Thursday, April 30, 2015
Monday, April 27, 2015
Yakima
Jordan, Rusty & Steve drove to Yakima on Saturday. It took 2.5 hours. We drove over the Cascade Mountains through Snoqualmie Pass at 3,022 feet. Snow was falling on the mountains above us at higher elevations. The first place we went was Tieton, a very small town in the Yakima area. We visited an old apple warehouse that had been converted into space for artists. Tieton was interesting enough & convenient to our main destination: Cowiche Canyon. We hiked for 2 hours through the canyon. It was fairly warm & mostly sunny. But we were caught in a shower of sleet for a short time, while we huddled under our one umbrella. That evening, we had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Gasperetti’s. It was quite good. We stayed at a large hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, in downtown Yakima.
Click here for more photos of Cowiche Canyon.
On Sunday we had breakfast at a place called Waffles Caffe, near our hotel. Then we hiked at Snow Mountain Ranch on Cowiche Mountain. That was also quite beautiful, with an even greater abundance of wildflowers, plus views over the hills of the sagebrush steppe. Jordan's camera ran out of battery before we got to the most flowerful area. Since we were near Tieton again, we went there for lunch in a Mexican restaurant called the Tieton Bistro. Then we drove back to Seattle via Chinook Pass near Mt Rainier. That route took 3 hours to reach Seattle. Chinook Pass is 5,430 feet in elevation. The snow was fairly deep there, although the road was clear. Jordan & Rusty had never been to Yakima. We were pleasantly surprised.
Click here for more photos of Snow Mountain Ranch.
Photos of Snow Mountain Ranch taken on April 26, 2015
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
March Garden
Iris bucharica
Pulmonaria saccharata 'Trevi Fountain' (Lungwort)
Luzula sylvatica 'Aurea' (Golden Wood Rush)
Narcissus 'W. P. Milner'
Ribes sanguineum 'White Icicle' (Flowering Currant)
Mahonia repens (Creeping Oregon Grape)
Fragaria chiloensis (Sand Strawberry)
March 2015 was warmer & wetter than normal. The highest temperature was 69F on 3/26. The lowest was 31F on 3/4. The garden grew abundantly. The minor frost did no damage. Three new shrubs from the Pat Calvert Greenhouse in the Washington Park Arboretum were added: Olearia x haastii, Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis' & Viburnum propinquum 'Lanceolatum'. The last of these is rare in cultivation.
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