• Thoughts

    Leo Says…

    …don’t forget to change your blog feed reader service if you’ve been using Google Reader. It’s gone starting July 1st. I’ve switched to Feedly and based upon Elizabeth’s review to Bloglovin’ as a backup. They both have platforms to import your current feeds, but you can also type in Oceanicwilderness.com into either and add me in or use this link for Bloglovin’. You can also copy in http://feeds.feedburner.com/oceanicwilderness to either of those services, or click the link, but it seems Feedburner has narrowed down their list of potential subscription services significantly. Email subscriptions still work currently with Feedburner so that is also an option until Google does away with Feedburner…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Travel & Places,  Washington State

    Evening On Top of Aasgard Pass | Enchantment Lakes

    Pitching our tent on top of the Pass turned out to be perfect. We found an out of the way alcove, pitched the tent and took an afternoon nap. I alternated between reading and napping and of course poking my head out to check on our gear in case the goats were out snacking on it or our food. Chris saw some other folks climbing one of the mountains nearby so he followed in their tracks after dinner in order to try to see about taking sunset photos. I can’t remember if it was a success or not, but I’m sure the view was even better a few hundred feet…

  • Gardening

    June Harvest

    Black from Tula Ceylon Red German Johnson French Breakfast radishes Schimmeig Striped Hollow Strawberry Popcorn Striped Togo Trifle Black from Tula & Striped Togo Trifle Monster squash The heat is killer now. Sometimes I am tempted to get up early in the mornings just to work outside but then I laugh at myself and realize just how crazy that is—me, get up? Nah! Although, I have been getting up early to rollerblade a few times a week—some weeks—when I manage to get up after Leo pokes me in the face with his paw a million times. But, it is hot. Now I try not to work outside until 7pm and…

  • Hiking,  Travel & Places,  Washington State

    View From Aasgard Pass | Enchantment Lakes

    I stared at the snow covered peak in the far background on the right for a long time. It looked gigantic, threatening, exciting. I later determined it was Glacier Peak. When we arrived back at Aasgard Pass we stopped to take a short break and take in the view. I hadn’t taken any photos on our summit, having been tired and ready to filter water at one of the lakes. That afternoon we were planning on descending and camping somewhere down at Colchuck Lake but I decided that we should camp up top, enjoy the view through the evening, especially since we had the permits to be up there. So…

  • Gardening

    Sweet Potato FAIL

    For the last several weeks I’ve been noticing a very small, really tiny bug in our kitchen around our pantry. I’ve just swept them up or killed them if I saw them walking around, but I get bugs in the kitchen coming from the sink, up through the pipes from the septic tank, so I really just expected it was something along those lines. Finally as I was cleaning up last night for a visit with family coming to town I decided to Google the bug with a weird description. It had a long snout and a rotund abdomen and went from there. The initial results gave me the idea…

  • Hiking,  Travel & Places,  Washington State

    Return Traverse Of Upper Enchantments

    Since it is coming up on almost a year since our trip to Washington I thought it wise to start finishing up these photos. This is our walk back towards Aasgard Pass through the Upper Enchantments, showing some of the area that I didn’t cover on our trip into the lakes. The pink on the snow is snow algae, also called watermelon snow. Going back through these photos makes me wish I was out adventuring somewhere. Maybe sometime later this summer or the fall.

  • Appalachian Trail 2010

    Almost to Moosilauke | AT Video of the Week

    Short fir trees, rocks…must be a mountain in the north woods. New Hampshire to be precise and getting into the White Mountains. I wish Chris had left the video on as we came out of the trees and into the open mountain top so you can see the full effect of getting to the top of a mountain. I loved how it flattened out, there are the end, time to speed up after several miles of a steady ‘up’.

  • Gardening

    Lunchtime Garden Ramble

    I’m thankful I only live about 7 minutes from my office so I get to spend the lunch hour at home if I want. It’s nice to see what the garden is doing in the middle of the day, too. The bees are busy, building out comb and storing honey for the winter. From talking with others growing tomatoes it seems this year is weird for tomatoes. Perhaps the cool spring and then hot summer immediately after is not going to let us have an abundant harvest. These are the first ripening tomatoes, labeled at Arkansas Traveler but I’m almost 100% sure this isn’t an Arkansas Traveler. I’m guessing we…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Wildflowers

    Afternoon at Lost Maples | Late Spring

    Over Memorial Day weekend we headed off towards the Texas Hill Country west of San Antonio to do a little exploring. Our original intentions were to hit up Government Canyon State Natural Area since we always seemed to drive past it for other parks further west. Well, the weather decided not to play nice that weekend. Only days before we had been planning on kayaking along the Guadalupe River but a call to an outfitter and checking the river levels online revealed the river was a bit dry for running the river where we were planning. Then storms came through two days in a row causing flooding. Then there was…

  • Gardening

    Plants I Wish I Still Had

    Last week Chris and I were in his truck and I had the strange thought…I really wished I had a gac vine. I know, strange thought there, but the peachy/yellowed colored blooms just came into my head and I began reminiscing about all of our plants in Florida then and there. So, I thought I’d do a short post on some plants I wish I still had but sold over three years ago before we moved. Some I probably won’t get back due to our less tropical growing zone, others I could probably swing once again. Gac! Gac intermingled with passiflora and thumbergia there on the fence. A little wild…