Exploration

We have been exploring the narrow, quiet roads on walks from the house, and today, we did the 20 minute drive to Cape Perpetua for some hiking and whale watching.  Most of the things we do hinge around mother nature's weather agenda.  Spring weather here seems to be, shall we say, interesting?
Yesterday, Gail and I were standing in the living room when Gail spotted a river otter loping along the bank of the river then plunging in. As I looked up, we both saw a second one do the same.

 On this day, we walked about 8 miles on country lanes and Forest Service roads.  It's fun to see other people's property and animals.

Three days later, we hiked the other direction, and discovered a neighbor down the road raises peacocks, and their neighbor has llamas.  The boggy areas are dotted with yellow skunk cabbage flowers now.

 I was weeding around our goldfish pond and saw this frog, which I'm quite sure is an Oregon Spotted Frog. These frogs are rapidly disappearing from their former range, and are now being protected in some areas. From what I could find out, this frog is a little out of its known range.

 Yummy D is doing a little exploration of her own!

Penelope on watch from the kitchen window.

 This was last Tuesday...

 and this was Friday morning.

Night and morning brought a mix of snow, hail, sleet, and rain.

 Yesterday, we explored around the property, which really is a rain forest.  This rotting stump had all kinds of different plants, fungi, moss, and lichens growing on it.

 The same stump.

 These little heart shaped plants have popped up in the past week.  So much to learn!

 We have a maze of trails, and sometimes still get a little lost.

 This is what 80 plus inches of rain a year will do!

 We're looking forward to the mushroom festival in October to learn more about identification, and culinary uses.

I'm just starting to get a handle on identifying the local trees. So far I know we have red alder, bigleaf maple, western redcedar, western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and Douglas fir.  Underneath many of the trees is salmonberry.

Water we have!

 This morning, we hiked the 804 foot climb to the old shelter up on Cape Perpetua.

The view is stupendous! Gail spotted two whale spouts down below.

This bald eagle circled overhead.

 We then hiked down and over to the visitor center. On the way, we passed a few of these flowers that we soon learned were western trillium.  They are considered an herb that spreads by underground rhizomes.

In the comfort of the visitor center, we watched a couple of grey whales hanging out.  This is not much of a picture, but they were probably a half mile away.  So much new to do and see!  So much to do around the house and yard!  We are definitely keeping busy!