Pictures of the Week 2010-10
Hello All,
After a night’s rest we were off and running the next morning. Departing La Grande, OR, we follow I-84 till intercepting I-82 north into Washington. We then intercepted I-90 which we followed west into Seattle.
While in Seattle we stayed with Barb’s daughter Tammy and family. We had a fun three days doing nothing but visiting and eating wonderful home cooked meals. It was great! They have an unusual house pet named Auzi! He is not a dog, cat, hamster or a goldfish--he’s a bunny and he’s house broken!
Auzi spends his time in the family room where there is carpet on the floor. To get out of the family room he would have to go down a hall or through the kitchen, which both have slick surfaces on the floor. He does not like slick floors so they have a natural barrier that keeps him in the family room. Their two cats (Mandu & Mouse) tolerate him. And, when they have had enough fun they just simply walk out of the family room leaving him behind. Not too bad for a house pet--he does not bark or meow or scratch the upholstery. He just sits and looks loveable and cuddly.
After a night’s rest we were off and running the next morning. Departing La Grande, OR, we follow I-84 till intercepting I-82 north into Washington. We then intercepted I-90 which we followed west into Seattle.
While in Seattle we stayed with Barb’s daughter Tammy and family. We had a fun three days doing nothing but visiting and eating wonderful home cooked meals. It was great! They have an unusual house pet named Auzi! He is not a dog, cat, hamster or a goldfish--he’s a bunny and he’s house broken!
Auzi spends his time in the family room where there is carpet on the floor. To get out of the family room he would have to go down a hall or through the kitchen, which both have slick surfaces on the floor. He does not like slick floors so they have a natural barrier that keeps him in the family room. Their two cats (Mandu & Mouse) tolerate him. And, when they have had enough fun they just simply walk out of the family room leaving him behind. Not too bad for a house pet--he does not bark or meow or scratch the upholstery. He just sits and looks loveable and cuddly.
He is granddaughter Mali’s
pride and joy.
During our visit Dave became
infatuated with the Tibetan Singing Bowl that they have. Not only had we never
seen a singing bowl before we hadn’t even heard of one. Guess we are just not
worldly enough.
Tibetan singing bowls (also known as Himalayan bowls, rin gongs, medicine bowls, or suzu gongs in Japan) are a type of bell, specifically classified as a standing bell. Rather than hanging inverted or attached to a handle, standing bells sit with the flat bottom resting on a surface. The sides and rim of singing bowls vibrate to produce sound. To make it sing, you hold the bowl flat in the palm of one hand. With the other hand you slowly run a wooden stick around the outside of the bowl. The bowl starts singing--it is amazing.
Singing bowls were traditionally used throughout Asia as part of Bon and Tantric Buddhist sadhana. Today they are employed worldwide both within and without these spiritual traditions, for meditation, trance-induction, relaxation, healthcare, personal well-being and religious practice. Singing bowls were historically made in Tibet, Nepal, India, Bhutan, China, Japan and Korea. The best known are from the Himalayan region and are called Tibetan singing bowls.
Here Dave is making it sing.
Tibetan singing bowls (also known as Himalayan bowls, rin gongs, medicine bowls, or suzu gongs in Japan) are a type of bell, specifically classified as a standing bell. Rather than hanging inverted or attached to a handle, standing bells sit with the flat bottom resting on a surface. The sides and rim of singing bowls vibrate to produce sound. To make it sing, you hold the bowl flat in the palm of one hand. With the other hand you slowly run a wooden stick around the outside of the bowl. The bowl starts singing--it is amazing.
Singing bowls were traditionally used throughout Asia as part of Bon and Tantric Buddhist sadhana. Today they are employed worldwide both within and without these spiritual traditions, for meditation, trance-induction, relaxation, healthcare, personal well-being and religious practice. Singing bowls were historically made in Tibet, Nepal, India, Bhutan, China, Japan and Korea. The best known are from the Himalayan region and are called Tibetan singing bowls.
Here Dave is making it sing.
Departing Seattle we hopped on
I-5 southbound. Since it had been a number of years since we had been to Mt.
St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in southern Washington we decided to
check it out. We were curious as to how the environment had recovered since the
eruption.
At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried beneath volcanic deposits. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments. In 1982, the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment was left to respond naturally to the disturbance.
The eruption triggered a huge landslide causing a powerful, lateral directed blast. A pyroclastic flow consisting of rock fragments, highly charged gas and super heated steam, devastated almost 150,000 acres of private, state and federal forests.
Weyerhaeuser Corporation was a major land owner in the blast zone. In addition to Weyerhaeuser’s forest damage, 3 logging camps, 22 crew buses, 30 log trucks, 39 railroad cars, 12 million board feet of logs, 650 miles of road, 19 bridges, and 16 miles of railroad were either buried by ash or washed away by mud flows.
Weyerhaeuser made a commitment to replant the forests.
Their commitment to replace trees in the blast zone was a $9,000,000 investment. It wasn’t until a commercial thinning of the trees in 2010 that they began to realize a return on their investment. By the year 2026 the new forest will start being harvested and then replanted.
We were amazed at how large the trees have grown since our last visit. The majority of the trees planted are Noble Fir. They are a beautiful tree, but if you look at a whole forest of them with your naked eye they look like a blurry photo. You will rub your eyes and squint but they still appear blurry. It is a fascinating quirk of nature. Check out the following photos. Trust us, they are not blurry.
At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried beneath volcanic deposits. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments. In 1982, the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment was left to respond naturally to the disturbance.
The eruption triggered a huge landslide causing a powerful, lateral directed blast. A pyroclastic flow consisting of rock fragments, highly charged gas and super heated steam, devastated almost 150,000 acres of private, state and federal forests.
Weyerhaeuser Corporation was a major land owner in the blast zone. In addition to Weyerhaeuser’s forest damage, 3 logging camps, 22 crew buses, 30 log trucks, 39 railroad cars, 12 million board feet of logs, 650 miles of road, 19 bridges, and 16 miles of railroad were either buried by ash or washed away by mud flows.
Weyerhaeuser made a commitment to replant the forests.
Their commitment to replace trees in the blast zone was a $9,000,000 investment. It wasn’t until a commercial thinning of the trees in 2010 that they began to realize a return on their investment. By the year 2026 the new forest will start being harvested and then replanted.
We were amazed at how large the trees have grown since our last visit. The majority of the trees planted are Noble Fir. They are a beautiful tree, but if you look at a whole forest of them with your naked eye they look like a blurry photo. You will rub your eyes and squint but they still appear blurry. It is a fascinating quirk of nature. Check out the following photos. Trust us, they are not blurry.
Coldwater Lake, Castle Lake,
Spirit Lake, and Silver Lake have all been formed by eruptions of Mt. Saint
Helens. These lakes show us that life quickly responds to natural changes of
the earth’s surface.
Castle Lake is a prime example following the 1980 eruption. Landslide debris blocked the flow of Castle Creek causing water to pool behind the natural dam that eventually gave birth to Castle Lake. The filling lake was a soupy mixture of soil and fragments of the shattered forest. Smelling like rotting garbage, methane bubbled up from the bottom. The lake seemed as lifeless as the surrounding gray landscape. But lakes have a built-in purifying system, that when left alone, without further pollution, will automatically clean themselves. Five years after the lake was formed, the community of life in the lake was already similar to that found in lakes thousands of years old. Wind, flowing streams, and wet footed ducks flying from other lakes carried in bacteria, plankton, and aquatic insects. In the marshy shoreline plants attached their roots in the mud. Life gathered there to take advantage of the food and shelter provided by the plants and the water was warmed by sunlight.
Today some 30 years after the eruption the lake waters are crystal clear as shown in the following photos. Also in these photos are a few remnants of the many large old growth trees that were uprooted or snapped off like toothpicks by the force of the eruption.
Castle Lake is a prime example following the 1980 eruption. Landslide debris blocked the flow of Castle Creek causing water to pool behind the natural dam that eventually gave birth to Castle Lake. The filling lake was a soupy mixture of soil and fragments of the shattered forest. Smelling like rotting garbage, methane bubbled up from the bottom. The lake seemed as lifeless as the surrounding gray landscape. But lakes have a built-in purifying system, that when left alone, without further pollution, will automatically clean themselves. Five years after the lake was formed, the community of life in the lake was already similar to that found in lakes thousands of years old. Wind, flowing streams, and wet footed ducks flying from other lakes carried in bacteria, plankton, and aquatic insects. In the marshy shoreline plants attached their roots in the mud. Life gathered there to take advantage of the food and shelter provided by the plants and the water was warmed by sunlight.
Today some 30 years after the eruption the lake waters are crystal clear as shown in the following photos. Also in these photos are a few remnants of the many large old growth trees that were uprooted or snapped off like toothpicks by the force of the eruption.
Normally when we see cattails
they are rather tattered. But the ones growing in patches here and there around
the lakes were in their prime.
Growing up on the west coast
thistle was not high on our list of desirable plants. As a matter of fact, it
is a nasty pesky weed! But, we have to
admit these in bloom were rather attractive.
Probably the most unusual
thing that we came across trekking around the lakes was this feather piercing
through a leaf. We don’t have a clue how it got there. There has to be a story
behind it, but we will never know the answer.
Until next time,
Dave & Barb
The Traveling Browns
Dave & Barb
The Traveling Browns