Picture of the week ~ Spring hues

Goose Rock hike with a twist

We hiked to Goose Rock on Whidbey Island today. We usually go there from the large parking lot near Cranberry lake and walk along north beach to the trail, but today we did it a new way (to me). My husband decided it would be different to start from Rosario Beach park. We walked along the trail that led to Bowman bay.

The trail was a show of spring flowers and we spotted a bunny again this week.

Honeysuckle

Do you see the bunny in the photo below?

Twin flowers

Succulents in bloom

We hiked up to hwy 20 and crossed the Deception pass bridge to connect with the Goose Rock trail.

When  we began our hike it was a bit chilly and a breeze was blowing. The Deception pass bridge has two sections and is quite the long walk to cross. The photo below shows my husband walking on the first section.

The photo below shows me crossing the second section.

 That breeze was an outright wind on the bridge. It was very exhilarating to stand in the middle of the bridge and feel the wind blowing against us. It was so windy I had to hold on to my hat to keep it from blowing away.

The photo below shows the beach we would normally have walked along to get to Goose Rock.

If we'd walked the beach we would have come up the trail in the photo below. This trail goes under the bridge.

Since our route took us across the bridge instead, we went down the stairs to join the trail.

The view of the "under" bridge.

Finally we connected with the Goose Rock trail.

More flowers along the trail, tiny little pink flowers. I don't know their names, but they were so pretty.

 

More flowers I can't identify. I'll have to get out my flower book and see if I can name them.

The wind was still blowing when we got to the top. We couldn't find much to shelter us so we hiked on down the trail to find a warmer spot for lunch.

View from the top

This sign is posted at both approaches to the summit of Goose Rock. We thought it was funny to have a "bald" pointing out the "Please respect the Balds" sign. 

We did manage to get out of the wind as we made our way around the loop. We hiked through a section of wild Rhododendron in bloom. What a wonderful experience. I'm putting in more than one photo of the area, so that you can understand just how many there were. I could have stayed there all day.

We then took a right turn and hiked until we had to stop, where there was a "do not enter "sign for an Environmental learning youth camp.

We returned to the loop trail and found a nice sunny spot to sit on a log near the beach for our lunch. We had a nice view of Cornet bay.

This trail is also full of Madronas. I never tire of these beautiful trees.

More flowers along the trail, these were all along the hill on the Cornet bay side of the trail.

Lots of Indian paintbrush along this trail and the trail between Rosario park and Bowman bay.

The weather was much more pleasant and less windy for our walk back across the bridge.

When we got back, we walked around Rosario head. Before we were done for our day we spread out a blanket and relaxed in the sun for a good long time.  The photo below shows Bowman bay in the distance.

Just as we were ending our hike I found this on the trail.

A heart rock!

I liked our Goose Rock hike with a twist. It was fun to add the bridge crossing to our journey.

Garmin stats:

Total miles hiked - 7.5

Total ascent - 1404 feet

Relive video of our route:

https://youtu.be/A6XBmXNYZ9c

Mon Oeuvre ~ Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt progress: Block #4 Ann

As I stated when I began this project, I had never foundation paper pieced EVER!

I'm teaching myself and learning as I go. Today was very frustrating, I finished Ann, or so I thought. After I got it all together I noticed that I had pieced the side joining points wrong, so they came out very strange. I continued putting it together because I wanted it to be a learning experience. 

Here's my first block, mistakes and all 😢.

Even to my unpracticed eye, it is full of glaring mistakes.

 So I cut up more fabric, printed off more paper templates and began again. I'm really liking the phone book pages for my paper piecing, they tear out very easily.

Here's my second attempt, I'm much happier with it. I can see that I'm making progress. 

FOUNDATION PAPER PIECING IS HARD.

Yes, I yelled that statement. 

I'm looking forward to how my blocks look when I get to the 99th block in this project.

What's that saying? 

"Practice makes perfect"

This block took lots of practice.

Picture of the week ~ Snowballs

Ebey's walkabout

Today's hike was a wonderful "walkabout-exploring" day at Ebey's Landing. 

Iris at the Prairie overlook parking area

We started in the upper Historical Reserve parking area.

We walked past the Historic preserved houses and headed towards the bluff and the loop trail.

The path to the bluff was lined with yellow flowers along the field. So pretty.

and white flowers here and there as we neared the Loop trail.

Time to head up the bluff and walk the ridge trail.

I took a quick look at the fields of Ebey's Landing before I headed up the trail.

A view to the south.

Our view to the north.

Lupine in the foreground above the lagoon below.

We stopped at the highest point on the trail for a snack. The clouds were beginning to clear and it turned out to be a really nice day to walk along the beach.

We normally take a left turn at the beach part of the loop, but today we had exploring on our minds. We turned right and were determined to walk around the point that was visible from the loop trail junction with the beach. We walked on the sand for a ways and then these wonderful large rocks were in our path. It was fun walking from rock to rock and we made our way through. The rocks were larger than our typical beach rocks. In my mind's eye I felt like I was perhaps walking on Mars or some other distant planet. It was fun to play with my imagination as we made our way around the point. Guess what we found when we got around the point? Another point!! We kept going, hoping to find where a trail might come down from Ebey State park, but we never found it. We did see where some old trails had once come down from the bluff above us, but they've given way to erosion.

We turned around and headed back down the beach towards the lower beach parking area. As we made our way back I turned and took a picture of where we'd come from. We went to where the farthest point is visible.

More lovely yellow flowers near the kiosk in the parking area.

I got a photo of a Red Winged Blackbird on the bushes.

We then joined the Pratt trail on our way back. The trail was lined with lots of very small flowers. Beautiful!

We saw several bunnies along our way.

We decided to take the Kettle spur trail before we ended our hike. More exploring!

What a beautiful little trail. It was just magical to walk along with all of the small flowers in bloom with the lush green plants.

The Kettle spur trail lead out to the paved trail that goes along Hwy 20 near Coupeville.

Here I am in the photo below, standing at the trail sign that leads back into the woods.

The final leg of the Pratt trail goes around a field. Our car is way off in the distance across the field.

The path was lined with wild roses, the scent was wonderful as we made our way back.

I really enjoyed today's hike, full of wildlife, flowers and exploring.

Garmin stats:

total miles - 9.3 miles

total ascent - 597 feet

Relive video of our route

https://youtu.be/pWvoyskcYTc