Flowers blooming in the neighborhood:
Pink petals from the cherry trees
Dogwood
Iris and a neighborhood chicken
Cactus
Rhododendron
We planted our garden:
Tomatoes and basil
Zinnias and snapdragons
First local strawberries (Hoods!) from the Farmer’s Market
Hiking during prime wildflower season:
5/2 Camas at Camassia – Camas blooms in rocky meadows. We visited this preserve at the height of bloom!
Rocky meadows of camas flowers
Camas and rosy plectritis
Camas
Buttercup and rosy plectritis
Saxifrage and rosy plectritis
Blooming madrone tree – a first for me!
Pacific trillium
Wake robin trillium
5/3 Full Balsamroot at Memaloose/Tom McCall – Back to the Memaloose Hills for the second time this spring, this time with our daughter, and with the balsam root on Chatfield Hill in full flower mode.
Many more flowers blooming in the lower oak woodlands
Chocolate lilies
Starting up Chatfield Hill in a sea of yellow
Lupine and balsamroot
Balsamroot
Mt Hood and oak tree
Paintbrush
Looking west from the top of Chatfield Hill
Looking east toward Mt Adams
Same view through Emily’s purple sunglasses
After this hike we went to Rowena Crest to see the flowers and views from the lower Tom McCall Point Trail.
Looking back toward Rowena Crest
Balsamroot along the trail to ‘Parsley Alley’
My favorite, fern leaf parsley!
5/9 Bitterroot at Catherine Creek – Bitterroot is one of my all time favorites, and the bloom window is short. We heard they were out at Catherine Creek, so off we went, hiking the loop up the Bitterroot Trail, then back down Rowland Wall.
Bitterroot blooms scattered all over the basalt outcrops; looking east up the Columbia River
Bitterroot
Meadows full of cluster lilies, looking toward Mt Hood
Balsamroot, paintbrush and lupine at the edge of Rowland Wall
Cliff penstemon on Rowland Wall
Cliff penstemon
And of course, oily red leaves of poison oak lurking…
Bitterroot and monkey flowers
Bitterroot looking toward Mosier
Bitterroot!
5/17 White River – no flowers, just snow – This area is usually melted out by May, but not this year. On a hot day we decided to check it out.
Mt Hood from the trail head.
White River and Mt Hood
We were able to walk about a mile up river, until snow conditions became unsafe – deep postholes and tree wells melting out, so we turned around.
Mt Hood
Close up of Illumination Rock, and a potential avalanche bergschrund on the near slope…
Mt Hood summit
5/17 Corydalis along the Old Salmon River – Same hot day, since it was too hot to do anything too strenuous, we decided to walk along the lower stretch of the Old Salmon River trail, which we hadn’t visited before.
Down into the shady, mossy, ferny forest…
We walked along the river for about a mile and a half.
Blooming Corydalis was abundant, in large clumps along the sunnier banks of the river
Scouler’s corydalis
Also, fading trillium and pioneer violets
Hooker’s fairy bells
River running fast and cold from the melting snow
Sandy beach
Sparkly reflections
5/23 Late season flowers at Mosier Plateau – It was too windy farther east, at Rowena Plateau, so we took this shorter hike, which starts in a more protected side canyon before emerging onto a plateau above the Columbia River.
Mosier Creek Falls
Looking down at the top of Mosier Creek Falls, Washington skyline in the distance.
Bachelor buttons turning the grassy slopes purple,
And beautiful California poppies, reminding me of the “golden rolling hills of California’
A few winecup clarkia (pink) along the path
Panorama across the Columbia River to Washington from the plateau, looking directly at the reverse ‘S’ curve of Coyote Wall. Buckwheat is in full bloom; balsam root have faded.
More buckwheat meadows, looking west on our return hike.
Ookow
5/30 Rocky gardens at Hamilton Mountain – Now that the lower elevation flowers are fading, it is time to look higher…
A few honeysuckles in the foreground; view of the top from the power line corridor
Tiger lily in the power line corridor
Rodney Falls and Pool of the Winds
Stonecrop on the lower cliffs
Penstemon and rosy plectritis on the lower cliffs
Mt Hood beyond the desert parsley and death camas on the lower cliffs
Columbian lewisia on the upper rocky switchbacks, with a view to Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River
Panorama from the top, Table Mountain and Mt Adams
Looking across the gorge to Oregon – Mt Hood behind clouds now, beyond the brown fringe of burned forest from the 2017 fire.
Down river, westward view from near the summit
And looking back on the summit from the northern saddle, as we circle round on the 8 mile, 2200 feet loop.
Knitting – I finished two blankets and a pair of socks.
Malabrigo Slip Stitch Blanket – for me, still needs to be blocked, but I won’t need it until next winter
Sliding is Fun – for the Guild Service Project
Striped socks
Quilting and sewing – I finished the back for the Modern Mystery Quilt –
Modern Mystery Quilt 2023, Front
Back – Using stash fabric and scraps from the front …I like to think of it as Mt Hood and the Northern Lights.
And I sewed a little book bag for my one year old great niece –
Meanwhile…Emily walked a labyrinth near the Pacific Ocean…
Margaret Quilts 