Beautiful Mt. Baker day!

Thought we'd drive up to Baker on a gloriously sunny day (how could we stay home and do yard and house work) and see how much more of the snow has melted since my Mt. Baker snow post from earlier this month. 

Click on the link to see the post and pictures from that day: http://hearsdifferentdrummer.blogspot.com/2011/07/checking-out-snow-at-mt-bakerartist.html

Such a nice day we decided to take the convertible - just click on the pictures to enlarge them

Compare the next 2 pictures and see the difference, same view taken 3 weeks apart.



July 10, 2011

July 30, 2011

                       

                      

Lunch break at the first parking lot at the end of the road

after lunch we walked the mile up to the next parking lot

Mt. Shuksan

this is what the next parking lot looks like. It's not plowed yet so they haven't opened the road to it.

someone's little friend

and of course we had to stop at Graham's for ice cream in Glacier.

Dick's pick: Chocolate chip cookie dough, my pick: Rainbow sherbert. Yum!

* A happy side note: I decided to try jogging 1 mile when we got home. I jogged most of the mile. I didn't have to walk as much as I thought I would. Hurray my calf is healing!



Our vegetable garden today!

Thriving, but could use a bit more sun!

 (The white hoops are for early planting hot house, we put plastic over them for little greenhouses.)

Kale
Strawberries

Rainbow carrots

Sugar peas

Radishes

Onions

Leaf lettuce

Romaine lettuce

Potatoes

Beets

Crook neck squash

Zucchini

Bush beans

 Raspberries

Rhubarb

Mint

Chives

Lavender

Missing my running, but keeping busy with our berries!

I'm really missing my days of running. Biking and walking just don't give me the endorphins of a good long run. My leg is getting better slowly, I wear this awesome sleeve on my calf when I bike and walk, it does seem to help.
Meanwhile I've been keeping myself busy with the berries in our garden.


We have so many berries this year. They've
been picked over several times and still producing!

my Jam - I don't strain out the seeds as you can see,
but oh so delicious!

I guess I really don't have much time to run these days, as I'm spending all of my spare time picking berries, making jam (42 pints) and freezing the rest.
Which reminds me, what am I doing on the computer - I hear my berries calling me!

Checking out the snow at Mt. Baker/Artist Point

Decided to drive up and check it out for ourselves, since we've been hearing so much about the snow pack at Artist point and the fact that they decided not to plow to the parking lot this year. The parking lot at the ski area is open and snow free. The road that continues up is barricaded. We heard a volunteer forest service person say that the next parking lot up should be plowed out possibly next weekend and probably will be open by two weeks. That is the parking lot that the old "slush cup" event used to empty into. That was fun to watch, anything and everything was skied into a little pond in the early summer. Here's a quote from the History of Mt. Baker website.

"On July 4, 1948, the Koma Kulshan ski club organized a giant slalom race and promoted the event as the only ski tournament in the country during the month of July. This was the unofficial beginning of a long tradition of spontaneous and merry July 4th "Slush Cup" events that lasted into the 1980"s until the U.S. Forest Service alleged damage to the alpine environment and shut down the Slush Cup."

We walked past the barricade up the road to see how far the plow was.
(Remember just click on the pictures to enlarge them!)

                                                               Not very far -

Table mtn. in the distance with a cute little snow hat on top.
This photo was taken at the first parking lot looking towards
Bagley lake.

This photo was taken on Canyon creek road
(which is closed to vehicles because of road damage)
Wonderful example of "goats beard" on the trees.

Just a side note update on my calf injury -  Regular walking is fine and this last week I was able to do a "very" short hike and a 13 mile bike ride without any twinges. Yay, no running yet, but at least "some things" are possible!