May, 2022
The last morning. It’s always a bittersweet morning this last morning of a camping trip. So far, I’ve loved everywhere I’ve camped and haven’t wanted to leave. And yet, the comforts of my home (and friends there) call to me, too.
So let me share just a few photos from the past few days … photos of things we saw this past week that didn’t fit into a larger “report” or their own blog post.
The four photos below show a field of plants that we passed any time we drove west of the Mardon Resort. Many of the plants were covered by this gauzy white material. Since we were here in May, it wasn’t hot yet as it would be in the summer, so we didn’t think the cover was for shade. Maybe it kept the birds off? There were acres and acres of the white gauzy cover. It seemed to cover younger plants, since you can see that more mature plants don’t have the cover.
I liked the absolutely brand new sprouts of plants in the photo above, just poking their green shoots up into the air. Life is so wonderful.
On a different day and on a different road, we saw this enormous field of plants in the two photos below. The field seemed somewhat separated into rows, but in many places the plants seemed to be left to grow wherever they wanted to grow. What are these plants?
And then on another day, we drove through thousands (millions?) of acres of fruit trees … peaches, pears, plums, and cherries (anything else to make us all merry, one for Peter two for Paul, three for him who made us all … oops, I slid into Christmas mode there, sorry). Anyway, there were probably more types of fruit trees than just those … and all manner of varieties of each type of fruit.
Again, above, more white gauzy material covering some of the mature plants … or is it covering the aisles in between the rows of plants?
I’m adding the photo below to remind myself to tell you a couple of stories. The first one happened in the photo below. While my friend and I were standing where we were standing (below), we were looking to the left, but then I just happened to turn and face the water and at that exact moment a large dark brown mammal swam past, really close, just at the edge of the grasses in the water. “WAIT! Let me get my camera out! WAIT!” Well, it didn’t wait. And no, that brown spot out in the water is not that little person who swam past. I suspect it was a beaver since there are lots of them hereabouts.
The second story (no photo) is that we were driving along on a paved road that passed between two large waterways (one on the left and one on the right). We came around a curve, right in between the two waterways, and saw, right in front of us, crossing the road from left to right at a surprisingly fast clip … a large dark brown beaver, for SURE this time, with its wide flat tail. Again, I couldn’t stop the truck and get my camera out in time. But my friend and I watched it waddle across the road, fairly quickly, then head into the bushes on the right, and then we saw it slide into the waterway to the right. Both sightings were so surprising and so special.
And then there was our last late afternoon, back at the Mardon Resort after another full day’s outing and adventures. My friend walked from her cabin down to my trailer and we sat out at the table talking and reminiscing about the week and enjoying the bird sounds.
Then one of us looked up into the tree right next to us … !
Finally, I’m presentable!
This Bullock’s Oriole was pruning and preening and cleaning and tidying itself up for quite some time. It was in that tree for quite awhile before it finally felt the job was done, and then it flew away.
That was thrilling, but then 15 minutes later, just as my friend was getting ready to walk back to her cabin, another visitor stopped by (below) and sang his heart out. A Western Meadowlark for sure.
Our trip to Potholes was amazing! An absolutely favorite destination for me.
So now, getting back to this last morning, I hitched up the truck to the trailer and then picked up my friend and her belongings at her cabin, and then we headed home. What a great week. What a great world.
