The Great Backyard Bird Count

Dan and I decided to fly up to Washington for the weekend. We arrived on Friday morning. Dan immediately started working on his amateur radio equipment. I filled my birdfeeders and set up my camera for the "Great Backyard Bird Count".

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts.

Participants count birds anywhere for as little or as long as they wish during the four day counting period. They tally the highest number of birds of each species seen together at any one time. To report their counts, they fill out an online checklist at the Great Backyard Bird Count web site. As the count progresses, anyone with Internet access can explore what is being reported from their own towns or anywhere in the United States and Canada. They can also see how this year's numbers compare with those from previous years.

A Black-capped Chickadee at the feeder.
This was the first time I had seen a Red Breasted Nut Hatch at the feeders.
A Steller's Jay watches the smaller birds.
And a Spotted Towhee cleans up the spilled seeds.

On Saturday morning I woke before sunrise and dressed for a walk at the Theler Wetlands. The Theler Wetlands covers some 75 acres near Belfair, Washington and the Hood Canal. An agreement between the Wetlands and the Washington State Department of Fish and Game has allowed development of a trail system encompassing 135 acres. Four separate trails are open to the public free of charge during daylight hours, seven days a week. The site is a popular stop for birdwatchers and photographers. There is a wonderful variety of birds throughout the trial system. I arrived ten minutes before the gate was unlocked. When it opened I started down the trail. I saw.......

.........a pair of Mallards........ ......and Northern Pintails.........

........and some Green Winged Teals. I had never seen this one in the wild before although they are apparently fairly common in this area.

Further down the path a stately Great Blue Heron surveyed the trail. .

and overhead -----a sight I never tire of --- a Bald Eagle in flight.

The weekend ends far too soon. Dan and I closed up the house and headed home Monday afternoon. I can hardly wait for Spring Break.

Road Trip -- Law Office Style

Each year, I try to do something special with my staff to show them how much I appreciate their hard word and dedication. One year we went whale watching in Monterey Bay, another year it was dinner and a show in San Francisco. This year, I flew my paralegals, Bear and Molly, to Washington for a four day respite after the long hours we all put in in December. Our first night in Washington, we were greeted by this clever couple. The raccoons apparently thought that I had filled the bird feeders for their exclusive use. Unfortunately for them, I hung the feeders too high for them to reach. The pair tried for over an hour to crawl up the outer post, all in vain. They finally gave up.

Neither Bear nor Molly had ever been to Canada. They were excited to go so we had planned a day in Victoria, British Columbia. I asked my neighbor, Lennie, if she would like to join us and she said yes. On Sunday, January 13th, 2008, we caught the ferry from Port Angeles and headed for Vancouver Island. While we waited in line, I filled out the customs forms for our group and discovered it was Lennie's birthday!
Once we cleared customs into Canada, we headed up the street to do the tourist thing. Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia. Lennie, Molly and Bear posed in front of the Inner Harbour.
One of the prominent landmarks along the Inner Harbour is the Parliment Building. The Parliament Buildings were designed by a 25 year old creative architect named of Francis Rattenbury in honor of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Construction began on 1893. Construction of the Parliament Buildings utilized, as much as possible, local materials, resources, and expertise. Granite rock foundations were brought in from nearby Nelson Island, the facades were imported from Haddington Island, and much of the brick, lime and Douglas Fir were from Vancouver Island. The Parliament Buildings were completed in 1915.Equally impressive is another Inner Harbour landmark, the Fairmont Empress Hotel. This 460-room hotel was built in the Edwardian style and was recently restored to its original grandeur, complete with antique furniture and luxurious décor. Considered to be the most photographed attraction on Vancouver Island, The Empress was also designed by Francis Rattenbury. It opened in 1908. This year it celebrates it 100th anniversary.

Molly takes a pictures of the Empress Hotel while Bear and Lennie look on.
We next headed to the Royal BC Museum. The first thing we saw in the lobby was John Lennon's "Yellow Submarine". This car was manufactured in 1965 by the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, Crewe, Cheshire. The car was fitted with a limousine body by Mulltner Park Ward and finished in Valentines Black. When completed, the Phantom V was then delivered to John Lennon on June 3, 1965. The car measured 19 feet long and weighed three tons. It was originally painted black with chrome trim.
John eventually became restless with the "matt black overall" and decided to paint the car "psychedelic". A Dutch team of gypsy artists did the work. They designed and painted a pattern of scroll and flowers. The newly painted psychedelic car drew public outrage. In fact, an old woman, in London’s downtown, attacked the car using her umbrella and yelling: "You swine, you swine! How dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce." Obviously, the Rolls-Royce is passionately regarded in England as one of the many symbols of British dignity!
The Beatles used the Rolls exclusively in their heyday from 1966 to 1969. After the band broke up, it was donated to a museum.

The Royal BC Museum is one of my favorite museums so we headed there as our next stop. It houses one of the finest collections of totem poles in North America and a wonderful collection of spindles and woven articles.
After the museum, we all decided it was time to eat. Lennie didn't want anyone to know it was her birthday, so, of course, we immediately let the waitress know. Lennies was surprised with a huge piece of choclate cake.

After lunch we headed for the souvenior shops. Bear poses with a Canadian Bear.

All to soon, it was time to head back to the ferry. As we waited to clear customs, this car pulled into line. The car is a 1928 Graham-Page 610 Touring Sedan, an antique beauty with original motor, upholstery and accessories, now decorated with decals from car clubs and museums, the names of the 20-plus countries they've visited, and two signs. One says "Driving from Argentina to Alaska." The other says: "Tres Americas -- Una Huella." (Three Americas -- One dream).
The couple who own the car, Candelaria and Herman Zapp set out from Buenos Aires in January 2000 to fulfill a long-held dream: a road trip through the Americas. They figured it would take them six or eight months to reach Alaska--(the car has a top speed of 35 miles per hour) but instead, have been on the road eight years and have covered an incredible 50,000+ miles.
A poster inside describes the car's snaking route up South America, across Central America and into North America, past New York to Nova Scotia and Quebec, then across the continent to California, most of it traveled on back roads. "America has a lot of dead ends," comments Herman.
The car has no radio, no tape player, no GPS, no compass. "We have only the map of the next place we're going to be," he says. "If we get lost, so what?"
Even more amazing is the fact that they have three young children --- the youngest was just 6 weeks old!Planning next to cross Asia for three years, they're financing their travels in part with a book, Spark Your Dream, which they sell from the truck of the car. Here Bear and Molly get their books and pose for a picture.

And you know what? Lennie and I couldn't resist the books either!

Christmas 2007

Last July, as Dan, Kenny, Justin and I pulled out of our driveway in Washington after a wonderful and relaxing summer vacation, Kenny gazed back wistfully at the house and wished that we all could celebrate Christmas together in Washington. During the long drive home to California, I imagined a happy family scene for Christmas, 2007:

My family is settled around a brightly lit and richly decorated Christmas tree. A cheery fire snaps and crackles as it burns in the hearth, while outside the window a lovely white snow blankets the yard. The scent of Christmas candles mingles with the aroma of Christmas dinner. Christmas carols pay quietly in the background as Justin, Kenny and Dan carefully unwrap their packages, all of which are "exactly what they wanted".

Happily deluded by my private dream, in a moment of utter insanity, I said "Yes, let's spend Christmas in Washington."

By October, reality was beginning to rear its ugly head. It started with airline reservations. Any other time of the year (except maybe Thanksgiving) I could locate tickets for $79 to $99 each way. Now, despite the fact that I was making reservations three months in advance, the cost of each ticket was roughly three times that of the National debt. (Apparently, airline companies aren't affected by the Christmas spirit.) I finally located tickets at a reasonable price but they required travel out of San Jose (two hours from our house) on Christmas Eve. Quickly deducing I was not going to be able to find, purchase, and decorate a tree in less than ten hours once we arrived on December 24th, I decided to decorate a tree during my October vacation.

In California, this didn't seem to be much of an issue. All the major stores start to display their Christmas inventory before Halloween. In fact, it is not at all unusual for many of the stores to be sold out of the majority of the "good stuff" by October 20th. But when I got to Washington, there was nary a decoration in sight. After checking ten different stores, I explained my dilemma to the manager of Scott McClendon Hardware. Wonder of wonders, they had a pre-lit, eight foot tree left over from the year before which they were willing to sell to me.

Next I had to locate decorations. After checking with local merchants (and enduring looks that suggested that they thought I was some kind of lunatic), I was finally directed to several gift stores in Seattle, Silverdale, and Shelton which carried Christmas ornaments on a year round basis. The catch was that all of the shops required at least a forty five minute drive to reach --- and all in opposite directions. Four days and seven trips later, I finally had enough ornaments to decorate the tree. I even found a tree skirt, a wreath, and a present for Dan!

Speaking of presents..............Oh, oh! The only way to get them to Washington on time was to ship them. Over the next two months, I became a clearing house for Christmas packages. I wrapped and reboxed everything, then made roughly 6,654 trips to the UPS store. Once each box was on its way, I had to track it online and notify my neighbor, Lennie, that a box was on the porch. She then retrieved the box and took it inside. Now add in the stress of the holiday season in Family Law. I began to feel like the Grinch in that Dr. Seuss cartoon. More than once I caught myself walking around and muttering "I must stop Christmas from coming!" to myself. It didn't work.

Before I knew it, it was December 24th. Alaska Airways recommended passengers arrive two hours before the flight to ensure time enough to get through security. Since our flight left at 6:00 a.m., we arrived at 4:00 a.m. Alaska Airlines apparently didn't read their own memo and didn't open Baggage Check-In until 5:00 a.m. Dan ranks waiting in an airport somewhere between having a tooth pulled without Novocaine and contracting a raging case of the flu. He paced in front of the ticket counter for a solid hour. Once it opened and our bags had been checked, we dashed to security. There is a math equation which states that the speed an airport security line moves is directly related to likelihood that you will miss your flight. Needless to say, it was close. Once in the air, there was turbulence.....lots of it. As we bumped and bounced on our way to Seattle, Kenny began to get air sick. You know, those air sick bags DO come in handy.

I was rethinking this whole "Christmas in Washington" thing when we finally landed at Sea Tac International Airport. I was relieved when we boarded the Kitsap-Bremerton Shuttle to Port Orchard, where our neighbor, Lennie, picked us up and drive us the remaining 20 miles to home.

Surprise! Lennie and her husband, Duane, had opened the boxes and finished decorating the house. Duane had hung Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Lennie had stocked our refrigerator. As a final touch, Duane had lit the pellet stove and turned up the heat while Lennie retrieved us.

This is what we saw when we opened the front door.

Kenny helped me finish up last minute issues, including folding luminarias. A luminaria means "light" or "little lantern". In New Mexico (where I grew up), luminarias are made from brown paper bags weighted down with sand and illuminated from within by a lit candle and traditionally displayed on Christmas Eve. These are typically arranged in rows to create large and elaborate displays. Tradition states that the lights will guide the spirit of the Christ child to one's home.

As a fund raiser, Kenny's class sold luminarias pre-cut with a candle cut-out. I folded them, Justin added a cup of dry sand to the bottom, and finally I added a votive candle (they last 18 hours). As night fell, we lit the candles.

Kenny turned on the tree lights and set up the Ipod to play Christmas Carols. And wonder of wonders, the Christmas spirit finally began to arrive. Gone was the stress and exhaustion. Instread, we were a family happily settling down for the night.

Christmas morning was happy and relaxed. We had a wonderful time finally discovering what was in those boxes. Dan found the most adorable sheep for me.
It moves when its back is stroked and bleats. Dan said he went to over seven stores trying to track it down.

After packages, I fixed crepes. Halfway through breakfast, it started to snow!!!

And boy, did it snow! As the snow got deeper, the boys donned hats, coats and gloves and headed outside for a snowball fight.
It was sort of one sided since Justin is so much bigger and stronger. But it didn't matter, Kenny had a great time.

As I stood at the window watching (I'm no dummy -- those boys would have hurled snowballs at me if I had gone outside), I realized that we HAD had a perfect Christmas.

Home Again

For the past sixteen years, Dan and I have set aside the first week of October to share ten days special time for just ourselves. Although in past years we have used this week to travel extensively, this year we both decided we just wanted to head to Washington State to simply relax. We arrived at Sea Tac airport just as the sun was setting and walked past a sculpture/wall hanging in the main terminal which I think is fascinating.

The centerpiece of art named "Landing" was designed by Ralph Helmick and Stuart Schechter. It is made up of 2800 individual sculptures arrayed in such a way that they form the image of a snow goose landing on a calm lake.Mr. Helmick and Mr. Schechter have individually and collectively completed twelve major public commissions, including major sculptures for the Midway Airport in Chicago, the new international terminal at Philadelphia Airport and the Melvin Price Federal Courthouse in St. Louis, Illinois. Their collaborative work began in 1994 with the creation of Ghostwriter, for the Evanston, Illinois Public Library. They are know for art work which is comprised of thousands of precisely suspended cast metal elements. These small elements then coalesce to become a larger three-dimensional composite form.

The next morning, I opened a box from Jennie the Potter. Inside was a bowl and mug I had ordered last July. The design is features whimsical sheep and a ball of yarn. The pieces are very well done. The colors are vibrant and not the somewhat dull colors my camera phone captured.

But the big excitement was my new loom and accessories from AVL. The Workshop Dobby Loom is AVL's smallest, most transportable, and least expensive computerized dobby loom. I chose a 24 inch loom with 24 harnesses. I chose to have the loom outfitted with sectional beams so I also ordered a warping wheel.

The loom and the box arrived in a series of large, heavy boxes. After locating the instruction sheets, I started the task of assembly. The instructions are easy to follow and I was able to construct the warping wheel and the frame in two days.

While I would have loved to immediately start warping the loom, there is an important component missing --- the computer dobby and shafts. The day before the Loom was to be shipped, AVL contacted me and asked if I would like to become a BETA tester for their latest upgrades. And the best part -- the upgrades would be added at no charge. The only problem was that the dobby would need to be reconfigured and it would not arrive before I left Washington. I took some time to think it over (at least 10 to 15 seconds), then decided to go for the new changes. The dobby will arrive next week.

The forecast was for lots and lots of rain so it was time to settle down and knit. More to come.....

We have a Record!

Kenny, being the 11 year old boy that he is, seems to have a fascination is all things slimy, creepy, crawly and gross. However, even he seemed repulsed by the 6 inch (15 cm) long Banana Slugs that seem to favor our deck when the days are warm in Washington.

That is, until this fellow slimed his way into Kenny's heart.

My knitter's gauge was too short at six inches so I grabbed the tape measure instead. Eight inches (20.3 centimeters)!

It appears size does matter.

Pacific Northwest Fiber Bloggers

During my visit to Washington I had the pleasure of several encounters with members of the web ring known as "The Pacific Northwest Fiber Bloggers".

My first surprise came when I was reading blogs of the various members and decided to enter a "Blogiversary" contest sponsored by Lynn at wrapandturn.blogspot.com. The prize was two skeins of Knit Picks sock yarn in the color scheme "Flower Power". Imagine my surprise when I was notified that I had won. I was even more pleasantly surprised when the prize package arrived promptly and had a few more goodies enclosed. I also received some fun stationary and some special jeweled stitch markers. Lynn also sent a thoughtful, handwritten note. Everything is wonderful, Lynn. Thank you again!

Next I ran into Sachi from the blog "A Day in the Life of Sachi" at the Allyn Knit Shop when I was purchasing the yarn for the sweater. Sachi has just opened her web business and showed me several samples of the gorgeous stitch markers she makes. I couldn't resist and bought these for myself. They are beautiful.

Finally, on Saturday, July 14th, I traveled to Shoreline, Washington, to the Village Knit and Tea Shop. There I met Deb from Knotty Kitty Knits and Danielle from The Knitting Niche. But I was also surprised to find Ginger from http://www.sewcrafty.org/blog/ and several other wonderful ladies. I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting and talking to them all. A truly nice group of people. After knitting and sipping tea, Deb and I went to dinner on the waterfront. Deb is a very sweet lady and I hope to see more of her in the future.

I must say that the bloggers and knitters that I have met in the Pacific Northwest have been an exceptional group of people. Without fail, I have been welcomed and made to feel as one of the group. It is a good feeling to be part of this wonderful community.

It's like Magic!

This is the weekend that I need to load the trailer and all the big, strong males in the house have simply disappeared. Dan had to go to Las Vegas with the detectives in his bureau. Justin got a call from his employer requesting he work Saturday instead of Sunday. Even my neighbor, Dave, is gone. So it is now up to Kenny and me to finish the job. This may take a while...........

Give a Man a Chainsaw...

Thursday morning we arrived in Washington State. I imagined four days of quiet knitting and spinning. It got off to a good start.

When we pulled into the driveway, this little doe was grazing in the front yard. We also saw a Bald Eagle flying overhead but it was too far away to get a good picture.

I went to the Allyn Knit Shop and found new sock yarn.

Can you tell that I like the color blue?

But when I returned home from the knit shop, I immediately heard the buzz of a chainsaw. There, out in the overgrowth, was my husband. I had given him a chainsaw for his birthday last June (it was on his wish list!) and he had decided that this weekend was the perfect time to attack 30 years of dead fall and forest litter on the far third of our property.

The area in which we live in Washington was logged about 30 years ago. The logging company left the stumps and dead fall that was not worth their time, then sold the acreage. It was later subdivided and parcels were sold. The original owners of our property cleared the area closest to the home, but left the remaining forest alone. As you can see from this "before" picture, the growth was substantial. In fact, it was nearly impossible to walk more than 15 feet in the jumble of stumps, branches, ferns and huckleberry bushes.
Dan cut and I hauled out. It was a long, hard job and certainly not the weekend of knitting and spinning I had envisioned.

Slowly, the ground began to emerge.And I discovered some of the forest creatures that inhabit the undergrowth. This is an Olympic Torrent Salamander

This is one of the famous Washington State Banana Slugs. I put a knitter's gauge next to it so you can see it really is 6 inches long! Sometimes they are bright yellow, sometimes dark olive colored and sometime they come spotted like a pinto pony!

By late Saturday afternoon the rains had moved into our area and it was time to pack up and close up the house. But, as you can see from the above "after" picture, there is a substantial dent made. Dan says we will work on it some more this summer.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to knitting on the plane home.