Journal time and a mocha at Mugs in Old Town this morning
“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”― Henri Nouwen
And, for those who need to know it’s National Ice Cream Day, which happens the third Sunday of every July. Put it in calendar!
Sun setting behind a sunflower at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area
“The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.” Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Lakota
I’m aware of how much more time I’m spending in nature. Seems the morning and evenings are always calling me. I took this image last night. But, this morning I took my latte, camera and journal to Red Fox meadows. A red fox scampered across Taft Hill Rd just as I turned into the parking area. Then as I parked the car a red tailed hawk rose up from the grass in the meadow but I did not see anything in its talons. I began to journal and listen. After about 5 minutes the fox came out a wooded area and into the grassy meadow. They were too far away to take a photo so I watched with my binoculars. They just sat there soaking up the sun and seemingly with eyes closed decided to lay down. Even I was enjoying the sun’s warmth. There were blue jays off to my right in a grove of trees having a rather loud discussion about something. I’m pretty sure it was not politics. I then watched a doe slowly walk out of the wooded area but staying close to the trees. I next had a short conversation with an elderly couple on a morning walk, both with canes. They lived nearby and said they were hoping to see owls. He was 88 and she was 83. Then as I started to leave a mother with two boys pulled up. I told them about the fox, deer and hawk which seemed to set expectations for some adventure. As they moved on the youngest told me, “Thank you Mr. Kind Man.” I believe, as does Luther Standing Bear, that nature can soften the heart!
On my walk around Dixon Reservoir I found this most beautiful plant I do not remember ever seeing before. At first I thought it was in the milkweed family because I found it near some mildweeds. But, it’s scientific name is Euphorbia marginata or called Snow-on-the-mountain. I would not recommend trying to say the scientific name if you have a mouth full of peanut butter, just saying. It has grey-green leaves along branches and smaller leaves in terminal whorls with edges trimmed with wide white bands, creating, together with the white flowers, the appearance that gives the plant its common names. I thought they were beautiful!
When I went to upload this image my laptop could not find any photos, either through Lightroom or Finder. I changed card readers and the same thing. Grabbed the manual and began looking up the card information on the card slots. Wanted to make sure I had the camera set up correctly as it is my first camera with dual card slots. I wanted it to be in the Sequence mode, storing images on the card in slot 1 until full then begin storing to slot 2. I had it set up right. I began to think it was a bad SD card. Put the SD card back in the camera and playback showed all the images. It was then that I found the images were stored on the second SD card. I’ve discovered that if you do not have the SD card all the way in, or not even have a card in slot 1, the camera will default to storing images in slot 2 if there is a card in the slot.
So, I learned two lessons yesterday. One was the information on this plant and the second one about my dual storage slots on the new Fujifilm X-T3 camera.
I chased some early morning fog then headed out to one of the natural areas to write and get in a morning walk. It’s about a 5 mile drive to Reservoir Ridge and then found the sun shining brightly there and eerily quiet. I watched the sun burn off the fog along the foothills to the south, nature at work. Everything was wet from the humidity and dew; the split rail fence, the grass, and a spiderweb. The sun and wind will quickly dry things out. Thus begins a morning in the meadow. Makes me smile somewhere inside of me as I experience it.
Backlit sunflowers at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area
The birds now begin to sing as if they were waiting for me. They dart so quickly in the aire and must in order to catch all the quick and nimble flying insects. I watch as the wind slowly moves the fog to my east in a southerly direction. While small clouds along the foothills are moved south by the same wind. I watch a blue-jay perched on the fence hop to the ground in hot pursuit of some insect. He misses on the first couple tries then finds success. Such a beautiful bird dressed in blue, a work of art.
Busy bees enjoying the nectar from a common chicory
Now a bit of information about common chicory from Wikipedia. I see these all over the place and finally looked them up. The bees love them. The plant was adopted as a coffee substitute by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War, and become common in the United States. It was also used in the United Kingdom during the Second World War, where Camp Coffee, a coffee and chicory essence, has been on sale since 1885.
These are the leaves of a hops plant that was climbing up the wall at the apartment my sister and brother-in-law were renting in Lake Forest, Washington. The hop is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Although frequently referred to in American literature as the hops “vine”, it is technically a bine; unlike vines, which use tendrils, suckers, and other appendages for attaching themselves, bines have stout stems with stiff hairs to aid in climbing (Wikipedia). Anyway the leaves were stunning in details so I grabbed the camera.
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”69″ display=”basic_slideshow”]Sorry you have to bare with me as I play with this new camera and lens, putting up with all sorts of images, some which could be quite boring. Spent the morning crawling around on my knees at the CSU Flower Trials Garden and wanted to share what I found. I’ve used the camera exclusively since it arrived. The feel is getting to be second nature. It is a solid body much different than the Fujifilm X-T10. It is also very responsive. I’m not as intimidated with it the first time I held it.
It has been hot for several days and today is going to be another one. Hope you have a wonderful Sunday.
This image of the Seattle skyline was taken near Alki Beach along Harbor Avenue. It is an indication of the type of weather we enjoyed in Seattle. There is no beach where I’m standing. The sandy beach is farther west but the traffic and people was terrible. Enjoy your Saturday.
