Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
Autumn moves fast here. Many of the trees that show early fall colors have begun to lose leaves just as some of the reds and golds have begun to pop. Yesterday at Railroad Bridge Park, above, people had bouquets of huge golden and brown leaves from big leaf maples, easily a full foot across. This area has plenty of evergreens, too, so it’s never entirely bare and grey.
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We’ve noticed lately that apple trees around here are profuse with ripening fruit. Once we began to pay attention it seemed as if there were loaded apple trees everywhere.
This was one of a small orchard of five or six trees covered with apples. Strong winds the night before meant I went home with a bag of gorgeous fallen fruit that begged to become a pie, with plenty left over for more apple goodies. (Thank you, Blythe!)
As the days get shorter and cooler I find myself pulling out more of those warm layers of clothes. It gets me feeling a little like a woolly bear, the little guy shown above. Which got me wondering this: what is a woolly bear, anyhow? And that led me to a particularly fun bit of research.
I hadn’t previously known that woolly bears, in some circles, are reputed to be predictors of winter weather. The caterpillar has 13 segments, dark on either end and orange/brown in the middle. More orange/brown segments in the middle, creating a wider band, are reputed to predict a colder winter.
Beginning in 1948, the insect curator of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Dr. C.H. Curran, began an eight year study in Bear Mountain State Park, 40 miles north of the City. He counted the dark segments of as many woolly bears as he could find in a day. He saw the limits of his research sampling but ultimately used it as an excuse for autumn leaf-peeping and a good time for himself, his wife, and a group of friends aptly named “The Original Society of the Friends of the Woolly Bear.” Their efforts ultimately succeeded in making the woolly bear caterpillar the most widely recognized caterpillar in North America. (Thank you, Dr. Curran!)
The woolly bears caterpillars we see moving around in the fall are looking for spots under bark or inside cavities in logs or rocks to overwinter.
So, what is the woolly bear? It is the larval form of Pyrrharctia isabela, the Isabella tiger moth. This is a yellowish-orange/cream-colored medium sized moth with black dots on its wings. Not nearly as cute and probably not as recognizable as its larval woolly bear form.
Students at Sequim High School make these hanging baskets every year. The Public Works Department puts them up and they brighten our streets mightily. So far, they are still blooming.
They look nice in front of our local businesses, don’t they?
Local lore speaks of the “blue hole” in the skies over Sequim. Pilots know it and most people around here have seen one. The region can be covered with nasty weather yet there will frequently be a blue hole somewhere over Sequim.
Afternoon showers stopped yesterday shortly before sunset and the skies just kept getting prettier. Then, like a brief autumn gift, there was the blue hole.
And, speaking of gifts, the City Daily Photo is back online after a long and unwelcome hiatus. Hooray and welcome back, CDP!
The native bitter cherry (prunus emarginata) is one of the first trees to turn gold in this area, starting as early as August and paving trails in the Dungeness Recreation Area yellow. It’s especially colorful when its tiny cherries ripen to a bright red. It would be a very long stretch to make a pie from the fruit but it is a good food source for birds and small mammals.
Signs are up, paper is off the windows, and Kiwi’s Fish and Chips has been officially open for business for about a week (though not when I took this shot around 9 a.m.).
So far there are two reviews on Yelp.com. One’s great, one’s not. That sounds about par for the course with a new restaurant. But the location is good, on Washington Street near Sequim Avenue, and the fish qualifies fish and chips as health food, right? And think of the lycopene if you add catsup!