Big Huckleberry Mountain

Spotted Coralroot (albino variety). Not all orchids are the showy, pin-it-on-your-prom-date pretty type that grow only in the tropics and in rarefied greenhouses. Several varieties can be found in the western U.S., including a handful in Cascadia, like this one. All the species I've seen have had small flowers, but their shy and diminutive nature means that spotting them can be a fun challenge. I dig it, anyway. Phil and Mark and I hiked to the top of Big Huckleberry Mountain yesterday, and saw a couple of different species and varieties on the way.

The trail itself is a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, the length of which I'd like to hike one of these summers. We met a couple of hikers who were doing long-distance hikes, both separately; one guy apparently came from California. What a trip! I don't know when I'll be able to do it, but I look forward to the day when I wake up on the trail and know that I'll do it again the next day, and maybe the next, before I see another car, or phone, or streetlight. I don't have the equipment to do it right, alone, yet, but I will. I will.

* * *
If this coming election was a matter of issues, I think Obama would have it sewn up by now. But instead, the media have again managed to sideline the issues in favor of a (rigged) popularity contest. I say it's rigged because The Media gladly admits to having one of those publicly secret love affairs with John McCain. Why? Because he kisses ass.

And yet: The man has no principles. The man has no moral compass. The man has no compunction about taking money from lobbyists or special interests. He is Bought and Paid For, and has no time or need for the likes of you, unless you can help fund his campaign. Just- don't expect any favors later.

Would you trust someone with your life, who left his wife for a younger woman while his current wife was recovering from surgery in hospital? Seriously: how could you possibly trust someone to protect you -or anything, honestly-- if he doesn't have the balls to stand by his word? His chosen mate? What kind of "leadership" is that? How could you possibly expect him to stand by his country (a far more abstract concept than "wife" or "spouse") in the face of temptation?

Adrift

John McCain vs. Reality
John McCain vs. Women ...because this isn't racism, it's sexism. And don't forget how he called his wife a cunt ...on stage, in front of an audience ...which included the press.
John McCain on the C-word

And best of all:
John McCain vs himself

Today in our Republican economy.

On this day in 1762, Russian monarch Peter III was (conveniently?) murdered, paving the way for his power-hungry (and former Latvian peasant) wife to assume the throne as Catherine II (“the Great”).

In 1816, the Medusa, a French ship on a diplomatic mission, ran aground off the coast of Senegal. In a preview to the Titanic disaster, the wealthy passengers rushed to the lifeboats, leaving 149 of the crew and poorer passengers to fashion a raft for themselves from the remains of the ship (17 stayed on board the Medusa). The dignitaries aboard the lifeboats attempted to tow the raft to shore, but it proved too flimsy, and was left adrift -four miles from shore-- with no food or fresh water.
Aboard the raft, things quickly went south. Twenty people were killed or took their own lives the first night. By the fourth night, people had resorted to cannibalism. On the eighth day, those remaining healthy began to throw the sick and injured overboard, alive. Thirteen days later, when the raft was accidentally found by the passing Argus, only fifteen survivors were aboard. Of these, five died within days of their rescue.

And in 1917, the British royal family changed its name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.

This machine kills fascists

Tiger lily. The thing I love most about being in/near the mountains, is that the seasons progress at different rates, depending on elevation. It's summer here at the house, but it's still spring in the mountains. Almost berry season!

Rumors abound of the Fandoana (Fandroana? Fandriana?)Bathing Festival in Madagascar, celebrated on this day, but I haven't been able to find any direct documentation of it.
In Britain, it's Emmeline Pankhurst Day.
It's also Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie's birthday.

And on this day in 1990, the small uninhabited island of Eynhallow in the Orkney Islands played host to 88 tourists. According to the ferry crew, only 86 returned. A thorough search by police, coastguards and helicopter failed to find the missing people. No, really. The island has long been regarded as a spooky 'vanishing isle', a sort of marine Brigadoon. Locals speculated the couple may have been mermen or mermaids, returning to their ancestral home; it is reportedly easy to mistake the Fin Folk for ordinary humans.

Worms

Mt Hood, from somewhere on the north side. No, I don't know where: if you must know, we were lost. We had followed a familiar road toward a familiar trailhead, but suddenly found that we weren't on familiar ground anymore. Suddenly we were seeing forks in the road which we both swore we hadn't seen before, and then not so suddenly we realized that we were nowhere near where we thought we should be. It's all so improbable- roads don't just pop up overnight, or even in the course of a year (with the forest service budget the way it is, we're lucky to have roads at all, and these "new" roads sure didn't look new to us), but there it is: we followed the same old trail, to find that it did not lead to the same place.

Of course you don't believe me. I wouldn't either. You try navigating up there, though, and get back to me (if you make it back). If you're really eager, we were trying to find the Vista Ridge trailhead. We've hiked that trail four times in two years- you'd think we'd be able to find it again....

Anyway, I liked this picture because I framed Mt Hood between two Cascadian icons: the Western Hemlock's droopy tip on the left, and the Douglas Fir's spiky top on the right. Other trees (some cedars and cypresses I guess) also have slightly-droopy tips, but you can tell this is a Hemlock because of it's fuzzy character. The other droopy-tipped trees all have needles that lay smooth like cedars.

On this day in 1984, a street in Fort Worth, Texas, developed a 20ft long, two-foot-wide bulge. It moved from side to side like a giant worm before disappearing after about an hour. 'It seemed almost alive,' said fireman Charlie McCafferty. 'What spooked me was that there wasn't even a crack in the road.' Street crews used jackhammers to break through two inches of asphalt and four inches of concrete, underlying silt layers intact, and no evidence of a gas build-up that might have caused the bulge.
Shortly after this a similar mound was seen on Calvin Lang's homestead at the outskirts of Ft. Worth, and after prodding it with a rake it disappeared. Reportedly it had left some buildings torn apart, fences torn down, and shrubs and trees uprooted. Later Jeremy Boiter spotted what appeared to be a giant tentacle erupting from the ground in a shower of gravel and dirt about 2 miles away. It seized a cat and her kittens, devouring them in seconds as well as two growling dogs which it swallowed in its "slick dripping mouth". His friend Phil Dewar also found scraps of birds, rabbits and other while animals among the rubble of a destroyed hut. source: THE GAZETTE, Schenectady, N.Y., 16 July 1984; NATIONAL EXAMINER, 12 Feb. 1985