Vegetation Near Us!

As I have been walking up to the office I have been able to see things up close and personal.  The newest thing I have noticed is that the moss is back.

All summer these little crevices have been dark as night.  Now with the "rainy season" more or less upon us, the little mossies must think it is safe to come out into the fresh air again.

 When I was crossing the bridge this morning there was some very thick lush moss. I did not take a picture because I was walking as fast as I could plus listening to "Saints" and was too much of a slug to stop and dismantle things so I could take a picture.  Another day.  Maybe it will be more impressive later...

Temperate Rain Forest

After visiting the Tulip Farm Festival we headed south and east (I think) to Silverton and the Silver Falls State Park.  This is the site of a temperate rainforest.  That is a term we all need to look up in the dictionary, I think!  Elder J has spoken of it several times.

We arrived there, paid our fee to park and then headed for the South Falls.  Fortunately I had my new Bi-Mart walking sticks so I walked confidently on the trail towards the falls.  At the top there was a very nice stone wall that we could look over.  Yikes!  Bad idea.  Vertigo just about got me...so I stepped back out of view of the cascade.

After the others had had their fill there we started down down down the trail to take pictures of the whole falls, and the brave people hiked on down and behind the falls.  I was not in that crowd.  I hate to be a chicken but the thought of falling and having to bring in a crane to get me back to the top was so repellant that I went back up to the top after taking a few pictures and waited for the crew to return.  In the meantime I was mistaken for a volunteer and asked about a large group of Russian and Slavic  tourists.  I am a volunteer, but not for the forest service.  Plus I had seen no Russian-speaking people as far as I knew.

South Falls from somewhere down the trail...

This picture is an example of what the trees and bushes look like in a temperate rainforest.  It is really so eerie looking.  Sister J. says if we had gone on the five-mile hike where we would have seen seven waterfalls, we would have found the foliage really truly amazing, and almost scary.  If I get into condition perhaps later on we can try it again.

A Glorious Day for a Walk

Today since I did not wake up early enough to go swimming (need to be at the pool at 5 AM if I want to swim before the young swimmers show up for swim team) I decided to walk to work. It is only half a mile so it was not likely to wear me out too much to get any work done at the office afterwards.

There is a great bridge quite near our apartment complex.  As you can see, I stopped to take a picture of the bridge and got a shadow also!  Notice the moss beside the path.  There is moss EVERYWHERE out here! The trees are furry with it.  Even the parking lot pavement is covered with moss.  Every so often someone comes by and scrubs up the moss, I think, because all of a sudden there will be next to no moss left then over the period of a few weeks there is a green sheen visible again.

This half mile walk took me twenty minutes. I just had to stop and take pictures along the way!  The walk felt good physically and also mentally and now I feel so virtuous that I will have to do it again....