to check my photos.

Just Get Milk and Eggs

I made a short list (5 items) for George, with the comment "And anything else you'd like for a meal"...he came home with over 70 items, and spent $125.00.

We never grocery shop together - he says we'll spend more money that way. But, what do I want with turnips and rutabegas? Or Molle? He says he's planning a 'root-vegetable' casserole, and the molle goes over the chicken. I can see it now - 4 days worth of roots that will perish before they are eaten.

Seymour Conservatory - Wright Park

Every couple of months you can count on a new horticultural display at the Seymour Conservatory in Wright Park. I went over and checked out the azaleas, daffodils, cyclamen, and amaryllis. I enjoy the soft music, the fragrance of the soil and tropical plants, and I stay awhile to watch the large koi swimming in the pond. A waterfall bubbles over lava rocks, and spreads bubbles over the surface of the water. Little aquatic plants, resembling duckweed, cover the surface of the pond, so the fish remain hidden. The most unusual plant was this papyrus, that had the most delicate fan of leaves - I felt them, and I thought how Egyptians cultivated this plant thousands of years ago, to use the fiber for paper.

Pathway Colors - Seymour Conservatory

On My Front Porch - A Forest Display

I just put all this greenery together in a pot - cedar fronds, huckleberry leaves, salal, and lichen...from our hike yesterday. It smells heavenly.

The Charles L. Pack Forest - Washington

The University of Washington's Charles L. Pack Experimental Forest provides a field location for faculty, staff, and students from the University's College of Forest Resources. They can teach, conduct research, and demonstrate modern forest management here - classes were in session as we hiked the trails. Our hike was about a 2 mile, uphill climb yesterday, starting about 10:30 a.m. - just perfect for a hiking/canoeing day.

We walked through different forest blends, mostly Douglas fir and western red cedar. As we hiked to the top of Hugo Mountain, various trees were marked, indicating something important about each one. We hiked to the top, and passed several lovely waterfalls. This is a popular area in the summertime, where horseback riding and mountain bikes are allowed in some designated areas. Hunting occurs in season. It was a great day for a hike, then we followed it up with a couple hours of canoeing. Check out the post below...

Canoe Paddle On Mineral Lake - Washington

Mineral Lake is a mountain lake near Mt. Rainier. It is a fishing lake, with a tumbledown resort and old fishing cabins. Because the lake has so many underwater logs, power boats are discouraged. It is good for canoeing - about a 3 1/2 mile paddle all the way around.

The photos above were taken yesterday when the rain had cleared, and the sun was just getting ready to pop out. We started our paddle at 1:00, and finished at 3:00. We had very peaceful water, with no wind. I did a fair amount of paddling, and filming too. There were greebes and a couple dozen cormorants drying out on a log in the middle of the lake. George and I were the only ones out on the water. Note the moss on the tree limbs - a bit spookey, but fun to canoe under, if it doesn't pull out your hair.

Graffiti Colors On Forest Rocks

When people splash their inscriptions on the rocks along a road, do they know that within a few years it will be illegible? Moss and lichen will take up homesteading, and the rain and sun will spoil the best of comments...sorry folks, Mother Nature rules.

Mediterranean Brunch With Ruhu'llah

My son Ruhu'llah stopped by today, and I fed him a Mediterranean brunch - Hummus with Pita Bread, Spinach and Tomato Salad, and yellow Hubbard Squash. Throw in a little green onion, cilantro, purple grapes and apple slices - and you've got a nutritious meal. (click on photo to enlarge)

Mediterranean dishes, like Hummus (ground garbanzo beans), Tabbouleh (bulgur cracked wheat), and Falafel (chick-pea croquettes) are all favorites of mine. The recipes are Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian in origin.

I buy the powdered mix in bulk at Fred Meyer, and I try to always have them prepared, on hand. I mix the dried Hummus with water and put it through a blender, to make it smooth. Add a little olive oil and fresh lemon juice, with a dash of paprika or lemon-pepper on top. Within just moments you can have Pita and Hummus with a cucumber - tomato salad and fresh fruit. I bake the squash ahead of time, with brown sugar, cinnamon, and olive oil.

Martin Luther King Party Here

Megan and my kids - Rahmat, Taraz, and Ruhiyyih - had a party after our Ruhi Class. They made a pizza, and Megan baked lime bars. My grand-daughter, Daisy also came, to spend the night. We all have plans to attend the Martin Luther King Celebration at the Tacoma Dome. Taraz has to be there at 7:00 a.m. to help set up the stage. George and I, and Daisy plan to attend a potluck afterwards, to celebrate with our Baha'i friends.

Triton Cove On Puget Sound

As you can see, it was not the greatest day for a canoe paddle - but we loaded up, and headed out early Saturday morning. We've had 27 days of solid rain, and we figured it wasn't going to get better.

We had one of the best paddles - ever! Sun-breaks came out, the rain stopped, and the Hood Canal came alive with the sounds of water, dripping from everything - from under exposed cedar roots jutting out over the cliffs, dripping from salal and huckleberry bushes, and from the pink buds of tree branches. Lovely Madronas straddle the lava boulders that stretch out into the water. I was very surprised to see so much lava, both in chunks and in the pryroclastic flow residue.

As we paddled along, we waved to guys suiting up to do some scuba diving. They had their eyes on the oysterbeds, which were all over this area. I was surprised at how clear the water was, given we've had record flooding here. The tide was way up.

We saw Goldeneyes diving down for shellfish, saw a couple bald eagles on a snag over the water. (We were the only people out on the water.)

From the shoreline we could hear the NFL game from some of the cabins - the Seahawks and Washington Redskins. Our daughter called as we drove back through the Hood Canal - she is moving to Washington D.C. and no longer roots for the Seahawks. George told her no one could beat the Seahawks with their league-leading offense. Needless to say Ruhiyyih and George 'hung up the banter' when Mack Strong ran 35 yards in the absense of Shawn Alexander, who was knocked out of the game with a concussion.

Driving Along The Hood Canal

The Hood Canal is like a long bent arm in Puget Sound, with cottages along the roadside. One after another. The road is near the shoreline, so houses are without yards, packed tightly like rows of houseboats. If you've seen those, you know that every square inch of the property is used, and flowerboxes and planters add the color of a summer garden.

The old stone and log building is in a picnic area along the Hood Canal near Union. It was built a long time ago. You don't see that kind of craftsmanship anymore. I enjoyed looking up at the rafters inside, and the glass in the windows was that old, rippled kind, like it was hand-rolled.

Wet And Boggy, But, There's Sunshine!

We went for a half-mile hike through a nature trail that was the most primitive and underdeveloped trail I've ever done. George kept smiling and urging me on, saying, "It's a great hike, come on!" I put on my garden boots (not my hiking boots) and checked it out. This is the trail - 3 inches of water most of the way. Although there were some nice ferns and moss, just about everything was bedraggled, boggy looking, like it was ready to expire in the next windstorm. Massive flooding had occurred along the Skokomish River, and this area of the Reservation was flooded. Along the highway, the vacant 4th of July fireworks stands were standing in 8 inches of water. Farmers fields were flooded, looking like rice paddys. We slogged through this hike in about 20 minutes.

McLane Creek Interpretive Trail

McLane Creek Drainage is located at the northeast corner of the Capitol Forest, near Olympia. We hiked there today for several hours. A loop trail with interpretive signs goes around a ten acre active beaver pond. McLane Creek, with its chum salmon run, flows next to the pond.

This whole area has been worked over, for the laying of gas pipeline, so it had to be reseeded with a variety of native grasses. Douglas fir, western hemlock, red cedar and red alder provide a rich forest overstory. The understory is salal, huckleberry, salmonberry, blackberry, Oregon grape, and ferns.

We appreciated the wooden boardwalks through the wetlands, shown, and I enjoyed the trails through the woods. One part of the trail passes directly under the exposed, knarled roots of an ancient cedar. I stood under it, looked up, and saw little settlements of miniture white mushrooms, no bigger than 1/3 of an inch across. They were the sweetest little oportunists, and nearby was an elegantly woven spider's web, abandoned. Mosses, lichen, fungi covered all the tree limbs, so that everything looked almost white, as if dusted with powdered sugar.

It was a good day for visitors, some pushing baby strollers. I knew that with mud up ahead on the trail, they'd encounter difficulty...we always had our kids in backpacks or snugglies when we went hiking. I can remember one year going for hikes in the Morton Arboretum near Lisle, Illinois. George had a toddler on his back, and a newborn in a snuggli on the front. We were in the habit of weekly walks in the forest, and nothing slowed us down.

McLane Creek Drainage is great for birdwatching, too, and for songbirds. We heard chicadees and wrens scolding us as we walked along the trail through the woods. The Creek had an odor that we traced to rotting salmon that had come upstream to spawn. Fortunately, today it did not rain on our hike. We took the canoe, but thought differently about getting out on open water. George was ready to paddle, but I felt I'd freeze to death if I just sat in the canoe. I knew only a hike would keep me warm.

We've gotten home early enough for me to prepare a little dinner, and make a banana bread for the Ruhi Class tonite. All in all, a day well spent.

A Rainy Day in Puget Sound

This is how the Puget Sound looks in wintertime - overcast, with strong possibilities of rain. We didn't let it bother us, and headed out for a hike yesterday.

One learns to carry rain-gear, water boots, hiking boots, everything, so that any option is available. We parked the car at a trailhead, near Woodard Bay.

This bay is being restored by the Washington Department of Natural Resources Natural Areas Program. There are bulkheads along the shoreline that have increased beach erosion and sediment scour, causing damage to the local habitat. In addition, bulkheads can prevent the supply of gravel and sand from reaching neighboring beaches.

Canoeing is restricted this time of year because it is a protected habitat for seals and shorebirds. (One of our first paddles was in this bay several years ago...we didn't realize it was restricted water, and a helicopter came out looking for us! We got out of there fast!)

I saw a little newt (salamander) in rotting cedar chips on the trail. It was a tiny looking thing, brown, with an orange belly. That warns predators that it is poisonous. They are carnivores - eating slugs and worms, and they have the most delicate orange fingers. These newts excrete a poison on their skin that is harmful to predators, like mice.

There were clam shells along a road, away from the water, and we watched the crows pick up the shells and drop them on the pavement, causing them to crack open.

Just a note - the white berrys above(White Coralberry) we call snowberries. When Meriweather Lewis collected the Pacific Slope Snowberry during the Lewis & Clark Expedition, he brought living specimens to Thomas Jefferson. He cultivated it successfully, and soon European cultivators were making it available to continental gardeners. The berries contain two hard seeds each, so when birds ate snowberries then pooped in the forest, Snowberry was assured of becoming naturalized in France, England & many parts of Europe.

When we were kids, we'd put them on the road and pop them with our boot. They make a loud cracking sound. The ones here were dripping with raindrops.

D.H. Lawrence wrote about Snowberries:

"Since I lost you, my darling, the sky has come near,
And I am of it, the small sharp stars are quite near,
The white moon going among them
like a white bird among snowberries,
And the sound of her gently
rustling in heaven like a bird I hear."

A Gentle New Years Day

Our family celebrated New Years Day with a potluck at my daughter, Laurel's home. It was an exceedingly gently day, with a little soft music, quiet conversation, and food. Taraz and his friend, Megan are pictured here. There were 13 of us there, including my family and my former husband and his family.

Laurel made split pea soup in a big pot, we brought chicken and garlic bread, and Laurel's Dad brought ham and cheeses. Fresh fruit, a pot of brown rice, appetisers and cookies rounded out our lunch.

The Family Room At Laurel's

When we arrived for lunch, the house was very still; we made coffee and stood here, catching up on each other's events during the Christmas holiday - you see, in our family, we don't celebrate Christmas, but everyone has a special way of honoring the day. Some family members drove out of state, to visit friends, or, like Ruhiyyih, flew to Washington DC. We stood here, and Ruhiyyih layed out her souveniers from the Holocaust Museum.

Keeping The Music Light

George's musical tastes ranged from 'Trance Planet' to Sheila Chandra, 'System of a Down', 'Instrumentals from Godfather 3', Julio Iglases, and some early 90's electronic dance music (and we danced, George and I)...

Getting Ready For Coffee!

Mehran, Annie, Laurel, and Ruhiyyih.

Taking Time Together - Taraz and Daisy

This guy is famous for his big squeezes. She is famous for giggles and chatter. Taraz and Daisy, my grand-daughter.