Beyond my backyard

I was going to go on a hike today, but with all the rain we've been having I decided to wait a few days. I did, however, go for a walk before supper, just in the wild area behind the house. I walked toward the beach, checking for blueberry patches as I went - I just picked nearly a quart on Monday, so I didn't pick more than a handful or two as I went, but I was looking to see where might be a good place to pick next time. I saw a lot of blue berries, but a lot of them seemed very tart, so I think they've still got to ripen a bit.

And then there were the bushes that are nowhere near ripe! I thought from a distance that they were another type of berry entirely, because of the bright red and green, but they have the right general shape - they're just on a different schedule than the ones I've been picking so far.

I was a little surprised to find mushrooms growing out of the sand! I know they pop up fast, but it's only going to be wet here very briefly!

Rainy day

It rained all morning long.

It was a pretty slow day.

I kept looking out at the rain falling, and dripping from the roof across the way, and I decided to get out my notebook and try to describe it.

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Rainy day, looking out the window

I watch the rain against the opposite wall

Big silver drops fall from the edge of the roof

Dripping down the shingles

Gathering in tiny intermittent streams

Constantly dripping in the same places

Big bright drops forming solid vertical lines

In the air, in my vision

Against the dark wet wood.

Meanwhile, rain continues to fall

Wild and blowing – not a storm

But a constant breeze

A swarm of tiny drops, blown about

Pushed relentlessly at an angle by the wind

Swirled around erratically by further gusts

Defying the straight silver lines of the rooftop drips.

The droplets from the roof have already landed

Joined together, flowing along the surface

Along the path of least resistance

Even as they fall again,

They follow a straight path

Too substantial to be blown off course,

They simply drop straight down.

In their final descent, those straight lines

Highlight the wild flurry with which they fell

From untold heights

Blown about and swirled, as are those drops

Still blowing around the lines as they fall.

Having missed the roof,

They are wild for just a moment longer,

Free in the air.

The rain begins to slow, until

There are only the big silver drips

Falling in straight lines from the roof’s edge

All joining, once again, on the ground

Flowing away together

Through the cracks of the boardwalk

Soaking into the grass

Until only a few drops keep falling, here and there

Having taken refuge in the trees

Slipping from leaf to leaf

Until there is nowhere left to fall.

New fruits!

I've been browsing on raspberries near the visitor center - there are at least a couple of ripe ones every day. I've also tried a few gooseberries growing on a bush near the upper overlook - they went from yellow-green to a sort of greenish-purple, and when I ate them they were sweet and a little tart.

Now the chokecherries are starting to turn red.

Communing with nature... delicious nature...

Today was my extra day of work, but it went pretty well. I didn’t waste any time in the evening, either – right after supper I went out and picked more blueberries!

This time I went behind the house again – there was a big patch just beyond the edge of the yard, and then I worked my way back through a band of trees to another sandy area at the edge of the Sand Point Marsh. I worked around the edges – not much grows in the sand out in the open, just under the trees. There were a few good patches, and a few with some berries that weren’t ripe yet – and a few patches of taller bushes that had very green berries on them! I’m not sure if those were blueberries but they looked about the same, so we’ll see. (I checked the Wild Berries and Fruits guide at the visitor center and there are several things I may have been picking out here – a couple of varieties of blueberries, black huckleberries, and even something called bilberries – but they’re all pretty much interchangeable as far as eating them goes!)

It was really neat being alone back there. I could hear the strange hooting call of the sandhill cranes, even though I didn’t see them. (It seriously sounds like something out of the Jurassic Park movies. I even saw the tracks… I have dinosaurs in my backyard!)

And then I saw a deer! I didn’t scare it out, I just looked over and realized there was a deer looking back at me, a little ways off. We were both a bit surprised – and then it left fairly quickly.

At this point I decided to stop picking, because I was having a hard time seeing the blue color of the berries – it was getting to be dusk. I had been out there for over an hour! I started working my way back, trying to spot where I had come through the trees. I didn’t quite take the same path back, but I came out in sight of the house so it worked out all right. It was a lovely evening, out there in between the trees and under the sky… and I got almost three cups of blueberries! About a quart, with what was left over from the other night!

This is about the actual size.

Going to market

This week I will be working an extra day on Wednesday, to help cover for someone who will be out elsewhere in the park. Marc will be working at the Grand Sable visitor center tomorrow, and I will take his place at Miners Castle. I’ll basically be working on my Saturday – for overtime pay, but all the same it means a short weekend! So I decided to do my grocery shopping after work today, instead of on my one day off.

I always go into town right from work on Tuesdays to go to the Farmers Market. I bring a shirt to change into so I won’t be in uniform – although sometimes, like today, it’s cool enough that I can just put on a jacket over my work shirt. The market goes from 4-7 pm, and I’m usually getting there around 6 pm, maybe a little earlier – so I never know if there will be anything left! There hasn’t actually been much produce, although I lucked out and there was just one or two bags of lettuce left the last couple of times I got there. (The strawberries were a one-time thing.)

But this week, there were several stalls! I got two kinds of lettuce, a cucumber, and a whole lot of raspberries, for a recipe I’m planning on making. Then I went to the grocery store – and managed to make it through the list without too many detours! I did make one important purchase, though: pancake mix. I can’t let all those blueberries go to waste! 

One taste was enough...

Those blueberries were so good I went out and picked a bunch more! I went in the evening, after supper, and went across the street again. I walked a lot further this time, and really got down on the ground to get to the plants, which are only about six inches tall. Luckily it’s all sand in between, so it was dry and not too dirty. I was careful to sit or kneel around the edges, trying not to land on any berries! I brought a quart yogurt container with me and picked it just about half full. I walked a little further, picking here and there where there was a heavier bush, but there were still a lot more that weren’t ripe.

So with a whole pint of fresh blueberries, I felt I needed to make something. To bake something. I thought of a couple of possibilities, but ended up going with my first impulse, which was blueberry muffins – following the original Betty Crocker recipe! They turned out great – I left out four of them for my housemates to share, and kept the rest. Hopefully I can make them last at least a couple of days…

The best part is, I still have almost a cup of fresh berries left! I’ll put some in my cereal tomorrow morning.

Wild animals and plants

Today was pretty hot - for this area, anyway. It was cool in the shade but when I was standing in the sun at the overlook, the water looked really inviting! It was incredibly still - there were no waves at all, until a boat went by, and then it was just that one series of waves from the boat's wake, splashing into the cliffs and then bouncing back and creating interference patterns that showed up as shadows on the floor of the cove. It looked like a giant swimming pool.

At one point, there was no one at the overlook, so I went to stand in the shade for a moment - and see if there were any raspberries on the bushes growing off to the side and below the platform! I've gotten a few here and there, and every couple of days there are another couple of ripe berries. As I was making my way around, I noticed a strange noise - I wouldn't have heard it if anyone was there talking. Sort of a hard scratching sound... I looked over, at the bare ground under the platform, and spotted this!

A chipmunk was under there, gnawing away at a plastic water bottle! I don't know if he thought there was food inside, or was trying to get to the water, or just felt like chewing on something, but it was a very unusual sound! He got kind of jumpy once I started getting closer, but I kept still for a minute and he went back to chewing so I could get a picture.

It was warm all afternoon, but it was already feeling cooler when I walked to the car to go home. I had really hoped it would stay good and hot so I could go for a swim, but it was definitely cool when I got home, so I didn't even try. I did go for a walk after supper, though - just through the sandy area across from my house, then around to the beach. And I found blueberries! There are a lot of little blueberry plants all around Sand Point - including behind the house. I had a handful of them the other day. There are only a few ripe ones, a lot more that are unripe - but most of the plants have a few ripe ones each, and then a bunch that are still just green or pink. They're delicious, but they're kind of hard to pick because they're only a few inches off the ground - so it's a lot of bending over for a very small payload! If it weren't for the fact that there are still some mosquitoes out there, I would have just sat down next to the patch and picked from that level! Maybe once there are a few more ripe ones...

Also, there are different kinds! I can't really tell a lot of difference between them. They all taste good, though! 

I walked over to the beach near Headquarters. Not the place where I've gone swimming, on the point - this was a little more isolated, a little more sheltered. And I spotted some shorebirds! Sandpipers or plovers of some kind - they seemed pretty small to me. They kept pecking around the high water line, and occasionally at the water's edge. It was kind of exciting to see something new right near where I've been living all summer!