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The Pacific Northwest!
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podfic_lover are currently in a motel in Brookings, and tomorrow we're heading towards the Redwoods. Here are some photos of our trip through the Pacific Northwest so far. Basically we are hiking around in nature reserves, and also meeting up with fangirls, and I love it! Although my cold is still not gone. /o\
podfic_lover is disappointed that American motels do not actually look like they do in Supernatural. The most quirky one we've stayed at so far was yesterday--it was cheap and a bit seedy, but hey, it had chickens in the back yard! We fed the chickens with bread crumbs from the window.
Okay, so I hope you know that when I say "photos of the Pacific Northwest", what I really mean is "photos of plants of the Pacific Northwest", because that's what I tend to photograph. This is lettuce lung Lobaria oregana, which is a lichen I find very cool. There are benefits of an oceanic climate.
Shore pine Pinus contorta, living up to its name. Probably the tree most hated by Swedish environmentalists, because it's planted as an exotic in large plantations by forest companies. It's fascinating to get to know it in its native habitat, and I quite like it now.
A baby seedling of seashore lupine Lupinus littoralis, with the cotyledons still on it. (Yeah, I had to look up cotyledons--in Swedish we call those "heart-leaves". They're the first leaves that grow on a seedling, often looking very different from the later leaves.)
Evidence that everything is larger in the US (the country is larger, the mountains are larger, motel beds and restaurant portions are larger, the squares on the waffles are larger). This particular instance shows a big tree stump with a blueberry bush on it. In Sweden, blueberry bushes never go higher than your knees.
Sea lions! Wow, they are so cool. They're like a cross between a seal and a dog or something--so much more active than seals. I could watch them for hours (and I probably did).
Flowering salal Gaultheria shallon, which is a new genus for me. Pretty, yes? I have also fallen in love with madrone, which is just an incredibly beautiful tree.
Ugly clear-cuttings: not just in Sweden. This is in the area of Mt. Hood.
I will end this with a picture from the Oregon aquarium of a sea otter sucking its own cock. Fun times.
podfic_lover are currently in a motel in Brookings, and tomorrow we're heading towards the Redwoods. Here are some photos of our trip through the Pacific Northwest so far. Basically we are hiking around in nature reserves, and also meeting up with fangirls, and I love it! Although my cold is still not gone. /o\
podfic_lover is disappointed that American motels do not actually look like they do in Supernatural. The most quirky one we've stayed at so far was yesterday--it was cheap and a bit seedy, but hey, it had chickens in the back yard! We fed the chickens with bread crumbs from the window. 
Okay, so I hope you know that when I say "photos of the Pacific Northwest", what I really mean is "photos of plants of the Pacific Northwest", because that's what I tend to photograph. This is lettuce lung Lobaria oregana, which is a lichen I find very cool. There are benefits of an oceanic climate.
Shore pine Pinus contorta, living up to its name. Probably the tree most hated by Swedish environmentalists, because it's planted as an exotic in large plantations by forest companies. It's fascinating to get to know it in its native habitat, and I quite like it now.
A baby seedling of seashore lupine Lupinus littoralis, with the cotyledons still on it. (Yeah, I had to look up cotyledons--in Swedish we call those "heart-leaves". They're the first leaves that grow on a seedling, often looking very different from the later leaves.)
Evidence that everything is larger in the US (the country is larger, the mountains are larger, motel beds and restaurant portions are larger, the squares on the waffles are larger). This particular instance shows a big tree stump with a blueberry bush on it. In Sweden, blueberry bushes never go higher than your knees.
Sea lions! Wow, they are so cool. They're like a cross between a seal and a dog or something--so much more active than seals. I could watch them for hours (and I probably did).
Flowering salal Gaultheria shallon, which is a new genus for me. Pretty, yes? I have also fallen in love with madrone, which is just an incredibly beautiful tree.
Ugly clear-cuttings: not just in Sweden. This is in the area of Mt. Hood.
I will end this with a picture from the Oregon aquarium of a sea otter sucking its own cock. Fun times.
no subject
I live in Eugene and I love Madrones (Arbutus menziesii)! And we have tons of salal growing naturally all in our woods (Madrones grow all around us but there were none in our yard so I had to plant some :-)
I love a lot of the trees, flowers - plants in general. All of them, really (except the poison oak and the invasives :P) I would really have enjoyed botanizing/naturalising with you :-)
Yes, the Pac NW has all the largest trees - the largest in the world (the redwood) and a close runner up - the Doug-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), the largest maple - the aptly named big-leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) and several others.
And as noted above shore pine is that same as lodgepole pine (so named because they make great lodgepoles and were used as such). The difference in habit is strictly environmental.
I don't ever tire of sea lions either. I love that in Newport and other places you can check them out just lounging around the piers and whatnot. They'll have just got settled and stopped barking at each other when another one arrives (or leaves) and they all up and bark at each other again!
Anytime you want to squee about NW flora or fauna please let me know! So sorry to have missed you :(
no subject
and the otter would have you know he was doing nothing so vulgar as sucking his cock; he was grooming. Grooming!
He was keeping up the "grooming" for quite some time, I'm just saying. Also, a quick google confirmed that they do indeed play around with themselves. : )
no subject
But they do groom quite a bit of the day - like cats, only even more so, because they depend on the air caught in their fur to keep them warm. So lots and lots of grooming! And playing! It's all good! :D