In Our Own Backyard....

Wow, has it really been a month since I've written anything here? This is a very good indication of how uninteresting my life is...work, eat, sleep, repeat. That pretty much sums it up. But....spring has finally arrived and the Bearded One and I are venturing forth once again. One of our favorite "haunts" is Anacortes. It's not too far away and it's a beautiful drive down through the Skagit Valley. There is something about that valley that really lures me; it may be the wide open vistas and the twisted sloughs that snake their way through the lush landscape--and there are bakeries to stop at en route. The "blink and you're through it" town of Edison is a place I would love to live. It's fast becoming a popular "artist colony", for good reason. I think the same open air romance that attracts me also appeals to artists--the light, the color, the texture and the wildlife are photos/paintings just waiting to happen.

A few Saturdays ago we decided to try to find the parks on top of the mountain that skirts the south side of Anacortes. We had heard about it, but had never run across it in our wanderings. Lo and behold, we discovered it inadvertently as we were driving through a neighborhood. Teeny, tiny little wooden signs with hand-painted titles led us to the end of what looked like just a neighborhood street and onto a dirt and gravel road that wound around and around and up and up and up and up until we were on the very top of Mt. Erie with a view that rivals the one from Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island! WOW! How have we missed this all these years? Unfortunately, it was not a very clear day, so the Olympic Mts. were hiding under a cloud cover, but we will surely return to this spot again and again this summer.

Harbingers of spring---the skunk cabbage--aptly named, pee yew!


It's tulip time in the Skagit Valley and pink is one of my favorite colors, hence the pink shirt! The Bearded One insisted on a pic in the tulips...no, I was not tip-toeing

View to the northeast from the top of Mt. Erie

View to the west from the top of Mt. Erie

A rain squall was moving in as were leaving.

A madrona root snakes its way down the rock face! Talk about hardy!