22 Wednesday May 2013
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Sometimes it’s all gray and green, cottonwood fluff…
and sweet sweet blue.
I love the living smell of spring – the pungencies of cottonwood and warming damp earth, of scotch broom and wet dog.
Almost a match for the abundance of green.
[cellphone pics, dusk, and drizzle… ]
14 Sunday Apr 2013
Posted in And Around, Other Side Of The Inside Of The Box, Ramblings
When I was a young girl, what I knew about trilliums was that each one will only bloom once every seven years.
I don’t know if that is true, or if it was something to tell a child who wanted to take the treasure of a perfect flower home for her own, or if, maybe, I am remembering something that never happened at all.
I don’t expect I’ll ever punch the buttons to find out.
Because do you know what happens when you find out that this beautiful, this perfectly white, this immaculately formed, miracle first flower of spring in front of you last bloomed in the year you were born?
It creates a miracle in every next time you see it for the rest of a whole life. Something joyful that is only for you.
The first trillium appeared on my trail to the Sandy River on March 26th. Every day, the first was joined by the next and then more, until there were dozens. Right there and just for me. And for the past twenty days, I have hiked that two miles down, two miles up, with more delight than the everyday peace that place is for me.
They are starting to fade. White petals tingeing to lavender, today’s deluge of rain and hail bowing their heads.
It’s okay. The wild strawberries and the salmon berries are blooming and will soon be a different kind of delight. The ferns are showing new furls, and will fan out to obscure their winter-killed fronds. The cottonwoods are leafing and, once again, the understory will contain no clear paths through.
I hope that when my season is done, I turn gently to lavender before I sink back to ground.
Mama, thank you for teaching me this love of wet and green and mud.
Loree
08 Monday Apr 2013
Posted in And Around, Day Trips, Events
Tags
columbia gorge, event, flower, frenzy, friends of the columbia gorge, hike, nature, oregon, walk
Friends of the Columbia Gorge
Flower Frenzy Challenge 2013!
March 1 to July 31, 2013
What a great reason to get boots on the trails, and experience the spring and early summer in our beautiful Columbia Gorge! Every year, I intend to get out to Dog Mountain in the spring, and every year, I miss the window. Rain or shine, I am going this weekend – mark it.
Friends Of The Columbia Gorge has put together a treasure hunt of 25 beautiful flowers that appear briefly in the Gorge in the spring and early summer, and the challenge is to get out there and find as many as you can, with the shyer of the bunch being worth more points. There are prizes, although I would suggest the treasure, in this case, is in the finding more than the winning :). The log has great information on each flower, like:
Bitter Root _ Lewisia rediviva… This flower was found in the Bitter Root Mtns by Lewis & Clark (state flower of Montana). The speciman they brought back had a viable root and bloomed years after the expedition. Hence the scientific name. American Indians valued it highly as a food, and although it is nutritous, it tastes bitter. According to tribal myths, the plant grew from the tears of a starving old woman, and its roots are bitter because of her sorrow. The large, fleshy roots were harvested just as the blossoms began to bud, and, after being boiled, became jellylike and less bitter.
Register at www.gorgefriends.org/flowerfrenzy , print out your log, and go find some beauty you haven’t seen before. Even if you’re not going to play this time, become a member! Memberships start at 35.00, which is a killer deal and gives you access to great inside information and resources. I also see that if you register now, you get a free copy of Ross Jolley’s “Wildflowers Of The Columbia Gorge”!
Some of the early ones will be disappearing soon (or you’ll have to hike up higher to find them), so start this weekend and I’ll see you on the other side of a cluster of Dutchman’s Breeches!
Columbia Gorge Gateway 