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06/29/24 - Backyard Marmot

We seem to have a visitor down in Port Angeles, an Olympic golden marmot. We've seen them before but up in the high country. This looks like a young one, and that may be the first time he or she tasted a hellebore. We'll have to see how well town life suits our visitor.

Our local marmot

Munching on our lawn

Checking out a hellebore

In repose

The next day, in the sun

Keywords: high country, port angeles


02/25/24 - It's An Election Year

We spotted this sign in one of the empty lots in our neighborhood. It has already started.

It brings back the memories.

Keywords: port angeles


12/11/23 - Morse Creek West

We often follow the Olympic Discovery Trail from the parking lot near Morse Creek. We head west towards Port Angeles. The trail, an old railroad right of way, passes through the Four Seasons subdivision and down to the strait. It is open all year and not very far from where live. It's also a great trail for tracking the seasons.

The Strait of San Juan de Fuca

One of the sea ducks

The trail by the strait

A seal at sea

Another photo showing the mottled pattern and, if you look carefully, whiskers

The trail again, wet and wintry

The dike

Winter patterns

The dike again

Winter foliage

More winter patterns

A last few coin flowers

A coin flower and the ground

Rose hips

A look west at the dike

A loon

Winter color

More winter color

The last of autumn

Some fallen leaves

More fallen leaves

The railroad bridge

Morse Creek

Keywords: morse creek, port angeles, winter


11/17/23 - Dramatic Lighting

There was some dramatic lighting in Port Angeles with dark clouds and bright sunlight. We had to pull over and take some photos.





Keywords: port angeles


11/04/23 - Morse Creek West and Fall Color

When we don't want to drive far, we'll head east on route 101 and start our walk at the Morse Creek parking lot. The trail crosses Morse Creek on a restored railroad bridge and heads down to the strait where it follows the coast. It heads all the way into Port Angeles and points west, but we haven't taken it that far. The section of the trail from the bridge to the strait is tree lined and, right now, full of autumn color.

Fall color

More fall color

Even more fall color

The trail follows the edge of the Four Seasons development, hence that fence.

Some more color

On the ground

Another bit of color

And yet another

More leaves on the trail

More trail covered with leaves

Even more color

Morse Creek

The railroad bridge

Keywords: autumn, morse creek, port angeles


11/03/23 - Ultra Zoom - iPhone vs Sony

We have a new iPhone Pro Max, so we also have a new camera. This model of iPhone has a much more powerful zoom than most smartphone cameras, so we took a couple of pictures with it to compare against those taken by our usual Sony DSC-HX99. They're both pretty good cameras, but at an extreme zoom, 25X, the Sony seems to deliver a better picture. That's not surprising. The Sony has a much better set of lenses and much more space to play with. The iPhone only has a 5X optical zoom, but it has a higher resolution sensor. They both have ridiculous image processing software, but what doesn't nowadays?

The Strait of San Juan de Fuca as a filler shot

iPhone - Port Angeles blowing off steam

Sony - Port Angeles blowing off steam

iPhone - zoomed in

Sony - zoomed in

iPhone - an eagle seen from the Dungeness Dike

Sony - an eagle seen from the Dungeness Dike

iPhone - zoomed in eagle

Sony - zoomed in Eagle

Keywords: dungeness, eagle, port angeles, software


10/18/23 - Morse Creek West

There's a tricky curve along route 101 where it crosses Morse Creek east of Port Angeles. The road turns and descends, then it turns more and rises again. There's a parking lot for the Olympic Discovery Trail where it crosses Morse Creek at the lowest point of the curve. We often head west from there following the trail down to the strait and then along the water. The trail heads into Port Angeles and continues west, but we don't get that far. We get down to the sea and enjoy the scenery and salt air, then we head back.

It's a good place to watch the leaves change. There are a lot of maples along the way, so the trail gets covered with lots of leaves. It's hard to say when we have peak foliage. This isn't New England. Still, it's near its peak now and will soon be passing.


That's the Girl Scout Wall, a retaining wall painted by a group of Girl Scouts some years back.

The trail lined with leaves

More of the trail

Ghost foliage on the dike by the strait

Some of the last coin flowers

A sunnier view

More fall color

Yet more

One of the "art" bicycles

The art of fallen leaves

A darker section

Keywords: flowers, morse creek, port angeles


09/04/22 - Port Angeles Fine Arts Center

We don't live far from the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center. We weren't up to much, so we took a little walk there. There are trails through the forest, and various sculptures are displayed in a sylvan setting. Much like bird watching or wildlife spotting, it pays to keep one's eyes open.

The forest

Spotted!

Another piece

And another

Also a view of town

Keywords: port angeles, trails


10/07/21 - Seen Around

This is just some stuff we've seen while driving around.

An ad for pet cremation, not a law firm that does wills for pets. It's right next to a veterinary clinic.

Secure Destruction - Is this for Halloween?

More destruction; the skeletons are back.

We always look forward to these guys around Halloween.

Happy Halloween

Keywords: halloween, sequim, port angeles


04/24/20 - Where Have We Been?

We've been holing up and avoiding the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of Olympic National Park is closed as are the state parks. We do get outdoors a bit, and our online shopping habit has taken off. On one of our excursions we spotted a familiar figure. He or she - it's hard to tell - was sensibly wearing a mask and carrying a spray container of disinfectant.

Is that who we think it is?

Keywords: port angeles


03/12/20 - Morse Creek West

When we are feeling lazy, we'll often take a walk along the Olympic Discovery Trail starting at the Morse Creek parking off route 101. It's a gentle popular trail, but it's nice and wide, so there is plenty of room for social distancing. It had been closed for a while after it was damaged by the wind and rain. We could see some of the damage at the east end of the dike, and the dike itself is in rough shape. One can follow the trail into Port Angeles and continue west, but our "just enough" walk is usually about a half an hour out and another half an hour back.

The pale area is where they had to rebuild the dike.

Trees along the trail

Along the dike

Looking east

Rough water

More along the trail

More salt water

Heading back

Little blue flowers, a sign of spring

Keywords: flowers, morse creek, port angeles, spring

Keywords: flowers, morse creek, port angeles, spring


01/16/20 - Port Angeles Fine Arts Center

We live near the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, so when we were trapped in the house by the recent 18"+ snowfall, we put on our boots and coats and made our way through to take a look around. It's a pretty setting, and even nicer in the snow.

Snow

Snow with a view

Sculpture in the snow

More snow, more sculpture

One of the artworks

3.141592653589793 and all that

More snow: Still, it was good to get out.

Keywords: port angeles


12/25/19 - Back Home Summary - Thanksgiving and Christmas

We went to New York City for a wedding in October, then to Ethiopia in November, but we still had Thanksgiving and Christmas and a trip to Seattle. This is in case you are wondering what we've been up to.

We returned from Ethiopia on Sunday, so we had four full days to Thanksgiving. We were doing Thanksgiving for about a dozen people, so we had to work quickly. Luckily, the turkey we had ordered arrived on time on Tuesday, so the rest of the time was spent shopping, cooking and recovering from jet lag. We had roast turkey, stuffing, kale salad, fennel salad, turnips with vanilla, delicata squash with oysters, sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts hash, parmesan potatoes and cranberry chutney. Dessert was pumpkin pie, pecan pie, pecan brittle (just pecan pie filling) and our own dried apples with butter, sugar, and spices. It was a big success.

We chose a tree over the weekend and went into Seattle do some shopping for our Christmas party and to see the lights and sights. As usual, we checked out the gingerbread cookie sculptures on display at the Sheraton and Pike Place Market.

Our trees arrived the day after, and our party was that weekend. We set to with the lights, electric and candle, and started cooking. We soon had both trees under control and a cassoulet in the oven. We lit the candles on the cookie tree, and everyone tried to remember the words to O Christmas Tree. To our credit, no one tried to look them up online while the candles were lit.

We were home. We were out on the street when Santa came by on his illuminated firetruck, and we were all set for the big day.


Thanksgiving

Seattle sunset - Look, no viaduct!

Gingerbread village

Gingerbread city

Pike Place market

Another view of the market

Near the market

Back home in the grove

Our tree as yet unadorned, no Hanukah candles either

Illuminated

Ready to illuminate

Party night

Godzilla, his nuclear fires lit, admires the party spread

The pièce de résistance

Something to wash it down

Candles lit

All lit up

Santa is coming

The Christmas firetruck

Keywords: port angeles, seattle, christmas, thanksgiving


06/24/19 - Port Angeles Sunset

We had a dramatic sunset back at Kalebase in Port Angeles. Let's hope it's not smoke from forest fires.

Dramatic sunset

Keywords: atmosphere, port angeles


06/09/19 - Around the College

Where is all this greenery? What little stream is that? It's Ennis Creek behind the college. There's only one college out here on the North Olympic Peninsula, so that makes it obvious. If you start at the south east corner of the college, there's a little trail down to Ennis Creek. There's a sort of improvised foot bridge down there and a trail up the bank leading east. We aren't very good at improvised foot bridges, but it was tempting.

Wild greenery

A real retreat from school

A bit of the foot bridge

More trail

Yet more trail

Keywords: port angeles


05/22/19 - Olympic Discovery Trail West of Morse Creek

We took one of favorite easy walks near Port Angeles, from the parking lot off route 101 near Morse Creek down to the sea. We often take this walk during the winter when the trees are bare, but now the trees are covered with leaves and everything is lush and green. We didn't go very far, just down to the sea and a bit farther, but the yellow lupines were in bloom and smelled as sweet as summer.

The dike along the water

A bit of the trail

And another bit

Very green this time of year

Red grasses

Yellow lupines

Pink roses

A hummingbiird

Caught red wing patched

More roses

Another bit of the trail

Trees arching over the trail

Again, very green, quite unlike winter

A snail

The bridge over Morse Creek

Keywords: morse creek, port angeles


01/10/19 - Flowers in Bloom

It’s awfully early, but we saw some salmonberry flowers, and it’s barely the middle of January. These usually bloom in early February.

Salmonberry flowers

Keywords: flowers, port angeles, weather


07/22/18 - Farmer's Market Crespiou

We haven't been covering the Port Angeles Farmers' Market lately, but we have been shopping there just about every Saturday morning. Summer is here, and the produce has been coming in. That includes Johnston Farm hothouse tomatoes, potatoes from The Family Farm, turnips from River Run and other good things from Nash Huber's. There are also a few other farm stands open, including Wild Edge which has the most amazing scallions. We love them grilled.

With all this wonderful produce coming in, we had to make a crespiou, a French stacked omelet where each layer features a few ingredients. We only made four layers; the details are with the photos. We also got some zucchini blossoms and fried them in searing hot olive oil. All told, it was a real farmers' market treat.


Duck and chicken eggs and lots of berries, but we don't remember the name of the farm

Wild Edge

Zucchini and summer squash

Layer 1 - potatoes and onions

Layer 2 - zucchini and fresh marjoram

Layer 3 - string beans with garlic and pine nuts

Layer 4 - parsley and basil

Zucchini blossoms in olive oil

Light and crisp

The finished crespiou, garnished with tomato

A single slice

Keywords: farmers' market, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, shopping, summer


12/14/17 - Seen Around Port Angeles

Here are some things we've been seeing around Port Angeles.

A Christmas Tree on the Olympic Discovery Trail west of Morse Creek

A fireboat in the harbor

Some strange clouds that look like trilobites

A little lizard, not a salamander, on the Olympic Discovery Trail

Seen on the internet - We love artificial intelligence.

Keywords: christmas, morse creek, port angeles, salamander


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