Still, I stopped wearing the lining for my rain gear mid-February. The shell is sufficient most days. When days are in the 50's, I just wear my fleece vest with the faux sheepskin lining. No coat. Lately, some days have inched their way into the low 60's.
We have started a Scrabble Group, the Vancouver Word Weavers. We borrowed the name from the group at The Hawthorne, our home in Milwaukee. We didn't think they'd mind since this is a different state and over 2000 miles away. The group is small yet but we have a lot of fun. We are putting up flyers and are hopeful that it will grow. The closest Scrabble Group is in Portland and they are a tournament club. We are a casual club. We don't use timers. We don't keep a club record of scores. We just spend an enjoyable afternoon stretching our brains and rooting for one another.
Adina and I are itching to explore outside of Vancouver. I attend a writing group at the Battle Ground Library, about 14 miles north of home. Every time I go, we see the sign for Battle Ground State Park. All during February, we talked about going there to check it out.
March 1st dawned grey with a blanket of clouds as soft as a comforter. The weather people promised a day without rain, so we decided this was the day to take a look at Battle Ground State Park. Maybe it was just a picnic ground but we'd go and find out if there was more.
The park is situated in a forest of cedar and fir with a few deciduous trees scattered here and there. The campground was all we could have hoped for. It wasn't very big, which we like. The friendly campground host told us that it fills up on weekends in the summer but is pretty open during the week. When we were there, we saw one tent camper and a couple of small trailers.
A sign directed us to a boat launch, indicating a body of water. We drove down a steep hill to find a delightful little lake. Tall evergreens were reflected in the still water. It was absolutely beautiful.
Our folding camp chairs live in the car all the time now in case of impromptu picnics. We sat on them rather than at the picnic table since the benches had absorbed enough water to soak us thoroughly since we didn't have rain pants with us. We had a lovely picnic of tuna salad and crackers, watching the lake. This lake looks just right for our blow-up 4-person boat. We call it our rubber ducky because it is yellow and it loves the water.
A lot of logs floated on the water, snags from fallen trees. This is just the sort of habitat that fish love. We figured they must stock the lake, a note of hope for the future. I hope to do some fishing this summer.
We watched three fellows fishing from the dock. One guy was in shirt sleeves. We shivered and were glad we had bundled up. Every few minutes, one of those fellows would catch a fish. They weren't catching pan fish either. I saw sever trout the length of my arm go into their catch buckets. I was seriously jealous.
After lunch, we hiked part way around the lake. At first the path was wide and smooth but it quickly became more challenging as it wound up and over root systems 4-5 feet high. We went as far as I was able to manage the challenge of clambering up and over.
It was wonderful to be out in the woods. A few bushes had buds but most of the deciduous undergrowth was still bare. However the ferns were green and beautiful and the moss that covered trees and rocks was lush and green.
We stopped at this bench to stand and watch the lake. Suddenly a couple of cormorants landed on a log and settled down for some serious fishing. They dived deep over and over, gathering their lunch. One of them flew to a log and posed, stretched his wings to dry them and looked coyly over his shoulder at the camera.
Cormorants are such interesting birds. I have often seen them resting on old pilings or piers along the Salish Sea (Puget Sound is the old name) with their wings stretched wide. Jet black with an orange beak, they are big birds, bigger than sea gulls. In silhouette, they hold their heads kind of like loons when they float on the water. I don't know how far they range but my friends in Wisconsin didn't know of them.
The day cooled and we headed home, content and warmed by our day of hiking. Soon, we'll go out again and find another place to explore.
See you then!
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