Eugene Parnell

Another #autumn #hiking in the #PNW thread. Started with a hike up Crystal Peak, which has this excellent view of Mt Rainier, right in your face, with a lot of new snow on it (and there was a bit on the trail too). Crystal Peak is inside Mt Rainier National Park, East of the Mountain and just South of the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. That's the White River running down the valley there, it joins the Puyallup and empties into Puget Sound at Tacoma. 1/7

Took a walk today and looked at parking strips (verges, hell strips, whatever). Photo 1 is your typical. Photos 2 & 3 show a parking strip that has reached its potential. It's all drought tolerant flowering perennials and shrubs. But get this--the second strip isn't any more work to maintain than the first one. Grass is not your lowest maintenance option. Add up the time you spend mowing, fixing & fueling the mower, watering, feeding, weeding, and you'll see. #gardening #Bloomscrolling #lawn

Plant hiking Baker lake part 5. Moss is everywhere here, in the forest floor, on the stones on the waterfall, on the tree branches overhead. 5/9 #Mosstodon #PNW #nativeplants #hiking #getoutside #mountains

Okay a few more photos from my garden this evening. #gardening #bloomscrolling @gardening@fedigroups.social

Plant hiking Baker Lake part 3. This is old growth forest. Surprisingly, this means it's fairly open, with a lot of space between trees and a lot of diversity in species and age if trees. There are some huge old cedars up here. Also a lot of fallen trees-- photo 3 and 4 show the root flare of an old cedar. Looking in you can the whole log is hollow.3/9 #PNW #nativeplants #hiking #getoutside #mountains

Plant hiking Baker lake part 9. View across the lake at Kulshan, or Mt Baker itself. At 10,700 feet (3288 meters) it's the third highest peak in Washington State. Its last big eruption was in the Nineteenth Century but it's still active. There was a natural lake here, but in 1959 a hydroelectric dam greatly enlarged it to what you see now. If you look carefully you can see the stumps left from the clear cut of that era. 9/9 end #Mosstodon #PNW #nativeplants #hiking #getoutside #mountains

Plant hiking Baker lake part 6. Some smol frens: a salamander (maybe Ensatina eschscholtzii?-- not sure about that one) and for sure a Western garter snake, by far the most common snake in this area. It's loving the warm sun. 6/9 #Mosstodon #PNW #nativeplants #hiking #getoutside #mountains

@gardening The heather is blooming #bloomscrolling #gardening

Plant hiking Baker lake part 8. This part of the North Cascades has a lot of big leaf maples, which typically get a lot of moss on their branches. Photo 3: this one even has licorice ferns growing right up its trunk. 8/9 #Mosstodon #PNW #nativeplants #hiking #getoutside #mountains

Here's a couple more blurry photos. It was about the size of a loaf of banana bread, too big for a rat, nearly the size of a football. The blunt head and lack of a tail are pretty definitive. You can't see in the photos but its tiny eyes gave it an expression like I'd woken it up from a nap. #bigfoot #PNW #Washington #cryptid #WildLife #wildlifephotography

@gardening#bloomscrolling #gardening The euphorbia is blooming

@gardening The California lilac is blooming #bloomscrolling #gardening

@gardening The horsetail is "blooming" #bloomscrolling #gardening

@gardening The laurel is blooming #bloomscrolling #gardening

Plant hiking Baker lake part 7. Photo 1: lady fern (Arhyrium Felix-femina) flushing out its new fronds. Photo 2: bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) unfurling new growth--it's a deciduous fern that spreads aggressively via rhizomes and can grow to monstrous dimensions. Photo 3: a fairly uncommon native plant, colt's foot (Petasites palmatus var frigidus) that I like a lot and would love to have in my garden. #Mosstodon #PNW #nativeplants #hiking #getoutside #mountains

@gardening The candytuft is blooming #bloomscrolling #gardening

@gardening EvErYtHinG is blOoMinG Part 2. See how many you can identify. They start easy and get harder. Answers in the alt text. #bloomscrolling #gardening 2/6

@gardening EvErYtHinG is blOoMinG Part 5. See how many you can identify. They start easy and get harder. Answers in the alt text. #bloomscrolling #gardening 5/6

@gardening EvErYtHinG is blOoMinG Part 4. See how many you can identify. They start easy and get harder. Answers in the alt text. #bloomscrolling #gardening 4/6

@gardening EvErYtHinG is blOoMinG Part 3. See how many you can identify. They start easy and get harder. Answers in the alt text. #bloomscrolling #gardening 3/6

Plant hiking Baker Lake part 4. Because the maples and alders haven't leafed out yet, understory plants are blooming in the spring sun. 1: Dicentra formosa (Western bleeding heart). 2: Trillium ovatum: the white flowers turn red after pollination. 3: Redwood violet (Viola sempervirens). 4: I had to look this one up: Clintonia uniflora, which won't bloom for a while yet. 4/9 #PNW #nativeplants #hiking #getoutside #mountains

@gardening The peony is blooming #bloomscrolling #gardening

@gardening The azalea is blooming #bloomscrolling #gardening

Plant hiking Baker Lake part 2. Photos 1 and 2: this is stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). If you'd ever run into it, you'd remember. It's like a mild bee sting and the pain can last for hours. Those little hairs are the stinging parts. Photo 3 and 4: "False Solomon's Seal" and "False Lily of the valley", both species of Maianthemum, though they look very different. The ones in photo 3 (M. racemosum) will have very showy blooms in midsummer. 2/9 #PNW #nativeplants #hiking #getoutside #mountains

@phil_stevens So glad you mentioned the disappearance of clover, which I didn't know was thing in pasturage. It has also happened in residential lawns since the 1950s. It used to be that clover was an expected part of residential lawns until the chemical companies embarked on an ad campaign to convince homeowners that it was a weed and needed to be sprayed with chemicals. Now I'm at master gardener clinics with homeowners asking me "how do I get the clover out of my lawn?"

@gardening EvErYtHinG is blOoMinG Part 6. See how many you can identify. This is the last one, these are fairly hard. Answers in the alt text. #bloomscrolling #gardening 6/6

The funny thing is that I didn't see this mountain beaver in any of our vast wilderness areas or national parks. It was in Saltwater State Park in suburban Des Moines Washington! Looking it up online it seems my experience is typical. Although they are fairly common, almost no one ever sees mountain beavers in action. Here's a Seattle Times article with more info. https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/the-pacific-northwests-elusive-mountain-beaver/ #bigfoot #PNW #Washington #cryptid #WildLife #wildlifephotography

@psh@infosec.exchange Exclusively in Portland or exclusively in the men's as opposed to the women's? The latter would explain a lot actually 😆

@sarae@ecoevo.social Wow that double bitted axe is really something.

@2003MugishaPhocit @gardening Thank you! It is in my garden. I planted a few of these about 2 years ago. It's an unusual variety of peony, woodland peony or Paeonia mairieii, in that it tolerates more shade than the big-flowered hybrids.

@shansterable No mosquitoes at all this past weekend. Even though there were a fair number of flooded depressions near the river and standing water. I know what you mean--I've been places that were so buggy I swore I'd never return. And then talked to other people who had been to the same place and who said it was just lovely when they were there. It really seems to vary from place to place and time of year.

@ArabellaLovejoy@mastodonapp.uk Horsetails are rough (no pun intended). They thrive in poor soil. They're literally impervious to herbicides. The best result I've heard is from a combination of just pulling them (digging them up just spreads the pieces around) repeatedly over time while also improving the soil fertility and planting things that out-compete them.

@jackwilliambell oh wow that place looks cool! Love the interior! Nah I didn't know about it-- I stopped at Cascade Grocery for an ice tea and a bag of Doritos. I bookmarked the brewery for next time for though!

@shansterable yeah it's really a cool place. I did the lower part of the lake shore trail a few years ago in August and it was lovely then. But I liked this upper end better. And another plus-- no power boats this time of year. It was super quiet. I still can't get over the color of that river water though.

@tsupasat Thanks! We all have certain things we feel out about I guess this is mine.

@intrepidhero Yeah it's really something. Especially that water color. Helped that it was an absolutely gorgeous day. But the big maples there and the moss are a lot like the Hoh rain forest only without the long drive and the crowds 😆

@carla @gardening I am very lucky. I am a WSU Extension master gardener volunteer, and I volunteer at garden answer clinics in various olaces around the county. My neighborhood always seems to have the most sophisticated gardeners who have the hardest questions 😆

@TindrasGrove @cR0w if only it were that simple!

@Guillotine_Jones @Rejected_cryptid @rejected_cryptid@beige.party Well too small for a guy in a costume. But I have to admit it could have been 3 squirrels in a little fur suit 😆

@ggggbbybby@hachyderm.io Wow that cake pan is spectacular! It's like a little tiny chapel. And apricot butter glaze? Dang

@kdwarn ha ha out here where I live they are despised weeds. Which is unusual--many places they are quite rare. I think they're really fun.

@dantheclamman@scicomm.xyz Have you read the book "Murderland" by Caroline Fraser? It's about the link between air pollution (lead, arsenic, sulphur dioxide) and the serial killer epidemic in the Pacific Northwest in the 50s -80s. It's not a scientific book, but the correlation is pretty eye opening. https://bookshop.org/p/books/murderland-crime-and-bloodlust-in-the-time-of-serial-killers-caroline-fraser/156e2df8d7c9c05c

@sus thank you!