Columbia River channel jetty as seen from Cape Disappointment

One more photo from my June 15-17 visit to Pacific County, Washington. This shot is from Cape Disappointment State Park near Long Beach. The jetty in the distance represents the Columbia River channel where that mighty waterway enters the Pacific Ocean on Washington's southwest coast. (Photo by D. Grant Haynes)

Always beautiful...

Was it a sign or portent?

A seagull of some variety circled the property and landed on the roof of my apartment this afternoon. I have seen them 20 or so miles north of here on Lake Roosevelt at the Grand Coulee Dam, but they do not come to Wilbur, Washington, often. At least, they haven't in my two years here. Maybe the gull came to lead me to the ocean. -- D. Grant Haynes

Fern fiddleheads unfurling

(Photo by D. Grant Haynes)

I know some of my viewers expect a new spectacular every few days. Those spectaculars are becoming more difficult to produce as spring drifts into summer and the flowering stage for wild plants subsides.

However, I am sharing a photo of fern fiddleheads that were opening June 16 when I hiked in Pacific County, Washington, near Long Beach. The woodlands of the Cape Disappointment headland were replete with such ferns.

Fern fiddleheads are considered a delicacy by some. They are steamed or otherwise cooked slightly before being consumed.

I have not had an opportunity to identify, specifically, this particular fern variety, so I cannot recommend it as a food source. More research would be required on my part before I would eat it or any other wild plant.

D. Grant Haynes

Moon, June, Spoon, Honeymoon...

(Photo by D. Grant Haynes)

The June 11 moon was beautiful, uncompromised by clouds or mist. She reached the quarter phase on June 9 and will be full June 15.

Regardless of how neurotic and self-destructive the human species becomes, some natural phenomena remain unchanged, thereby offering solace in a world seemingly gone mad.

This beautiful moon, our faithful earth companion through all the ages, cares not one whit what Anthony Weiner sent a woman on Twitter. That puts things into perspective for me.

D. Grant Haynes

And possibly the last spring flower of the season--the death camas

Photo by D. Grant Haynes

A terrible name for a pleasant little plant of the meadow, but I am told it is so named because someone mistook it (Zigadenus paniculatus) once for an edible camas and became ill.

In any case, this particular plant lent sunlight and joy to what was possibly my last afternoon looking for spring flowers in Wilbur, Washington.

God bless the natural world and all it has given me. -- DGH

Silky lupine blooming

(Photo by D. Grant Haynes)

The spring and early summer wildflower show is waning in Lincoln County, but silky lupine (Lupinus sericeus Pursh var. fikeranus) now lends its delicate beauty to mid-June landscapes.