The James Center for the Performing Arts is located in Carrie Blake Park. This is the venue for “Music in the Park” every Tuesday evening during summer, 6 to 8 p.m. Concert goers bring blankets or chairs and a picnic to enjoy live music.
Category: Parks
Dahlia dive-in
The dahlias at Carrie Blake Park are at their peak. Sometimes I just can’t get enough of their soft colors.
I love the subtle shading and profusion of perfect petals.
It’s a good thing they don’t have a lot of fragrance. I’d be totally helpless to their charms if they did.
Dahlia time
There’s a nicely landscaped flower bed at Carrie Blake Park. I hadn’t checked out the dahlias for a couple of years. They occupy part of a top tier.
Dahlias grow beautifully around here and the ones at Carrie Blake don’t disappoint. I’ll show you more tomorrow.
File under “miscellaneous”
Do you see the face formed at the bottom of this tree? There’s a prominent eye, nose and chin and it tilts to the left.
It had rained for a week before we went to the Hoh Rainforest. And it rains from 12 to 14 feet per year on average. It may be a sunny day but it’s not a bad idea to prepare for mud.
Decomposing forest life
Life in the Hoh Rainforest bursts forth both as new growth and as decomposition. They go hand in hand in breaking down and building a forest. This fungus is one of many kinds that we saw. It decomposes and absorbs organic material.
Slugs are another type of decomposer. They eat and break down plant materials. They are voracious and can daily eat several times their body weight.
What’s this? It’s a rotting log and it’s been helped along by one of the top predators in the food chain, a bear. Bears paw through soft dead wood like this, searching for grubs and other little critters that feed on decaying wood. We just missed seeing a bear on the trail where we saw this log. Other hikers excitedly described their sighting further down the trail. It was gone by the time we got there. Phew!
Cycle of life writ large
Nurse logs are an environmental feature of a temperate rainforest and the Hoh Rainforest provides abundant examples. Fallen trees break down over time and facilitate germination of seedlings. Small trees grow along the length of the decaying trunk. The roots you see above are growing through and over the side of a nurse log.
As the new trees mature the original nurse log decays into humus and eventually disappears. The roots form strong, intricate webs.
Tangles of tree roots are left once the nurse log is gone.
The roots sometimes have air gaps and voids where there once was a decaying tree.
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Here’s a Native American prayer, a peace offering for a world in pain.
“Creator, open our hearts
to peace and healing between all people.
Creator, open our hearts
to provide and protect for all children of the earth.
Creator, open our hearts
to respect for the earth, and all the gifts of the earth.
Creator, open our hearts
to end exclusion, violence, and fear among all.
Thank you for the gifts of this day and every day.”
Alycia Longriver, Micmac Native American
Rain garden
The visual beauty of the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park is unmistakable. But if there’s time to slow down a little and take it all in the magic unfolds. Because of its staggering rainfall — 12 to 14 feet per year — life here flourishes. The environment is packed with nutrients as organic materials fall and decay to become rich mulch for new growth. Though light on the forest floor is diffused there is growth everywhere. Under this miniature greenery, above, is a tree stump.
Growth takes hold at virtually every turn. It can truly be awe inspiring to take it all in.
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I’m deeply saddened by the divisions, bloodshed and displacement in the world and it has seemed even greater recently. I won’t rant but will offer some thoughts I’ve found valuable.
“Children, everybody, here’s what to do during war:
In a time of destruction, create something.
A poem.
A parade.
A community.
A school.
A vow.
A moral principle.
One peaceful moment.”
“The Fifth Book of Peace,” Maxine Hong Kingston