Category: Nature

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Sunday/ my vote is in 🫏

I donned my woolen gloves and skull cap this morning as I went for a walk (45°F/ 7°C).
A thick fog bank obscured the Olympic Mountains.

By afternoon the mountains were out, in soft shades of blue.
I walked down to Capitol Hill’s Broadway to reach the graffitied ballot box at Seattle Central College to deposit my mail-in ballot.
We don’t have dramatic House or Senate races here in Washington State that feature on the national stage, such as the James Talarico (D) vs. Ken Paxton (R) showdown in Texas, or the Susan Collins (R) vs. Troy Jackson (D) race in Maine.

Our ballot does have an initiative (I-645) that seeks to repeal the so-called “Millionaires Tax”— a 9.9% flat state income tax on household earnings exceeding $1 million per year, which was signed into law by Governor Bob Ferguson in March.

Fogbank seen from Capitol Hill’s 13th Ave East, 9.03 am.
An updated view, 4.26pm.
The ballot box is in rough shape on the outside, but I like to drop it in here instead of putting it in the mail.

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Thursday/ arrival home: day 3 of 3 🛣️

We started out in Bend, Oregon, a little after 8 am this morning.
We first stopped by the very last Blockbuster video rental store in all of the United States (and all of the world, in fact).  We made another stop at the spectacular Smith Rock State Park.
After that we made our way north and west to Ellensburg, and across Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle.

We took U.S. Route 97 (US 97) from Bend all the way to the Washington-Oregon state line (the Columbia River), and from there to Toppenish in Washington. From Toppenish we took Interstate 82 to Ellensburg, and then Interstate 90 that runs across Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle.
This is the the very last Blockbuster video rental store in the whole world (in Bend, Oregon). It was a Pacific Video store before converting to a Blockbuster franchise in June 2000. It became the last Blockbuster store in the U.S. in 2018 and the last Blockbuster store in the world in March 2019.
Smith Rock State Park is a state park located in central Oregon’s High Desert near the communities of Redmond and Terrebonne. The day-use area of the park is open daily from dawn to dusk.
The sheer cliffs are the result of a major volcanic eruption in the area millions of years ago. The stone material is called Smith Rock tuff.
This charging stop is in Madras, Oregon.
Here is Oregon’s Mount Hood, seen from U.S. Route 97.
Mt Hood is an active stratovolcano and the highest mountain in Oregon, standing at 11,249 feet (3,429 meters). It is located about 50 miles east of Portland.
Still in Oregon here, but now approaching the Columbia River Gorge and the Washington-Oregon state line.
Hello Washington State. We had just crossed the Columbia River. This is still U.S. Route 97.
Here is the Columbia River Gorge and the mighty Columbia River— the Washington-Oregon state line.
Look for the Stonehenge Memorial (round brown structure, middle of the picture) perched on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.
It was built as a World War I memorial dedicated to soldiers from Klickitat County, Washington, who died in the war.
Wind turbines dotting the hills, very similar to the ones we had seen in California.
This Stars and Stripes flag on a tall pole is in Toppenish.
Here is the Yakima River, a stone’s throw from our charging station in Yakima.
Our last charging stop for the day was in Yakima.
On the way to Ellensburg. Light from the setting sun behind us is refracted on the car’s display screen.
Late afternoon in Snoqualmie Pass over the Cascade Mountain Range, on Interstate 90.
Crossing Lake Washington for the last few miles to Seattle. The light rail train on the left is still a new sight, in operation since late March 2026.
The end of our day’s journey on U.S. Route 97, Interstate 82 and Interstate 90 is coming up with the Rainier Avenue exit.
The lettering in the cement at the tunnel entrance says ‘Seattle — Portal to the Pacific’.
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Wednesday/ going back: day 2 of 3 🛣️

Here is our drive for today: about 475 mi and just under 8 hours.

We took Interstate 5 through Sacramento and Redding, and then at the little town of Weed, went on to U.S. Route 97 to cross into Oregon, and go through Klamath Falls to Bend. 
Morning rush hour near Sacramento. It helped a lot to have an HOV lane that we could use.
Our first charging stop for the day at Anderson, CA, was the same one we had used on the way down to Palm Springs. Check out the olive green Cybertruck.
Interstate 5 winding through the mountains near Redding.
One of the arms of the sprawling Shasta Lake north of Redding.
The souvenir store in Weed, CA, does not actually sell weed (cannabis) products. It does have t-shirts, sweatshirts, key chains, shot glasses and all kinds of other souvenirs.
Weed is also where we made our second charging stop.
Beautiful Mt Shasta, with very little snow this time of year. Mt Shasta peaks out at only 200 ft lower than Washington State’s Mt Rainier.
Mount Shasta is easier and simpler to climb than Mount Rainier, serving as a non-technical steep snow-mountaineering peak, whereas Mount Rainier is a massive, heavily glaciated objective requiring rope-team and crevasse-rescue skills.
[Source: Global Summit Guide]
Paraglider near Mt Shasta.
Trees in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Now approaching the California-Oregon border, and this is the little town of Dorris on U.S. Route 97.
A vista of the tranquil waters of Upper Klamath Lake, as seen from U.S. Route 97 that runs alongside it.
Trees at a last rest stop in southern Oregon, at about 4 pm.
We have arrived in Bend, OR. Giving the car one more charge before we head to the hotel.
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Tuesday/ going back: day 1 of 3 🛣

We left Palm Springs shortly after 8 am this morning.
We made two charging stops, a lunch stop in Bakersfield, and two additional stops, and arrived at Lodi, California, shortly after 6 pm.

Our route took us to Yucca Valley, and through the Mojave Desert to Barstow and then to Bakersfield. From Bakersfield we followed California State Route 99 (SR 99) to Stockton and then drove a few miles on Interstate 5 to get us to Lodi for our overnight stay.
An array of solar panels and a Joshua tree on the right.
Wind turbines on the way to Barstow.
A closer look at the solar panels.

A glimpse of the Mojave Air and Space Port (MHV). This 3,300-acre site houses over 100 commercial and experimental aircraft. Planes are stored here for temporary holding, part-stripping, or scrapping.
Evidence of wildfires that scarred the hills.
It was 1.02 pm and 102°F (39°C) when we rolled into Bakersfield.
Our first charging stop was in Bakersfield at the Double Tree Hotel there.
Evidence of the construction of the California High-Speed Rail infrastructure.
Construction of a 171-mile segment between Merced and Bakersfield, with revenue service projected between 2031 and 2033 is underway, but to date the project has seen massive funding shortfalls, complex land acquisition, and severe political and legal delays.
Our second charging stop at Madera.
California produces about 80% to 82% of the world’s almonds.
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Friday/ downtown Palm Springs 👩🏼

Happy Friday.
It was 100°F (38°C) outside here in Palm Springs today, so we could not spend too much time out and about in the middle of the day.

Forever Marilyn is a giant statue of Marilyn Monroe designed by Seward Johnson. The statue is a representation of the image of Monroe taken from Billy Wilder’s 1955 film The Seven Year Itch. Created in 2011, the statue has been displayed in a variety of locations in the United States, as well as in Australia.
In 1949, at age 22, Monroe spent time at Charlie Farrell’s legendary Palm Springs Racquet Club, where she was photographed by local photographer Bruno Bernard (“Bernard of Hollywood”).
These poolside photos and her time at the club helped connect her with William Morris Agency executive Johnny Hyde, who became a pivotal figure in advancing her early career.
[Source: PS Resorts.com, Reddit, Acme House Company]
There is a roadrunner in this picture.
Roadrunners (genus Geococcyx) are also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, and are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests.
Roadrunners are built to run and can fly only for short bursts— to escape a predator or get over an obstacle. They don’t fly to catch food but instead, chase down insects, lizards and rodents.
P.S. I ❤︎ You. A person as subject of the picture will make the I that is missing from the red letters.
The phrase “P.S. I Love You” is a nod to a classic mid-century promotional slogan and vintage ephemera from Palm Springs’ golden resort era.

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Sunday/ dahlias 💐

Here is the last of today’s sunlight on the Volunteer Park Conservatory.
Nearby, the dahlia garden is still in peak bloom.
The flower beds have rounded pompon varieties and dramatic cactus dahlias, which stand out with their narrow, pointed petals.

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Saturday/ a new cat 🙀

Kate Golembiewski reports for the New York Times:

A three-pound wildcat with leopardlike spots from Bolivia who once lived briefly as a house pet isn’t just adorable. He is also, scientists say, the standard-bearer for the first new feline species discovered in a century.

The cat himself is named Tigrino, and his species is called tilcayo.

Several other cat species have gained official recognition after previously being considered subspecies. But the tilcayo, found in the cloud forests of the Andes Mountains in Bolivia, is the first brand-new feline species added to the cat family tree since the pampas cat was described in 1923.

The diminutive tilcayo, officially Leopardus tilcayo, resembles its closest relatives, the so-called tiger cats, found in Central and South America. After DNA analysis, the scientists whose study was published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology say the species split from its closest relatives 1.4 million years ago.

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Thursday/ from Japan 🇯🇵

The charming postcard and first day cover (envelope) from Japan that I had bought online, arrived in the mail today.

The wealth of information for each was generated by my AI helper Claude, just from examining the images. Very impressive.

Here’s what I can piece together from this postcard — it’s a lovely piece with several layers of Japanese history packed into it.

The Stamp
The orange 2-yen stamp in the upper left is a postwar definitive stamp reading “日本郵便” (Nihon Yūbin/Japan Post), showing a temple gate design. Two-yen stamps in this style date to the late 1940s, a period of rapid currency inflation in occupied Japan, which pushed postal rates up quickly from their prewar sen-denominated values.
The Postmark (the real story here)
The circular cancellation in the lower left is a special commemorative postmark, not an everyday one.
It reads:
市制六十周年 (60th anniversary of city status)
復興五年記念 (5th anniversary of reconstruction)
岩瀬 (Iwase) — the post office/place name
24. 8. 1 — Shōwa 24, meaning August 1, 1949
A small ship and mountain range are worked into the design, along with text referencing 越中富山 (Ecchū Toyama) and 反魂丹 (Hangontan)

This tells us the postcard was mailed from Iwase, a district of Toyama City on the Sea of Japan coast. Iwase developed as a port town in the early Edo period, and by the late Edo period, wealthy shipping merchant families there grew rich handling kitamae-bune (northern-bound ship) trade in rice, kelp, and local medicines — which is exactly why a ship appears in the cancellation, and why “Hangontan” (a famous Toyama folk medicine, historically peddled nationwide by traveling Toyama medicine merchants) is referenced. The mountains in the design are almost certainly the Tateyama range, Toyama’s iconic backdrop. The “60th anniversary of city status / 5th anniversary of reconstruction” combination fits 1949, four years after WWII bombing damage to Toyama City, whose 60th anniversary of municipal incorporation also fell around that time.
Kyoto-art
The Poem and Artwork
The calligraphy is a classical waka poem attributed to Ōtomo no Yakamochi (大伴家持), one of the great poets of the Man’yōshū (Japan’s oldest poetry anthology). It’s poem 4249 from Book 19: 石瀬野に秋萩しのぎ馬並めて初鷹猟だにせずや別れむ — roughly, “At Iwase-no, brushing past the autumn bush-clover, shall we line up our horses and part without even a first hawking-hunt?”
Art Tags
This is the key connection: “Iwase-no” (石瀬野) in the poem is the very place the postcard was mailed from — Yakamochi served as governor of Ecchū province (roughly modern Toyama) from 746–751 CE and wrote many poems about the local landscape, including this one about a hunting trip near Iwase. The postcard’s illustrator paired this 8th-century poem with a Shōwa-era illustration of pines, sea, and mountains, and captioned the scene 古志の松原 (“the pine grove of Koshi,” Koshi being the old name for the Hokuriku region).

Putting It Together (Summary)
This appears to be a locally produced commemorative postcard, likely sold or distributed around the 1949 Iwase anniversary events, using a beloved local Man’yōshū poem tied to place-name pride — pairing Yakamochi’s ancient verse about “Iwase-no” with modern-day Iwase, Toyama, and postmarking it with a special celebratory cancel on the actual day.

This one’s a first day cover (FDC) for Japan’s Second National Park Stamp Series — specifically the Nikkō set.

The Stamps
Four stamps commemorating Nikkō National Park, issued September 1, 1962 (Shōwa 37) as part of Japan’s “Second National Park Series” — a long-running program (1962–1974, 52 stamps total) that succeeded the prewar “First National Park Series.” The stamps were issued in denominations of 5 yen and 10 yen, with 9 million printed.
Going by the imagery:
Purple/violet 10-yen — a lake with a mountain behind it, almost certainly Lake Chūzenji (中禅寺湖) with Mt. Nantai (男体山) rising behind it — the park’s signature view.
Olive/gold 10-yen — a wooded gorge or stream, likely one of the park’s famous waterfalls or river valleys (Kirifuri or Ryūzu falls area).
Blue 5-yen — a wetland with a mountain reflected in still water — this looks like Senjōgahara (戦場ヶ原), the marshland plateau below Mt. Nantai.
Brown/red 5-yen — steam or mist rising off a hillside — likely one of the volcanic hot-spring areas near Yumoto Onsen (湯元温泉), within the park.

The Postmarks
There are two different special first-day pictorial cancels (特印), both dated 37. 9. 1 (September 1, 1962), each from a different post office — a common FDC practice in Japan where multiple offices tied to a stamp’s subject each get their own commemorative design:
Left: 日光 NIKKO — shows a bridge (likely the sacred red Shinkyō Bridge at the entrance to Nikkō’s shrines), mountain peaks, and a jet plane, suggesting the Nikkō post office cancel.
Right: 群馬 片品 (Gunma, Katashina) — shows a marsh/lake outline and flowering plants, almost certainly referencing Oze (尾瀬), the famous highland marsh known for its skunk cabbage (mizubasho) blooms. Katashina Village in Gunma Prefecture is the main gateway to Oze, which is part of Nikkō National Park even though it’s a fair distance from Nikkō itself — the park spans four prefectures (Tochigi, Gunma, Fukushima, Niigata).

So this cover was specially prepared by a collector or dealer to catch two different first-day cancellations from two different prefectures, both tied to different corners of the same national park — a nice touch, since it visually ties together the mountain/lake scenery around Nikkō itself with the separate Oze wetland area the park also protects.

The Cachet
The painted mountain-and-lake scene across the bottom is a cachet — decorative artwork added to the envelope specifically for the first-day-of-issue release, standard practice for FDCs worldwide. It appears to depict Mt. Nantai over Lake Chūzenji again, reinforcing the stamp series’ theme, with the English title block up top confirming the series name and date for English-speaking collectors — suggesting this was likely produced with export/foreign collectors in mind, which was fairly common for Japanese FDCs of this era.

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Monday/ feels like fall ☁️

The city of Seattle had half an inch of rain on Sunday, and the days are cooler now: a high 67°F (19 °C) today.

The first of the leaves have started to fall from the trees, but asters and daisies are still out— splotches of lavender, lilac and pinks.

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Sunday/ Ocean Photographer of the Year 🌊

1st place
The Ocean Photographer of the Year
JULIEN ANTON
MO’OREA, FRENCH POLYNESIA 17°33’32.3″S
149°51’02.8″W

An adult seahorse pictured with newly born juveniles in the shallow seaweed-filled waters of Moorea, French Polynesia. Although they are unlikely to be related, their arrangement creates the impression of a farewell, as if the tiny seahorses are gathering around a father after he has released them into the world. Seahorses are now rare in French Polynesia so this image was the result of long hours of searching among the seaweed.

PHOTO TAKEN WHILE ON A REBREATHER DIVE LUMIX GH7 & SEAFROGS HOUSING
BIGBLUELIGHTS 2X 36000 LUMENS & X1
12000 LUMENS
1/320, F/5.6, ISO 400

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Friday/ a late bloomer 🪴

Happy Friday.
It is Labor Day Weekend here in the United States: the unofficial end of summer.
There was a little rain on Tuesday and Wednesday here in the city (0.2 in) and mild temperatures all week (high 60s, about 19 °C).
The hardy plumbago (leadwort) on my back porch has bloomed, the way it does every year, late summer and into fall.

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Wednesday/ a low blow 😁

Here is a meme published in Thursday’s South African newspaper Die Burger (‘The Citizen’).

The kiwi is a small, nocturnal, flightless bird with hair-like feathers that serves as a national symbol for New Zealand.
The blue crane is the national bird of South Africa.

Kiwi: You’re too low!
Blue Crane: Not as low as you!
[From Die Burger newspaper, Sept. 3]
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Saturday/ golden flowers 🏵️

It felt like fall this morning, with a few raindrops that came down.
Later on the sun came out and the high reached 74°F (23 °C) here in the city.

I found these chrysanthemums here on Capitol Hill today.
The name “chrysanthemum” is derived from the Ancient Greek: χρυσός chrysos (gold) and ἄνθεμον anthemon (flower).

These are garden mums (Chrysanthemum), one of the classic bicolor varieties that shift from yellow to deep bronze-red as the petals age — giving that layered, sunset-like look. They’re a fall staple, usually planted in September/October when they hit peak bloom.
[As reported by my AI chatbot Claude when I uploaded the picture]
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Tuesday/ the flowers on Rosie’s jacket 💐

Rosie O’Donnell mocks but barely mentions Trump in talk show return

The comedian is filling in as guest host for Jimmy Kimmel, another comedian who has attracted the president’s ire.

-Headlines from the Washington Post

Rosie O’Donnell wore this pink suit last night.
I’m pretty sure those are South African proteas— the large flowers embroidered on her jacket. To be exact, they look like Protea repens, which also goes by the name sugarbush in South Africa.
There is even an Afrikaans folk song that invokes the sugarbush as a metaphor for a sweet love obsession:
Suikerbossie,’k wil jou hê (3x)
Wat sal jou mamma daarvan sê?
Dan loop ons so onderdeur die maan (3x)
Ek en my suikerbossie saam.
Translation: Sugarbush, I want you so (3x) | What will your mama say ’bout that? | Then we’ll walk and walk under the moon (3x) | My sugarbush and I, as one.
[Still image of Rosie O’Donnell from ABC/ The Jimmy Kimmel Show]
Protea repens, the sugarbush. These are from the Flora Grubb Gardens plant store in San Francisco.  The climate in San Francisco is similar to that of Cape Town, South Africa, where the proteas are. 
[Image of Protea ‘Pink Ice’/ Protea repens hybrid, from the website of Flora Grubb Gardens plant store in San Francisco]

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Sunday/ a spider web 🕸

Watch out, insects.
This little backyard spider is going to snare you in its web.
(I see the new “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” movie is breaking box office records, but I don’t think I am up for seeing it in the theater.)