I knitted a few things this month…

Goose Hollow Shawl, Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL

Four hats for the guild service project

A flotilla of gnomes, sent to Washington DC, with survival provisions.

I started a baby quilt…

The front yard bulbs are blooming despite a late hard freeze.

We went on three local hikes to familiar areas, in addition to one big adventure to Palm Spring National Park in southern California (separate post)….

Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, Portland, Oregon, February 3

An easy 3 mile loop with lots of wildlife sightings.

Wildlife mural on the mausoleum

Blue heron mural

Blue heron

The lake, downtown Portland in the distance

otter

cormorant

otter

mallards

Coyote Wall, Washington, February 18th

5 mile loop, with friends, on a sunny day with only a light breeze.

Coyote Wall

Lunch view to Mt Hood

Lunch view to the eastern gorge

The early flowers:

yellow parsley

grass widows

gold stars

salt and pepper

Columbia Hills Desert Parsley

Spring Whitlow Grass

Catherine Creek, Washington, February 25

A week later, a cold snap had frozen most of the grass widows at nearby Catherine Creek. We walked a few miles, exploring some side trails we hadn’t tried before.

Fields of grass widows – some shriveled in the cold. Hoping many of these will bloom when it warms up!

A new to us side trail brought us to these rock formations.

The arch

The road

Dozens of robins bobbed and hopped in the surrounding meadows and bushes.

robin

robin

western bluebird

We visited our favorite fairy ponds, which were frozen,

And found a few blooming grass widows nearby.

grass widows

bitterroot foliage

Snow dusted eastern view

Meanwhile…The days have been galloping by. I have created a few things to justify the time, of which there is never enough. Elsewhere in the world all is upheaval, war and death. A power grab, unexplainable access to power; the code of civility is a construct…if we don’t all buy in then it cannot exist.