Side benefits...

I had a long list of caches to find today; DW finished up his list yesterday, so I have some catching up to do. The weather wasn't great, but I didn't mind. The greens were greener, and the flowers were happy, and one side benefit of caching is finding beautiful places to photograph..

View...

We've been in the Tri-Cities for a few days... DW and me to geocache, our friends to ride their bicycles. In the heat, I think we have the better activity for the weekend. We spent a few hours on Red Mountain, tasting wine and talking. Best was sitting outside on the patio at Fidelitas, watching the clouds and drinking amazing reds, and hoping for a view of Mount Adams. No luck there, but everything else was just fine.

Gauntlet...

The day is ours... our friends are riding 75 miles, from Richland to Benton City and back again, and we're exploring the back roads near our old home in West Richland. A dirt road along the Yakima River took me back to the years I helped with an endurance ride, and floating the river on hot summer days. On the other side of the river is Red Mountain, an amazing wine region that didn't exist when we lived here.



One of our neighbors (and co-worker) went steelhead fishing on the Yakima most mornings in season, and he would have had some competition today. When we drove down to Horn Rapids where there's a flood control dam, I was amazed to see pelicans there.


















There were no pelicans here in the early 1980s, so I did some digging. The white pelicans began nesting on Badger Island (in the McNary National Wildlife Refuge) in 1997. Since then, the colony has grown to more than 1600 breeding pairs. Horn Rapids is just a quick flight from there, and the Yakima is full of fish and frogs. I wish they'd been around when we lived here; I was glad to learn that the population of white pelicans in Washington has rebounded enough that in 2016, their status was changed from endangered to threatened.

They are now a familiar sight in the Mid-Columbia region.

In bloom...

We're heading to our old stomping grounds for a long weekend... to cache and spend time with friends, and to explore. The wildflowers are in bloom, a beautiful time to be in the desert, and a reminder of how this place bursts into bloom every spring.

Lilacs...

A faint smell of lilac filled the air. There was always lilac in this part of town.

Where there were grandmothers, there was always lilac.

-- Laura Miller

The lilacs were planted along the fence between the young orchard and a grassy paddock. Old and overgrown when we moved in, pruning them went onto my gardening list. But come spring when they burst into glorious bloom and scent, I drew a line through the task. I'd never had lilacs before, and just anticipating their arrival each spring made me happy.

Over the years, the old shrubs died out, replaced by eager young plants that grew out of the sturdy rootstocks. Some years they bloomed better than others, but they always thrived.

But they've never been as beautiful as they are this year. All four shrubs were loaded with blooms, and for once the weather stayed calm and clear. No windstorm or rain to cut the season short.

Lesson day...

I went to Vashon Island today, to take pictures, and to watch my niece's riding lesson.

Fut first, some geocaching.  It was a gorgeous day, full of sun and signs of spring. This place, from where I stood down a steep hill to the water, was once a gravel pit. Today it's being reclaimed by nature, and is a park with hiking trails and a lot of wildflowers. If you look close, you'll see Mt. Rainier peeking out above the clouds.

This is a beautiful place, this island. Whenever I visit, I think about looking for a house here, when we moved home from eastern Washington. We looked at a lot of places, but never found just the right house. And when it came right down to it, DW decided he didn't want to make the commute off-island every day. 

I've had riding friends who've lived here over the years, and now it's my great-niece who is learning to ride horses here. Her trainer is a hoot, and great with kids. I love watching my niece... she has a beautiful seat on a horse already.

Sweet baby James...

Four years ago today, we buried our Sweet Baby James under the cedar tree, with the other cats who have shared our life: Taffy, Muffin, Tigger, Annie, and Phoebe. It broke my heart to lose this sweet cat, who slept between our pillows at night, purred whenever she saw either of us, and nothing made her happier than to sit on our laps. I will love her forever.