I can’t remember not being interested in nature. When I was younger I loved hikes in the Iowa woods. At a teen I was drawn to the challenge and thrill of the high ground, be it Colorado fourteeners, then as an adult, glaciated Cascade volcanic peaks. I was always trying to get to the highest ridge or butte around, just for the view, if nothing else.

But now I find myself drawn to the lowlands in between the peaks and ridges, where the water drains and pools and the wildlife gathers. There’s just a lot more going on down there.

This wetland is on Johnson Creek, the stream that drains the north side of Cooper Mountain on it’s way to merging with Beaverton Creek near the Tualatin Hills Nature Park. Beaverton Creek flows west into Rock Creek, which feeds our valley’s namesake, the Tualatin River.

Saving a heritage oak at a new trailhead at a neighborhood park. And in contrast…

We just got through a cold snap, with some amazing hoar frost, especially at the higher eleveations. This is at Cooper Mountain Nature Park, at about 800 feet.

Mt. Hood from Sexton Mountain (Beaverton), Jan. 3, 2013

Mt. Hood from our house, Jan. 3, 2013

Mt. Hood from Sexton Mountain, Jan. 3, 2013

We often think of Pacific Northwest winters as bland, gray and dreary, but in truth, we get some fantastic winter light around here. Not to mention some nice landscapes to have lighted.

Our weather patterns are typically dominated by (relatively) warm, wet Pacific systems, but we also frequently get cold, dry Arctic air masses pushing down through Canada and Washington along the Columbia basin, and then funneled through the Columbia Gorge into the Willamette and Tualatin Valleys. These are cold, dry, windy times.

When the next Pacific system pushes in and slides over the top, we get amazingly variable light, and sometimes legit winter weather (i.e. snow!). (Even without the Arctic systems, the Pacific systems produce snow in the Cascade Mountains, but the snow level can be pretty erratic throughout the winter, with rain as high as the mountain passes and ski areas at times.)

The bottom picture was taken on New Year’s Day, a cold, clear, dry day. Two days later, a Pacific System was muscling in, and I took the top two pics.

We tried to go to nature church on Mt. Hood yesterday, and while the weather was fine and the snow was plentiful, we saw far too many Great Apes and Domestic Canines and no wildlife at all.

So we went to nature church at the beaver pond today and saw, in addition to our resident Mallard flock, a beautiful lone, rainbow-colored Wood Duck and an then a Great Egret, like this one. “They look like angels when they fly,” remarked Z. They really do. Further upstream we saw what at first appeared to be an otter, but turned out to be a young nutria. We followed him upstream as he skillfully navigated rapids and debris dams.

A little later, I ran across a hawk and spied these three Black Tail Deer in Deer Meadow. Great to see the neighbors out and about on a crisp early winter day.

LuLu, 1995-2012

No creature great or small has ever loved us so fiercely, nor hated everybody else with even greater ferocity.

At first, upon entering the forest, you feel you’ve entered a whole different world. But then one day you realize it’s not a different world, it’s the world, the actual planet you live on.

It’s great to be an ape.