A Collection of Pretty Photos from Discovery Park For Ye

I’ve been so busy you would not believe. I wrote you a book! I am typing and revising it right now! You will have an excerpt soon! And I am fisking an MRA rant from the 19th century, and trying to get some geology stuff written, and I have that silly conspiracy book to dissect. So while I keep meaning to post Discovery Park photos, I haven’t quite gotten round to it.

Today, let’s just have some of the random pretty photos from our trip to Discovery Park when it was all foggy. As always, if you think any of these would make great prints, tell me which ones and I will put them on Red Bubble for you just in case you end up deciding they will be perfect in your house or as a prezzy for someone else’s house.

As we were starting down the trail to South Bluff, we came across this tree that has a big scar in it. I love the way the wood and bark has contorted around it.

Image shows the trunk of a tree, showing where a gash is partly healed, surrounded by thick ridges of wood and bark.
Tree Scar

Here is a detail of the wrinkles in the wood, because they fascinated me and are quite beautiful.

Image shows a section of wood that has partially curved around the scar. The wood is wrinkled as it contracted around the curve.
Wrinkles

You can see the perfect round holes drilled by some sort of beetle or other. And all those lovely gradations of color in the wood are just enchanting.

One thing that’s very nice about the winter is that many of the leafy trees and bushes are temporarily not leafy, so you can see things that you would never see in summer. Here, we can actually see the lighthouse from one of the overlooks.

Image shows the Discovery Park lighthouse, which is white with a red tile roof, visible below through some bare branches.
Lighthouse

Things seem to be blooming quite early this year. When we got down to the beach, some Scotch Broom had decided to have a go at it, which surely will make allergy sufferers cry, probably not with joy. But the blooms are pretty. Evil, but pretty.

Image shows a single yellow Scotch Broom bloom. The broom itself still has no leaves.
A bloom.

Further down the beach, there was more Scotch Broom blooming, so I took a picture of the bluff through it.

Image shows a stand of scotch broom with a few blooms on its green stems, and South Bluff beyond.
Bluff n broom.

When we got to the beach, we found we were lucky, and the tide was still out. Huzzah! There were huge black tangles of driftwood roots in the water. This set of roots has a bit that looks like an anguished poodle.

Image shows a set of thick black roots in the gray water. One root, taller than the rest, looks like the head of a howling poodle.
Anguished poodle driftwood.

As we walked toward the lovely curve of South Bluff, a murder of crows took off from behind it, which was pretty spectacular.

Image shows South Bluff filling the left of the frame, with a huge flock of crows erupting from behind it.
Flying murder of crows.

Then they went flying off across the Sound, nicely complimenting the fog and water and islands.

Image shows the crows scattered across the foggy sky. The water is gray, and the islands are barely visible in the distance.
Crows and Sound.

We couldn’t stay at the bluff very long, because the tide was coming in. We turned back, and got an eye-full of lighthouse. I include it here for those of you who can never get enough of lighthouses.

Image shows the West Point Lighthouse down the beach. The black roots are visible, and there is a bird flying across the water.
West Point Lighthouse

The tide was still out far enough to show some of the low mounds which I think are rocks, but I will have to put on my wading shoes and courage and go out to look someday. Why courage, you ask? Because that water is freezing fricken cold. But the seagulls don’t seem to mind.

Image shows a low mound in the water, with seagulls on and around it.
Seagulls on the mound.

Do you see the way the islands loom out of the fog in the distance? That’s really lovely. It doesn’t quite make up for not being able to see the Olympics, but it is quite pretty.

There was more than one driftwood log with lots of roots. They apparently have been in the water some time, as they have barnacles growing on them.

Image shows the end of a tree with roots, lying in the water. It is dotted with barnacles.
Roots

In case you were wondering where the crows went, they landed upon some of the other driftwood roots.

Image shows a root ball in the water with crows on it. A couple are in mid-flight.
Crows on the roots.

There were too many crows for one log, so it’s a good thing there were many.

Image shows a driftwood log with part of the root system still attached, and crows perched on it.
Crows with log.

Sometimes nature is full of peaceful and lovely things. Twas a very mellow day and a wonderful walk we had. At the end, the fog had still not lifted, which made shooting the sun rather fun.

Image shows a fog bank with the sun shining through it. The sun looks like a round white disk.
Full moon sun.

I love it when the sun is barely-there like that. It’s one of my favorite things to photograph.

I have many more photos to show you, and I promise I’ll try to get to them soon! Wait til you see the fog and sun duets. You will probably love them. Then you won’t mind going to the park when it’s winter and foggy, because you’ll know there’s plenty of beautiful things even without the spectacular views across the Sound.

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A Collection of Pretty Photos from Discovery Park For Ye
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4 thoughts on “A Collection of Pretty Photos from Discovery Park For Ye

  1. 3

    Lovely! My first thought about the holes in the tree was “woodpecker” but I suspect you’re correct about it being beetles. Be sure to click on that picture of the sun to blow it up — you can actually see sunspots!

    I couldn’t help noticing that the massive sewage treatment plant just above the lighthouse was left out of the pictures. It’s a bit unfortunate in such a nice location, but sewage treatment plants are a good thing, and you’ve got to put them somewhere.

    Oh, and I hate Scotch Broom. Did you know the Plantagenet dynasty is named after it?

  2. 4

    Dana, I highly recommend hanging out on the beach by the Edmond’s Ferry sometime.

    If you can get there at low-ish tide, you can usually watch the seagulls (and the crows/ravens who have learned from them) picking up shellfish and dropping them to break them open. The interesting bit is that the corvids have taken it up a notch, and tend to carry them up and drop the shells on or near the train tracks instead of just on the rocks that are available on the beach.

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