Mark K's Make Me Homesick Mount Baker Photo

The make me homesick photo you see here I saw on Facebook, this morning of the second Wednesday of 2023.

Skagit Valley photographer, Mark K, took the photo after he saw multiple looky-loos parked roadside gawking east at the extremely colorful sunset.

Below is one of the Mark K sunset photos.

For those reading this in Fort Worth, those bumps on the horizon are actual islands, surrounded by real water of the saltwater sort, not imaginary islands of the Fort Worth sort, where there is no surrounding water of any sort, but one day may be sort of surrounded by water, if a cement lined ditch ever gets dug, with dirty river water diverted into the ditch.

In the Mark K photo at the top, that big white bump is a volcano, known as Mount Baker. Washington has five active volcanos. In addition to Mount Baker there is Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens and Glacier Peak.

I have been invited to a birthday party taking place next summer at the Mark K estate on the Skagit Flats.

I have been told if I make it to the Mark K birthday party there will be blackberry pie and strawberry shortcake. I think it was Miss Carol BD who promised me blackberry pie and strawberry shortcake if I showed up.

Currently I would say there is less than a 50/50 chance I will make it to the Skagit Valley this coming July.

I think I have mentioned previously that from the living room of my abode in Mount Vernon, when the leaves were not on the trees, I could see the Mount Baker volcano. 

From my current living room, no matter what window I look out, I see pretty much nothing...

HOT January Lucy Park Walk With Lingering Japanese Pagoda Mystery

With the outer world scheduled to get heated to 81 degrees HOT today on this second Tuesday of 2023, it was to Lucy Park I once again ventured for some nature communing in the Lucy Park backwoods, former jungle zone.

I have still not learned why there is the Japanese pagoda-like structure, you see above, in Lucy Park. Seems as if there must be some reason behind it being there.

There were oodles of disc golfers enjoying the balmy weather today. I avoid the need to dodge incoming discs by doing my nature communing in the backwoods zone where there are no disc golfers.

Curry chicken is on the lunch menu for today, followed by a bike ride in the late afternoon.

It is being a mighty fine thing having summer return in the middle of winter...

Birds Of Different Feathers Not Flocking Together At Sikes Lake

It was back to Sikes Lake I ventured the morning of the second Monday of 2023, for a somewhat balmy walk with the flocks of geese, ducks and seagulls.

As you can see via the photo documentation, at Sikes Lake, birds of different feathers do not flock together, but they do flock close to each other. 

The flock of seagulls look like they are almost surrounding whatever the darker feathered birds are. This may be a territorial dispute, with the seagulls trying to intimidate the darker birds into flying somewhere else.

The bridge at the west end of Sikes Lake is still in being repaired mode, so a walk around the lake was not doable today.

The coyote that I came upon at Sikes Lake last Friday, is no longer in residence. Did someone poach the coyote? Or was it moved to another bird scare station?

The temperature is scheduled to get into the 70s by late afternoon, so I see a bike ride in my future today...

Nature Communing At Shrinking Lake Wichita

This first Saturday of 2023 saw a temperature drop at my Texas location.

Yesterday, when I nature communed at Lucy Park, the temperature was in the 70s. Today, when I nature communed at Lake Wichita Park, the temperature was barely in the 50s. 

As you can see, Lake Wichita continues to shrink.

Normally, most of what you see in the foreground is covered with water. The water-less area has been water-free for so long that vegetation sprouted up and has turned brown due to being frozen.

It has been a long time since I have hiked to the summit of the closest thing in the area to Washington's Mount Rainier, known as Mount Wichita.

There are four or five trails to the summit of Mount Wichita. The trails have all turned a bit rough. Making the trails potential ankle twisters, best avoided. Or so I have decided...

Sikes Lake Bike Ride With A Coyote

 What with my New Year's Resolution to try and get more exercise of the outdoor activity sort, today pre-noon I did some fast walking at Lucy Park. 

And this afternoon, as the sun was beginning its slow descent my bike took me on a ride for the first time in a long time. That would be my bike's handlebars, looking west across Sikes Lake.

As you can see the outer world is looking serene. No wind and heated into the 70s.

When I got to the bridge at the west end of Sikes Lake I found I had to turn around, due to some sort of repair being done at both ends of the bridge.

And then when I got near the bridge at the other end of Sikes Lake I came upon what you see here.

A coyote.

Coyotes began showing up several months ago on the grounds of the MSU President's mansion. The coyotes arrived to encourage the flocks of geese to seek elsewhere to flock. The husband of the MSU president regularly moves the coyotes to new locations, so as to keep the geese thinking they are real, and not harmless manmade coyotes.

Today marked the first time one of the fake coyotes has shown up at Sikes Lake.

I rather enjoyed the bike ride. I was a bit wobbly at first, but the wobbliness soon abated. 

Miss Chris Shares Close Look At Mount Rainier Which Takes Us To Cabela's

One of my favorite Washingtonians, Miss Chris, currently located in Lacey, previously located in Kent, with both locations providing closeup views of Mount Rainier, when clouds are not blocking the view, shared that which you see above, on Facebook this morning.

With explanatory text saying, "Mount Rainier was so clear today. Got a shot as we were heading south on 167."

Lacey is a town west of Tacoma, east of Olympia. Lacey has one of the three Cabela's locations in Washington. 

People in Fort Worth, who are subjected to Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda, may remember when Cabela's courted Fort Worth for a Cabela's location, conning the local politicians with the false claim the Cabela's sporting goods store would be the #1 tourist attraction in Texas.

That #1 con was used to convince those local politicians to give Cabela's tax breaks and other perks. No one seemed to realize it was rather insulting to Texas to think a sporting goods store would be the state's #1 tourist attraction. 

It was not long after the Fort Worth Cabela's opened that another Texas Cabela's came to be, competing for that coveted #1 tourist attraction spot. That second Cabela's is south of Fort Worth, in Buda, near Austin. And then a third Cabela's opened, on the east side of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, in Allen.

When Cabela's proposed opening a store in Lacey, they tried to get tax breaks and other perks. They did not try that #1 tourist attraction con, obviously being a ridiculous thing to claim in the shadow of Mount Rainier. Cabela's was told if it was not economically viable to open a store in Lacey, without tax breaks and perks, then don't open a store there.

Cabela's went ahead with the Lacey store without tax breaks and other perks. And soon thereafter, just like Texas, Washington has three Cabela's. The one in Lacey, one in Tulalip and one in Union Gap.

Tulalip is about 20 miles north of Seattle, close to Marysville and Everett. Union Gap is in Eastern Washington, by Yakima.

Thank you, Miss Chris, for providing the make me homesick photo of the day...

2023 Shadow Of The Lucy Park Thin Man

With the temperature in the relatively warm 50s, I ventured to Lucy Park for the second time in the new 2023 year, to do some fast walking in the Lucy Park backwoods zone, currently not in jungle mode, totally free of shade providing leaves.

I think I need a New Year's resolution to find myself some new walking locations. That, and new places to ride my bike...

Wichita Falls Texas Mountain Range

Last night, when exiting Walmart, a short time before the sun finished its daily illumination duty I was surprised by the strangest cloud formation I ever remember seeing. 

The wall of clouds was west of my location, extending north and south to the horizon in both directions.

This wall of clouds looked very much like the Cascade Mountain range as viewed from the Western Washington lowlands.

In the above look at the cloud mountains, we are looking in a northwest direction. 

I kept expecting to see bolts of lightning from what looked like thunderclouds. But, I saw no electrical action.

 A few minutes later, I was back at my home location, with the sun almost gone, looking out my kitchen window at a southwest view of the wall of mountain clouds.

The setting sun view was the most mountain-like.

 I do not know what made all the spots on the photo. Does my kitchen window need a window cleaning?

Linda Lou's Making Me Homesick

 For at least two years, maybe longer, there has been an ongoing effort by more than one individual attempting to make my homesick for my old home zone of the Pacific Northwest State of Washington.

The most concentrated of these homesick campaign efforts has been a series of vintage postcards featuring Birch Bay.

Yesterday, New Year's Day, the above showed up on my phone, from Mount Vernon's Linda Lou. No text, just a photo of what looks to be a road aiming at Mount Rainier. Yes, it really does look like that.

I have a friend here in Wichita Falls, originally from Dallas, a lifelong Texan. A couple years ago she flew to the west coast for the first time, to Seattle. She had never been to a location before where no matter which direction you looked you see mountains.

And then the friends she was visiting took her their cabin, near Enumclaw, close to Mount Rainier. They arrived at the cabin after dark. The next morning she walked outside and found herself startled by seeing Mount Rainier, so close, looking so big. She described it as mesmerizing.

Above is another Washington mountain scene. This one is the view from Artist's Point by Mount Baker. That is not Mount Baker we see in this view. I think Mount Baker would be to the right.

Artist's Point is near the Mount Baker ski area. In winter I do not think it is possible to get a direct look at Mount Baker from this location. Well, maybe one could cross country ski to the location of the parking lot that opens in summer when the snow has withered away.

Okay, now that I am homesick it is time to go do something else....

Happy New Year !

I found that which you see above in my email this morning of the first day of the New Year of 2023.

Sent by my Favorite Jason Nephew, who took a photo of his TV screen when Seattle's KOMO NEWS showed photos of the Final Sunbreaks of 2022, with one of those photos being a sunbreak lighting up Birch Bay.

Birch Bay is a shallow bay in Whatcom County, a short distance south of the Canadian border. Being shallow, the water of Birch Bay gets warm in summer when the sun heats up the sand at low tide, which heats up the water when the tide rolls back in.

The past two summers I have expected to be spending some time at Birch Bay. But little things like COVID have thwarted those plans.

I am now sort of expecting to be in Washington this coming summer of 2023, but am not too confident that there won't be something that once again thwarts being in Washington...