Picture of the week ~ Snow Bunting

Hike around Mt. Erie

Today we chose to do a loop hike around Mt. Erie. We started at Heart lake.

We walked around the lake and joined the trail that led us across the road, so we could hike around Mt. Erie.

An interesting mushroom along the trail.

We spied a happy face place in the root of a fallen tree.

A close up of the happy face.

An interesting place for a mushroom to grow from, don't you think?!

More mushrooms growing on a log.

I'm standing by this large Douglas fir tree to show just how wide the trunk of the tree is. There are some very large old trees in the forest near Heart lake.

These interesting mushrooms were growing on the side of a tree.

Just after crossing the road there is a wonderful rock area where water drips off onto the Maidenhair ferns growing along the trail.

Looking back at the rocks and the Maidenhair ferns.

Some delicate fall color near the rock wall.

Ferns galore along the trail❤

Madrona, yes spelled with an "a", you can read about the tree and the differing views about its' spelling HERE. Anyway......the Madrona trees lined the trail, adding some contrasting color to the green forest.

Just to the right of the trees in the above photo was this wonderful large Madrona growing out at an angle from the others.

The trail was covered in leaves. I loved the soft yellow leaves on the tree just in front of the grey rock.

When we got to this bench we sat and ate our lunch.

We had a nice view of Lake Erie.

After lunch we continued our way around Mt. Erie. The ferns were abundant under the trees and along the trail. The last of the fall colored leaves peeked here and there through the fir trees.

I saw this slug about two feet up on the side of a tree. Mt. Erie is known as a rock climbing area, here is a link with the routes & climbing info. at Mt. Erie: https://www.mountainproject.com/area/106413714/mount-erie). I had no idea that the slugs aspired to be climbers here as well😉

We walked over to the last view area of the loop, where there is a nice view of Lake Campbell. There was a wonderful line of trees down by the lake all dressed in their red fall finery.

Our last trail junction sign and a good downhill grade before ending at the parking lot at Heart lake across the road.

The map of our route shows that Heart lake is indeed shaped like a heart. It's upside down but still a heart❤.

Relive video of our route:

https://youtu.be/awqFo58RJ_I

Garmin stats:

total miles hiked - 7.15

total ascent - 1358 feet

total descent - 1335 feet

 

Mon Oeuvre Strippy Weave quilt, progress 2

  "Oeuvre" (the works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively: "the complete oeuvre of Mozart" a work of art, music, or literature: "an early oeuvre" ORIGIN late 19th cent.: French, literally ‘work.’ - Oxford Dictionary.)

Wow, it's been two years since I did a post about THIS quilt. Oh well, progress has happened. I'm sewing this quilt completely with my Singer 66 treadle machine. I finally figured out the treadle motion. I really enjoy my "unplugged" time at this machine.

I'm glad I found a chart on-line that shows the fabric with it's numbers. I was given this quilt kit with the instructions and fabrics but no "key" to know how to label the fabrics. Labeling each one of the fabrics is very important with this one. As there is a certain pattern the designer wants the fabric colors to be placed. So after finding the key info. I set out to pin the ID numbers to each of the fabrics.

*the fabrics are from the Garden Delights fabric line. http://www.inthebeginningfabrics.com/shop/Fabric-Galleries/Garden-Delights.htm. The web link shows the fabrics and their ID number much more clearly than the photo below.

Pinned and ready to be cut

Each time a strip was cut from a fabric an ID number had to be pinned to that as well. The photo below shows some of the cut out strips, sewn together strip blocks and some long strips: sewn but not yet cut.

Which brings me to today's update. All of the blocks have been prepared and now I can start assembling the quilt.

The white looking block is a background block. It's shown in the center of the above photo and it isn't a solid color, it's called "Cream Prairie flowers". There is a very light floral design on it as you can see here:

Here's to progress🥂

Picture of the week ~ Dew drops on Mullein

*macro photo

Burnout/Fragrance lake loop hike

When we woke this morning it was 32 degrees and we saw that we'd had our first frost of the year. We ate our breakfast and hoped for some warmer temps but when we left our house it was 34 degrees, so not a lot warmer. Our hike for the day was to begin at the Lost lake parking lot and head up the Fragrance lake road. We would then turn right at the trail junction and keep going up to burnout.

The first opening for a view didn't disappoint. A great view looking towards Samish Island.

The photo below is a panorama.

Our road walk up the old logging road.

 

I spotted a slug sunning itself. It's antennae were stretched out.

A look back at the view of the San Juan Islands.

I think this plant is Mullein. It looks a bit like Lambs ears.

I was intrigued by the dew on it's leaves, so I took a close up.

and then a macro "really close up" of the center. The dew drops showed up better.

Another slug enjoying the sun.

I liked this view of the hill in the distance with a lone tall tree and the clouds looming above.

Our lunch view, looking towards the San Juan Islands.

We walked down to look at the "old" view area. It's still there but the trees around it are really getting thick.

After enjoying burnout, we headed down the trail that would connect us to the Fragrance lake road and on to the Fragrance lake trail. When we got to the lake we decided to do the loop in a clockwise direction.

Very large rocks line this section of the loop trail.

The photo below shows the view as I looked up to the sky.

When we came to a nice sunny area we sat on the bench commemorating Terry Lamp's leadership in WTA trail maintenance work at Larrabee state park. As it was still chilly in the shady areas, it was nice to sit and soak up the sun's warmth for a bit.

I took a photo at one of my favorite places at the lake, if the weather is calm there is usually a great reflection. As you can see in the photo below, today was one of those days.

As we made our way down the Fragrance lake road we passed this waterfall.

As we neared the parking lot I saw this view before me. It looked like it should be a painting. The light was just perfect.

Relive video of our route:

https://youtu.be/ar5hpq-fUMk

Garmin stats:

total miles - 9.27

total ascent - 2067 feet

total descent - 2005 feet