Ah, September

I really like September, especially here in Western Washington. The deciduous trees are already starting to turn colors, and leaves are beginning to fall. Every living creature seems to know it's time to put up stores for the future.
Last Thursday night, I slept in my Bravada up at the school property becasue it didn't make sense to drive down the hill at 9pm only to drive back up at 8am for the second day of our annual staff training. I didn't even pitch my tent, although I had it with me. Instead, I just laid the seat down and crawled into my sleeping bag. I'd backed into the parking spot under a Vine maple (Acer circinatum) so that my head would be on the uphill, and stayed nice and warm and mostly comfortable...until I got an early wake up call.
The sky was still grey, so it was very early when I first heard something hitting the roof of my car. Something larger than raindrops - and it wasn't raining anyway. Without my glasses, I could only see that the branch above me was jerking and swaying...but only the one branch. The rest of the tree was still.
I put my glasses on, and was amused to see the little Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) cutting clusters of maple seeds from the branches! For half an hour or so, I was greatly entertained by the dark little squirrel with the short tufts on it's ears. Sometimes we were eye-to-eye when it moved to a lower branch by my window. I never stirred in my sleeping bag, and so didn't spook it away. By the time I had to get ready for the day, the entire top of my Bravada was covered with the neatly bitten off (at a 45 degree angle) seed clusters. I brushed most of them off so the day's work would not be wasted...but I brough one home to add to my nature museum of cool things I've found in the woods.

Alien Life Forms

The best way to describe the amazing creatures at the Seattle Aquarium is to simply say that my Missouri eyes were overwhelmed by color, form and variety! I felt as if I'd landed on a distant planet, surrounded by the unusual, the beautiful, the downright odd...often as I admired something pretty, I'd suddenly become aware that it was moving! The pile of sticks above is actually a sea star!

These creatures, whose identity I do not know, had florescent coloring that truly glowed...I really need to do some Kamana journaling on sea life!

These beauties are one of the many types of anemones that I got to touch in the tidepool exhibit! Kids of all ages are allowed to gently touch the critters...I was surprised to find many of them were soft and squishy! The starfish has a sandpapery feel.

Cyndi and I enjoyed the day so much! It was great fun to take a day off work and be a Seattle tourist! In order to share more pictures of our day, I will post another message tomorrow with bird pics!