Mukilteo Musings

Loose Ends

1. As I mentioned before, Indian Paintbrush is my favorite flower. The colors are most spectacular at Branham Lakes near Sheridan, Montana than anywhere else. And believe me, I have seen Indian Paintbrush in Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado. My nephew, Rick, sent me this photo taken at Branham Lakes and I thank him!



2. Here is a photo of Branham Lakes from last weekend evidently after the snow melted with Rick and his two kids, Isabel, 5, and Samuel, 2. Folks, this is about 9000ft above sea level. Montana people are tough.



3. Speaking of tough, I have been continuing my walks and have made my 1.7m most days. The day before yesterday, we saw a pure white dove along our street. It seemed unafraid and Apolo wanted it badly. Thank goodness Dave had a good hold on him or the bird would have been one Golden Retriever's lunch. But, I also saw the bird as another sign of hope. I really did not feel like going on a walk that day and tried it anyway and made it the entire route. Thank you white dove. By the way, no such bird exists in my Pacific NW bird book.

4. Speaking of birds, our swallows are adorable. They are all grown up. Unfortunately, we found one of the babies dead on our porch leaving three. We think he just could not fly and fell out of the nest. The remaining swallows have left----sort of. Every evening at dusk, they come to our house and fly and play and catch bugs. They settle down for the evening on and near the nest because they no longer all fit in it. By morning, they are gone again. My bird book says that by mid September, they will fly south. At that point, we can clean up our porch. When I go to bed at night, now that my own children have left my nest, I kiss my puppy, Apolo good night and I turn on the porch light and say good night to my swallows.