Skip to main content

Ten Things of Thankful: Temperate Rain Forest Edition

 

Four deer graze in my parents' front yard

It's been a busy week for me, and I'm realizing that I need to hurry or I'll miss the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop. John and I have been road-tripping; we visited my parents for a few days, then drove up to the Olympic Peninsula, then visited our daughter in Seattle. We got home late last night. 

The Pacific Northwest is my "fill my soul" place. When I think of hiking, I think of walking on damp (if not muddy) paths in cool temperatures, with a constant canopy of green trees above me, and a dense understory growing on either side of the trail. When I think of the ocean, I envision a rocky coast, not a sandy beach. Come with me to the temperate rain forest in the Olympic National Park! A picture is worth a thousand words, so obviously the following photos are worth at least ten items of thanks!

John stands next to the world's largest spruce tree

Moss-covered branches hang over a pond in the Hoh Rain Forest


John is dwarfed by the (non-record-setting) trees along the trail

We gave the bugling elk a wide berth (the photo is zoomed in)

Ferns grow thickly under the trees

Photo shows trees which grew up on a "nurse log" (a fallen tree in the forest)

Soggy maple leaves decorate a fallen log

Light manages to penetrate the forest

The driftwood covered rocky Ruby Beach

I hope that the photos convey the sense of peace and awe I felt when I took them. 

What are you thankful for today? Be sure to check out the other posts at the Ten Things of Thankful blog!

Comments

  1. messymimiOctober 23, 2023 at 8:49 PM

    Those are most beautiful thankful things. It's very green, similar to our swamps.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this...
4 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Live from Oregon, part 2

stock photo of old computer monitor When I was 10 or 11, I remember sitting next to my dad in our living room and reading computer code to him as he entered it into an Apple computer. We would finish the exercise and he would hit enter (or was it "run"?) and wait expectantly for the green type to appear on the screen. If we were lucky, the whole conversation would occur. Most often, there would be an error either in my dictation of the code, or in the typing of the code. We would then go painstakingly back through the lines, character by character, to find and correct the error. After what seemed like hours (and might have been), we would succeed and the computer would finally run the entire program. It was magical! My dad designed and built an earth-sheltered, passive solar home decades before solar panels were commonplace. He also was on a 9-month waiting list for a Prius, when hybrids were not seen on every street.  While my dad is definitely on the cutting edge of technol...
5 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Oregon Edition, Part 3

  A western bluebird, sitting at the base of a house window, looks inside Thanks (1) to those who have sent well-wishes for my mom's recovery. Her wrist is healing up nicely. I met a friend from high school for lunch this past week. It was so nice to have a chance to visit with her for a couple of hours. She is one of those friends who it doesn't matter how much time has passed, we can pick right back up into meaningful conversations. Lunch ended all too soon, but I'm so thankful (2) for her, and I'm thankful (3) that she reminded me of the importance of reaching out to others.  Being in my parents' home this week, visiting with a long-time (I'm not saying old!) friend, and with Mother's Day tomorrow, my mind naturally reflects upon the women in my life. I'm thankful (4) for an incredible mom--a gentle woman who taught and loved and guided us (and still does.) I'm thankful (5) for grandmas who were different in their personalities but united in their...
3 comments
Read more