10/31 - Great Year for Madrona Berries on the Spruce Railroad Trail

This has been a great year for madrona berries on the Spruce Railroad Trail. When we first saw madronas, years ago in Bothe Napa State Park, we thought they were mutant magnolias because of their smooth bark and glossy leaves. It turns out that they aren't even related, but we found out other things as well. For example, madronas are coastal plants, so they are almost never found more than 75 miles from the sea. The plants we saw in Napa Valley were in a high pass west to Sonoma.

The Olympic Peninsula is surrounded by sea, so we have lots of madronas, some quite old and large. There is a great cluster near the Devil's Punchbowl, the swimming hole about a mile west of the Spruce Railroad Trail trailhead. This fall they've been full of berries. If anything, the red and green are a bit Christmassy for this time of year, so we guess that even nature, not just retailers, are getting set for the season.

10/20 - Obstruction Point Road Before Winter

The road to Obstruction Point from Hurricane Ridge is still open.The trails are still clear, and the views are stunning. We didn't go very far, but Mount Olympus and its glaciers dominated our journey, and there was just a bit of left over snow from the previous season. We found these ice crystals (lower left) on the ground, shaded by one of the firs.

In a month or two, the ground will be covered with snow. On our drive, we saw a coyote hustling about, but the marmots have taken cover. There was one other car in the parking lot when we set off, and ours was the only car in the lot when we returned. We were quite relieved when the car started. It's a rough 7.5 mile hike back to Hurricane Ridge

10/17 - Romanesco: Our Local Fractal Vegetable

You've probably seen these vegetables on sale at the Farmer's Market. They look like a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, though they taste more like the latter. We roast ours with olive oil, salt, pepper, and crushed star anise and coriander seeds.

It turns out that romanesco is a fractal vegetable. You see the same patterns up close as you do at a distance. For a more scientific analysis, from Fourmilab in Switzerland, there is now a web page discussing the vegetable and its fractal properties. There is even some cooking advice, but we'll stick with roasting.

10/11 - Early Frost in the High Country

There is already frost up in the hills. We were up on the Hurricane Hill Trail this morning, and there it was alongside the trail in the shaded areas. The lingering snows vanished months ago, but now we are getting our first glimpse of winter as the temperatures drop at night.

Obstruction Point Road is still open, but they close it at night. The snow poles are up around the Hurricane Ridge Lodge. This is still autumn, but we are seeing signs of winter, and a mile above sea level winter starts a fair bit earlier than down by the sea.

10/11 - Google Maps Come to Clallam County

We've been playing around with Google Maps. This is a rather neat interactive mapping system developed by Google. It uses a road database like Mapquest and a false color satellite database so you can see not only the streets and roads, but also get a sense of the land usage and urban density. The interface is neat too. It's the old electronic light table idea. You just put down your mouse and drag, and your web browser loads in the image tiles as you go.

Our map of Clallam County shows farms, lavender growers and wineries. If you click on one, it will tell you a bit more about the destination. It also shows the growing suburban sprawl in the Sequim area. If you look carefully, you see housing developments and golf courses. For some contrast, drag the mouse upwards, and you'll see the Olympic National Park and National Forest boundaries. Those park and forest boundaries are more than just lines on the map.

10/07 - The Buyer's Excise Tax - Saving Farmland

We just read a scary article in today's Peninsula Daily News saying that local realtors are bringing in outside, professional canvassers to try and defeat the Buyer's Excise Tax, Proposition 1. Realtors get 6% for every house sold, so more houses are their livelihood. The Buyer's Excise Tax (BET) is 1/2%, and it goes to preserving farm land and open space in Clallam County. Anyone reading this web site over the years realizes that we are big fans of local agriculture, but there are more solid, financial reasons to support the BET.

The Sequim area, in particular is being heavily developed. There is a new monster Walmart, a new Home Depot, and other stores coming in, and so is more residential development. All of this creates the demand for new services. The roads will need continuing upgrades as traffic increases, older people will need more paratransit and new clinics, younger people will need more schools, and more people and traffic mean more police officers. Property taxes are going to go up.

All this growth is going to change the character of the area. People who already live in the area, and people who move here in the near future, will start noticing that they bought and paid to live in one place, and now they seem to be living elsewhere. We can't stop change, but we can ameliorate its effects. The BET provides funding for doing this. Instead of taxing existing owners with increased property taxes, it is paid for by people moving in, the agents of change. They are already paying the realtors 6%, so one half of one percent is only a small increment. It is probably less than they pay for title insurance.

We used to live in the Boston area, so we have seen how well the BET and similar taxes work. They do preserve farmland and open spaces, and they also keep property values higher. People who choose to move to the community get what they paid for, and this makes the area more desirable. Everyone does well, including the realtors. They may lose a bit on volume, but they make it up with higher home prices.

10/05 - Pike Place Market at Night (An Urban Wonderland)

We took some pictures of Pike Place Market at night on our last trip in to Seattle. The market is rather mysterious at night with the crowds gone and signs all lit.

10/05 - The First Annual Clallam County Farm Tour

We went on the Clallam County Farm Tour this past Saturday and we checked out one of our old favorites, the Johnston Farm, and we finally found out what was in that big red barn at the corner of Kitchen-Dick Road and Old Olympic Highway. We also got to try out some of the Bella Italia pork and lavender sausages that we had heard so much about, and they were delicious.

Shown below are the farm stand at Johnston Farm, with tons of tomatoes and other harvest goodies. We bought the last of her romano beans and a pile of tomatoes for making sauce, and the big red barn, at the much less mysterious Adolphsen Farm.

10/01 - Early Autumn on the Switchback Trail

We were up at Klahane Ridge the other day and the scenery wa spectacular, both on the climb up the Switchback Trail, and at Hurricane Ridge as well. There was no great panorama, but more of a dance of the seven veils, with the clouds revealing and concealing. It was tricky weather for a photographer with great shots appearing and disappearing as we climbed.

It is tempting to avoid Hurricane Ridge on cloudy days, but the clouds and fog offer a special kind of beauty. The mists accent the mountains and make everything more real and less abstract. The recent rain made for better hiking too. The trail is made of dirt again, rather than dust.

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Not quite a panorama from Hurricane Ridge