Blueberry Fields Forever

Every Friday I get to work at the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center in Bellevue. It's always great, but when the weather is about as perfect as it can be, then it's awesome!

Today I had the chance to get out and hike around. Found a geocache. Saw a bunch of birds including a Goldfinch, Heron, and many more. The Goldfinch is the Washington State Bird...but I also saw some beautiful rhododendrons, the Washington State Flower. There was a cool garter snake, a frisky squirrel, and other assorted wildlife. The air was filled with cottonwood, almost like snow. My beloved, Joyce is sneezing her head off now. She's allergic.

This shot was taken with my Nikon D-40. The trail I was on consisted of dirt and boardwalks. I took the bridge over the Mercer Slough and followed the Heritage Trail around to find this cache. The trail skirts a wonderful blueberry farm. You can buy the berries at the stand on Bellevue Way. They're great! Come fall, this area will turn quite colorful.

All in all, a great day for a short walk in the wild...just a stone's throw from the big city.

Foggy, Salty Seattle Morning

When I pulled into the Pacific Science Center parking garage this morning before 6 a.m. I was greeted with fog and some salty air. Could just make out the top of this construction crane working on a new church across the street. Just LOVE that smell. Always reminds me of our boating days.

This was shot with my first generation iPhone and run through the Mono filter in the CameraBag app.

Arizona Trip Video...Sort Of

So, I'm stuck at home nursing my sore shoulder. Decided to try making a quick video with a program called Fotomagico. I got this through Macheist last year so it was quite inexpensive. Not sure I would have paid full price for it. But it's quick and easy, for sure. This whole thing took me about two minutes to throw together, then had to wait for it to render. But all settings were default. Could have tweaked each shot a bit to avoid the black seen on some of the slides. Very easy. Here's the resulting HD video posted to Facebook.

A Fishy Geocache

Today is Friday, so I get to work at the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center in Bellevue. This place is like heaven in the heart of the city. Just gorgeous.

After slaving over a hot computer for six hours, I grabbed my GPS and went out for a little geocaching. Found one about a half mile away, but what I really found was serenity. I've driven by this thing a thousand times and never saw it. It's a fish ladder right in downtown Bellevue. This heron was standing there looking like a salmon sentry. As cars and trucks rumbled by right behind me, this little spot was serene. The name of the geocache hidden there is Save The Salmon. Not sure the heron had that in mind.

Some of the interns from Pacific Science Center helped plant the area around this spot. A great program.