Native Plant Identification

We are fortunate to live on a fairly wild native plant rich 25 acres here in Washington State.  My parents taught us about the native trees and shrubs and wildflowers.  All my siblings are familiar at least with the common names for the plants that grow in our woods.   I am constantly amazed at how little the average child knows about the plants that are native to our area.  Most can't tell the difference between a fir and a cedar.


My sister, Mona, has been visiting and we have been brainstorming a class for plant identification.  We decided that strolling the trails through the woods, touching, feeling, seeing and smelling the various plants would be better than just a lecture.  So we dug out all our plant and tree books (we found six between us) and discovered just how much we had to learn!  


By cross-referencing the books and descriptions, we came up with a class that we thought might be appropriate for 10-15 year old kids.  When we had a family gathering this past weekend, we asked the grandkids if they would like to take a walk in the woods.  (This is one of their favorite things to do when they visit, so they all quickly jumped at the chance.)

Mona pointing out the way a fir tree branches droop.

Even the little ones enjoyed gathering cones and seeing the difference between a Douglas Fir and a Cedar and a Hemlock cone.

We found several varieties of edible berries on our hike.  Red huckleberries, salmon berries, and small blackberries. Mona did a fantastic job of pointing out the differences in needles and leaves and how plants grow in the wild.  We are thinking about offering the class to the local 3rd or 4th grade class when school is back in session.

Motorcycle Ride along Marine View Drive

We have been out on the motorcycle for the past two days, enjoying the beautiful sights around our neck of the woods.  We left early, so the morning clouds hadn't yet made way to the full sun of the afternoon.  Our first side trip was by Lake Cassidy.  The Centennial Trail goes right past the lake. If you are out riding a bicycle or walking the trail between Lake Stevens and Getchell, you will find a public access area.  We rode the bike to the other side of the lake where there is a parking area and a boat launch.

As you can see, it isn't a well-known or crowded lake.

We followed Marine View Drive from Marysville around through the Tulalip Indian Reservation and into Stanwood.  By the time we got to where we could see the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound, the sun was fully out and it was feeling really perfect for a ride.

Along the Pioneer Highway, we saw miles of corn fields.

and picturesque barns.

In Stanwood we stopped at one of our favorite places to dine on the balcony in the sunshine.

Sunday at Swartz Lake

Suddenly summer is upon us!  Time to head to the lake!

The instructions for our new "Relaxation Station" say "inflate slowly".  Believe me when I say, there is no other way to inflate this monster.  Even with a commercial compressor, it took over a half hour.  Well worth the effort, though!

Bart and Dan tried it out first and brought it back for a bit more air.

A side benefit:  it is like having a kiddie pool on the lake.  Kids can play safely on the mesh bottom and still leave plenty of room for adults to lounge.

Sadie in the sandbox

Sadie and Jonah make the car into a double-decker bus.

Moshe and Karen introduced us to a fun new Scrabble game

Family Reunion July 2011

My nephew, Gabriel and his wife, Wanda, and daughter, Anouk, are visiting from Switzerland, so we had a gathering of the clan at the lake today to give Gabriel a chance to meet some of his US relatives.
He is doing a blog of his trip to the U.S. 

Gabriel and Wanda 

Amy and Wanda waiting for everyone to show up.

Teri, Gabriel, Mona, Kim, Carla

Kim, Gabriel, Anouk, Wanda, Brittany, Karma

Gabriel's Blog

Visitors from Abroad

My sister has been a resident of Switzerland for over 30 years now and all of her children grew up speaking German.  Although my nephew, Gabriel, speaks excellent English, his wife, Wanda, and daughter, Anouk, speak very little English.  It seems odd to have close family members who speak a different language, and it has been interesting to follow Gabriel's blog as they travel in the U.S.  His impressions of our country are very interesting and insightful.  His blog is http://rootscheck.blogspot.com

After a pretty bad summer weather wise, he arrived here in Washington on a really pretty afternoon.

That is me swimming in the distance.  Wanda and Anouk went swimming with me even though the lake is pretty cold still.

We all took a soak in the hot tub after our swim.

Wanda, Anouk, and Gabriel

What do you do with your past blogs?

Today I am cleaning up old files on another rainy day in Washington.  It is hard to imagine most of the country sweltering when we will barely get to 65 degrees today.  I came in from picking strawberries this morning a muddy mess.  

The view from my office window shows a lake pockmarked with raindrops.  Yes, I could deadhead the rhodie, but I am not inspired to do that in a deluge.


So, I sat at my sadly overloaded computer and decided to do something productive.  As I am easily distracted, I started by checking to see how long I have been keeping a blog.  My first post was on September 13, 2009.  I thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the oldest posts to make room in cyberspace.  Then as I looked back through them, I couldn't bear to delete them.


So the question of the day - what to do with older blog posts?

July Birthday Party

July is a big birthday month in our family.  We celebrated three grandkids' birthdays this weekend.  Cupcakes are the in thing these days, so we had cupcakes rather than cake.

Adelyn turns 7

Colt turns 3

Daphne turns 1

Charlize

Cash

Joseph

Laura

Ty and Joseph

A Rubik's cube type puzzle is probably not the best choice for a child turning one, but it did say "Juvenile" on the cover.  Even the older kids were having a hard time figuring it out.  Daphne licked it and thought it was great though. 

A good time was had by all on a perfect day in the Pacific Northwest.  We all swam in the lake but mostly in the hot tub as the lake is still a bit cold for the kids when they have the option of the warm tub.