(Written in early April.) A month of blue skies, bright flowers, brilliant greens, and bird song is what April brings. Bill and I have been chasing spring as it floats through the air on easy breezes and flutters to the ground. Even fallen petals are beautiful. A month of finishing old and beginning new projects is interrupted by hikes, long walks, book stores, and good coffee. Chasing the sun, catching warmth, then a cloud or two and rain as companions – blue skies and white clouds lead us along. And then an interruption of bad news. We returned to Fairhaven last week for a hike – mostly in ..read more

The last days of our short vacation took us to the town Bill grew up in – Underwood, Wa. He was surprised to see that while much of the area has changed, many of his favorite childhood places remain as he remembered. A disheartening change we noticed is the immense increase in property values in tiny Underwood and neighboring White Salmon, and some enormous new homes have been built on the bluff of Strawberry Mountain (Underwood), an area he used to visit often. But, change is the one aspect of life that we can count on, so he was not surprised. Also, we visited Mt. Hood, and the home once own ..read more

Spring Cowiche Canyon trails have opened this month for hiking. Wildflowers are in bloom, birds are singing, and breezes fill the air with song and scent. Some trails show much winter damage, but are passable. Bill and I hiked seven miles on two different trails (Snow Mountain Wildflower Trail and West Weikel Trail) and were greeted by beautiful blue skies, a lizard who moved too quickly for a picture, and the largest Gray Heron we’ve ever seen. Like a small plane, that bird. And, of course, we took pictures. I’ll do my best to identify the flowers in the following shots, but would appreciate ..read more

Amelanchier in April April, the beautiful month, is the month of the beautiful Amelanchier tree, commonly known in the PNW as Serviceberry, Saskatoon berry, Shadbush or Juneberry. In my neighborhood, indeed throughout most of my walking routes, the city of Seattle has planted these beautiful trees along most every block. And they are in full bloom right now. A cloud of delicate white petals, a soft green axis, copper-color leaves, and slender limbs make this small tree one of the most beautiful of flowering spring trees. Nothing gaudy or flashy about this sweet little tree, and when not in bl ..read more

Busy month, March is. I have finished almost all the necessary work – mulching, composting, pruning, transplanting, weeding, repairing/rebuilding paths – and we have begun the one enormous project that will take us into late spring/early summer. And that project is the removal of our fish pond and its raccoon-slashed liner, repaving the entire pond terrace, and planting groundcovers between the paving stones. As the pond holds approximately 700 gallons when full, has two different depths (one 2 foot section, the other 4 feet deep), and over the years raccoons have pulled large pavers into the ..read more

It’s Spring, it’s winter, spring again, summer?! – Spring is here. March has arrived in a dramatic, unpredictable, lively way. Rain and wind storms, freezing nights, warm sunny days – a bit of everything. Don’t like the weather at the moment? Wait a minute or two and it will change. And as weather bounces around like a favorite cat toy in a small room, plants roll along, waking and stretching and opening to a pale sun. Above are the lovely yellow blooms of Cornus mas, Cornelian Cherry dogwood, opening to the sun. This small tree blooms in late winter/early spring, and is always a welcome sign ..read more

Signs of spring on a frozen winter morning surround me as I walk through fog. Fuzzy Magnolia stellata buds. Edgeworthia chrysantha, Paperbush A very beautiful Rhododendron. Omphalodes verna, Blue-Eyed Mary (Thank you, Walt!! They are thriving.) One of my many Hellebores. A neighborhood fixture. I’ve walked passed this little guy for years. I see he needs new sunglasses. A vibrant Bergenia. Years ago, my mom gave me a group of Hyacinth bulbs for our new garden. Neither Bill nor I like this flower, but because it was a gift I kept it and let it bloom each year. And as it was one of her favorite ..read more

February. The work months have arrived. They arrive in snow dotted with sun, in cold promising warmth, in blue skies brushing away gray, and deep browns flushed with pink. Buds begin their gentle swelling and birds enliven their songs. Squirrels are frantic and crows are vocal. The slow waking of earth begins, and accompanying it is work. Pruning, clearning, assessing, transplanting, adding, removing – all begins when snow and frost clears. This winter has been tough on some plants. Our nights down to 15F, with daytime high temperatures of 19F, did some plants no favors even though they were w ..read more

Respecting our Elders When I was very young, I loved to lay on my back in the grass of our back yard and stare up into the trees beyond our house. We lived in a new neighborhood where huge, old trees in a small, native woodland (with accompanying undergrowth) were being removed at an astonishing rate. As I rested on the lawn, I would look up into the blue sky dotted with white clouds and green limbs, and imagine myself flying among the trees. Most likely, the small wooded area (remnants of a much larger, old forest) contained Doug firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii), hemlocks (Tsuga heterophylla), an ..read more

Tacca chantrieri In addition to the intriguing foliage plants growing in the University of Washington greenhouses, many flowering plants also flourish here. Some are gaudy and shout out their presence to us wide-eyed enthusiasts, some are subtle and require a closer look to see intricate detail, and some are simply weird. Weird in amazing, delightful, beautiful ways. And weird in a way that makes you think, “What in the world pollinates that thing??” And one of those wonderfully weird flowers belongs to Tacca chantrieri, commonly known as the Bat flower or Cat’s whiskers. My history with this ..read more