It's all a matter of time. And water.

Mountains; all massive, jagged rocks:

Tall, sharp peaks, to our south, in Washington State.

Mount Baker

Which will eventually crumble to this:

Beach rocks, with barnacles and brown rockweed. Boundary Bay.

And then be ground down and smoothed out, by water and critters, to this:

Sand, still being ground down, this time by worms and snails. And water. (Other tracks; human, dog, sandpiper.)

Just give it time.

Life's too short to dawdle

I went over to the vacant lot today, to see if the ant pupae I found last month were hatching yet. Not quite, but it should be any day now, so I'll check often from now on.

On the way back, I discovered treasure; a temporary pond swarming with ephemeral life. I'll post photos and info tomorrow.

And, while I stood at the edge of the pond, a yellow jacket dropped in to get a drink:

One quick sip, and he was on his way. Busy, busy.

I caught this hover fly in the air as he zipped by. His wings are those pale blurs on either side. Hurry, hurry!

And the four-spotted skimmer was much in evidence, speeding past me every few minutes, never close enough, never pausing even for a second, so I could get a photo. Rush, Rush! Time's a wasting!

Fall back

October/November: time to shut things down for the winter.

Three weeks ago. A snail feasts on a dead rose. Three more flowers to go.

Two weeks ago. Wild silver dollar plant. The seed pods will rattle all winter.

One week ago. Big-leaf maple and "normal" maples caught, for now, on the evergreen ferns.

Yesterday. My young maple has about one day's worth of leaves still hanging on. Bedraggled lily-of-the-valley leaves shelter hungry young slugs.

But the towhees are back, and the juncos; they forage cheerfully among those fallen leaves. And a trio of house finches is still here.

Bathing in the rain.

And Daylight Saving Time is over, done with, finished; I just set my clock back. I get to sleep in! Woo-hoo!
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