Review of 2014 By Seasons - Summer

And now summer - it was glorious this year - sunshine day after day - warm temperatures - long peaceful days.  NW Washington has the perfect summer weather, lots of sunny days, mild temperatures - not chilly and not hot - quite moderate warm days, very long evenings (it doesn't get dark until around 10:30 and the sunrise is around 4:30), and this year we saw two mosquitoes.  Perfect summers!

 Summer starts for me when the Elderberries Bloom.  They grow a single plants (shrubs), in clumps of two or three and in huge forests of them covering acres of land.  This Elderberry bush was in front of the Sisters mountains - a beautiful way to start summer.

 An area farm always has about one acre planted with Giant Allium - I think they sell to floral shops.  We stop by every summer just to see them waving in the breeze.

 Poppies everywhere

 The farms and ponds are beautiful in the summer.  Everything stays nice and green in the summer because we have enough rain showers interspersed with our sunny days.

 Vast fields of Wild Mustard blanket the horse pastures

 And at the beach the shorebirds flit about

 Cattle in the fields of Wild Mustard

 Our favorite cottage on the shore in Bay View, WA - such lovely hollyhocks.

 Summer is a great time for rides to the islands on the Washington State Ferries.  Washington has the largest ferry system in the world, both in numbers of ferries and area covered by the ferries. There are ferries that hold 6 cars and some walk on passengers and ferries that carry hundreds of cars and passengers.

 Sweet peas line the roadsides - in shades of white to lavender to bright pink - and they smell so good.  I'm trying to get some to start in our yard - once they are established they grow like crazy - who doesn't like that?

 The grass is tall and lush in the summer

 And poppies - more than you can count.  These were outside a fenced yard on Guemes Island - one of our ferry trips took us there last summer.

 Boats crossing extreme tides in the San Juan Islands - another ferry trip for us.

 Wild roses in banks along the roads - even in the freeway medians.  Sweet scent on a warm summer day.

 Gardeners love to grow hydrangeas here.  Last summer I took photos of every bush of hydrangeas I came across.  One lady was gardening in her yard while I took photos and she thanked me for enjoying her flowers.

 Whatcom Falls is a favorite summer destination.  It is a city park right in the middle of town, and only about a mile or two from our house.  There are picnic grounds, hiking trails, fish hatchery, a small pond used as a fish nursery, ducks on the pond, benches to sit and enjoy the scenery or watch the kids in the playgrounds. One of the hiking trails starts just a few blocks from our house.  It is a magnificently huge park.  

The city of Bellingham provides a lot of park spaces.  For each new house built a certain number of acres of land must be preserved somewhere in the city as green spaces and parks.

Summer is magnificent here!!

Mosaic Monday  

Mt. Baker on a Sunny Day

An unexpected sunny day is always a good chance to take pictures of Mt. Baker.  This is the view from Skagit (sounds like gadget) Valley, about 20 miles south of us.  We are getting a side view from here - with many of the peaks of Mt. Baker showing,  We don't see all of those from Bellingham.  The big round dome is Grant Peak - it is just one part of the entire mountain, with many nearby peaks named after other presidents, making up Mt. Baker.

 Mt. Baker was wearing her lenticular cloud - just like a pretty Sunday hat.

The lenticular clouds are formed by the mountains own specific environment.

In the fields below Mt. Baker two Bald Eagles discussed the weather (frozen seasonal pond in a farm field), lunch (nearby ducks and Snow Geese) and just general items of interest to two Bald Eagles on a sunny afternoon.

Sunlit Sunday

New Year's Day Ride in the Country

Jan 1 - a ride in the country and some birds.  It is the time of the year when the eagles gather to feast on the spawning fish - soon they begin to pair up for nesting.

 There are 6 eagles in this tree near Edison, WA - always a great place to find eagles

 Just below the tree were hundreds of ducks in a seasonal pond 

 On the opposite side of the tree was a young bald eagle.  They don't get full white feathers until about their third year

 And in the same tree - the eagle's nest

 On a certain corner on a certain road we always find this heron

And then there was this "critter".  He made us laugh.

Photos are taken with a Nikon CoolPix P600 - no editing was done - just a little cropping.  Photos are straight out of the camera.

Saturday's Critters  
I'd Rather B Birdin' 

Review of 2014 By Seasons - Spring

Spring in S.W. Washington is glorious - it lasts for several months - is calm, sweet and very flowery.  Because our weather is mild and takes a long time to change seasons we are able to enjoy the spring flowers for so long.

 Spring starts out with daffodils and tulips - they are both commercially grown in this area and there are thousands of acres of them blooming every spring.  On warm spring days if you drive past the daffodil fields with the car windows rolled down you can smell the daffodils.

 Besides the commercially grown, most of the yards in our area plant small and large patches of daffodils and tulips.  I have planted 60 daffodils and 40 tulips in pots this year - for spring blooms.  The deer in our area think of tulips as candy so I plant them in pots on the deck.  The deer never touch daffodils.

 And then the flowering trees - flowering peach, flowering plum, double flowering peach, flowering crabapple and many more, line streets, yards and even the school yards.  Often the streets look like they are covered in pink snow.

 We are so lucky to have vast fields of dandelions - they spread out across fields, golf courses and yards.  I love it when they have all gone to "wishes".  We get very few dandelions in our yard because of living so close to the woods, but the few we do get are welcome, only last a little while and then disappear to wait for next year.  These photos were taken in a city park that overlooks Bellingham Bay.

 Pansies - growing like weeds.  They often over winter and bloom magnificently in the spring.  I collect them and press them in big books.  Someday I hope to have a flower press.  Now I need to find a project to use all the pressed pansies.

In the spring of 2014 we went to West Virginia for two weeks to visit our grandson Donnie (and his parents) and early one morning I heard the cardinals in their big tree - what a glorious sight. 

 Flowers in yards and lilies in a friend's greenhouse

 Dogwood - pink and white - are favorites of many.  The big cemetery in town is lined with dogwood.  There are wild ones growing in the woods.  We discovered one growing just across the street from our house in the edge of the woods - it had one blossom this spring - we are hoping for more each year.

 Spring is also quilt washing time - and quilt refolding time (so the quilts don't have permanent creases where they have been folded).  We use our quilts a lot so it is a good idea to wash them in the spring - and in the fall if the weather cooperates.

Our spring is lovely and long, and beautiful.

What are your favorite spring flowers?  My daughter and I decided that our favorite flower is the one we are looking at, at the moment.

Today's Flowers  

Review of 2014 by Seasons - Winter

A good friend suggested that I break down my review of 2014 on my blog by seasons - good idea - so let's start with winter, since that is where we are now.  I wanted to start with spring, but it is so chilly out that I thought winter a better choice.

 The sky and clouds are always interesting in the winter - always changing

 Snow is a special treat for us - a chance to take photos and fun for the kids to play in, and they hope for a snow day at school if the snow is deep enough.

 The Trumpeter Swans over winter here - we take a lot of weekend rides in search of flocks of them.

 Winter teatime - with pine cone dishes and hot tea, warm cookies 

Besides the over wintering Trumpeter  Swans we have Snow Geese - by the thousands.

Storms in the winter are glorious - the grays of the sky and sea blending together 

 Waves large and small

 Winter is one of our rainy seasons - great weather for ducks, Canada Geese

 And Loons

Seagulls take advantage of the blustery winds of winter.  Grass is often green all winter long, because of the heavy rainfall.

And waterfalls rush down rocks and hillsides.

Winter is magical in N.W. Washington

How was your winter in  2014?