Trees I have "known" at Mt. Rainier. . .

This will be my last entry on this blog as I have just about run out of photo space. Please join me over at PERBS I have a few more from Mt. Rainier of birds, mountains and raindrops. Eventually, I will get them all shared. You will find my memes for ODD SHOTS, Blog Your Blessings Sunday and Bridges Between over there too. I haven't decided yet where I will put my blogs for Turtle Place, Kiggins House remodel and For the Love of Benches yet but I hope to continue them also. (I have taken update photos but am behind in posting them.)

The new growth contrasts beautifully with the tree.

The rock slides look like an angel on the left and Jesus on the right.

The branches growing from the side of this trunk were contrasts from dead to fall colors to olive green.

Can you see the SMILEY face in this tree trunk?

Our trail on our 3rd. hike looked like this most of the way. . . only in a short distance was it a wider smooth trail.

Blue skies and snow!

Tree trunks.

I liked this bent tree trunk!

This tall tree was all hollow inside. To get the length of the tree, I laid on my back to take the photo. CLICK on it to enlarge.

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I have enjoyed sharing photos with anyone who stops by on this site. I have now moved to a different site and will post under PERBS, my initials. I hope you will join me there.
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Stairs Down to Waterfall

This is one of my favorite photos from our camping trip at Mt. Rainier. The two previous posts are also from Mt. Rainier if you haven't seen them yet. I have two more themes from Rainier to post: waterfalls and trees.

Flowers at Mount Rainier

Well, during our camping trip, I took photos of 44 flowers but I know I can't post them all here because my blog is runnng out of photo space provided so I will try to choose some of my favorites.



Of course, the only NEW TO ME one I know by sight and NAME is "Pearly Everlasting." Can you see why it has its first name? This flower opens and has white petals and a yellow center but when I saw it , it just looked like pearls. It got the everlasting part of its name because it is a good flower to dry and use in dried bouquets BUT don't pick it at Mount Rainier because it is against the law. I read that the native Indians used it for medicinal uses also.


I think this is the Pearly Everlasting opened up. . . NOPE! Katney says it is Sitka Valerian.


If I remember correctly, Katney said this one is Beargrass. Deer like to eat the plant and Indians used the leaves for baskets.

OK, so those are all white and you want to see some color. . . How about these?




As a child we called them Indian Paint Brush but some are shocked that I say Indian in repeating their name. I don't say it offensively and just speak as my Girl Scout Leader taught me. . . (If these are not them, Katney will correct me -- somehow they don't look like the brochure. . .

Broadleaf Arnica -- the center is used as an herb.

Rosy Spirea was used as a tonic and even for smoking tobacco.

The Avalanche Lily is so delicate! Indians used it for medicine and as a food source. Many animals eat them also.

OK, these are just a few of the many wildflowers I took photos of at Mount Rainier last week. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. (Katney, if I labeled any wrong, please let me know.)

ODD SHOTS MONDAY

If you want to join ODD SHOTS, see Katney.


Oops! Got a headless bird! Definitely odd. . .

Blog Your Blessings Sunday #41

If you care to join us acknowledging our blessings go here: Blue Panther
CLICK on any photo to enlarge for better viewing. . .

This is a photo of two friends who took me camping last week on Mount Rainier in Washington state. They are crossing the bridge on our return after a hike. (Please excuse the sun spots in the photo.) These two wonderful people are my blessing that I write about this week. But I am getting ahead of my story. . .

These special people have shared their beloved mountain with me this year, not once, but twice! I first visited Mount Rainier for my birthday in January when they took me snow shoeing for my first time. I wrote about that back in January and had wonderful snow photos too. (See index if you missed it.)

This time, they picked me up for camping on Monday afternoon and we arrived at Mount Rainier in time to set up camp and enjoy a wonderful salmon dinner grilled on a campfire to perfection.



The next morning, I woke up to blueberry pancakes made on the campfire. (I had to buy fresh blueberries at the Farmer's Market Saturday so I could make myself some more!)

Then, we went on a hike with a Ranger and other people in a group and learned about the area up behind the Paradise Inn and we were lucky enough to see deer





a marmot (I think)
and beautiful flowers too.



I will share more of them in another post later this week.

Then the guided walk was over before we knew it and, just the three of us -- well, mostly me -- wanted to continue on over another bridge on the Skyline Trail

to see the remaining snow near the Nisqually Glacier. We went over one bridge

but the second bridge was out and not feasible to cross the river in my eyes so . . . can you believe it, I voted to pass up the snow near Nisqually Glacier! (I did see pockets of snow in the landscape.)


We went back to the old Mount Rainier Visitors Center after a brief stop at the car for our picnic lunch.


We enjoyed wonderful turkey sandwiches, Pepsi and cold soup which turned out to be quite wonderful and I have asked Katney for the recipe.

They are in the process of building a new visitors center that will be better suited for the amount of snow they get each winter.

There was so much more to my wonderful camping experience on Mount Rainier but that will be for another day. Thanks, dear friends for being a blessing in my life.

This is the same bridge I started out my story with. Crossing it the first time before our hike in the woods there didn't bother me too much but when we returned, I was scared to death with that rushing water and I clung to the railing and closed my eyes partially until I reached the other side. Did you notice that we had blue skies part of the time?

Home again . . .

Despite the rain on Monday, Katney and her hubby picked me up in Vancouver and we headed back north to Mount Rainier. I took lots of photos but left my photo "purse" in their car unknowingly so the disk I had full, I won't have for a few days. (They are graciously mailing it to me.) I did have this one on a second disk. It was taken Tuesday afternoon when we did see partial blue skies and a peek of THE MOUNTAIN taken from the Nisqually River bed. (Click on it to enlarge or you won't get even the small glimpse of the near the top of the mountain.)

ODD SHOTS MONDAY

If you want to join ODD SHOTS, see Katney.

Some may not think this is odd because a tree grows sideways sometimes . . . it's the fence that is odd! Not everyone would cut a hole in their fence so the tree could keep growing! First one I ever saw anyway.

I am off with Katney Monday to go camping but will check everyone's site when I return if you haven't posted before I leave.

Blog Your Blessings Sunday #40

If you care to join us acknowledging our blessings go here: Blue Panther

One might say my blessing this week is that I am feeling better and trying to fly around to blogs I used to frequent daily/weekly to catch up on my reading and leaving comments. I found this Tiger Swallowtail at the park when I went to take photo of the Kiggins House re-model a couple weeks ago. It reminded me that I am able to flit around and visit blogs once again so that is definitely my featured blessing this week. Thanks for all your kind notes, prayers and thoughts. I hope to catch up on old blessings of yours and today's current ones also.


First, I saw it land on the grounds of the park.

Finally, it went up to a tree. Isn't it something how the same butterfly can look different colors on different backgrounds?

Sorry . . .

Although I am much better but not all healed from my accident, I just am unable to blog at this time. I will try to get some blogs READ this week and maybe be able to post again soon.

Bridges Between

For ODD SHOTS-- scroll down please -- it is just below this post.


RuneE is sponsoring this monthly challenge on the first Monday of every month. Bridges Between is subject to open interpretation.




This bridge gives me the opportunity to go many places in my town and across the river in Portland, Oregon too. It is my monthly bus pass. I use it when ever I choose not to walk because of distance or because what I am carrying is too heavy - like my groceries. With the price of fuel what it is, a bus pass is the way to go. Our newest fleet of buses use bio-fuel which is environment friendly, they say. Because I am a "senior," I get a special discount along with the young and the disabled. I get this BRIDGE each month. I use it often for longer trips or when I don't have my hiking shoes on.

Take Sunday, for example. . . I walked the two blocks to the stop and took a bus to church because it is on the other side of town. After church, I went to the grand opening of a park near where I used to live and walked a couple miles to get there. (I knew I would be doing this so wore flat shoes to church.) After the speeches and ribbon cutting at the park, there was a free picnic. Then, I walked over to my friend, Myrl's. Her house is near the park. She had a stroke a few years ago. . . she will be celebrating another birthday Thursday. She is always happy to see me and I, her. We visited for a couple hours and then I headed home, walking about two miles. That got me to the bus stop again where I used my BRIDGE and when it let me off, I had three blocks to walk.

Monday, this BRIDGE will take me to and from Vacation Bible School and then to run some errands in the afternoon. Last week, it took me to the head of a walking trail which I completed hiking before taking the bus home using THE BRIDGE again. It used to take me to work before I retired. It also took me to other walking trails, the Columbia River, Portland, to work and back, to the movies and shopping. I even used this bridge to explore new parts of our city that I am not that familiar with YET!

Most bridges, one crosses over BUT this one, takes me places from one point to another and most of the time, we don't cross any bodies of water (exception is when the bus crosses the I-5 Columbia River bridge between Vancouver and Portland.) I use it as many times as I want to each month. I never "burn" my bridges so somewhere I must have hundreds of bridges I used in the past 22 years to make my crossings around town.