Amid another year of tumultuous weather, we’re happy to welcome spring at the equinox here in the “far corner” of the Pacific Northwest.
There’s a lot of “life” going on for so many of us in this time of chaos for the world. Climate change is altering seasonal expectations, and here on the Salish Sea just five miles from the Canadian border, we watch the wild weather systems roll in. We just “enjoyed” yet another wave of atmospheric river storms, this one from the Hawaiian islands, which just got slammed again with catastrophic rainfall and flooding. The warm showers hitting here just melted off a lot of the snowpack we were grateful to receive in the mountains a couple weeks ago with a cold storm. Now we’re back to facing another drought summer without enough snowpack. The Nooksack River is flooding again, and another landslide just closed northern lanes of I5 freeway south of here. Just another week of the “new normal….”
But it’s officially spring, and the sun is out after a week of rain! The bushes are blooming in our native-plant “wild zone” overlooking the sea, birds and frogs are singing, and hope springs eternal. Here are a few photos from our home, starting with my favorite blooming wild currant:
After the storms, the sea has calmed.
The snowberry bushes are starting to leaf out with their “green haze,” and the Oregon grape bushes are blooming. The birds will welcome the berries later, and Thor might make more of his winter tonic with some of the pungent berries.
Indian plum blooming:
Salmonberry blooms:
Two garter snakes were sunning together, though one slithered off before I could snap the photo:
It was good to hang out in the swinging cabana in the afternoon, to watch the sun sinking.
Thor and I brought from our former home the bubbler fountain we had made using a chunk of columnar andesite from nearby Mt. Shuksan as the base. He installed his “ThorHenge” here in alignment with a mark on our deck to the position of the setting sun at the equinox.
One of our resident bald eagles flying over at dusk:
After the sunset, the beautiful crescent new moon glowed above what I believe is Venus.
Best wishes to all in the turning of the world wheel!
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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the stunning beauty of her native Pacific Northwest wild places. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
