Kubota Gardens

In Renton just south of lake Washington is the Kubota Gardens.  It has twenty acres, enough trails to keep you busy for a couple of hours and it’s free.  Great place to spend a couple of hours on a sunny afternoon if you’ve got the time.  While it has plenty of flowers, it’s glory is all of the different types of trees.

 

There are of course secret passages through the trees

and trails that meander around and open up on fields of flowers

before crossing streams on a moon bridge.

 

There are quiet streams to walk along

a Buddhist bell to ring.

and giant flowering trees.

 

Kubota Gardens

Go enjoy some sunny Sunday afternoon.

Nap with a view

 

At long last, the weather was sunny, the snow was still on the ground and I went for a snow shoe trip.  There is nothing better than laying in the sun and looking at the view between a pair of snow shoes.  For family in Arizona.  If you get up here by June 1, you can probably still go snow shoeing.

The lakes are just beginning to thaw out, though there is still a good eight to ten feet of snow on the ground, or in this case, on the lake.

There were some great snow doughnuts rolling down the hill.  Some how a clump of snow starts rolling down the hill getting bigger and bigger.

 

Sometimes the clumps just slid down the hill instead of rolling.  If they cross another track, the will follow it.

I have a fantasy of some day coming upon four or five of these that have rolled down a hill and self assembled themselves into a snow man, which would put a crimp in  snow creationists’ theory that all snowmen are made by intelligent designers. It was a great day for just wandering around in the sun shine

 

and into the trees.  The trees still had fresh snow on them, we’ve been getting two to eight inches of fresh snow each night at the passes.  In the 40 degree heat, the snow on the tree melts and it’s like hiking through a car wash.

But even with all of that, it still beats doing yard work.

 

 

Pictures from snow shoe trip

Snoqualmie

 

The weather report was for mostly cloudy skies with a chances of showers.  Does mostly cloudy mean that there will be times when it is partly sunny?  Na, I didn’t really believe that, but it was the best weather report for the next ten days, so I took of snow shoeing.  Here are the mostly cloudy skies

But there was a partly sunny time.

 

The myth of the self made snowman. You can see these snow doughnuts.  Snow will start to roll down a very steep hill and begin gathering snow as it rolls down the hill.  These were disk shape, about one foot wide and three feet in diameter. I have seen them late in the season when the center starts to melt out, hence the name snow doughnut.  BTW, I took these with a telephoto lens.  Any hill where the snow rolls down on its own, is not one to be snow shoeing on.

 

I don’t know how this snow wrapped itself around the tree, but I’ll bet its interesting.

Here is some snow spanning a three foot distance between  two trees.  Pretty impressive since the maximum distance a stone lintel can span is four feet before breaking in two from its own weight.

 

I headed on down to lodge lake and wandered along it, enjoying another fifteen minutes of sun shine.

and then I headed back up the over the hill and  made my way to my car.

 

More photos from trip

Japanese Tea Garden

 

It was sunny and Molly and I headed off to the Japanese Tea Garden.  It is a little early to see much blooming, though the plum tree in our yard is going crazy, but there were a lot of lovely shades of green, and at least for a few hours, some relief from the rain.

And there were some lovely old gnarly trees. I have been waiting for years for the chance to use the word gnarly without sounding like a skate boarder.

And a little red grass to add some yang to the ying. (This is a Japanese tea garden after all)

There were the usual Koi and some ducks, whose thoughts in spring turned to other things, though probably not baseball.

I doubt the ducks are Zen Buddhists, but they seem to understand meditation.

Then there was a lovely little stream.

 

It was a lovely walk and since we didn’t see any flowers, we will go aback in a couple of weeks on another sunny afternoon.

Nordic Pass Plus

 

Wednesday looked to be the only sunny day in the mountains for the next ten days, so I went off snow shoeing. I headed up over the pass between summit east and summit central towards Mt Catherine.  Did I mention that the weather was gorgeous?

 

For all of you people in Arizona,  this is the way a spring day is suppose to be.  Sunny, thirty degrees,really two t-shirt weather, and snow all around.  And it is all around.  It was about 15 feet deep up at the top.

It was nicely sculptured and pretty firm above 4000 feet.  People must have moved on to other sports, because there were only about 6 cars in the ski area when I drove by it.  Previously, they’ve been filled to overflowing, even during the week.  I had the place all to myself.

The sun and all of the undulating snow made for some great shadows.

 

I got back to my car a little after three and thought I would head over to gold creek to see how the snow was there.  Much too my surprise, there was more snow than there has been any time this year.  Probably four feet or more.    The picnic benches are totally covered at the edge of the lake.

The lake is starting to thaw at the edges, but is mostly covered with snow. The north end has a little bit of open water, but it still looks like winter.  There is probably good snow shoeing through mid April.

Don’t put your snow shows away yet.

Photos from trip

Commonwealth Basin

 

Of course it was great to get out of all of that warm sunny 60 degree weather in Patagonia and get into a good overcast day in the high 30’ some snow.  Sure it was.  Well the snow was beautiful and high 30s is actually a little warm for snow shoeing, but I endured. Because of yard work, I got a late start and didn’t get to the mountains before 3:00.  For the most part, the beautiful clear skies that had been there in the morning were gone.

No one has been up in a while and with the new snow and some off trail  exploring, it took me over an hour to get into the valley.  Most of the time I was sinking 12 to 14 inches down into the snow.  There were only two cars in the parking lot and I didn’t see or hear any one on the trail the entire time that I was up there.  Going off trail gave me a lot of untracked snow to play around in. I also found a new way their which was easier on the first half of the trail.

The snow is about 15 feet deep by the time I got up to commonwealth creek and is piled up in fantastic shapes.

The creek has a bridge over it, but it is covered with three feet of snow which has drifted so that the top of the snow is not actually over the top of the logs.  I dropped down to the creek and waded across on the rocks.  It is only three inched deep.

And of course I love the giant snow balls that form in the tops of the trees.  The ones pictured are about five feet in diameter.  I need someone to stand beside them to give them a scale for comparison.  It would also make a great picture if the snow fell on them covering them up to their belt buckle. But I will not insist on that.

Mainly I just hiked along the stream looking at the great shapes made by the snow.

 

More photos of commonwealth basin

Back to the Blue

 

I went back to Gold Creek to try and catch the blue hour again, but it was more like the gray hour. Gray light was much prized by the impressionist because of its lack of shadows and all of the rich colors. 

They would have loved the northwest.

But the sun did break out, enabling me to cast a giant, but svelte shadow, there by validating the theory that with in every overweight person is a thin one waiting to break free.

And apparently, that thin person, like faeries and leprechauns can be seen in that instant  between day and night.

But for about 20 seconds I did get a reflection of the  almost pink clouds off of the water.  it was, again in the words of Monet enough  “to excite the enemies of blue and pink.”

 

A proper trip would require me to spend an hour after sun down, carry a tripod and set waiting for the perfect 20 seconds, but that is starting to sound like an expedition.  May be one of these days.

More photos of gold creek