The Pack Of Sikes Lake Coyotes Continues To Chase Away The Geese

The temporary return to Winter ended yesterday, with the return to a clear blue sky and the sun heating the air to a warm temperature.

This 4th Monday of the 2024 version of April is another warm, clear blue sky day. And so I drove to Sikes Lake this morning to commune with nature and to acquire some endorphins via aerobic stimulation.

The recently installed Sikes Lake pack of coyotes seems to have had the intended effect, scaring the geese flock to move to a new location.

However, the coyotes do not seem to worry blue herons. You can see a blue heron at the top left of the photo, in the direction the coyote is looking.

I wonder where the geese that survived the mass execution of 384 geese have moved to. I saw a few geese at Lake Wichita Park yesterday. I do not recollect previously seeing geese at that location...

Sunny Sunday In The Park With Mount Wichita

Rain dripped for many hours yesterday, along with a lot of thunder booms. But, on this third Sunday of the 2024 version of April, a clear blue sky has returned, with nary a cloud to be seen, no matter what direction one looks.

So, it was to Lake Wichita Park I drove today, hoping to see the lake level higher than the last time I was at this location.

Well, all that rain does not seem to have had much impact on Lake Wichita.

There were a lot of people in the park today, enjoying the sunny Sunday, including multiple people trying to catch fish, and having no luck hooking anything.

I do not recollect previously seeing so many hikers making the treacherous trek to the summit of Mount Wichita as I saw today.

I would think the brown color on the mountain would be muddy. I did not feel like finding out if that is the case.

Have I ever made mention of the fact that Mount Wichita, a manmade mountain, was made from mud dredged from Sikes Lake, back in, I think, the 1990s. 

Methinks Sikes Lake needs to be dredged again, with another mountain made next to Mount Wichita, making for twin peaks...

Return Of Winter To Wichita Falls With Lightning Strikes & Rain

Winter has returned on this 3rd Saturday of the 2024 version of April.

Overnight a thunderstorm came to town, dripping copious amounts of water. 

Along with the rain and lightning strikes, cold air also came to town.

It is so chilly I felt compelled to switch my interior climate control device from air-conditioning mode to heat mode.

I do not recollect previously switching to heat mode, this time of year, at my current Texas location.

Colorful Wildseed Farm Visit In Fredericksburg Texas

A Microsoft OneDrive Memories from this Day, which I actually remember. Earlier in this current century, around this time of year, I drove south to Texas Hill Country, with Fredericksburg and Enchanted Rock State Park as the intended destinations.

Fredericksburg was the first Washington style themed type towns I found in Texas. Fredericksburg is sort of German themed, due to all the German settlers who settled in this location.

Washington has a German Bavarian themed town called Leavenworth. It is a bit more developed, theme-wise, than Fredericksburg. Both have German-themed McDonald's. 

At Fredericksburg I came upon a mass of various colors, of wildflowers, at a farm called Wildseed Farms.

Wildseed Farms reminded me of Roozengarde in my old Skagit Valley home zone. Only Roozengarde is all about the colorful tulips, whilst Wildseed Farms is about a variety of colorful wildflowers.

Both are super busy tourist traps...

Walk Around Sikes Lake With Pink Evening Primroses

Since I last walked around Sikes Lake a couple days ago, the lake has become surrounded by pink evening primroses, one of my favorite Texas wildflowers.

If memory serves the evening primroses are usually the first wildflower I see when wildflower season starts up.

My first encounter with evening primroses happened way back late in the previous century, when I drove to Texas, from Washington, to see if moving was something I might want to do.

It was at some point east of Amarillo, heading to the Dallas/Fort Worth zone, on Highway 287, that I began seeing pink flowers carpeting the landscape alongside the freeway.

At some point I felt compelled to geta closer look at these delicate looking flowers, so I got off the freeway to get a good look and a good photo.

It was a year or two later I came to learn the name of these pink wildflowers.

Texas wildflowers are sort of a natural wild version of coloring up the landscape like my old home zone does with cultivated flowers of various types, like tulips, daffodils and others I am not remembering.

The State Wildflower of Texas is known as the bluebonnet. I see few bluebonnets at my current Texas location, during wildflower season.

In my old home zone of Washington I would see bluebonnets, only in Washington the flower is known as a lupine. I recollect seeing a lot of lupines blooming the last time I was at Mount Rainier, August 11, 2008.

I recollect remarking that I did not know Texas bluebonnets blossomed in Washington, to find myself being told that those are lupines.

Googling "lupine" I learned the following...

Lupinus, commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean.

Maybe Texas needs to consider what the State Wildflower is... 

Ferry Boating To Washington's San Juan Islands & Beyond

Saw that which you see here, this morning, on Facebook. Such puts me in mind of how different it is where I live now, than where I lived the majority of my existence on planet Earth.

From my abode in Mount Vernon I could drive a few miles to the east and be in the Cascade Mountain foothills.

Drive a few miles west and I could be at a saltwater beach, digging for clams, or jigging for crabs.

From Anacortes I could hop a Washington State Ferry and float to the various San Juan Islands. Or float to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada.

The San Juan Islands are in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains. Hence way less rain than the Western Washington locations located closer to the Cascade Mountains.

You can drive your vehicle onto a Washington ferry. Or just walk on. Or take your bike. I've done all three, with the vehicle option the most frequent.

There are no ferry boats or saltwater beaches or mountains in any direction, hundreds of miles, from my current location...

Remembering Being Enchanted In Texas Hill Country

That which you see here showed up a couple minutes ago in my email, in the daily email from Microsoft OneDrive of Memories from this Day.

Took me a moment to remember that it was around this time of year that I hiked to the summit of Enchanted Rock, down south in Texas Hill Country.

It was prime wildflower season.

Getting into Enchanted Rock State Park can be challenging. It is extremely popular, and only so many are let into the park at a time. I was lucky and managed to get in without a long wait in line.

A True Washingtonian Knows A Geoduck When He Sees One

Saw that which you see here, on Facebook, this morning. With text saying, "You know you're a true Washingtonian if you can pronounce 'geoduck' properly."

Well. I am a true former Washingtonian and I know how to pronounce the name of this giant clam.

Gooey Duck.

In my old home zone of the Skagit Valley there is a location called Samish Island, which has not been an actual island since early in the previous century, due to Dutch dike builders blocking off the saltwater, so as to create more farmland.

Samish Island is a clam diggers paradise. 

On an extremely low tide, a sandbar appears. You have to wade through semi-deep water to reach this sandbar. And, once you do you, are at a location known for growing a lot of geoducks.

When you start digging for a clam, after spotting the telltale sign in the sand, you don't know if it is gonna be a horse clam or hit the jackpot with it being a giant geoduck.

Horse clams greatly outnumber the geoduck population.

I can not remember when last I had homemade clam chowder made from freshly dug clams...

Belated Michele Happy Birthday From Lucy Park Backwoods Jungle

All day yesterday I thought it was Friday, which had me thinking today was Saturday, April 13, when the day is actually Sunday, April 14.

I learned I was a day off after I texted my little sister, Michele, a Happy Birthday message.

I was hiking the Lucy Park backwoods jungle when Michele texted me back saying, "Uh, that was yesterday!!!!"

This morning I hit the button on a reposting of last year's Happy Birthday To Half Century Plus Baby Sister Michele and could not understand why it showed up after yesterday's afternoon blog post. 

Now that mystery is solved. With a new mystery being wondering if not knowing what day it is is an early dementia indicator.

Anyway, I had my a hot time hiking the Lucy Park backwoods jungle today. The high today will get into the 90s. With a big storm brewing for tomorrow, which I now know is Monday...

Apparently Wichita Falls Is The 22nd Best Place To Live in Texas

I do not know by what criteria USA Today ranked the best places to live in Texas, but, apparently, the town I am currently living in, Wichita Falls, is the 22nd best place to live in Texas.

With Wichita Falls being a better place to live than Frisco, Plano, Denton, Austin, McKinney, Fort Worth and Dallas.

I have been to those towns which are supposedly not as nice a place to live in as Wichita Falls. And I've lived in one of those towns listed.

Fort Worth.

I definitely think Wichita Falls is a much better place to live than Fort Worth. In so many ways.

I think I'd like living in Dallas or Austin...