Windy Sikes Lake With Flock Of Goslings

It was to Sikes Lake I ventured this morning, on this final day of the 2023 version of March, to do some nature communing which required leaning into a strong wind.

The wind was blowing from the west. I would have thought, due to feeling how hard the wind was blowing, that the waves on the lake would have been bigger, with whitecaps.

You know for sure Spring has sprung when you see what I saw today at Sikes Lake.

A flock of newborn goslings. I saw no goose parental units by the flock. Usually, mom and dad goose are overly protective of their newborns and don't let visitors get too close.

And now a screen cap of part of today's forecast for my location.

I think I got hit with one of those 55 mph gusts. I had to lean into the gust to keep moving.

The high wind and dry conditions have caused the issuing of a Red Flag Warning. I do not know why it is called a Red Flag Warning, but what it means is conditions are such that the wildfire danger is extreme.

So far all I see is a smoke-free crystal clear bright blue sky...

In Washington Looking West Across Daffodil Fields At The Olympic Mountains

Many a time I have made mention of the fact that at my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, in Western Washington, no matter what direction one looks, east, west, north or south, one sees mountains.

At my current flat location no matter what direction I look there is nary a mountain to be seen.

I have frequently shared photos of my old home zone showing the mountains one sees from that location. 

Those photos I have previously shared have only shown the mountain view looking east from the Skagit Flats, usually with the Mount Baker volcano in the picture.

Yesterday, on Facebook, I saw the photo you see above. In that photo we are not looking east at the Cascade Mountain foothills, we are looking west, with that line of snow covered mountain peaks being the Olympic Mountains, located on the Olympic Peninsula.

Those land masses you see sticking out above the daffodil fields may be islands. I am not sure about the land masses on the left or right, but I am almost 100% certain the land mass in the middle is Fidalgo Island. That is where the town of Anacortes is located, and where you can find one of Washington's best hamburgers at the Fidalgo Drive-In.

In Anacortes you can hop aboard a Washington State Ferry and float to multiple islands.

For those reading this in Fort Worth, Texas, these are real islands, surrounded by real water. Not imaginary islands that might one day become an imaginary island if a cement lined ditch is ever actually dug, with river water diverted into the ditch.

I have not read anything about Fort Worth's imaginary island and that cement lined ditch in quite some time. The three little bridges, built over dry land, have been finished for quite some time, waiting for that water filled ditch to turn the bridges into the connection of the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island...

David, Theo, Ruby, Michele & Kristin Somewhere In Iceland

Email this morning with 8 photos from Iceland, with the only text in the email saying "You'll have to use your sleuthing skills to figure the locations."...

Well, the first photo made it fairly easy to deduce that Theo, Ruby and David are in Iceland, about to exit the airport in, I would hazard to guess, Reykjavik.

Which leads me to guess that the above photo is in Reykjavik.

A church, I think, in, I think, also Reykavik. If not Reykavik, then maybe the biggest town outside the capital region, Akureyri.

Iceland has multiple hot springs, including the most famous one, known as The Blue Lagoon. So, I guess that would be my guess as to this location.

No clue regarding the above, other than it appears that Theo, Ruby and David are walking on thick ice.

Iceland is known for its long haired horses. That may be what we are seeing above.

The oldest known geyser in the world is in Iceland's Haukadalur Valley. That may be what David, Theo and Ruby are looking at.

Are the Tacoma Trio preparing to eat an Icelandic hot dog? Or a flatkaka (dried fish and dark rye bread traditionally baked in the ground) or the Icelandic delicacy known as Puffin? I think I'll stick with it being Icelandic hot dogs.

Theo was gungho to go to Iceland after learning one can often see the Aurora Borealis from that location. The sun is being in solar flare mode at the moment. I hope that means that Theo got to see the Northern Lights. 

After Iceland it is on to France, to Paris and Disneyland. I hope the current unrest and protests in France do not create any problems for David, Theo, Ruby and their parental units...

Skagit Valley's Linda Lou Sees Mount Baker In Hiding

The above photo, from the Skagit Valley's, Linda Lou, arrived on my phone this morning, along with text saying, "Mount Baker trying to peek through the clouds."

It took me awhile to find where it was hiding on my computer, but eventually I located a photo of the same view, which I took way back in April of 2006 when I was heading to my Favorite Nephew Jason's first wedding.

In this version Mount Baker is not hiding.

Seems odd now, how totally normal it seemed to live so close to a semi-active volcano.

That dip at the top of the volcano is the crater.

When you hike up Mount Baker eventually you get close enough to the crater to smell the sulphur odor the crater emits.

At times Mount Baker spews out a lot of steam along with that sulphureous odor. At a volume of sufficient size that it can be seen from the location you see above, driving north on I-5, or any other location with a view of the mountain.

In my current frame of mind it is looking unlikely that I will be seeing the above scenery this coming summer...

Newspaper Daffodil Delivery To Skagit Valley Jones Family Compound

Email from FNJ (Favorite Nephew Jason) this morning, with the daffodil newspaper photo above, and the text below...

First arrival of the largest local newspaper at the Jones family compound. I set this up for my incoming father who is set to arrive just a few days into the next month.

He should receive the print version of the SVHerald, 5 days a week, along with the weekend version of the Seattle Times and the weekly LaConner Weekly News (which is the best weekly newspaper I have ever ran across. Seriously). ((If some blog writer wanted to give them a plug on a blog site, It would be well justified)).

I support local journalism, as might you, and hopefully your brother will enjoy his reading material.

________________________

I checked out the online version of the LaConner Weekly News, I can see why Jason is impressed. This online version of La Conner's newspaper is way better than the online newspaper version of the town I now live in, that being the Wichita Falls Times Record News, or the Texas town I lived in prior to Wichita Falls, that being Fort Worth and that town's pitiful excuse for a newspaper, the Star-Telegram.

La Conner is one of Washington's tourist attractions. This time of year, when the flowers are blooming all over the Skagit Valley flatlands, La Conner is a traffic jam of tourists. The town has multiple restaurants and art galleries and a famous bridge over a channel one can use to float your boat to one of the town's restaurants.

Linda Lou has told me that when next I visit the Skagit Valley she will take me to a restaurant in La Conner which Linda Lou says makes the best fish and chips and clam chowder in the Puget Sound zone.

Lucy Park Dry After Last Night's Thunderstorm Downpour

It was back to Lucy Park I ventured on the morning of the next to last Friday of the 2023 version of March.

In the photo documentation you are with me on the middle of the Lucy Park suspension bridge, looking north at the muddy Wichita River.

At one point in the middle of the night, last night, a blast of wind was followed by a loud downpour, followed by thunder booms. 

A lot of water fell in a short time frame, but in sufficient volume that by morning the moat around my abode, which happens after a lot of rain, was the biggest I have ever seen the moat be.

When the moat happens a temporary detour is in place making it possible to get to the carport.

After last night's deluge I thought the Wichita River might be in flood mode. When that happens Lucy Park goes under water. I've only seen that happen twice. But, today the river was nowhere near flood level.

And after a couple days of getting warmed into the 80s, we are back in being chilly mode, on the 50s...

With The Virginian Pondering Hot Springs Pot & Port Townsend

 

There has been some discussion, of late, regarding traveling to the Pacific Northwest this coming summer.

COVID put a stop to doing so during the past couple summers. I have not been in Washington since August of 2017.

There is a big birthday party planned at a location on the Skagit Flats, in July. 

I have been communicating with another Washingtonian, currently exiled, like me, to another state, specifically, Virginia, whilst I am exiled in Texas.

The Virginian has been trying to convince me to make it to that aforementioned birthday party. 

We both live in repressive states where marijuana is pretty much illegal. Unlike freedom loving Washington, and the rest of the west coast, including Alaska, where marijuana has been decriminalized, particularly progressive, non-repressive Washington, where it has been decriminalized for years.

So, the Virginian has been wanting to try a thing or two or three she has not previously tried. One being marijuana, another being skinny dipping in Baker Hot Springs. I forget number three. Maybe floating the ferry to Port Townsend. 

Marijuana was legal when I was in Washington in 2017. But, I saw no stores selling it. The surprise that visit was it was my first return to Washington after the voters voted to take the state out of the liquor selling business. So, I was a bit surprised to go in the Lynden Safeway to see a couple aisles devoted to products like vodka and whiskey. When I was a kid Lynden made it illegal to sell any type booze inside the city limits.

How come Washington, and some other states, have on the ballot things like initiatives, propositions and referendums, letting the voters vote on things like legalizing marijuana or taking the state out of the liquor selling business?

Voting in Texas is so BORING due to there being few things of the initiative, proposition, referendum sort to vote on, letting voters approve of this that or the other thing.

Anyway, regarding pot selling stores in Washington. I Googled "pot selling stores in Washington" to find there are a lot of them.

My old hometown of Burlington, has one, called Western Bud, part of a pot selling franchise with multiple outlets. Western Bud sells a variety of pot products, including cannabis chocolate chip cookies.

So, I've got the pot problem solved for the Virginian. Port Townsend is easy. Just walk on the ferry.

But, it has been a lot of years since I have been to Baker Hot Springs, consequently I have no memory of how to get there, other than take the exit off Highway 20 to Baker Dam, but the multiple junctions taking one to Baker Hot Springs, that is a blank in my memory....

Brother Jake's New Skagit Valley Residence With Daffodils

Good news, via email, from FNJ (Favorite Nephew Jason) this morning. Jason's paternal parental unit, my little brother Jake, has been trying to sell his Scottsdale, Arizona abode, so that he can move to his new abode, back in his old home zone of the Skagit Valley.

The text in the email...

Picture 5 features your brother’s new residence.  He is expected to relocate in less than 2 weeks.  

__________________

Picture 5 is that which you see above, across from a field of daffodils. Jake's new residence being the house in the middle.

Jake's new residence is part of the Skagit Valley Jones Family Compound.

I am almost 100% certain brother Jake's youngest grandson, Hank Frank, and his parental units, FNJ2 (Favorite Nephew Joey) and Hank Frank's mama, Monique's abode is to the right in this photo, by that big evergreen tree.

Some day I may return to the Skagit Valley to visit the Jones Family Compound for the first time...

First Day Of Spring Chilly Lucy Park Nature Communing With Balloons

I have done no nature communing the past couple of days. I strained something in my lower back a few days ago, which put me in to take it easy mode, til the strain pain abated.

This morning I decided that doing some nature communing might be salubrious abating the strain pain.

So, it was to Lucy Park I ventured, under multiple layers of outerwear, due to the first day of Spring being chilly, as in the temperature being somewhere in the 40s, with a strong constant wind blowing, making those 40 degrees feel cooler.

I fast walked the Lucy Park backwoods off trail zone today. And came upon the odd thing you see photo documented above. 

Were these balloons filled with helium, which broke away from wherever they were tethered, and then eventually came back to earth when too much helium leaked?

I am fairly certain these are not spy balloons sent by China...

Seeing Skagit Valley Daffodils With A Few Daffodils In Wichita Falls

This morning, on Facebook, the Skagit Valley's Miss Carol BD posted a photo featuring some daffodils.

I commented regarding that photo, saying I seldom see such things as daffodils and tulips at my current North Texas location.

But that yesterday I did make note of driving by a small patch of daffodils, and that I might photo document that daffodil patch today, if I remembered to.

Which I did. Remember, that is.

Below is that rare North Texas daffodil patch, spotted near the intersection of Midwestern Boulevard and Maplewood.

That photo at the top, that is a field of Skagit Valley daffodils in a photo from the Seattle Times.

That big white thing hovering above the daffodils is the Mount Baker volcano.

In front of Mount Baker, those are what are known as Cascade Mountain foothills.

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival will soon be happening, with the Skagit flatlands carpeted in multiple colors, from multiple types of flowers, but, primarily tulips.

Over a million visitors descend on the Skagit Valley during the Tulip Festival.