What is it?

Speaking of foals. An email friend sent me a photo recently of a foal that is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. Now that critter is really cute. I WANT ONE.

Update on Foal

Remember the cute little paint filly that was born during the extreme cold a few weeks ago? She is doing fine. The owners fixed up a shelter for her and her mom, with a heatlamp to help keep her warm, and ordered a real foal blanket that will expand as she grows.

Thanks

Thanks to all who have read my blog about my trip to Oregon and Washington. I have had fun going through my photos and remembering the trip. By doing this I figure it will make the memeories even better. This way I have a record of my trip, as do Jan and Cyndi who make the trip so enjoyable for me, even thought they feel bad a lot of the time because of the car accident they had been in right before I got there. If anyone wants to know more about the places mentioned on the trip to Olympic National Park, you can google it, or use any search engine and find tons of information. It is well worth seeing, if only for a day or so. I would love to be able to go back and send a month or so in that area seeing all the sights I saw before and the ones I missed.

The Road Home

All to soon my visit to Oregon and Washington has come to an end. My plane ticket says that it is the day to fly back to New Mexico, so I guess I will have to go. If I will let myself admit it I am getting a bit homesick for Lee, the horses, dogs and cats so I left so far behind. And although I don't want to admit it to my sister, and tour guide, sometimes the sight of so much green can be scary. I noticed when I walked out this morning to sit on her back porch and see if there were any deer watching that the ring of trees that surrounded her home looked as if they were invading my - well shall we call it 'my space'. I love trees, but here they make it so that you can't 'see'. At my home on the desert you can 'see' for miles on end. And I miss that.

Grassy Yard

Jim complained he hadn't had a chance to mow the several acreas of lawn they have, but I thought it looked so great with the tall grass and dandelions in bloom. After looking at nutural brown desert dirt for as long as I have any green looks good.

The Deer's View

Later, after the deer had gone - where ever they go - I wondered up to where they had been and took a photo of their view. You can see it was a long way from the house which is alm ost hid behind trees and a grape view. To the right is an old barn that has been converted to a garage, and to the left is Jim's workshop.

In the Distance

Jan and Jim's yard would be a great nature watchers place. There is lots of wildlife there. Birds of all kinds, rodents, squirrels, coyotes, and of course deer. They knew that there were a couple of does that were perment residents of their property, and they had fawns. I had stepped out one evening and was rewarded by the sight of one of the does and her twin fawns. I attempted to get pictures and I did, sort of. It was one of those times you really wish your small digital camera, which seems to take really good pictures, isn't as good as it could be, and that it had a better telephoto lens on it. I could see the deer but couldn't seem to get a photo where they showed up any better than this picture shows them. My next camera will probably have a better lens for distance shots.

More Blackberries

After breakfast we decided to take a walk around the large yard that Paddy calls home. It was so pretty and green and there was one of northwestern Oregon's light, misty rains sprinkling on us. But that didn't stop us from exploring the huge blackberry patch to find the fruit that Jim had missed earlier. For once I had my fill of fresh blackberries.

Of course you have to fight the birds and deer for them. But that is part of the fun.

Blackberries

My brother-in-law Jim was unable to go on our trip to the Park because he had to work, and he seemed glad to have us back, too. The next morning he fixed us a wonderful breakfast of biscuits and bacon, with lots of blackberry jelly that he and Jan had made the previous summer. Not only was there the delicious homemade blackberry jelly there was fresh picked blackberries. Jim, with the help of his dog, Paddy, had risen very early and ventured into the blackberry patch to pick fresh blackberries. It had been years since I had eaten fresh berries, just picked from a thicket. I remembered doing it as a teenager when we lived in Sandpoint, Idaho but had not had a chance to do so after we left there. I love any kind of berry - blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, elderberries, and especially huckleberries - and I will include cherries in that list, too. You might just say that I love fruit, but berries are best. I recently received a care package full of blackberry jelly from my wonderful brother and sister. In the photo are blackberry blossoms.

Back to Clatskanie

On arriving back in Clatskanie, Oregon we found Jan's dog, Paddy, more than happy to go home from the Happy Hound Dog Kennel. I think we were a bit glad to get back, also. It had been a long 3 day trip even if it had been thrilling, exciting, interesting, and exceptionally beautiful. I would recomment a trip to the Olympic National Park to any one. All the places where wonderful to visit with lots of great places to visit. We had gone over a weekend during the summer and it did not seem as crowded as I had expected. And everybody we met, either Park personal or visitors were very friendly.

Looking out to Sea

Balancing Act

The logs were laying every which away. They were huge logs and some would be balanced on top of others. This big one was proped up on a smaller one. Makes you wonder why it doesn't fall, and when will it happen. I just hope on one is under it when it happens.

Rolling Log

Here is one of the logs coming into shore. It was rolling in the water as the tide came in. It couldn't go out due to the rock behind it, and seemed to be taking it's time coming on in. We didn't get to near as you could tell it was very heavy and would be deadly if a big wave were to pick it up and throw it on to the beech. We took it's photo and wondered on.

Troll Stack

Here is a small sea stack that my guide said looked like a troll but I really couldn't see it, but it was fun to watch the water coming in through the holes. I took lots of photos but never actually got the water coming in the hole. Still it looked good with the sun behind it.

Through the Window

Here is a shot I took looking through some old roots still attached to a log. As you can see the sky was very cloudy and there was almost a mist of rain.

Ruby Beach

What I didn't know when my guide insisted we leave Hurricane Ridge was that we had one more major stop to make. It was at Ruby Beach. It was a couple of hours before we got there and it was late afternoon, and again it was high tide when we arrived at the beech. And this beech was even more fasinating than Kalaloch had been. There were sea stacks here. Sea stacks are the big rocks that stick up out of the ocean. A lot of them even have a small eco system right on top, with plants, and trees growing on them and birds nesting on them. It was cool at Ruby Beech and looked like a storm was brewing far out to sea. No blue skys now. This little inlet was just made for taking photos of, but it looked like it would be far underwater as the tide came in.

Overlook

On the way down the mountain we stopped at an overlook were you could see across the Strait of Jaun de Fuca and into Canada. I didn't get to go there but I did get to see it, even if it was from a long distance. It isn't even very clear but according to the sign there that is what is in the far, far distance.

Leaving

It was at this time that my guide decided we had to leave so we could head back down the mountain, and go south toward Oregon. I didn't want to leave this heaven.

Altitude

One thing that really fascinated me about Hurricane Ridge was the Altitude. The Ridge is said to be 5,242 above sea level. There are all those magnificent mountains around it that may be a bit higher and it makes you feel, as I have said, on top of the world. There are glaciers on those mountains. You are in an area that measures rain and snow in feet instead of inches. There are animals and flowers and trees that would never grow in my home state of New Mexico. But here in New Mexico, in the high desert country, I live at about 6500 feet above sea level. Makes you wonder why some areas have one kind of Eco system at a certain altitude and another type of Eco system at another altitude. Of course there is the difference in latitude and longitude, also.

Glacier

Here is more of an close up of the mountains. You can see the snow and a glacier almost right in the middle. It is the closest I could get to the glacier at this time. According to a sign at the viewing center there are more than 60 active glaciers on the mountains that are in Olympic National Park.