May, 2021
Today was a day to hang around our trailers and our campsites, go for walks inside the campground, visit with each other throughout the day, read a book, take a nap, put our feet up and just relax. In truth, one or two of us did go out for a short, quick drive later in the day, but for the most part we just chilled. It was lovely!
Here we all are … our three trailers (all built by Escape Trailer Industries) and our tow vehicles.
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So there we were today, just relaxing and sitting around, walking and wandering close to our campsites. Later in the morning we all headed out along the path along the bluff again, and then to the “bench” of land that overlooks Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan islands and the Canadian islands. On a gorgeous day like today, how could you not go take a another look at this beautiful view?
We walked down the path in the photo above, out towards the edge of the land, then turned and looked back to where we had come from …
That’s a lot of land … open land that is evidently kept clear of shrubs and trees. The sign below explains why.
While we friends were out here wandering and roaming, there wasn’t another person anywhere in the area … just us (and the doggies).
The photo above was taken looking up at the hillside above us. There certainly were a lot of yellow flowers! These plants and their yellow flowers are what we call Scotch Broom. They are non-native, are considered a noxious weed, and are on the state’s Prohibited Plant List meaning it is illegal to sell, buy, transport them, or plant them. They are prolific! On the other hand, the flowers are really pretty.
And then I noticed that, every once in a while, actually quite rarely, there would be one shrub with yellow/RED flowers, like the one in the photo below.
These plants have been here for possibly hundreds of years. One wonders why there are so few plants with yellow/red flowers while the vast majority have pure yellow flowers.
After all of that exploration on the “bench” (thanks to blog reader Fritzi for naming it that, it’s a perfect description), we headed back along the upper path, along the edge of the woods. The tree in the photo below had obviously suffered its share of wind and weather and storms. It looked to me like the ground up close around the base of the tree might be a safe place to hide out, protected by all those branches.
Salal, above, a Pacific Northwest native in the “heath” family. The flowers become delicious, edible, dark purple-black berries. My mom made salal jam … mmmm, mmmm, good. The plant makes an excellent ground cover since it stays green year-round, and when left to its own devices (or even helped along a bit) it grows so thickly that it keeps out weeds naturally.
Oregon Grape (above), another well-loved Pacific Northwest native. It’s actually in the barberry family, not the grape family. The flower of this plant is the state flower of Oregon. Many parts of the plant have been used for centuries for medicinal purposes. Warning, the berries are tart! Even when ripe, if they are eaten right off the plant, they will make you screw up your face and wrinkle your nose! 🙂 But add something sweet to them and they make a delicious jam or jelly.
Douglas “fir” cones (above), and sprigs of bright green, soft, new growth. The very common Douglas Fir here in the Pacific Northwest is actually a member of the pine family. How goofy is that? They sure are handsome trees.
And, speaking of handsome, on one of our walks around the campground, this handsome lass (below) sat perfectly still, posing for the photograph. She’s a Townsend’s Chipmunk, which is, you guessed it, actually a member of the squirrel family.
It’s sure a funny world. We name so many things the opposite of what they are. Oregon Grape is not a grape. Douglas Fir is not a fir. A Townsend Chipmunk is actually a squirrel. And those beautiful Scotch Broom plants are so pretty and yet they are so invasive and troublesome … and, get this, in Australia the exact same plant is known as English Broom. Sometimes I think human beings are rather odd characters, don’t you? 🙂