In April, there were neighborhood walks, wildflower hikes, knitting, and quilting – both before and after our trip to Pennsylvania and Connecticut, described in the previous post.

Neighborhood walks –

Spring blooming trees and flowers…

Sidewalk cracks and shadows…

Birthdays…

Knitting –

I made progress on these two blankets – I keep one downstairs and one upstairs, as they are both getting big!

Quilting –

I finished piecing the top for the Modern Quilt Studio 2023 Mystery Quilt, and started piecing together the scraps plus other fabric from my stash into the backing.

Hiking –

We found lots of wildflowers in April, from the earliest trillium in the forests to the beginnings of spring balsamroot fields in the eastern Columbia River Gorge – all the wildflowers are late this year.

April 3 – Tryon Creek, Portland – A rainy day with intervals of hail. We hiked for a couple of miles, and found the earliest trillium blooming along the Cedar Trail:

April 20 – Memaloose Hills and Rowena Plateau, Oregon – Checking the wildflower bloom in the eastern gorge – we saw the beginnings of the balsamroot bloom, and some of the last of the early flowers.

Memaloose Hills:

Rowena Crest:

April 25 – Upper Cape Horn Trail, Washington – We walked over the top of Cape Horn to the Nancy Russell Overlook, and back. Lots of trillium in the forest, and snow on the mountains to the north…

April 27 – Crawford Oaks, Columbia Hills, Washington – We hiked the Lower Vista Loop, with friends. Balsamroot beginning to bloom out here at the lower elevations – beautiful!