Latest Adventures at Home Sweet Home

Wow...I haven't posted a blog since July!  Dave and I had been looking and looking for a house, then we found the house, had to fix up the house and it is still a work in progress.  So that has taken up a lot of my time, but there are very very good things about this place!  For starters it has over 7 acres, and around 3 1/2 of those are wooded/beaver pond/stream, so the wildlife is abundant!  More abundant than I imagined!  I am going to post some pictures of the area and animals we have seen to date. 
One morning I showed up early to paint some more, and was sitting outside eating breakfast when I saw movement across the pond.  It was a pair of coyotes looking around the pond to see if there were any ducks or beavers not paying attention.  They were unlucky in their hunt, but I was lucky that I had my camera!

Frogs are everywhere, especially these little green guys.  This one was watching me clean up the yard.

 This frog was in some weeds and blackberries where Dave was weed-eating, so he brought him over to near my flower bed where he would be safer.

When my Mom was visiting, we came back from getting something (probably more paint) and there was a deer in the yard!  Mom was in the yard and I looked out the door and there were 4 deer! One pair was a doe and fawn and another was a spike buck with a limp.  I haven't seen them since, but hopefully they will be back.  We put out a mineral salt lick.

Ducks enjoy the quiet duck-weed-filled pond.  Here a pair of mallards navigate the swampy green pond.  Later they reached up to pick and eat blackberries, something I hadn't seen ducks do before.

 There are a lot of wood ducks here!  Or there were until it froze over.  They are beautiful!

 We also had a hooded merganser visit here for a few days.  He left when things iced over too.

We put out a hummingbird feeder and Anna's hummingbirds have been visiting regularly.

 There are some trails through the woods behind our house, and Adventure Dog loves to run through the leaves and make them crunch.  I think we both wish the trail was longer, but it was so much more than we dreamed we'd have so close in. 

I keep hoping to see the beaver.  The previous owner said he had trapped and/or relocated a couple which to me was awful.  I have learned that beavers live in family groups and mate for life.  Also the beaver dams are super important to the eco system here and I would like those dams maintained.  Not only do the ponds create great habitat but they also slow and maintain water flow and protect our bridge from washing out.  One morning, I saw a big brown head poking up out of the water by one of the dams and thought for a hopeful moment that it was the beaver, but no!  It was a more surprising visitor... an otter!  He looked pretty funny with duckweed all over his head.

 

The same day, coming back from taking pictures of the otter, I saw an immature bald eagle in one of the trees.

There are some edible fungi that grow here too.  I have seen a couple varieties of coral fungus and also shaggy mane mushrooms!  I ate one of the shaggy manes and it was pretty good.  I hadn't had one before.

 This morning, I took a break from work to get the fire stoked up and looked out the window and happened to glimpse this peregrine falcon eating something!  It was a bird of some sort, I'm guessing a pigeon.  He left nothing but feathers and the sunflower seeds that it must have eaten.

Pretty amazing place!  It's hard to want to pack up and go hiking when I see so many great things here.
Next up is a pileated woodpecker, which I've seen several of.  They are amazing birds with those bright red heads and distinctive calls.  On the day I took these, there were two and one was being chased by a little raptor.  It landed in a tree and I got some pictures.  I believe it is a Coopers hawk.

While Cedar and I were standing on the bridge we heard someone scolding us and I looked up to see this handsome kingfisher.  I have seen them here a few times too, but not this close!

Other birds seen here so far include red shafted flickers, blue heron, black-capped and chestnut-backed chickadees and many others I have not yet identified.  As the seasons change, who knows what else we will see!

Flaming Geyser State Park & Snohomish Slough 2/8-9/14

Yesterday was a fun day to check out a state park Dave had noticed last week. Flaming Geyser State Park is pretty interesting with a history of coal mine exploration and a flame burning at the flaming geyser where a methane pocket deep below the ground (1400 ft if I read the sign right) is seeping out. 

It also has kind of a mudpot geyser where more methane bubbles up through some mud and water near a stream that flows into the Green River.

 Here is a video of the mudpot:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moHrCs32cP0&feature=youtu.be

It was an icy day and the water had frozen in cool shapes along the stream.

Flaming Geyser State Park had great picnic table areas, lots of river access for fishing or cooling down in the summer, and big field areas too.It seems like it would be a good place to come back to and check out again!
Later that afternoon we found ourselves in a snowstorm halfway up a windy steep hill that our GPS had led us up putting chains on the tires while other people slid off the road as they tried to come up or down it.

We got maybe 3 inches, but it melted a lot this morning and only about 1 1/2 inches of snow were left by the time we headed outdoors.  We have been wanting to do our Snohomish slough walk in the snow and this may have been our last chance this winter, so we took Cedar, picked up Junior and took both dogs out.

 What a great day for a walk there!  We saw tons of ducks and both our eagles flying up to their nest! What huge birds to come to a landing between the branches like that!  We saw robins, flickers, jays, a killdeer and a heron also!

Then on our way back along the dike, we got a real treat!  A squeaky otter was floating around talking to us.  This totally made our day.  : ) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qf7fEAh91k&feature=youtu.be
(if you turn up your speakers you can hear this little guy chirping as he swims)

Seattle and the Aquarium 3-30-13

It was a gorgeous day out, and while I might have been hiking, Justus was meeting a friend at the Seattle Art Museum, so Dave and I decided to drive him down and make the most of it.  Seattle, for a big city, is a really fun city to hang out in.  Once you have committed to driving down the freeway, meandering through the one-ways and finding parking, it's a nice destination. 
At first we just meandered around the water front, soaking in the sights...

And the sounds...

 

Then we ended up at the Seattle Aquarium!  I couldn't even remember when I'd been there last, and was super excited to see all the watery critters.  We were starving though, so first we ate outside on the balcony.  The food was pretty good for cafeteria style and the views were unbeatable! (well, maybe the Space Needle would beat these views)

Then we were off to explore the Aquarium.  There are quite a few touch tanks in the aquarium, so you can get up close and personal with some of the animals.  There were tanks with sea stars and tanks with urchins and anenomes, all with pretty colors and interesting textures.

 

Then there is this really cool psychedelic jelly fish display.  There are colored lights that change as the jellies float around through this glass donut that you can walk through.  I wanted to just stand in there all day and watch them as they floated past the light.

There are quite a few octopi here also.  Both the Giant Pacific and the smaller Red.  They are entertaining and graceful to watch, but hard to capture on camera with the lighting and aquarium walls.

Outside, they have river otters, sea otters, and fur seals among other things.  The absolutely cutest today though was the river otters.  They were both napping, and one was holding his tail and sucking on it like a thumb while he slept.  Awwwwww!

There was also a really cool room that Dave and I could have spent days in.  The viewing area is a sphere inside the aquarium and all around are the fish.  Some hang out in their particular spots, and others circle around.  There was quite a variety!

 

 

Wolf eel

The rat fish... terrible name for such a beautiful and graceful fish!  The Seattle Aquarium also has the 1st rat fish baby to ever be hatched and raised in captivity.

 

There was a great collection of sea pens in this aquarium.

And this tank had a great variety of colorful sea critters!  Anenome, urchin, scallop, etc. 

Wherever you are, get out there and enjoy it!