Pacific Northwest Nature for Families

Burfoot Park and Beach in the Fall

2011-11-15T02:44:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a really long time! I'm sorry for disappearing. (The pictures below were taken by me unless otherwise noted.)

Gorgeous leaves on the ground at Burfoot Park!
(above pic taken by my 12-year-old son)

Back on November 6th our family visited Burfoot Park and Beach in Olympia. We had never been there in the fall before. The forest was lovely to walk through. The leaves, many of which were from bigleaf maple trees, some still in the trees, while many had fallen to the ground, were gorgeous pale green, yellows, oranges, and browns, and there were green ferns and moss growing along the pathway and on the trees and patches of bright green grass in some of the clear areas on the ground. Various types of mushrooms grew amongst the fallen leaves and other debris, and on logs or hillsides.

collage of mushrooms

Walking through the forest

After we walked through the forest we reached the beach. It was beautiful as well, though the tide was high. We took a different path through the park than we had taken in the past, one that took longer to get to the beach, but we enjoyed the beauty of the forest, and we came out on the far right (or north) side of the beach, where a house used to sit, instead of the main entrance to the beach. We are glad we decided to go that way, because the tide would have been too high to walk over there on the beach.

high tide as seen to the left of the beach

looking to the right

We saw a barge with logs on it.
(above pic taken by my 12-year-old son)

The sun shone through clouds, and there was a hazy look to the sky.

We saw small some jellyfish on the beach
which looked like glass or chunks of ice.

It was peaceful on the beach, and we enjoyed looking on the beach and just being there.

Here are links to past posts about Burtfook Park/Beach:

Burfoot Park, Olympia, WA

August 14th at Burfoot Beach

Monarch Butterflies at Burfoot Beach

Eccentric Sand Dollar (Dendraster Excentricus)

Clouded Leopards at the Point Defiance Zoo

2011-08-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

The Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA, sometimes has members-only events, and last night they had a special event to celebrate this coming weekend's grand opening of the new Cats of the Canopy clouded leopard exhibit. A long line of people waited to see the clouded leopards, and zoo employees urged people not to take too long looking at the leopards. Even though I understood the need to hurry and give others the chance to see them, I felt disappointed we couldn't look at them longer. We truly enjoyed seeing them, though!

A lot of people waited in line.

While waiting in line, first of all we saw a beautiful adult clouded leopard. . .


(above picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

(above picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

(above picture taken by my daughter windchime)

Then we came to the nursery where the adorable baby leopards frolicked. . .

(above picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

(above picture taken by my me)

(above picture taken by me)

(above picture taken by my 6-year-old son)

(above picture taken by my daughter windchime)

I'm linking this post Weekend Reflections. :)

Faces, Flowers, and Fruit

2011-08-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much for the get well wishes! I'm feeling a lot better and should be all well soon! My kiddos all got sick, too, and we haven't done much this past week. I am looking forward to us all being back to normal.

Today is the day for the letter "F" for ABC Wednesday, and I'm going to share with you about some of the faces, flowers, and fruit we found while walking on the trails at South Hill Community Park in South Hill, near Puyallup, WA, last month. The park has two trails -- the South Hill Park Loop Trail and the Nathan Chapman Memorial Trail. The trails connect and make a very nice place for families to walk through wetlands and forest. It's a peaceful place, and the trails are paved, flat, and easy-to-walk. At the park there is a play area, too, for children, and a restroom.

We walked the trails at South Hill Community Park.
(above picture taken by my older son)

The Nathan Chapman Memorial Trail is at South Hill Park.
(above picture taken by my older son)

That day the sun shone brightly in the sky and filtered through the trees creating a wonderfully green and shadowy walk. We enjoyed seeing the various plants and enjoyed the coolness in the shade, and, surprisingly, we kept seeing faces in the leaves on the ground! Have you ever had that happen?? Here is a picture of my younger son finding a face on the ground. . .

The leaf has a face!!

Here is a collage of the faces we found that day!

(You can click the collage to see a larger picture.)

Obviously the tree face above is man-made. ;) Do you think someone might have torn the leaves to look like faces? I had thought it must have just been coincidence that we saw faces in the leaves, but then we kept seeing them. It was so funny!!

On our walk we also saw flowers and fruit. . . .

(You can click the collage to see a larger picture.)

Here is a list explaining what the pictures in the collage are, starting from the top left, going to the top right, and then continuing down from left to right:

1. I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but I think the flowers are some type of sweet pea. There was a field of them, and it was beautiful! (picture taken by me)
2. The berries my older daughter is holding are salmonberries (picture taken by me)
3. My children walking along the trail. (picture taken by me)
4. I think that's a nootka rose! (picture taken by my older son)
5. Those are blooms and unripe berries on a blackberry bush. (picture taken by my older son)
6. The next picture is a red huckleberry bush growing on a tree stump. (picture taken by me)
7. This is a picture of a thimbleberry bush. (picture taken by me)
8. This pretty flower's ugly name is hardhack. It also can go by the name of western spiraea. (picture taken by my younger daughter)

Birds in Our Yard: Downy Woodpecker

2011-08-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

I started this post toward the end of last month, and I'm sick today, so I thought it'd be a good time to post it. By the way, I hate being sick when the weather is so gloriously sunny and warm outside. :(

Last month when my younger children and I were walking through a little forest of beaked hazelnut trees in our yard, we came upon this energetic and interesting little bird. I think it's a downy woodpecker, the smallest type of woodpecker we have in Washington state.

I'm linking this post to Camera Critters. :)

Barn Hearts and the Missing Swallows

2011-08-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

We really enjoy visiting the barns at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood, WA. There are about 6 or so old barns at the park, and there is a lot of history behind the barns. Fort Steilacoom Park used to be the site of Western State Hospital (the hospital is now across the street from Fort Steilacoom Park). A sign at the park helps explain the history of farming at Fort Steilacoom Park. In 1871, state funding for what was then known as the "Insane Asylum of Washington" was scarce, so they started a small farm to grow food for the patients and staff.

By the early 1900's the farm had grown to about 200 acres. Hospital patients worked at the farm as part of their occupational therapy. My mom told me that many years ago she used to do the hair of a lady who was in charge of overseeing that at the hospital, and the lady felt that the farming activities helped the patients at the hospital. As times changed, it ended up costing too much to keep the farm operations going, and farming ceased there in 1965.

Reading a sign which shares information about
the history of farming on the site of Fort Steilacoom Park

From the sign -- an old picture of the barn seen in the above picture

Each barn is different, and the barns have amazing character. The Blue Barn is a brick barn with a wooden part at the top which is painted blue. For some reason, people seem to like to write hearts on the outside brick walls of the Blue Barn.

A shot of the back of the barn
I think the blue is so pretty.

No trespassing!

You can see this past post for more pictures of the Blue Barn.

I also wanted to mention that earlier this month when we visited the twin barns (also at Fort Steilacoom Park) with the double silos, the cliff swallows I mentioned in an earlier post were mostly gone. Yesterday we didn't hear or see any of them. I was so sad at first and afraid something had happened to them. I think, though, they have just migrated South. According to birdweb.com's page about cliff swallows, they migrate "to and from southern South America in large flocks, over a considerable period of time. . . . The date of fall departure varies from year to year, although fall migration typically begins by early August, soon after the young become independent." I hope they return next year!

Silos where most of the cliff swallows lived

Here is a past post which contains more pictures of the double barns with the double silos. This post shows the cliff swallows. Also check out the "barns" tag to see more barns at Fort Steilacoom Park.

♥ I'm linking this post to Guest Heart Thursday. ♥

Eccentric Sand Dollar (Dendraster Excentricus)

2011-08-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

the sun-bleached test of a dead eccentric sand dollar lying on the beach

When we visited the beach at Burfoot Park in Olympia last month, we noticed a lot of eccentric sand dollars lying on the wet sand. The eccentric, or Pacific or Western, sand dollars are the only type of sand dollar in Oregon and Washington, and they are only found on the northeastern shores of the Pacific Ocean. They are called "eccentric" because of the off-center star or flower pattern which is positioned toward the back of the animal, and because the off-center position, it can stand itself up by burying its front end partly in the sand and feed on small organisms and other organic matter that pass by in the current (you can learn more about that at The West Coat's Living Sand Dollars). This type of sand dollar can grow up to four inches in size and can live 10-13 years.

We visited the beach when the tide was out (but coming in!), and sadly, we saw many dead sand dollars on the beach, and in one area the sun-bleached tests ("tests" are what their skeletons are called) of dead sand dollars covered much of the ground. Some, though, were alive.

Sand dollars that are alive are pale gray-lavender to dark purplish black in color, and they are covered with thousands of velvet-textured spines. Those that are dead are light in color and smooth, lacking the velvety spines. This next picture shows a dead one on the left and a live one on the right.

If you, very gently, pick up a sand dollar and turn it over, you can see its spines and tube feet moving.

My older daughter carefully looking at the bottom an eccentric sand dollar.
The velvety spines of the eccentric sand dollar are purple.

My younger daughter is examining a sand dollar in the picture below. . .

Here are pictures she took of a sand dollar. . .

the top (or aboral side) of a live sand dollar

the bottom (or oral side) of a sand dollar

I took this picture of her holding a sand dollar. . .

another picture of the bottom side of a sand dollar

Here my daughter is standing in a "graveyard" of sand dollars. . .

the tests of dead sand dollars

There is one that is alive in the middle of so many that aren't living. . .

the purple one is a live sand dollar

I still have so much to learn about sand dollars. Researching them has brought up more questions, so I think I might check out a book to learn more! Here are some helpful online resources about sand dollars:

The West Coat's Living Sand Dollars
The Biogeography of the Western Sand Dollar (Dendraster Excentricus)
Eccentric sand dollar (South Sound marine life)
Sand Dollars on Tybee…Take the Test! -- This focuses on a different type of sand dollar, but has good information about how to "test" to see if a sand dollar is alive.
Dendraster excentricus on wallawalla.edu
Sand Dollar on EnchantedLearning.com
Sand Dollar on howstuffworks.com
Introduction to the Echinoidea

~* This post is my entry for ABC Wednesday for the letter "E." *~
I'm also linking this to Watery Wednesday.

Monarch Butterflies at Burfoot Beach

2011-08-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize we have monarch butterflies up here, but we do! On July 31st, a sunny, 75-degree day, our family visited the beach at Burfoot Park in Olympia, WA. Near the end of our visit, we walked along the beach and up to a grassy area a little above the beach to see the Queen Anne's lace flowers blooming there. There used to be a house near that spot, so we had never walked up there before, but the house was gone.

As I approached the Queen Anne's lace, I noticed a pretty orange and black butterfly perched on one of the flowers. It fluttered up and around, and I called out to my children to come and see! It stayed in the same area, flying to different flowers, and my children discovered at least two others as well, and we were captivated by the beautiful creatures. My older son told us he thought they were monarchs.

I checked online when we got home, and I submitted pictures to the Butterflies and Months of North America website, and they confirmed that we had indeed seen monarchs! Here is the entry on that website for our sighting of the monarchs: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/sighting_details/549714

Here are some pictures taken that day. . .

Queen Anne's Lace (see the heart?)
(picture taken by me)

Queen Anne's Lace
(picture taken by me)


Queen Anne's Lace and the yard near where the house used to sit. (picture taken by me)

picture taken by my younger daughter

picture taken by my older son

A monarch butterfly perched on Queen Anne's Lace
(I think the wings look like a heart in this one!)
picture taken by my older son

A monarch on blackberry blossoms
picture taken by my older son

picture taken by my older son

~* I'm linking this post to Guest Heart Thursday and Camera Critters. *~

Hearts in Twilight Cities

2011-08-11T01:43:00.000-07:00

picture taken by my 6-year-old son

Last Saturday as we traveled south on Highway 101 on the Olympic Peninsula on our way to find a beach, we missed our turnoff and ended up in Forks, WA, sooner than we expected. We did plan to visit there, but we meant to go to the beach first, and then go on to Forks afterwards. It turned out well the way it happened, though.

It was fun to stop in Forks, and at the Forks Washington Chamber of Commerce we got a map with directions to a wonderful beach nearby! The man behind the counter at the Forks Chamber of Commerce was friendly and very helpful. It's a great place to visit should you drive through Forks someday.

We noticed a sign on the corner of the Forks Chamber of Commerce building telling about a nature trail, so we went for a short walk along the trail.

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

One thing we found was this heart on a fallen tree. . .

picture taken by me

We found other hearts in Forks, WA, too. You know what's special about Forks, WA, don't you? They get a lot of rain each year -- an average of 120 inches of rain a year. The forest was full of gorgeous shades green.

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

That's not really what I'm talking about, though, when I say there is something special about Forks, WA. You might think it's the Forks Timber Museum, then, right? That is next to the Forks Chamber of Commerce. We didn't get a chance to visit the museum when we were there, but it sounds neat, so maybe we'll visit someday!

We did see this huge log in front, though, and it has a heart inside of it. . .

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

Are you tried of trying to figure out what is extra special about Forks, WA? Or perhaps you already know! Either way, this next picture gives a hint as to what is special about Forks, WA. ;)

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

Here are some more clues. . .

picture taken by windchime

picture taken by windchime  
"In the state of Washington, under a near constant cover of  clouds and rain, there is a small town named Forks. Population: 3,120  people. This is where I'm moving." (quote from the movie) 
 ~ Bella Swan 

picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

Yep! It's where the Twilight Series takes place. Also, nearby is the city of La Push, and some of the series takes place there as well. I have not read the books, but having visited Forks I admit my curiosity about the books is almost getting the best of me, and I might give in to the pull and read them someday. LOL Apparently Forks is where Bella and Edward live, and La Push is where Jacob is from. Jacob and Bella met at the First Beach in La Push. That's the wonderful beach we ended up visiting.

picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

If you go into the Forks Chamber of Commerce, you can get a free map that shows places mentioned in the Twilight books. Since La Push's First Beach is where Jacob and Bella met, it's on the list, and there were directions given, too. It's a fantastic beach! Here's a picture. I'll post more another day so you can see more clearly how beautiful it is! In this picture, there is a gravel parking lot to the right.

picture taken by me (click to view a bigger picture)

And on the beach in La Push there was a heart. ..

picture taken by me

~* To see more hearts from around the world visit Guest Heart Thursday. *~

D is for Deer

2011-08-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

Our family visited Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park in Washington this past Friday. It was breathtaking. The deer there are black-tailed deer. They were so bold, and there were so many of them! It was truly delightful. Here are pictures taken by all four of my children. I love to see the world through their eyes.

pictures in collage taken by my 6-year-old son
Please click to see a larger version.

taken by my 12-year-old son

taken by windchime

taken by my 10-year-old daughter

~* This is my post for the letter "D" for ABC Wednesday. *~

Colorful Corrosion

2011-08-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

". . . corrosion is the wearing away of metals due to a chemical reaction." (Corrosion on Wikipedia)

From Wikipedia's page on Rust:

Rusting is the common term for corrosion of iron and its alloys, such as steel. Many other metals undergo equivalent corrosion, but the resulting oxides are not commonly called rust.

Given sufficient time, oxygen, and water, any iron mass will eventually convert entirely to rust and disintegrate. Surface rust provides no protection to the underlying iron unlike the formation of patina on copper surfaces.

When impure(cast) iron is in contact with water and oxygen, or other strong oxidants and/or acids, it rusts. If salt is present as, for example, in salt water, it tends to rust more quickly, . . .

corroded chain on Chambers Bay Beach

same chain
(with one of my children
walking by in the background)

corroded pipe on Chambers Bay Beach

corrosion up-close -- inside the pipe

corrosion up-close -- outside the pipe

on Chambers Bay Beach
(above picture taken by my older son)

on Sequalitchew Beach
(above picture taken by my younger daughter)

on Sequalitchew Beach

chain-link fence at Saltar's Point
(above picture taken by my older son)

~* This post on "Colorful Corrosion" is my "C" post for ABC Wednesday! *~

Joy and Sadness at the Point Defiance Zoo

2011-07-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of joy and a lot of sadness this past year at the Point Defiance Zoo and Acquarium in Tacoma, WA. My children and I first saw the red wolf pair Ocean Blue and Graham at the opening of the Red Wolf Woods exhibit last September, and there was joy that day to see them in their beautiful new home, and there was joy the day in April that we heard Ocean Blue might be pregnant. There was huge relief and joy when the Sumatran Tiger Cub Mali recovered from her near escape with death last November and when she and her brother Bima went on to celebrate together their first birthday in May. There was great joy when it was discovered the clouded leopard Chai Li was pregnant and then when the cubs were born in June. And there was deep sadness when the Sumatran Tiger Cub Mali died suddenly earlier this month. The fact that each of these species of animals are endangered makes their births and deaths even more full of meaning.

Sumatran Tiger Cub Mali

Precious Sumatran tiger cub Mali got sick and died suddenly and unexpectedly on Friday, July 22nd. This past November she almost died, and we were so very, very happy when she lived. She and her brother Bima celebrated their 1st birthday on May 25th. We feel heartbroken that she has died.

Mama Jaya and her cubs Mali and Bima
(picture taken on July 30, 2010, by my then 11-year-old son)

The cubs' father, Bali, on 7/28/11.
He has a form of lymphoma, but the disease is in remission.

taken by my 10-year-old daughter on 6/26/11 -- I think this is both of the cubs.

I took this picture on September 1, 2010.
I feel bad that it's so hard for me to tell them apart,
but we think this is a picture of Mali.

Sweet Mali, little flower, we will miss you.

Red Wolf Ocean Blue

Another precious animal died earlier this year at the zoo. Back on May 9th, the red wolf Ocean Blue died suddenly of a uterine infection. We had visited the zoo on April 22nd and listened to a keeper talk about Ocean Blue and her mate Graham, and the keeper excitedly shared that they were hopeful that Ocean Blue might be pregnant. Then to hear that she died. . . . oh, goodness, we felt so sad.

Ocean Blue and Graham (I took this on 4/22/11.)
Ocean Blue is on the left and Graham is on the right.

My 12-year-old son took this on April 22, 2011 -- I think this is Ocean Blue.

Rest in Peace, Ocean Blue.

Clouded Leopard Cubs

The zoo has sweet, little 6 week old clouded leopard cubs. The zoo had thought that at 20 months old their parents, Chai Li and Nah Fun, were too young to breed, and it was a happy and exciting surprise when they discovered Chai Li was pregnant. She gave birth to a boy and a girl on June 14, 2011. Their their names were announced on the 28th, and the boy's name is "Taji" (TA-jee), meaning “little brother” in Burmese, and the girl's name is "Sumalee" (su-ma-LEE), meaning “flower” in Thai (I thought it was neat to hear that her name means flower because Mali's name also meant "flower").

My children and I got to see them when we visited the zoo on Thursday, but they were asleep in their carrier. It was still fun to see them, though! I'm hoping that we can go sometime soon during one of their public feeding times, which are at 9:30pm and 2:30pm. Be sure to check out this page on the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium's website for more information (and videos!) about the clouded leopard cubs.

(above picture taken by my younger daughter)

Taji and Sumalee
(above picture taken by my younger daughter)

Welcome to the world, Taji and Sumalee!

May you have a long, peaceful, and joyful life!

Camera Critters

Happy Squirrel

2011-07-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

Even though we have a quite a few beaked hazelnut trees on our property, we don't get very many hazelnuts to eat because the squirrels get first dibs on them, and they eat them with gusto! The consolation, though, is (besides happy squirrels with full tummies) is that they are fun to watch!

Yesterday my younger two children came into the kitchen and excitedly told me of a squirrel eating nuts in one of our trees. My six-year-old son took this picture of him in the tree.

After the squirrel had his fill and left the tree to go do other things, my children excitedly showed me the remains of the squirrel's feast that had fallen beneath the tree onto our driveway, and I took some pictures. . .

He must have been quite a happy, full squirrel after that feast! :)

Heart on an Alder Leaf

2011-07-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

Last week while we were at Woodard Bay in Olympia, WA, my older daughter, Windchime, noticed this pretty heart on an alder leaf, so I snapped a shot to share with all of you!

Then I wondered what type of tree it was, and I took a few more pictures of the tree so I could try and identify it later. The leaves reminded me of the leaves on some of the trees in our yard. We have sitka alders in our yard, but sitka alders are more the size of a shrub or small tree, and the tree this leaf was on was much larger and most definitely a tree.

After searching, I found out there are both red alder trees and white alder trees in the Pacific Northwest. It seems that the easiest way to tell the difference between the two types of trees are to look at the bottom of the leaves. The leaf margins on red alders trees are tightly rolled under, and the leaf margins on white alder trees aren't rolled under. I think what we saw was a red alder tree because when taking a close look at the back side of the leaf, it appears to me that the leaf margins are rolled under.

The day we went to Woodard Bay was hot, and the shade the red alder trees provided felt refreshing!

♥ To see more hearts from around the world, visit Guest Heart Thursday. ♥

Birds and Barns

2011-07-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

Mud nests built by cliff swallows
(picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

Late last month while taking a beautiful evening walk at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood, WA, we felt excited when we heard the cries of a particular bird we thought we recognized. When we saw a bunch of birds flying around, and they had the distinctive silhouette of that type of bird, and when we saw the mud nests under the eaves of the nearby barn, we were certain of what they were! . . . at least, well, we recognized them, and we knew they were a type of swallow after my son corrected my confusion (oops!) as to whether they were swallows or sparrows (they both start with an "s"... surely you can see why I was confused ;)).

We couldn't remember which type of swallow they were, though! What confused us was the thinking that surely if they live under the eaves of a barn they would be called "barn swallows" (right?). No, actually they are called "cliff swallows"! According to Wikipedia,

Cliff Swallows breed in large colonies. They build conical mud nests and lay 3-6 eggs. The natural nest sites are on cliffs, preferably beneath overhangs, but as with the Eurasian House Martin, man-made structures are now the principal locations for breeding.

The cliff swallows at Fort Steilacoom Park have their nests under the eaves of the large double barns, mostly under the eaves of the double silos. Last year we saw cliff swallows for the first time when we discovered them flying between the twin barns at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge and saw the neat mud nests they had built under the eaves of the barns there. We had never before seen them at Fort Steilacoom Park, though, and we felt so exited to see the birds flying around the double barns and seeing the mud nests they had built! I sure hope they will return each year.

neat view of the side of the barn
(above picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

the double barns

the double barn silos with the birds flying around them

My two boys in the courtyard between the double barns
(above picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

~* ABC Wednesday *~

~* Barn Charm *~

Red Huckleberry Muffins

2011-07-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

red huckleberries (vaccinium parvifolium)

The other day after my friend posted on her Facebook status that she had made some huckleberry muffins, that sounded so good to me that I decided I would like to make some, too, if possible! Last year while walking around our property we were excited to find a red huckleberry bush, and I hoped that ours had enough berries on it.

My imaginative kiddos like to call red huckleberries by the name of "poison apple berries" because they look like shiny bright red pretty little apples (you know, like in Snow White). Actually, though, they are edible and good for you with their high vitamin C content, and they taste pretty good but are a little tart. So if you like a little tartness, you'll probably really like them.

In the early afternoon I and my younger daughter went to look and see how our bush looked and to see if their were ripe berries on it. It looked great, so later all of my children and I walked over and picked just about as many berries as we could, hoping it would be enough for the muffins. I didn't measure how many we got, but we found it to be enough for our muffins!

Red huckleberries are so pretty and translucent!

This is how many we picked.

ingredients
(picture taken by my 6-year-old son)

I found a Huckleberry Muffins recipe on allrecipes.come that I tweaked. I usually have to tweak recipes because we don't eat diary or eggs, but I didn't mean to change it as much as I did! While mixing the ingredients together on the dining room table, I kept running into the other room to read the recipe on the computer, and I got things mixed up in my head and put 1 3/4 cups of rice milk when I was supposed to put 1 3/4 cups of flour! Oops!! I caught my mistake and added extra flour, and thank goodness they still turned out fine.

I'm going to post my "recipe" (notice the word "recipe" is in quotes) below, but I would strongly recommend that you visit allrecipes.com and check out the Huckleberry Muffins recipe there for a more exact version.

Dairy-free and Egg-free Huckleberry Muffins

3/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread
3/4 cup Raw Turbinado sugar
1/4 cup raw agave nectar
to replace one egg: 3 tablespoons of water mixed with 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal
1 3/4 cup rice milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 or so cups whole wheat white flour (Warning, please note: It might be less--I can't remember exactly how much I put in, but I added enough so that it looked like cake batter)
2 teaspoons baking soda (I think I'll try adding a 1/4 teaspoon less next time because a few of my muffins may have slightly over-risen, but they still tasted yummy)
1 capfull of apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
However many huckleberries we had picked -- I think it was less than a cup, but the amount we had worked out fine
a little flour to sprinkle on the berries

the batter
(picture taken by my 6-year-old son)

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Then cream the sugar and Earth Balance together and add the wet ingredients (except for the vinegar -- that I like to add at the end to activate the baking soda which helps the muffins rise) and stir it all together. Sprinkle a little flour on the berries and stir to coat them, and then stir in the berries. Add and stir in the apple cider vinegar. When you do that you'll see the batter get a little more puffy. It's good to try to get the muffins in the oven quickly after adding the vinegar because that puffiness helps the muffins rise in the oven.

putting the batter into the muffin tin using an ice cream scoop
(picture taken by my 6-year-old son)

After it's mixed together, use an ice cream scoop to put the batter into a greased muffin tin (you can just spoon in the batter in you don't have a nice ice cream scoop handy). This recipe makes 18 muffins.

Cook for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven. I cooked mine just a little bit longer. When done they should be golden, and the tops should spring back when lightly pressed. I often test my muffins to see if they are done by putting a knife in one of them and seeing if any batter is on the knife when I pull it out. If it doesn't have any on it, then that seems to mean they are done.

We all really enjoyed the muffins! They tasted a bit tart, but not too much, and to me the taste of the berries in the muffins was reminiscent of rhubarb, but not that strong. I read that some people like to mix other berries like blueberries in with the red huckleberries, so if you find them too tart on their own for your tastes, you could consider doing that. I was also interested to read on Edible Wild Plants in B.C.--the Red Huckleberry that "A good rule of thumb for preparing dishes using huckleberries is to treat them like you would rhubarb, using the same amount of sugar and so forth." She has a recipe there, too, that you might like to check out, for Upside-Down Red Huckleberry Crumble that you can make while camping!

Yum!!!

Megaloceroea Recticornis (?)

2011-07-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on a nature walk my older son picked a piece of grass on which walked a thin green bug with long antennae. The shape and color of the bug resembled the grass so much that it provided wonderful camouflage. I think it's a type of plant bug, a megaloceroea recticornis. Can you find him in the pictures?

Below are the two above pictures cropped nearer to the bug so you can see it a little closer. . .

Birds in Our Yard: Steller's Jay and Western Tanager

2011-07-21T18:29:00.000-07:00

steller's jay in our driveway

We have so many birds in our yard. I love to hear them and see them. I don't always notice them as much as I wish I would, and I'm hoping to take the time to observe them more often. The ripe cherries from the cherry tree (I think it's a bitter cherry tree) in front of our house seem to be attracting a lot of birds, and near the tree is an especially good place to see them.

One type of bird we can hardly help but notice is the steller's jay. We've seen a lot of them flitting around the yard, amongst tree branches and on the ground. They are such a pretty blue color, and they look so distinguished with their crest. They have a loud, distinctive, rather harsh cry, but they don't always sound the same. Wikipedia's page on the Steller's Jay says,

One common call is a harsh "SHACK-Sheck-sheck-sheck-sheck-sheck" series; another "skreeka! skreeka!" call sounds almost exactly like an old-fashioned pump handle; yet another is a soft, breathy "hoodle hoodle" whistle. Its alarm call is a harsh, nasal "wah." The Steller's Jay also imitates the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk and Red-shouldered Hawk, causing other birds to vacate feeding areas. Some calls are sex-specific: females produce a rattling sound, while males make a high-pitched "gleep gleep."

I had forgotten that they can imitate the cry of a hawk. We had been excited thinking perhaps we'd been hearing a hawk lately, and I wonder if it's only been a steller's jay!

This afternoon my younger daughter and I decided to sit on a bench on our porch to watch for birds in the cherry tree. We didn't have much time to spend, but we were rewarded quickly by seeing a beautiful yellow bird with a red head and black wings.

(above picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

I looked it up on Google and found out that the colorful bird is a male western tanager in breeding plumage. Here is some information about the western tanager from Wikipedia:

The Western Tanager, Piranga ludoviciana, is a medium-sized American songbird. Formerly placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae), it and other members of its genus are now classified in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae). The species's plumage and vocalizations are similar to other members of the cardinal family.

Adults have pale stout pointed bills, yellow underparts and light wing bars. Adult males have a bright red face and a yellow nape, shoulder, and rump, with black upper back, wings, and tail; in non-breeding plumage the head has no more than a reddish cast and the body has an olive tinge. Females have a yellow head and are olive on the back, with dark wings and tail.

The song of disconnected short phrases suggests an American Robin's but is hoarser and rather monotonous. The call is described as "pit-er-ick".

Their breeding habitat is coniferous or mixed woods across western North America from the Mexico-U.S. border as far north as southern Alaska; thus they are the northernmost-breeding tanager. They build a flimsy cup nest on a horizontal tree branch, usually in a conifer. They lay four bluish-green eggs with brown spots.

These birds migrate, wintering from central Mexico to Costa Rica. Some also winter in southern California.

We will be keeping our eye out for birds, and hopefully I'll be able to post about more birds soon!

(Correction: I'm sorry I misspelled "steller's jay" as "stellar's jay" at first! The German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller was the first to record them in 1741, and it's named after him.)

Aggregating Anemones

2011-07-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

We saw sea anemones (here's how to pronounce anemone) for the first time, outside of pictures or at the aquarium, last summer at Sunnyside Beach in Steilacoom, WA on a day when there was a low tide. They were at the base of a rock and weren't covered by water, so their tentacles weren't sticking up and waving around, and we didn't recognize them at first. They look a lot different when water isn't covering them. I love how the oregontidepooling.com website describes them:

When the tide is in and they are under water, sea anemones look rather like beautiful flowers. . . . As the tide recedes, sea anemones force water out of their body cavities, retract their tentacles, and fold inward to survive the low tide, transforming themselves into very unattractive, globular or pendulous masses. . .

I think the kind that we usually see is called the aggregating, or clonal, anemone (Anthopleura elegantissima). According to the the oregontidepooling.com website, the "Aggregating Anemones can grow to 4" in diameter, live up to 50 years, and reproduce by dividing in half (cloning). Each colony is composed of identical cloned Aggreating Anemones."

Here is a link to the page about sea anemone's on the Enchanted Learning website:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/seaanemone/Seaanemoneprintout.shtml

And here are some pictures of aggregating anemones (as far as I know, at least, that is what they are ;)) taken over the past year. . .

Taken at Sunnyside Beach on July 13, 2010

Sunnyside Beach on June 13, 2010

Taken by my son at Sunnyside Beach on July 13, 2010

Taken by windchime
at Kopachuck State Park on July 17, 2010

South Beach at Chambers Bay on Sept. 25, 2010

Chambers Bay South Beach on Sept. 25, 2010

Sunnyside Beach on March 22, 2011
See how the sand sticks to them when
the tide is down and helps camouflage them?

Chambers Bay Beach on April 19, 2011
Usually we find them by the rocks, but that day
we were surprised to find them away from the rocks. . .

That day we found them in this area of the beach.
I told my kids that I wondered where the sea anemones
were, and they pointed them out to me.
I had been walking right by them without realizing it!

Chambers Bay Beach on April 19, 2011

Chambers Bay (South) Beach on April 19, 2011
I think this is the biggest one was have seen. You can see my
son's hand for comparison to see how big the sea anemone is.
(above picture taken by my older son)

Chambers Bay Beach April 19, 2011
(above picture taken by my older son)

Sunnyside Beach June 14, 2011

Sunnyside Beach June 14, 2011 - close-up crop of above photo

~*~

This post is my "A" entry for ABC Wednesday! :)

The Narrows Park in Gig Harbor

2011-07-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Last Saturday we went to Narrows Park in Gig Harbor, WA, for the first time. The 34 acre park is owned by PenMet Parks. It is located on the shoreline south of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, a pair of twin suspension bridges, and has 1,200 feet of sandy-rocky beach (see the PenMet Parks Website).

The address is 1502 Lucille Parkway NW. We found Lucille Parkway NW all right, but after that we had a little hard time finding the park at first because the map I had printed out didn't have the place marker in quite the right spot, plus we couldn't find a sign for the park. The PenMet Parks Website that lists the park says a "newly relocated entrance and large sign makes the park easier to find," so I'm not sure what we did wrong. Maybe I looked for the sign in the wrong place? Here is the only sign we found. . .

the sign?

Thank goodness my husband is good at finding places, though, and he spotted the park quickly after just a little extra driving around. On the map you can see that you reach the entrance to the park by driving down Lucille Parkway NW until you reach Doc's Drive. To reach the beach, you drive down Doc's Drive until you arrive at a parking lot. Here's a picture my younger daughter took of part of the parking lot with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the background.

the parking lot near the beach

After my husband parked the car, we walked down to a gazebo with a telescope beside it. . . .

Here are a couple panorama views. I think the first one was take up near the telescope, and the second one was taken down on the beach. I'm not the best at doing panoramas with my camera, but it'll give you a good idea of what it looks like there. . .

the view standing near the telescope

on the beach looking towards the bridge

Below are a couple pictures of the beach that my younger daughter took:

The park doesn't actually go all the way down to the Narrows Bridge, but though we saw an old out-of-date sign (PenMet Parks owns Narrows Park now) tipping to the side which said "PIERCE COUNTY PARKS BEACH BOUNDARY LINE," we didn't see any signs saying not to travel further down the beach, so we kept on walking along the shore until we reached the twin bridges. We really wanted to get a good look and see what it would be like to stand under them.

the old beach boundary line sign
(picture taken by my younger daughter)

(above picture taken by my younger daughter)

getting near. . .

under the eastbound bridge

(above picture taken by my younger daughter)

We also saw some interesting things along the beach. My younger daughter noticed this bull kelp and commented on the way it was attached to a rock. I looked it up and found out that the part that looks like roots attached to the rock is called a holdfast.

We saw a jellyfish that as far as I know is a moon jelly. It appeared to us to be upside down. In case it was still alive, my older daughter picked it up with leaves and laid it in the water. She said it felt a lot like jello or like one of those gel-pads you put in shoes to make make them more comfy. We don't think it was alive after all, though.

close-up of the jellyfish

She picked it up with leaves. . .

and put it in the water.

We also saw some flowers. In the picture below the top flowers are fireweed. I think the flowers in the bottom part of the picture are a type of honeysuckle.

When we returned from walking along the beach, we quickly stopped by the telescope again. The area was now in shadow. . .

Hopefully we can visit again soon and explore more!

The "Ladybug Tree"

2011-07-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

I love it that my children are aware of nature and spot things that others might not see or care about. I think those are such good qualities. Lately they have been spotting a lot of ladybugs.

A couple Sundays ago they noticed a bunch of ladybugs crawling around on the garbage can at church and on the parking lot ground nearby. They were surprised to see the ladybugs there and worried about their welfare, cautioning each other to be careful where they stepped. My younger daughter had her camera in her pocket, so she took some pictures. Here are a couple. . .

a ladybug larva on the garbage can

ladybugs on the ground

Then this past Sunday at Trader Joe's in University Place, WA, my six year old was very excited to spot ladybugs on the tree we had parked next to. He eagerly walked all around the tree searching for ladybugs, and he kept pointing them out to me. Then he dubbed it the "ladybug tree" and asked me to take a picture of the "ladybug tree." Here are some pictures I took. . .

pointing out another ladybug

the ladybug tree

I'm betting I'll have more ladybug pictures to post soon. ;)

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

2011-07-10T02:35:00.000-07:00

We went to the Narrows Park in Gig Harbor, WA, today. We walked along the shoreline until we walked underneath the Narrows Bridge. The water and sky were gorgeous, and the bridge was amazing! Here are a few pictures I took. I'm guessing I'll probably post more pictures of the bridge another day since those of us who had our cameras with us took quite a few! :-)

~* Sunday Bridges *~
~* Weekend Reflections *~
(I already submitted an entry for Weekend Reflections this weekend, but the pictures in that one were taken by my children; I'm hoping it's okay for me to submit this one, too, since I took these pictures. I thought when I took them that the reflections would be perfect for Weekend Reflections!)

Little Frog

2011-07-10T01:48:00.000-07:00

We visited friends in Gig Harbor, WA, today. They live near a pond, and my older daughter found this little frog on the ground in the grass. We had only seen frogs in captivity before, and it was very exciting to see a frog enjoying freedom in the outdoors. She only held him a short while cupped gently in her hands before he hopped away!

I think it's a Pacific tree frog (also known as the Pacific chorus frog) because it's so small and because of the long, dark eyestripe it has. Did you know that Pacific tree frogs are famous, at least their voices are, because when we hear frogs "ribbiting," or calling, in the background in movies, we are actually hearing this type of frog -- they are the type of frog that "ribbits." For example, according to an faq about frogs on Learner.org, "In the movie "E.T., when the children released the frogs in their classroom, we could hear Pacific treefrogs while we were actually watching leopard frogs." Can you believe it!? You just can't trust movies, can you?

Here are a few interesting things about frogs. The Pacific tree frog became Washington's state frog in 2007. Though Pacific tree frogs can climb trees, they don't usually spend much time in them and are more likely to be found on the ground. And regarding frogs in general. . . a group of frogs is called an army.

Isn't he cute?

Reflections of Ducks

2011-07-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

(Sorry for the typo I had in my title. LOL Thank you, Windchime, for letting me know! :-))

I have more pictures my children took of ducks swimming in Waughop Lake to share with you! These were taken on June 30th. I thought the reflections were pretty, so I'm linking this post to Weekend Reflections.

The male wood duck isn't so colorful now as it was earlier this year! In the summer they molt and loose their pretty-colored feathers, and when that happens male wood ducks have coloring that is a lot like a female wood duck, but the male still has a red eye and bright red spot at the base of his bill. They regrow their pretty-colored feathers by early fall.

male wood duck
(a mallard duck is behind him)
(above picture taken by my 12-year old son)

male wood duck
(above picture taken by my 10-year old daughter)

This little duck (a mallard?) seen below seemed to be looking for his mother and was quacking and quacking!

(above picture taken by my 10-year old daughter)

After awhile, the little duck stopped quacking, so we think it found its mother.

(above picture taken by my 12-year old son)

If you like pictures of ducks, here are links to two other posts with pictures of ducks you may enjoy:

Mama Mallard and her Ducklings

Wood Ducks at Forth Steilacoom Park

Four Hearts

2011-07-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

I'm going to share a heart from each of my children today. The first picture was taken by my older son during a walk at Fort Steilacoom Park last Thursday. I and my mom were walking ahead, and my children were dawdling behind. I wondered what in the world was holding them up! Well, it was this heart they saw in the shrubs. . .

The picture below was taken that same night. It's a picture my younger daughter took of a rock she found outside the park lying on the street. Doesn't it have an amazing heart? We don't know what happened, but something had strewn rocks all over the street. On the ground near that rock, she found a few pieces of it that fit inside like a puzzle -- it appeared as if the rock had been crushed or somehow broken, and the heart was left exposed as a result.

My younger son found a rock that evening on which he spotted a sweet little heart. . .

My older daughter found this pretty rock heart on the north beach at Chambers Creek Properties last Saturday. . .

One thing I love best about the pictures of my children holding the rocks are seeing their precious hands cradling and encircling the hearts. ♥

~* To see more hearts visit Guest Heart Thursday! *~

Rabbit-Foot Clover (Trifolium arvense)

2011-07-06T02:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, in a grassy space near the parking lot at Chambers Creek Properties' Central Meadow in University Place, WA, my children spotted a flower that we hadn't seen before. The flower was a delicate pink color. When we touched it, we were surprised to feel how soft it was!

When I looked it up at home, I found that it's a type, or species, of clover that is native to Europe. It's name is "rabbit-foot clover," due to the plant's soft, fuzzy flowers. Aren't they pretty?

(above picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

Fireworks T-Shirts

2011-07-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

I know this doesn't really have to do with nature, but my children wore these yesterday when they were outside, so maybe that counts? I just really want to share about this because I think it's so cool!

I was inspired by Butterfly Jungle's post on Fireworks T-Shirts, so for the Fourth of July my children decorated white cotton t-shirts using Sharpie markers, medicine droppers, and rubbing alcohol. For each child, I put a piece of cardboard inside their shirt and tacked the shirt to the cardboard so it would stay in place.

They used markers to draw fireworks on their shirts. They did one firework at a time, holding the pen in place on each dot so that some ink would soak into the fabric. Then they took the dropper and put a drop of rubbing alcohol on each dot.

When they were done with their shirts and their shirts were dry, I put paper towels on the ironing board (to protect the ironing board cover just in case the ink went through), and I put a layer of paper towels on the shirt. I then ironed each shirt for 5 minutes (very boring) to set the ink. You can put the shirts in the clothes dryer instead, I think for 20 minutes, but we don't have a working dryer right now.

My kids had a lot of fun (I had a lot of fun watching!), and their shirts turns out beautifully! . . . . so full of color and bright, cheerful patterns!

my six year old working on his t-shirt

See his Fourth of July dragon at the bottom?

my 10 year old working on her shirt

so pretty!

After her shirt dried, she drew some stars on it.

My two youngest in their t-shirts.

my 12 year old working on his t-shirt

He loves to use lots of colors!

My 15 year old's t-shirt!

♥

Chambers Bay Bridge

2011-07-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

I started this post back in April, so I guess I'd better post it now or I might not ever get around to it! These pictures were taken back on March 13th. We went for a long, beautiful walk that day along the trails at Chamber's Creek Properties near and on the Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place, WA. I've posted pictures of the Chambers Bay Bridge before, but am posting some more because it's such a wonderful bridge, and the scenery is gorgeous!

Chamber's Bay Golf Course is in the foreground, then you see
the bridge, and in the background is Steilacoom, WA, and two ferries.
(picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

My four children and their shadows,
and though you can't see me, you can see my shadow! :)

The bridge is the small curved structure that starts a little to the left of the middle.

~*~Sunday Bridges~*~

~*~Shadow Shot Sunday~*~

Weekly Wrap-Up for the Last Week of June

2011-07-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try something new this week and join in the Weekly Wrap-Up on Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers (love the name of that blog!). So here are some of things we did this past week. :)

manroot fruit
(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

my middle two children
taking pictures of the manroot

Last Saturday our family went for a walk on a trail we had never visited before in DuPont, WA. We enjoy visiting DuPont because there are so many trails there, and the town is loaded with history. This time we went on the DuPont Railroad Trail. The trail used to be an old railroad line that the DuPont Company used to transport workers from the company town to the Powderworks plant. We saw at least a couple new plants we had never seen before, including a vine with an odd-looking gourd called manroot, and after traveling down a side trail to Sequalitchew Bridge, we reached the spot where the old Fort Nisqually, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company from back in 1843, used to be before it was moved to its current place at Point Defiance in Tacoma.

site of the 1843 Fort Nisqually

We went to the library on Sunday. My three younger children stamped their sheets for the weekly reading program to show how many hours they had read (or reading they had listened to) so far since the program started this summer. My younger daughter stamped enough for 6 hours, my younger son stamped enough for 5 hours. My older son marked that he had read 10 hours and 20 minutes, thus finishing the summer weekly reading program in one week! My oldest is not sure if wants to participate in the teen reading program this year, but it's not for lack of reading! She reads and reads and reads.

Monday through Thursday each of my children take turns choosing something (usually one thing, but sometimes two) to watch such as a tv show or video. Each child has a certain day that they have their turn (if they decide to take it). My 12-year-old son's turn is on Tuesday, and usually he chooses to watch a documentary. This week he chose to watch an episode of the game show Jeopardy! and the documentary Secrets of the Dead: Blackbeard's Lost Ship. We all watched Blackbeard's Lost Ship together, and, though I can't say it was my favorite show (because he wasn't a very nice man!), we learned a lot about Blackbeard, and it was fascinating.

Each child is given a certain day in which they help prepare a meal. They can choose what they want to make, and they have fun with it. Well, this week, on Wednesday, one of the yummy things my youngest wanted to make (and his sister wanted to help) was black bean brownies! We made a brownie sundae out of it! It was soooo good!

black bean brownie sundae (pic taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

Also on Wednesday, and WARNING: this is something awful to write about below the picture of the sundae, we saw a lovely gift our cat left on the stairs. The "lovely" is sarcasm. Really, our cat is very sweet, but he's definitely an instinctual predator. He left a small mouse for us. And my kids (of their own accord) decided to take a look at it (with their eyes, they did not touch it), and I thought, well, you know what, that is a learning experience. I took a picture of it in case we wanted to identify things they saw more carefully later, but I will NOT be posting that picture. Here is a picture of the predator, though. . .

our cat (pic taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

My younger two children and I went for a walk around our property, also on Wednesday. It had rained, and the slugs were out. There is a type of slug that, if you touch it, it shortens up into a ball, and rocks from side to side. The European black slug does that, and it's pretty amazing to watch. We spent some time on our walk observing the slugs.

European black slug
(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

after being touched, it shrinks up and rocks back and forth
(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

On Thursday evening we went for a walk at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood, WA, with my mom. We looked at the plants and told her the names of those we knew, and my mom is learning the names, too! One interesting thing that happened on our walk was that a bird flew away as we approached, and, looking down on the ground near where the bird had been, my daughter saw a HUGE earthworm crawling in the grass. And of course each child wanted to hold it! Here's the earthworm. . .

(picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

Later in the walk we reached the old barns and heard the sound of chirping. My kids said, "Swallows!!" and they were right! We were excited to see that there are cliff swallows nesting in the barns! Here is a picture. . .

cliff swallows' nests (picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

Well, that's a little about how things went in our family this past week! :)

The Outside of the Shipwrecked Cement Boat

2011-06-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

the shipwrecked cement boat at Nisqually Reach
(picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

the cement boat sits on a sand jetty -- see it at the end?
(picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

Earlier in June our family went to DuPont, WA on a warm, sunny day to check out Sequalitchew Creek Trail. The trail runs through a beautiful canyon bordered on each side with lush green plants and trees. At the end is a short tunnel, and when you pass through the tunnel you reach a large rocky beach on the Puget Sound.

After we reached the shore, we travelled south along the beach to a sand jetty that juts out into the water and then walked out to the end of the jetty to the old shipwrecked cement boat to explore it. We timed our visit to occur at low tide because otherwise the waters of the Puget Sound cover the sand jetty on which the boat rests. You can see what it looks like when the water has risen on this video that Fred404 posted on Youtube: Cement Boat at Nisqually Reach.

barnacles and mussels on the side facing the sun

Because of the ocean water that comes in with the return of the tides each day to surround and fill the inside of the old shipwrecked cement boat, it has a lot of interesting creatures living on its hard walls. One side of the boat (I'm not really good with directions, but I think it's the side facing toward the southeast) gets a lot of exposure to the light (and sometimes warmth!) of the sun, and that side looked dry. Many barnacles and mussels covered the bottom half of it.

walking on the sunny side

dripping with water!

one side of the cement ship sits in deep shadow
(picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

The other side faces away from the sun and sits in deep shadow. The boat leans in that direction, and the sides dripped with water. Quite a few star fish had attached themselves down underneath the ship on that side, plus the wall of the ship had seaweed, large and small barnacles, mussels, and really interesting soft, wet creatures (I am not sure yet what they are called) on it. The soft creatures (you can see their pictures at the bottom) were fun to observe. My younger son gently touched a couple to see their response and was fascinated to see them shrink back and seem to grow shorter.

Another amazing thing we saw on the shadowy side of the ship was a large barnacle sticking out it's legs. We've only seen little barnacles covered by water doing that, but never before had seen such a big one doing it. It was especially surprising because it wasn't covered by water.

mussels and a barnacle

You can see the legs come of of the barnacle in the short video below.

large and small barnacles on the ship

seaweed on the shady side; there is a starfish at the bottom
(this pic taken by my 12-year-old son)

starfish!

Hearts at the Beach

2011-06-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

We found these hearts at Saltar's Point Beach and Sunnyside Beach in Steilacoom, WA, in mid-June.

The pictures in the collage were taken by my 10-year-old daughter and me. Our family first began looking for hearts in our world after coming across Clytie's Guest Heart Thursday. We have a lot of fun with it and are so thankful! If you enjoy hearts, you're sure to love her Guest Heart Thursday! ♥

Great Blue Heron at Waughop Lake

2011-06-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

On the evening of June 1st, I and my two boys went for a walk at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood, WA. We were amazed when we got to Waughop Lake and saw a great blue heron perched there on a fallen tree! I took the first two pictures, and then, because the battery on his camera had run out, I handed my camera over to my 12-year-old son who took the second two pictures. We had never seen a blue heron there before, and haven't seen one (yet) since then.

~* I'm linking this post to Watery Wednesday. *~

Mama Mallard and her Ducklings

2011-06-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

It's kind of funny. . . we see mallard ducks a lot, yet we don't tire of seeing them. We've taken picture after picture of the mallards at the park. . . waddling along the shore of the lake, sitting on the gravel or on a fallen tree in the water with their heads buried in their feathers, swimming in groups in circles going round and round, ducking their heads in the water. . .

For me, I think part of the joy of seeing mallard ducks is that they have a lovely sense of familiarity about them because we see that type of bird so often. Also, though, for me seeing them brings back warm memories of growing up, of watching ducks and feeding them with my parents. When I was little my parents and I used to bring stale bread and go to the park near our house and feed them. Now we know that is not good for the ducks, and the signs at parks ask us not to do that, so I can't share that part of the experience with my children. I can however, share the experience of watching the sweet mallard ducks with them. The mallards are so cute with their big bills, big orange feet, and the loud quack of the females. We think the mama mallards sound so much like a laugh, we can't help but laugh along with them!

And especially it's wonderful to see ducklings!! Babies are the sweetest thing, and to see a nurturing mom caring for her little ones is priceless. My 10-year-old daughter took this sweet series of pictures at the park last week. The mama's little ducklings were staying near her, and for awhile at least three of her ducklings were hiding underneath her! She looked like such a patient and content mama, sitting there so pleased and proud.

the ducklings are sheltered underneath their mama's wings

Seeing them under this mama's wings reminded me of how we can find safety under the shelter of our Heavenly Father's wings, not literal wings of course, but the picture and meaning the words paint is beautiful. . .

Psalm 17:8
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings
Psalm 36:7
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 63:7
Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Daisies and Shadows under the Trees

2011-06-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

Bellis perennis

We go for nature walks on the first day of each new season, and we went for a nature walk this past Tuesday, the first day of summer, in Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood, WA. We began our walk in the late afternoon, when the amazingly bright sun shone low on the horizon (into our squinting eyes) and lovely shadows fell where the sun couldn't reach.

My children enjoy making daisy chains, so when they spotted a lot of little daises growing in the grassy area near Waughop Lake under the black cottonwood trees, they plopped down in the soft, green grass next to the daises and started working on daisy chains.

The little daises which grow amongst the blades of grass are Bellis perennis and go by the names of "English daisies," "common daisies," or "lawn daisies" (we like to call them "English daisies"). Though not a native plant (English daises come from Europe) and considered to be a weed, the little daisies look so happy and are so sweet and pretty, we can't help but enjoy their presence.

Making daisy chains in the shadows under the black cottonwood trees
(see all the cottonwood catkins?)

My six-year-old son showing us his daisy chain
(he just learned to make them!)

my younger daughter's daisy chain!

We went for another walk later in the week, on Thursday, just two days later, and felt shocked to see that the grass had been mowed and so the daisy blossoms had been mowed, too. I'm very glad they waited to mow the lawn until after our walk on Tuesday!

the mowed lawn sans daisy blossoms. . .

To see more shadows visit Shadow Shot Sunday!

A Squirrel and a Heart

2011-06-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, Father's Day, we went to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. The entrance fee is only $3 a family, and it's such a peaceful, beautiful place to visit. We love seeing all the native plants and hearing the sounds of many birds. Other animals make this refuge their home, too. We saw a mink last fall, as well as a neat garter snake. This visit, when we got to the observation deck near the twin barns, we found that "someone" was watching us!

picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

And guess what was behind him? Windchime pointed out the heart on this fence post!

At the end of our walk, we noticed this sign. It's a good thing the squirrel didn't attack us. ;)

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

~♥~ To see more hearts, visit Guest Heart Thursday! ~♥~

The Tunnel at Sequalitchew Creek Trail

2011-06-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

At the end of Sequalitchew Creek Trail in Dupont, WA, there is a tunnel that runs under the railroad, and you go through the tunnel to get to Sequalitchew Beach on the other side. These pictures were taken after we had visited the beach and were returning to the trail. Before we returned to the trail, though, my children enjoyed the tunnel for a bit! They found that it echoed inside the tunnel, and so they ran up and down it and yelled in the tunnel to hear themselves and loud sounds they made.

There are two sides to the tunnel

One side has a short length of old track going through it
(that is not a good side to run down!)

The other side is just cement,
and that's the side in which they ran!

Running to hear the loud footsteps. . .

and yelling to hear the echoes!!

~* It's Shadow Shot Sunday! *~

So Thankful for my Husband

2011-06-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

I would like to publicly say how thankful I am for my husband. He's always willing to travel to a new beach or trail (as long as we have enough money for gas ;)), and he comes on our nature walks whenever he can. He is patient when we stop to look at things along the way and to take pictures. He's such a gentleman, and he carries the bag when we bring a picnic lunch. Though he sometimes takes a peek at his phone while enjoying being outdoors with his family ;), he likes looking at the plants and animals and views on our walks. He's even willing to walk when it's drizzling outside! Thank you, dear husband! You are such a caring and thoughtful husband and father! Happy Fathers Day!! We love you!!!!!

enjoying the beautiful view at the former
site of Wilkes Observatory in Dupont, WA

pointing towards Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

from the trail to Wilkes Observatory

(above picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

at Sequalitchew Beach in Dupont, WA

at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge
(above picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

at the Rhododendron Garden at Point Defiance with his phone in hand

on a trail at Tacoma Nature Center

Shapes in Clouds by the Beach

2011-06-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday while at the beach, my six-year-old son said the sky that day had the type of clouds good for watching for shapes, and he was right! It's so fun to see my children use their imagination, and I was pleasantly surprised when as he looked up at the clouds he exclaimed, "There's the Statue of Liberty on a heart!" Here's a picture of what he saw. . .

(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

Until earlier this year I hadn't really considered how blessed we are in the Pacific Northwest to have clouds like that. I mean, well, of course I know that we have a lot of rain thus we have a lot of clouds, but it really made me think when a friend who moved to the Pacific Northwest as an adult shared about she enjoys watching clouds here and seeing the shapes they make and explained that where she lived as a child they would get very excited when a cloud showed up in the sky because it occurred so rarely. So keep that in mind the next time the clouds start to get you down. ;)

Here are some more pictures of that day, each taken by my 10-year-old daughter, who loves to take pictures of the sky!

there is a heart in the sky!

Chambers Bay Beach (looking to the south from the bridge)

beautiful reflections!

I'm linking this post to Skywatch Friday, Weekend Reflections, and Guest Heart Thursday.

Shepherd's Purse / Mother's Heart

2011-06-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when I saw this little plant had hearts on it! When I looked it up I found out that it's called shepherd's purse (capsella bursa-pastoris). It has other names as well, and one I like is "mother's heart." The little hearts on it are seed pods.

I took these pictures on a walk with my family at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood, WA, last week, up by the Hill Ward Memorial.

I'm editing this post to add the painting below because it shows so nicely the parts of the plant and the stages it goes through. I found it on Wikipedia. The painting below is in the public domain because it was made so long ago that the copyright has expired. According to Wikipedia, the painting is a "figure from Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungenwas" and was painted in 1796 by Johann Georg Sturm. Isn't it pretty? It almost makes me want to try drawing a flower. . . actually I'm hoping my children and I can try that out this summer!

rosette (a), pointed leaves, flowers (c–e), pods (i, k)
(please note: above picture is from Wikipedia --
the painting above is dated at 1796
and is in the public domain)

~♥~ To see more hearts, visit Guest Heart Thursday. ~♥~

Chambers Bay Beach in University Place -- the North Beach

2011-06-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

sign with directions and rules

We planned to go to Chambers Bay Beach in University Place, WA, today (actually it's "yesterday" now -- I'm up too late tonight writing this and need to get to bed!) to check it out at low tide (a -3.4!). It rained this morning, and I wasn't sure how the weather was going to turn out. I looked the weather forecast up on accuweather.com, though, and according to their forecast there was going to be some sunshine, so I felt hopeful. The weather ended up being really nice -- a lot of clouds, but a lot of sunshine, too!

We have been to Chambers Bay Beach before, but had never gone to see the North Beach yet, so we wanted to explore that side today. It starts out very rocky, and it's a little difficult to walk on very fast. It's easy to stumble on the rocks. After about ten minutes of slowly walking and stopping to take pictures, we reached the sandy part of the beach.

walking onto the North Beach
(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

You can see the sandy part of the beach coming up
(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

(click to view larger picture)

We walked for about an hour north along the beach. We walked at a pretty leisurely pace, enjoying the water and the beautiful view and looking to see what we could find. We had the beach almost to ourselves, especially as we got farther down the beach, and it felt very peaceful. The waves (of cold water!) washed gently ashore and the air felt pleasantly warm. The sky was bright through the many different-shaped clouds. Sunlight and clouds reflected in the water of the Puget Sound and made it sparkle and come alive with various ever-changing shades of blue, gray, and white.

geoduck siphon

We saw a couple geoducks' siphons in the sand. After I saw a double-fountain of water squirting up, I noticed a really big geoduck siphon sticking out of the sand. We often see many little holes on sandy beaches and get squirt by geoducks through the holes as we walk, but we don't often see a siphon sticking up, and there were two of them today! After noticing the first one, a couple minutes later I saw a smaller one after it squirt up some water. We've never been able to capture them on camera squirting water, but we sure hope to some day.

my older daughter holding
a small starfish

(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

We saw various types of seaweed on the beach. They are so colorful, and it was interesting to examine them. I'm not sure of all the types that were there, but I think some of their names were green string lettuce, bullwhip kelp, bladder wrack (pop weed), red spaghetti, and sugar kelp. A great website for information on different types of seaweed is Seaweeds of the Pacific Northwest.

We also saw some small starfish -- one attached to a rock and several others floating in the water. We picked up a few of the small starfish briefly to get a closer look. Actually, at first I picked one up to see if it was alive because we were surprised at how the little starfish floated about with the waves, all topsy turvy, but it definitely was alive! We think they must have been young starfish because they were so small.

When we had walked as far as down the beach as we could go -- until we saw a sign that said the beach past that sign was a private beach -- we sat down and ate lunch.

sitting on the beach eating lunch
(click to see larger picture)

Here are a few picture I took, and I'm sure I'll post more pictures we took later! It was really a beautiful walk on a beautiful day.

~*~ For more posts about sharing nature with

children visit Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions. ~*~

Sequalitchew Beach, Dupont, WA (our trip con't, part 5)

2011-06-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

After seeing the sea lion mama and her pup and exploring the shipwreck and drinking in the view out on the sand jetty, we started our trek back. The tide had begun to return, but we had plenty of time and we met others traveling in the direction from which we had just come.

(click to see larger pic)

We made our way back along the beach somewhat slowly due to being tired and also because of stopping along the way. For one thing, I looked to see if I could find a moon snail (I've never seen a live one in person!), and as my youngest two children were trying to help me, my younger daughter got one of her flip-flops suck in the soft, wet, muddy sand. Her flip-flop shoe came apart, and thank goodness she was able to put it back together. We never found a live moon snail, though, only shells (they have such neat shells). Then we stopped to see a butterfly sitting on the beach! But we finally made it back to where we had first entered the beach.

my older daughter walking up to the entrance to the beach

Below are pictures I took of the beach before we left.

I love the vivid, shining blues of the sky and water and how they contrast so

starkly with the duller grays of the rocks on the beach.

(click to see larger pic)

the beach to the left of the entrance;
we had just come from that direction
(see the ship way out there?)

the view straight ahead of the entrance
(that's Anderson Island in the distance)

the view of the beach to the right of the entrance

~*~ I'm linking this post to Smiling Sally's Blue Monday. ~*~

Visiting the Old Shipwreck at Nisqually Reach (our trip con't, part 4)

2011-06-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

ship in the distance, but we were getting closer
(picture taken on zoom by my older son)

It had been over an hour and a half since we started our journey down Sequalitchew Creek Trail. After we walked the long trail and reached the huge, rocky beach, when we saw the cement boat, which was our destination, in the distance, it looked so far away and tiny! As it got closer and bigger our anticipation grew! We hurried to reach it, not only because we were looking forward to seeing it, but also because the tide was just reaching low tide for the day, and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time before it came back in.

There were other people on the ship, but they left
when we got there. See the tiny spot in the water
to the right of the ship? Those are the sea lions!
(picture taken by my older son)

When we reached the shipwreck (after watching the sea lions for awhile) we wondered how to climb inside. We soon realized that the way to get inside was through one of the cracks on either side of the ship. The ship was cracked in the middle, and there were skinny metal rails leading up to the cracks. Which side looked safest to get into? That was our next thing to figure out. Those climbing inside decided to choose the side that was the lowest to the ground. Only my older three children (15, 12, and 10) went inside. . . my husband, younger son, and I stayed on the ground outside the ship.

The squeeze was kind of tight. My son wants to wear long sleeves next time because the walls are so rough. They had to be careful as they walked on the floor because there was a hole near the entrance. They found out that there was a wall inside that they had to squeeze through, too, to get to the other side of the ship. On the other side were the ladders up which to climb to get to the top of the ship. (See this post for more pictures inside the ship.)

spiders on the ceiling (see the three small dots in the middle ?)
(picture taken by my younger daughter)

After looking around inside awhile, my older two children climbed up one of the ladders to get on top of the ship. They decided to climb up only on one side, because on the other side the top of the ship slanted so steeply. My younger daughter climbed into the ship, but she didn't go on top of the ship. She was wearing flip-flops, and I was concerned that her footing might not be sturdy enough in that type of shoe. The poor thing, though, started to get really nervous about being in there due to the spiders she began noticing on the ceiling.

my younger daughter and older son looking through
one of the cracks through which you can enter the ship

my older two children waving
from the top of the ship

View of ladder looking down
(picture taken by my older son)

My older two enjoyed being on top of the ship. It was so high up! The view was wonderful as you can see from the pictures below that were taken by my older son from on top of the ship. My older daughter was a little nervous reaching her foot towards the ladder as she climbed down, but they both made it without incident. And my younger daughter, though glad she went in, was very relived to get out after being in the bottom part of the ship with those spiders. *shudder* (((hugs))) to my daughter!

We hope to go back again to ship, probably next spring! Yesterday we took a trail that was above the Sequalitchew Beach. See the line of trees in the picture below? Behind the trees is where the trail is that we walked. I'll post some pictures tomorrow of the ship that we took from that vantage point. The tide was in when we took the pictures yesterday, so it's really neat to see how different the tide and the shoreline looks when the tide is in.

Shipwreck Shadows on Sequalitchew Shore

2011-06-11T11:17:00.000-07:00

How do you like the alliteration in the title? lol Here are some shadows at the old shipwrecked cement boat on Sequalitchew Beach at Nisqually Reach. My 12-year-old son took these pictures. I read that this is an old cement and iron boat from WW2. I'll post pictures of the outside of it tomorrow. :-)

The boat is cracked in two, so that there is a crack on either side
up to which you can climb and squeeze through to get inside.
This is looking through the crack that is on the south side of the ship.

My older daughter climbing down from above.

view outside the ship

the rudder

Here's a pic I took of the photographer! :-)
This is a view looking through the crack on

the north side of the ship.

To see more awesome shadows, Shadow Shot Sunday.

Sequalitchew Beach and Something Special We Saw (our trip con't, part 3)

2011-06-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

We had been walking, on and off, with stops along the way, for about an 1 hour and 25 minutes. After parking our minivan in the DuPont Civic Center parking lot and walkng down the Sequalitchew Creek Trail to the beach, we walked south on the beach until we reached the sand jetty. According to Fred404 in the description of his youtube.com video, Foss Launch and Tug created the jetty years ago to stage and store log rafts. At the end of the jetty sat the object of our destination -- an old shipwrecked cement and iron ship.

The day we went the tide got down to -2.5. Fred404 says in his directions for hiking out to the cement boat at Nisqually Reach that you can reach the boat when the tide is below minus .5, so if you decide to go out there, check the tides and give yourself plenty of time to reach the boat before the tide starts to come in again.

to the right is the section of the beach we had just walked
(click to see larger pictures)

to the left you can see the sand jetty

the sand jetty

walking on the jetty

Though it took us about 1 hour and 25 minutes to get out to the sand jetty, we walked the jetty itself very quickly not only because it was easy to walk, but especially because, with the zoom on his camera, my son had spotted something out in the water beyond the ship, and he couldn't quite tell what it was. We went quickly so that we could find out what it was and in case it was something cool! Could it be a seal, or was it just a stick, a large rock, a dog? . . .

It was a stellar sea lion and her pup!!

picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

We were so thrilled to see them! She looked like such a good mama. ♥

Their reflections in the sparkling blue water looked so pretty! so I'm going to share this post at Weekend Reflections, a really great meme where you can see all sorts of beautiful reflections form all over the world!

To be continued. . .

A Heart at Point Defiance Park

2011-06-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

This heart was found in the root of a tree at the Rhododendron Garden at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. . .

~♥~ To see more hearts, visit Guest Heart Thursday. ~♥~

Sequalitchew Beach, DuPont, WA (our trip con't)

2011-06-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

continued from yesterday's post. . .

This past Saturday our family went to Sequalitchew Beach in DuPont, Washington, at low tide. We had a wonderful time! First we parked in the DuPont Civic Center parking lot at 1700 Civic Drive, DuPont, WA 98327. Then we looked for the trail marker for the Sequalitchew Creek Trail and walked down to the beach. It took us about 45 minutes to walk down there. You can get down to the beach faster, but we paused to look at things, such as plants and damselflies, along the way and to take pictures.

At the end of the trail, to get to the beach, you walk through a short tunnel which runs under the railroad, and then wow, what a gorgeous view awaits!

Anderson Island with the Olympic Mountains in the distance
picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

Sequalitchew Beach with Anderson Island across the water
picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

Panorama of Sequalitchew Beach
(click to view larger picture)

One of the things I really wanted to do on our trip was to walk out to the old cement boat I had heard about from another mom at homeschool co-op. Looking around we spotted it far across the beach to the south (you can see it in both the picture above and the one below). The beach was a little uncomfortable at times to walk on due to being rocky, wet part of the time, and rather slanted much of the time, but it wasn't too bad. We looked at things along the way such as we saw a blue heron, a little crab, and some pretty flowers. It took us about half an hour to reach the beginning of the sand jetty.

The above picture was taken shortly
after we stepped onto the beach.
See the cement boat in the distance?
picture taken by my 12-year-old son

A little crab!
picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

Flowers on the beach
picture taken by my 12-year-old son

Where we were after about 20 minutes of walking on the beach

The beach was quite wet part of the way!
picture taken by my 12-year-old son

Where we were at almost 40 minutes of walking on the beach (with
stops along the way); we had just about reached the sand jetty.

to be continued. . .

Wood Ducks at Fort Steilacoom Park

2011-06-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

On May 24th we saw wood ducks at Fort Steilacoom Park swimming on Waughop Lake. It was the first time we remember seeing wood ducks at that park. They are such pretty birds! And they were doubly cute because they had their little ducklings with them. Here are some pictures my 12 year son took that day.

mama wood duck

daddy wood duck

daddy and mama wood duck

mama wood duck and her three ducklings

♥

~* watery wednesday *~

Sequalitchew Creek Trail in DuPont, WA

2011-06-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year we heard about Sequalitchew Beach from one of my children's teachers at homeschool co-op, and this past Saturday we made the trip there. I had seen a picture taken on her visit there of a cement boat wrecked on the beach, and it sparked the spirit of adventure in me! I really wanted to visit that ship!

When I found out that the beach with the ship was in DuPont, WA, I was surprised! Though we've traveled through Dupont many times, I sheepishly admit that I had no idea DuPont even had a beach. It made me realize I sure need to brush up on my geography and WA state history.

As I googled, I found out that you can get down to the beach by walking a trail called "Sequalitchew Creek Trail." Sequalitchew Creek travels from Edmonds Marsh through DuPont and flows down a ravine and out into the Puget Sound at Sequalitchew Beach. "Sequalitchew" has been translated to mean "extensive sand banks over which the water is shallow," "big tide, and "long run out tide." It was given that name because of the great distance of sand that was exposed at low tide (source: Sequalitchew Creek Timeline).

In 1906, the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, commonly referred to as "DuPont," purchased 2700 acres of land from the Seattle Sand and Gravel Company, including Sequalitchew Creek Canyon. In 1910 DuPont built a narrow gauge railway on the north side of Sequalitchew Creek down to its wharf. Sequalitchew Creek Trail is on the old rail bed.

picture taken by 12yo son

The trail travels down into Sequalitchew Creek Canyon following the creek. The path starts out higher than the creek, so that we couldn't really seek the creek much at first, and ends up at the same level as the creek. The well-maintained trail starts at near DuPont City Hall, 1700 Civic Drive, DuPont, WA 98327, and there are trail markers. The beginning trail marker stands to the left of the DuPont City Hall. You can park right in the Civic Center parking lot.

We walked the trail and the beach (we walked out to the cement ship) for a long while and were there close to five hours. It doesn't take that much actual walking time, but we stopped to look at the plants and the view, we took lots of pictures along the way, three children explored the ship, one of my daughter's flip-flops got stuck in wet sand while she tried to grab a shell, etc. . . We didn't realize we were going to be there so long, and some of us got a bit of a sunburn. My youngest, who is six years old, said it's the longest he's ever walked, and I think he's right! He did really well, though.

To give you a better idea of how long it might take you to walk it, I tried to figure out how long the trail is by using Google Maps, and it looks like the trail down to the beach is about 1.25 miles long. Then at the beach if you want to travel over to the cement ship, it's almost one more mile of walking to get there.

A review of Sequalitchew Trail
Reviews of Sequalitchew Trail on yelp.com
Dupont City Maps -- On this page there is a map of the trails in DuPont that you can print off.
Dupont Museum Homework Helpers -- A great resource to learn about the history of the city of DuPont, including Sequalitchew Creek.

Part of the trail toward the beginning is paved.
You can see the hillside slanting down to the river on the left.
(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

Much of the trail is gravel.
The trees and other plants are gorgeous.

We are getting toward the end of the trail in
this picture. At the end of the path is a tunnel.
(picture taken by my 12-year-old son)

Getting closer to the tunnel!
The tunnel runs under railroad tracks.

The tunnel! You can see a glimpse of what lies beyond.

Going into the tunnel. . .
(picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

To be continued! I'll post pictures of the beach and the cement ship, plus more pictures of the trail, soon!

Edited to add: Here is a link to the next post. . . Sequalitchew Beach, DuPont, WA (our trip con't)

Anise Swallowtail at the Beach

2011-06-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

We went to Sequalitchew Beach in Dupont, WA, yesterday (I'll write more about that beach soon). It was a bright, warm, sunny day!

While we were walking along the beach, my older son all of a sudden stopped to take a picture of a butterfly -- what, a butterfly so far down on the beach?? Was he joking? No, there really was a butterfly sitting there down on the rocky ground. . .

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

At first we were very still and quiet so we wouldn't scare it away. Then we got more bold, and my two children with cameras got closer to it (my older son behind it and my younger daughter in front of it) while taking pictures. The butterfly was missing part of its right, back wing, and we worried that perhaps it couldn't fly, so on purpose my children cast their shadows over it to see if it would fly away, and it didn't. Though it did move its wings, and we could see that it was alive, it stayed in the same spot.

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

picture taken by my 10-year-old daughter

Worried that it might be stranded in an unsafe spot especially with the incoming tide, they decided to try and carry it to a safer spot by lifting up the rock upon which it was perched. Very carefully so as not to touch its wings, my older daughter lifted the rock with the butterfly on it and carefully held it in her hands. . .

picture taken by my 12-year-old son

. . . and then, surprise! It flew away! We were so excited and happy to see it fly away!

The Rhododendron Garden in Tacoma

2011-05-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

picture taken in 2010 (the pictures below were taken this year, 2011)

We love visiting the beautiful Rhododendron Garden at Point Defiance in Tacoma, especially when the rhododendrons (or "rhodies" as some call them) are in full bloom. For the past two years we've remembered to visit when the rhododendrons were blooming, and doing so has become a family tradition.

Since, we assume due to the cooler weather we've had this spring, some flowers have bloomed later this year than usual, we figured that the rhododendrons would likely be later, too (I confirmed by looking at pictures from the past three years that the rhodies in our yard are later this year). When we didn't make it to the Rhododendron Garden as early as we usually go, around the second week of May, we weren't really concerned.

Time has been slipping away quickly this year, though, and we almost didn't even visit the garden in May! Thank goodness that on the last weekend in May, this past Saturday, as we drove past yards on the way to go somewhere else, after noticing rhododendrons blooming, I remembered the Rhododendron Garden, and our family decided to visit there instead. It turned out well -- there were many rhodies still in bloom, and we even had sunshine by which to enjoy the garden!


Point Defiance Rhododendron

Point Defiance Rhododendron

One of the first bushes to greet visitors to the garden is the light pink point defiance rhododendron, and on Saturday it was in gorgeous full bloom. As we walked around the peaceful paths in the garden, we saw many different colors of rhododendrons. We also saw various ferns and wonderfully tall trees and looked for other native plants. We sat down on a bench near a very large rhododendron bush and ate lunch we had brought with us.

Something my children enjoy doing while walking near each bush is picking up rhodie flowers that have fallen and stacking them on each top of other creating their own unique, pretty, many-colored flowers. Just a note a caution: while as adults we know that, though beautiful to look at, they are definitely not food, sometimes little children don't know or they forget, so if you have a little one it's important to be aware of the toxicity of rhododendrons when eaten and to take appropriate precautions.

picking up fallen flowers to create their own unique flowers. . .

picture taken by windchime

Here are links to two past entries about the Rhododendron Garden:

Rhododendron Garden at Point Defiance
Rhododendron Garden at Point Defiance 2

Sea Glass Heart

2011-04-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

I was given the gift of a sea glass heart at Sunnyside Beach on Wednesday. . .

As far as sea glass quality standards go, it's not high quality, meaning it's not worn down quite enough yet and is still too smooth. To me, though, it's high quality and special because it's from my children, it's blue, and it's a heart! ♥

You'd be amazed at all the beautiful hearts in our world! Look around and I bet you will see some, too! To see wonderful hearts that others have found, visit Guest Heart Thursday.

At Sunnyside Beach Again!

2011-04-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

I just love Sunnyside Beach in Steilacoom, WA. It's one of my favorite places to visit. We went at low tide on Wednesday. It wasn't a really low tide, but we were able to walk along the shoreline looking for sea glass, which we love to do. We also looked for sea creatures, but it wasn't a very good day for that, perhaps because the water wasn't quite low enough? The last time we went there, we saw a whole lot of starfish, and this time we almost didn't see any, but toward the end of our walk, my son spotted one, and near it I spotted another one, both in the water.

The first starfish we saw that day.

my old son took this picture
A close-up of the above starfish.

This is the other starfish--it's covered by seaweed!

The weather was rather crazy. When we first arrived there was some sunshine, but that didn't last. We had light showers, fog out over the water; we even had sleet! Then there was sunshine again.

These pictures were taken facing the same direction (towards McNeil Island). . .

my older son took this picture

We noticed that you could actually see the change from gray to blue... the blue was moving to the left and pushing away the gray!

click to see a bigger picture

To see more skies, visit Sky Watch Friday.

First-Day-of-Spring Nature Walk 2011

2011-03-29T00:33:00.000-07:00

We try to go for a nature walk on the first day of every new season. The first day of spring was on March 20, 2011. Here are some pictures from our walk at Fort Steilacoom Park.

Walking through a field at Fort Steilacoom Park!

Running towards the Garry Oak Grove

Common Daisy, aka, Lawn Daisy or English Daisy

Osoberry or Indian Plum

I'm not sure--could this be chickweed?

Forsythia

American Pussy Willow

Pretty little mushroom

A log my kids like to play on because
it rocks back and forth.

The mallard ducks swimming in circles.

Waughop Lake--the water is high!