There I was in my bog boots, bathrobe and heavy down coat. The temperature was well below freezing at 4 am today. The dogs decided I was nuts and they went inside and back to bed. I stayed out til almost 5:30 when the mostly eclipsed moon dropped below the ridge above us. Like they said it would, it had turned very red and lovely. We are lucky to have dark night skies here in the Methow Valley so we can enjoy our celestial world.
I can’t resist the ever-changing colors of a sunset and sunset on a beach is the most perfect.
Meanwhile, I’ve barely made a dent in the photos from our road trip.
We enjoyed watching surfers playing at Sand Dollar Beach. The weather was so perfect and the water so clear and blue. It looks quite different from the Pacific on the coast of Washington. We went to the beach in the morning before the crowds arrived and again in the evening for sunset. Most folks were there in the heat of the day. When we left late in the morning there was a steady stream of folks walking down the steep stairs to the beach.
Dicentra uniflora – Steershead or longhorn steer’s-head. As long as I have lived here, nearly seven years now, I have wanted to see this tiny wildflower. I told people I knew who had seen it that I’d really, really like to see one. I searched in vain on my own for it. Last year, with good advice from an ‘authority’ I scoured all over our hillside. He’d seen them on Signal Hill, the next road downstream from here and he thought I had a good chance of finding it. All to no avail. The tiny plant blooms as soon as the snow melts. When we left on our vacation, snow covered our hill. when we returned, it was all gone. I was overwhelmed with stuff to do but continued to look. Others had already seen it in different places. I knew it was out there. I photographed leaves and shared the images with others. No, they said, that’s not it. Darn. Another friend searched in the hills above Wenatchee. And then, yesterday. Yesterday, I found one still in bloom. Just feet from our driveway. In my front yard, so to speak. And today I found another. The blooms are faded, for sure, and setting seeds, but there they were. Very obvious. What a relief to be done with this search. I will probably see them everywhere next spring!
We had really good weather for most of this trip. And low tides too. These things made it hard to leave the beach. It’s always fun to explore a beach and see what’s been deposited by the tides. This beach has nearly no driftwood, making it hard to find a stick for Sky. She used the same stick for three days!
My Everyday Photos 