Smoke Farm Excursion

Mother's Day was spent at Smoke Farm, Northeast of Arlington, in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

A hike through tree tree stands and large open fields led to...

 ...the Stillaguamish River.  Boys and sticks:

I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day :) Smoke Farm was awesome.  We are hoping to return and camp up there in August for their lo-fi art festival.

Polliwog Camp

This week, Silas attended Polliwog Camp at Stillwaters Environmental Center. I think it's safe to say that he thought nature camp was awesome. The campers hiked on local trails, studied bugs, bird-watched, did nature art, and learned about ecology.

There's a fabulous climbing tree on the grounds, which saw lots of use. Silas also told me that he made a secret fort with several of the other boys.

There were three other children at the camp from Silas' class at preschool, and I think this helped make Silas feel comfortable right away. Here he is with friend J, in the gazebo overlooking the pond:

When I asked Silas what his very favorite thing about camp had been, he said it was "walking on the trail looking at the ecology huts." I don't quite know what that means, but I'll take his word for it.

We hiked up a mountain (again)

Last weekend, we hiked up Hurricane Hill, just like we did last year. The biggest difference was that this year, there was a lot more snow. I mean a lot more. The pack from last winter was dramatically more than the year before, which I think must be a good thing.

Mt. Baker is just barely visible in the distance:

We saw an Olympic Marmot, which was bigger and more golden than I remembered.

And there was no shortage of deer.

Silas enjoyed making snowballs (and then holding onto them until they melted away).

Hello little cloud.

On the way home, we were waylaid by a bridge opening on the Hood Canal Bridge. This gave me a rare opportunity to get out of the car whilst on the bridge in order to take a picture of the Olympic Mountains.
Thus ended our day trip to the mountains.

We hiked to the ocean

Last Sunday we hiked to Cape Alava/Sand Point. This is a 9.2 mile triangle: 3 miles from the trail head to the ocean, 3 miles along the coast, and 3 miles back to the trail head. I was afraid that, going at a 4 year old's pace, we wouldn't make it up the coast before the tide came back in. When the tide is high, this is a much more difficult hike, as the beach along certain stretches becomes submerged, and the only way to get through is to swim, or haul yourself up a cliff with a rope. To avoid that possibility, we walked around Sand Point for quite a while, then headed back up the path. So, about 7 miles overall.

The forest, on the hike in:
Checking out a location for a potential driftwood house:

Look, ma, I'm at the ocean!

On the top of what Silas calls "Dragon Mountain."

Me.

Us.

Strong (little) man:

Putting the finishing touch on the driftwood house:

Ta-da!

Enough of us. Here's what we came to see:



It rained during the hike back. Thankfully, the rainforest canopy kept us from getting totally drenched (sort of).

Long day. Good day.

Strawberries and Butterflies

We're right at the peak of strawberry season. Yum! The garden grows bigger each year, and as strawberries are want to do, they have spread out from last year, giving us quite a few more berries this summer. Again, yum!
Earlier this spring, I noticed a chrysalis on one of the shrubs I was planning on transplanting. Not wanting to disturb or destroy it, I clipped off the branch it was on and Silas put it in his nature explorer box, that his Aunt Amy and Uncle Jeff gave to him for his birthday. Then, we waited. And waited. After a few weeks I began to wonder if the thing was ever going to hatch.
But as you can see, it did!
I identified it as a Lorquin's Admiral. Right after the picture below was taken, it flew up and away.
Good-bye pretty butterfly!

Foulweather Bluff fieldtrip

The weather could not have been better for Silas' school field trip to Foulweather Bluff a few weeks back. A short hike through the woods led to this tide pool, ripe for young ecologists to explore:

Silas touched an anemone with his science finger:

They found some newly hatched fish in the shallows by the eel weed. Silas was one of the lucky few who manage to pick one up. Whenever the children handled animals, Teacher Debbie was careful to say "This is the kind of environment it came from so it must like living there. Put it back in its environment." But the kids couldn't resist putting the fish in slightly deeper waters, just a few feet away. There was just no stopping them from "rescuing" the tiny things.

Silas stands proudly where he released his baby fish:

Teacher Debbie examines some seaweed with Silas and friends:

One of the more curious finds...I thought this was trash actually. It looks and feels just like a rubber tire. But Teacher Debbie schooled me. This is the sand collar of a moon snail, made by the mother snail from sand, tiny eggs and mucous. The collar protects the eggs from the shifting tides.

A sun star. We counted at least 18 appendages.

A sand dollar in each hand:

Jellyfish:
Other non photographed animals: eagles, sea stars, geoducks, hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, etc. etc.

Bloedel Reserve

While my parents were here, we went to Bloedel Reserve, a beautiful 150 acre preserve and garden that we hadn't visited in about 5 years.

Silas enjoyed:

Walking with his grandparents.
Sitting in front of the big house, looking out over Sound, and watching the birds soar.
And exploring the forest.
We saw a big banana slug.
and many other beautiful things.

The rock garden adjacent to the Japanese garden is one of Drew's favorite areas.
and the moss garden is mine.
If you'd like to see more pictures from Bloedel, and from the rest of my parents' visit, you can see some on their blog (scroll down for the pictures).