Category: Plants

Mima Mounds Natural Area

Mima Mounds

This Natural Area is south of Olympia just west of I-5. There are a number of walking trails through the mounds and a lot of signs explaining the history of the area. It’s pretty amazing. There are approximately 8-10 mounds per acre, measuring 1–7 feet (0.30–2.13 m) in height and having diameters 8–40 feet (2.4–12.2 m). The origin of the mounds is unknown with a number of alternate hypotheses including shaking from earthquakes while glacial outwash material is uncompacted, animal (gopher, etc) construction and windblown sediment accumulation around plants, among others. Regardless of origin, they make a very interesting walk.

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Siberian Iris

Siberian Iris (1)

I took these this week in my garden. I have had this little bunch of Siberian Iris since we bought the house, but this was the first year that I have pruned back the old vegetation in the fall. In past years I had some blooms in January, but I’m getting lots more blooms and earlier. Not sure if it is the pruning or not, but the weather hasn’t been particularly unusual this fall. We’ll see … if I remember to prune in October next fall.

The above image was isolated using an AI mask in Adobe Lightroom Classic.

Siberian Iris (2)
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Frosty Morning

Frosty Morning (1)

This is a road that runs through the Nisqually Natural Wildlife Refuge … or did before they breached the dikes to provide for salmon habitat. It was a wonderful spot for bird watching … with an occasional other critter … like a long tailed weasel that was carrying a sparrow in its mouth and ran right alongside me. Now visitors are channeled on an elevated boardwalk. You can see water birds from the boardwalk and lots of others in the woods near the visitor center, though. Still worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Here’s a close up of frost on the native blackberry:

Frosty Morning (2)
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