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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Out and About on Lopez

A few scenes from Lopez Island

Harlequin Ducks
Black Oystercatcher
Do you know how hard this is?
As good as it gets
It’s breaking down.
Good girl Luna
Branch manager and assistant branch manager
Now that’s dignified!
Kind of dignified
We couldn’t figure out what they were doing.
Canada Geese and Harlequin Ducks
So many seals
The current kept the kelp in this arrow shaped pattern
Those patterns!
That face!

Island Camping

This is the third year in a row we have camped at Lopez Island during the first week of September. We like it and we will keep doing it. This year three friends and Ken’s brother and his wife joined us along with a couple of strawberry blonde dogs. We had dinner parties every night, caught Dungeness crabs on three days, Ken and Carl and our Lopez friend David, fished and caught some salmon, played with dogs and we relaxed. It was a good time.

The view from bed in the camper.
Our campsite
So many smells
I could watch the waves all day long
Rozie
Don seemed pretty brave to take Molly out in his canoe
They came back safely and dry
Molly was trying to incite Sky
Sky stood her ground.
Sometimes she can’t stop moving.
Take that, Molly!
My stick
We had an interesting assortment of boats and this doesn’t count Ken’s fishing boat or Vinnie, the borrowed tiny dinghy.
Kelp under the water
Who doesn’t love an island sunset?

Two Hours at Washington Pass

Last night I spent two hours at Washington Pass with three other people practicing night photography. It’s still a work in progress for me with much to learn. It was a lovely night and hazy clouds came and went sometimes obscuring many of the stars or the Milky Way. We did get a little bit of the northern lights though.

Do you like dark night skies full of stars? Support efforts to preserve them like this one happening in our valley.

Birthday Dog

Well, what do you do when your dog has her sixth birthday? Get some friends and go for a hike! If you’d ask Sky, she probably would have voted for a lake but it was Saturday and the lakes were busy.

It was a new trail for us and we were all impressed with the flowers, the views, the pollinators and the huckleberries. It’s one we will do again.

Lots of pollinators on this cow parsnip flower
Blue gentian
Grass of Parnassus
The views!
The flowers!
Who uses this burrow? It looked active with a trail going to the creek and another going across the hillside, both starting at the burrow. It was about twelve inches wide and maybe eight inches high.
Pink monkeyflower
Columbine
Dignified?
Anemone seedheads
more gentian
Red willowherb, similar to fireweed
I’m not sure what brought that on
Lots of huckleberries
Sky picked her own berries
I think this is monkshood, Aconitum columbianum.

Dogs and Wildflowers

We did this hike a month or so ago with Molly and Mary. It’s fun to see the changes during the season. There was less water and different wildflowers and it maybe wasn’t as green but it was still beautiful. Rozie and Kim joined us this week.

White rein orchid
Fringed grass of parnassus
Streams of wildflowers
Blue gentian, one of my favorites
What is this one?
Pink monkeyflower
Heather
Ground squirrel
Red-tailed Hawk
Here comes Rozie!
Sky and buckwheat
Part of the Good Girls Club