This used to be old growth forest

Our part of the world is a little short on natural disasters, as luck should have it. Tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, massive earthquakes, floods, wildfires, locusts, venomous snakes, insects bigger than garden spiders--they were all in rare supply in my neighborhood when I was growing up. However, there was one spectacular event that I watched from the deck of my parents house in 1980. Of course I'm referring to Mt. St. Helens.

The news coverage and smaller eruptions leading up to the big event were fascinating and exciting, being a safe distance away but still in plain view. The big eruption itself was mesmerizing, as was the news footage of the gigantic trees lined up like matchsticks, bridges being washed away by mud, cities to the north being plunged into darkness by falling ash. I couldn't believe Harry Truman would just let himself be taken by the mountain. There was another eruption (now I can't remember if it was before or after the big one) while I was watching an old 1950s Vincent Price movie at the Movie House, and they stopped the movie and sent us home. Being up there on the mountain, however, gave me new appreciation for the massiveness of the eruption. Even 29 years later, it looks nothing like any other place in the Cascade Mountains. The amount of ash is just staggering. Apparently the bottom of the valley is about 300 feet higher now.

Anyway, the trip to Johnston Ridge visitors center was well worth the 2+ hour drive. It still looks like a moonscape, with hardly tree to be found.
In this picture you can kind of see where the massive landslide tore up this ridge at 300+ miles per hours and sheered everything away down to the bedrock. (That is Mt. Adams is peeking over the top of the hills in the distance)
Most of the area around the visitors center is on the side of the ridge that was decimated, so we didn't see all the downed trees lined up like I expected to see. There were a few high up on the far hills, though.

And of course there were some signs of life, now that almost 30 years have past:

Botany Lesson

This is just what I was hoping would happen with this on-line science curriculum the kids are doing through our charter school. M is a really interested in science, and I haven't managed to do nearly as much as he'd like in the past year or so, so I was hopeful that this curriculum would be a hit. So far M has given it pretty favorable reviews, and today after doing a unit on flower anatomy he got inspired do some hands-on science. We went and found a few remaining flowers and cut them to pieces to find all the interesting bits.
We saw some extremely cool sights under the microscope, including this stamen laden with pollen. We used our old trick of putting the camera to the eyepiece, and you can kind of see what we saw. The bits of pollen looked like a bunch of teeny bright yellow insect eggs. Crazy.

St. John's Art Walk

We went on a wonderful walking tour of window art in St. John's this week. There were probably 30 or so shops that had displays by artists who live in or around St. Johns. I don't think I've ever walked around that neighborhood, and it was lovely. We met several of the business owners along the way, including a 91 year old barber who opened his barber shop in the 1940s. The first ten years were a couple of doors down from the current location. Unfortunately most of the pictures have a lot of glare so you can't see the art all that well, but here is one of my favorites which you can see fairly well.
Notice the little guys at the bottom fencing? It was the window of a fencing studio.

I actually didn't see this one, but I wish I had. Very cool!

There are guided tours of the show this weekend, and then the art is coming down Sunday or soon thereafter. I definitely recommend it.

The Holiday Spirit

I have learned from my wise family to embrace those holidays I formerly failed to appreciate (i.e., 4th of July and Halloween). These are the go-for-it holidays. The only way to do them is to throw yourself into them. Fireworks until 1:00 in the morning, gorging in junky candy, giving in to all those hedonistic pleasures your never realized were actually so much fun. Needless to say, we are in the midst of feverish preparations. I don't have a photo of the yard, but there are bats, ghosts, and gravestones galore. Also, some mysterious blood appeared on the porch, and I recently found this picture:
Also, A made these adorable treats tonight, which seem to fit the spirit of Halloween. We like to bite they little toes off, and nibble on they tiny feet...