This may or may not be disappointing, but I’ve decided to not try to write something everyday. There may be several days in a row when I do have something I want or need to write about, but lately it feels like I’m mostly setting down a laundry list of the days activities. It is true that sometimes writing such a list brings up thoughts I wasn’t aware of, which is useful sometimes, but often it just feels forced.
Happily, I do have things to write about tonight. On Saturday a friend and I went on a native plant walk at Washington Park, a beautiful and unknown park (to me) near the ferry dock in Anacortes. The park is some 220 acres in size, was clear cut about a century ago and then gifted to the city by the logger baron who stripped it. So, there are some big second growth trees and several different habitat types there. Part of the park is wet and shady and part is on an exposed rocky bluff above the Sound. I learned several wildflowers and other native plants I had not known before, which is always fun. Plus I saw common blue camas and death camas growing side by side, which was a exciting.
On the dry side of the bluffs grows Rocky Mountain juniper, found in few places this far west of the Rocky Mountains. And there were lots of wonderful twisted madrones with their polished naked wood exposed, although they remain evergreen throughout the year.
I was especially taken with the tiny wildflowers whose names I learned just two days ago. As I think about my fascination with small plants and creatures, I reflect on my attention to detail (sometimes to a fault) and the fact that I’m much less adept at seeing the whole. Frequently I feel despair over my inability to comprehend or identify all the pieces, especially when people around me seem to do it so effortlessly. It makes me feel stupid sometimes that I didn’t take one piece of the whole into account.
On the other hand I know I’m fascinated with little plants and bugs because I can get up close and feel more connected to them. When it comes to abstract details, I focus on those because I can feel more control and ability to accomplish small detailed tasks. I do think it would be useful for me to practice seeing the big picture more. It is something I can do, but I have to really concentrate and bend my mind to the task.
With those musings, here are a bunch of photos I took on the plant walk for your enjoyment.
Common Blue Camas & Death Camas
Death camas
Some Indian tribes harvested camas bulbs to eat, but must have discovered early on that death camas were, as their name implies, deadly. The bulbs of the two plants look alike, but the difference between them is unmistakable while they’re blooming. To ensure they didn’t dig death camas by mistake, they weeded out death camas when there were just a few or marked safe plots from which to harvest during the bloom season.
Fairy slipper orchid
Fawn lillies
Shooting stars growing in poor soil near tidal rocks
Shooting star growing in little soil in rocky crevice
Shooting stars up close
Can you tell I was enchanted with these little beauties? There were so many of them and they grew best where soil was thin and poor. How amazing that such loveliness prefers marginal conditions.
Field chickweed - so delicate
Miner's lettuce
This can be eaten as a salad green. We saw another type called Siberian miner’s lettuce, which is also edible. This particular plant is such a vibrant green and delightful shape. There’s a blog I just found out about today called “Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager”. The author wrote about miner’s lettuce about a month ago. Speaking of foraging, last week I picked a bunch of nettle tops and made them into a pureed nettle and rice soup, nettle pesto and dried some for tea. We ate up the last of those goodies for dinner this evening.
Rattlesnake plantain - amazing leaf pattern
Reindeer lichen (white) & pod fern (green)
Sea blush encircled by reindeer lichen
Small-flowered blue-eyed Mary
Sea blush & blue-eyed Mary - tiny plants
Yellow monkey flower
These are flowers I feel some sort of kinship with because of fond memories of my dad teaching himself plant identification. I think he saw a bunch of these in the Wallowas of Oregon and pointed them out to the others in our family, but I may be mistaken. Whatever the reality, that location and the flower are classified together in my memory. He may also have been identifying pink monkey flowers, not yellow; in any case, monkey flowers have a distinctive shape.
Precise nest holes of different sizes in a snag
View of San Juans from Washington Park bluffs
Rocky Mountain juniper - there is green at ends of branches
Madrone (foreground) & Rocky Mountain juniper
