Nos are hard to find--July 1

We gotta have horses
Fly me to the moon---no taxes--dreamer

I won't be home tomorrow so I am posting this tonight. Happy 1st of July.

I had a hard time trying to find any NO signs. One sign upset me (no horses) and another was getting carried away (no sales tax) HA!

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Beautiful capture

I found this Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) lounging on my front porch. Yes it is a rocky front porch. It's habitat is Parks , backyards and streamsides. It loves willows, poplars, alders and orchard trees. It is the second largest NW butterfly. It's caterpillar is green with two large eye spots.

Stanwood

This is looking west across Stanwood from the easterly ridge. You can see the train that goes North and south along East Stanwood. On the left the blue forms make up Heritage Park, in the center the steeple of the Methodist church, beyond you can see Camano Island reached by crossing the Stillaguamish river on the General Mark Clark bridge and in the background the Olympic Mountains. And lots of blue sky.

Click on picture to enlarge.

Mt. French Fry

I took my grand-son out to lunch and he ordered a French Dip. Look at the huge mountain of french fries. This is at Jakes Cafe--kinda a hole in the wall 50s place. Even a growing boy with hollow legs couldn't eat all those fries. They were excellent, BTW. MB

TWOFER SWF

Incredible Sundog. There are more
I took this Tuesday evening at 9:43 PM. It stays light here 'til 10ish


I was going to post a beautiful sunset I got on Tuesday evening and then on Wednesday I saw the incredible Sundog---I was torn---so now you get both. YAY!!

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More Fort Casey Part 3

The boys sitting on the big disappearing gun
A long shot of some of the bunkers
The view from the big guns
The view from the Lighthouse. You can barely make out Mt. Rainier in the upper right. See it?
More underground bunkers.


Today I went to visit my Mother and took the two little boys. My daughter, too. Well they are not so little anymore. They are 8 and almost 10. We went to Fort Casey and just let them run. They had a blast. Climbing everything, going underground in the bunkers and just enjoying themselves.

Horse Chestnut

Flowers
Don't they look like little orchids?
Leaves get vey large
Here is the fruit, the actual Horse Chestnut.


The Horse-Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) not to be confused with the Chestnut (Castanea) is a beautiful specimen tree. It has beautiful flowers and large leaves.

Spit

The Spit
The green nympth hiding in the spit.

This is a spit bug (belonging to the family cercopoidea). we see it on plants now. It sucks the sap from the plant but is just a nuisance unless there a zillions, and will be gone in a few weeks. they are easy to remove by hand or a blast of water from the hose.

Gaming

Raking the arena to smooth out the sand and make the footing even. Well someone has to do it.
Yeah, I got the best job.
Waiting, waiting, waiting. Kylee is in the middle on her horse, Jewel.

Week-end chores

I needed a gate here but the opening was too wide. so, with my thinking cap on--I got a piece of fence and a small gate and with the help of my daughter put it all together and I think it looks pretty good.
Next, I wanted the arbor painted bright, shiny red and Kylee (14) volunteered to do the painting--never pass up an offer. Bradley (8) helped.
My job was to whack up the weeds with the ever faithful DR trimmer. I like using it.
And they made it to the playday. YAY!!!


Too much to do. Horse stuff to go to and chores to do. Hmmmmm---what's going to win.


Well we did get some work done and we did go to the horse playday.

More Fort Casey Part 2

Mike climbing up top from an underground bunker
A 10" disappearing gun
The view from the gun. Looking out over Puget Sound

The underground bunkers with gun on top. The bunkers were where all supplies were held.

Sky Watch Friday

Looking west
Moon just came up over the trees last night at 10:45PM

This is the moody sky looking west across Puget Sound from Double Bluff AND--I'll just throw in Last nights full Illusion or Strawberry Moon.

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Down the Barrel

View down the barrel of the big gun
Mike, just being silly
10" disappearing gun
Shells


Fort Casey is on Whidbey Island. It is quite a cool place to visit. It is built under ground with disappearing guns. So the bunkers are open to poke around in. It is a state park now. Here are some pics and more info and I hope to post more on another day. My grandson said he had never been here which I find hard to believe because it is a field trip most school kids go on. Every school on the west coast of Washington, I am sure. LOL

Chug Chug

I saw this boat chugging down Saratoga Passage and thought it was cool looking. It,s name is Gleaner so I wonder if it is cleaning up the area, and 1908 is on the stack. Could that be the year it was built? Check it out. I am going to have to research it---I hope I find something. MB

Make hay

While the sun shines.

Darrington Game show

Glorious and sunny day
Kylee and Jewel
Shannon and Shi Bui


Gaming, playday, pattern racing are just a few names horse games are called. Different events set up in an arena with poles or barrels, flags, and the horse and rider race the clock making tight turns, running fast or weaving in and out of poles. Makes for a fun and fast day. Quickest time always wins. sometimes many riders have such close times the winner may win by hundreths of a second.


1. looking across the arena looking at a few riders. I wanted to show what a beautiful area this is.


2.Kylee (grand-daughter age 14) making a wide turn on Jewel.


3.Shannon (my daughter-Kylees mother) sitting on Shi Bui waiting for her turn

Sauk Valley

Sauk River
I want to live here.



I love the Mountains I think. I know I feel good in the mountains. I went to Darrington yesterday to a horse gaming show . Both Shannon and Kylee were gaming. I took a few pics. I take better picturesa of nature than I do of people. So instead of events here is a picture of the Sauk River with Mt. Baker in the background only covered by clouds. Use your imagination and make it as beautiful as you want LOL. MB

Happy Father's Day

Blue Camassia...... June 14th

/June 14

I posted the Death Camas a couple days ago and Blue Camas (camassia Quamash) also of the Lily family---but while looking alike except for color and belonging to a different order and one poisonous and one edible...........I could go on......

June 14th is Flag Day in the US. Take time to remember what our flag stands for:FREEDOM

What is it?

Framed

We haven't seen the sun around here for the past two weeks. It has been cloudy and gray with lots of rain. What a surprise Thursday was. That strange golden orb was up in the blue sky. a miracle I am thinking.. I too k the pictures from the front of the house, the first from the porch and the other from the driveway. Blue sky!! Wowee!!

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