Author: boolie

The 8:13 to Beaverton

A dense bed of mussels in a tide pool at Rialto Beach

Mussel beds are one of my favorite parts of tide pools, as a slightly-claustrophobic introvert they remind me of crowded trains. There are a couple of trains that I try to catch on my commute as for whatever reason they are usually fairly empty at my stops, when most trains are quite crowded, and arrive and leave work at convenient times. I got to my stop this morning just before the 8:13 to Beaverton and almost have the entire car to myself.

The mussels are covered in acorn barnacles with some limpets and snails along for the ride. I don’t know what type of snails they are, frilled dogwinkles? Eroded periwinkles? Wrinkled amphissas? I do know this: A+++ to whoever came up with snail names, I love you.

A Surprise Visit From an Old Friend

An American pika peeks out from a moss-covered rock in a talus field near Upper Horsetail Falls in the Columbia River Gorge

I left early this morning to hike in one of my favorite spots, the short trail in the Columbia River Gorge from Horsetail Falls to Upper Horsetail Falls and on to Oneonta Falls. I was mostly interested in shooting video of the waterfalls, with some photos too, but stopped to shoot this moss-covered rock in a talus field. My heart filled with joy when I noticed a familiar face looking back at me, an American pika that I hadn’t seen when I stopped (it’s on the far left edge of the frame in the middle, looking straight at me). The location might seem surprising if you know much about pikas, as I was close to sea level and pikas normally live high in the mountains. But there is a population here in the Gorge, they live at the lowest elevation of any pikas in the United States.

I had seen them in the Gorge several times before, once near Multnomah Falls and a couple of times on the way to Angel’s Rest, but I had passed by this spot a number of times and never seen (or heard) them. I always look when I pass a talus field, I can’t help myself, pikas are always a treat to watch. I hadn’t even brought my 100-400mm lens on this hike as I don’t usually see much wildlife on this trail and I was just taking a quick hike while it was still cool (it was unusually hot today and is going to bake tomorrow). I wouldn’t have had time to get out the lens anyway, I didn’t see the pika for long, but I did hear it calling out several times as it moved about invisibly under the rocks.

An Early Start

Our dog Ellie in the early morning light at the dog park

A couple of weeks ago I woke up early (for a Saturday) so Ellie and I got an early start to our walk. It was a lovely spring morning and since I take the new camera a lot on our walks now, I took a couple of pictures of her at the dog park before we spent the next hour walking the neighborhood.

Assorted Candies

A black turban snail nestles into a gap between aggregating anemones int a tide pool at Enderts Beach in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

When I visited the tide pools in Redwood National and State Parks, I didn’t know much about most of the creatures I was photographing, I was just taking pictures of things that caught my eye and planned to read up on them later. I was taken by the shapes and colors of these aggregating anemones that were clinging to a rock at Enderts Beach, like a box of assorted candies. Then I noticed where a black turban snail had nestled down between the anemones and took my favorite picture of them. Once I looked more closely I noticed other little creatures in the scene, from the goose barnacles in the upper right to the black limpets on the snail’s shell (almost invisible since they were on the dark part of the shell).

The View From Our Sidewalk

The New View From Our Sidewalk

Last fall the good folks at Habitat Gardens landscaped half our yard. The most visible change is the front, where we replaced a mass of juniper bushes that covered the front slope (shown below) with a garden with terraced rock walls (above, covered in a dusting of snow). It’s hard to tell from the angle of this picture, but there’s a nice gentle curve to the rock walls, and we love the natural look of the stacked rocks. The garden above this, below the big picture window, was also replaced with a rain garden, and the gardens on the side of the house to the right were also replaced, including a French drain and another rain garden.

I love seeing this view when I walk home from the train station, it will be more work to maintain (and I need to learn how to prune all the new plants) but it feels more like home. Mandi was great to work with, we said we wanted either native or drought-tolerant plants so that once established everything would be fine with our dry summers without need for a watering system, and she picked out this wide variety of plants, as well as everything for the rain gardens. It was all very easy on our end and we love the result.

I hoped to test out my old macro lens with the new camera as the plants have started blooming but it’s been a bit too breezy the last few weekends.

The Old View From Our Sidewalk

Squares

Old wooden garages in Portland, Oregon

It’s too bad you can’t make a living photographing the old garages of Irvington. I didn’t pay much attention to them for years, as while I walked a lot, it was mostly on the same route to the train station. But then we adopted our dog Ellie and we started taking long walks through the neighborhood, and since I let her dictate our meanderings I’ve passed a lot of houses and apartments I wouldn’t otherwise and I’ve fallen in love with the variety of these old, small garages.

Let the Belly Rub Commence!

Let the Belly Rub Commence!

Sam sometimes likes to hold my hand as he’s about to fall asleep, a trait he shares with Emma, and while he does like the occasional belly rub he doesn’t love them the way she did (or our first cat Templeton, who was crazy for them). One of the things that surprised me having cats the past couple of decades has been how different their personalities are, it’s fun to learn how best to delight each of them. I’ve also been surprised by how affectionate they are, I was not expecting that based on the stories I often heard, but my lap is rarely empty (Trixie is asleep there now).