Ashley

This weekend I traveled home to Pullman to visit my parents. Before coming over I was thinking surely there are things in my home town I haven’t done before, so I started doing some research. The first thing I found was WSU’s (which is in Pullman) Raptor Club. If you have been reading my blogs, you well know by now that I am a fan of birds, thus I found a visit to the Raptor Club to be the perfect opportunity to brush up on my raptor knowledge, as well as share my love of birds with my family.

So, on Sunday afternoon we met with a couple of members from the Club and got the tour started. They greeted us outside with two owls, both of which had been injured by cars, and could not be returned to the wild. Next, we toured inside WSU’s Veterinary Clinic to meet a few American Kestrels, Owls, and a HUGEEEE Golden Eagle, which was blind in both eyes. The Raptor Club primarily functions as a care facility for injured raptors, as well as a rehabilitation and education center, so we also got to meet hawks, owls and other eagles that would be returned to the wild eventually; which was excellent to hear.

My family seemed to enjoy the raptor club, and my dad ( as always ) had a story to entwine with his experience. He told us that when he was younger, he worked as a teacher on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. He said that Owls were considered by the Navajo to be an omen, thus if you were traveling at night and saw an owl swoop over you, you were to turn around immediately. Ironically that night, driving back from a friend’s house and Owl did swoop over me. I was headed home, but I took my dads advice, turned around and took another route.

Posted by Ashley at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last weekend was Olympia’s annual Lake Fair. Lake Fair is your typical Americana festival, boasting rides, parades with corvettes and all sorts of trans-fat filled carnival food. This year a friend and I chose to brave the scene, and we had quite the time.
We started out by grabbing a bite to eat. Visiting Democrats for Thurston County booth, we acquired two “demo-burgers” and sat happily in the shade, munching away. After our stomachs had been filled to the brim with greasy beef and grilled onions, we made our way to the suite of booths lining the lake. Trinkets of all shapes and sizes were on display as well as practical things, such as gutters systems and window treatments.
After we had our fill of things shiny and practical, we visited the ticket booth, and purchased 16 tickets to be used on two rides of our choice. We chose the haunted mansion and the Ferris wheel. The haunted mansion was only slightly ridiculous, with plastic ghouls popping out every so often, making us laugh incredibly hard. The Ferris wheel was a nice retreat, though after a few rounds made us sea sick.
After our short fair adventure, we decided to have our tarot cards read. We signed up, went to eat lunch while we waited for our appointment, and returned for our 10 minute reading. My reading was surprisingly accurate, and I felt it hit right on. My friends, not so much, but that’s the way it goes.
We finished our eventful day with dinner downtown with other friends, then returned home to soak it all in.

Posted by Ashley at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

About this time every year I get excited for spring. I am aware that it is mid February, however occasionally we will get these warm breezes, that smell and feel like spring time. Winter time in Olympia can sometimes be tough. Everywhere the sun starts to set earlier and the rain clouds come rolling in. That’s why on days like today where the sun is shining and the weather is warm, I reminisce about spring time in Olympia; even if it is premature.
Spring time in Olympia is amazingly beautiful! There are hundreds of cherry trees in our city that bloom every year with brilliant whites and pink blossoms. Although their blooms don’t last very long, the petals seem to stick around for the summer. After the blossoms fade, it’s onto the wildflowers. Oranges, reds, yellows and purples fill the city and the Evergreen Parkway. And finally, the leaves on the trees come back and the pacific tree frogs start to sing.


Spring also brings a variety of festivals and parades to the city. Just to name a few:

Procession of the species- a belated earth day parade, where Olympians dress as animals and flowers and parade downtown to welcome the spring. Some of the costumes are quite elaborate (as you see below)

http://www.procession.org/

Arts Walk- Local artists display their art downtown in the cafés and coffee shops.

The Dragon Boat festival:
Boat races in Capitol Lake, downtown Oly.

Additionally, spring time brings the re-opening of farmers market downtown, where you can buy local produce, eat local baked goods (so good) and visit and make friends with other Olympians!

Posted by Ashley at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are a fan of wildlife and the outdoors, Olympia and the South Puget Sound in general is a great place to live. From Olympia you are only about half an hour-three hours away from the coast (depending on which part you want to go to),

minutes away from the Bud and Eld inlets where you can see all kind of sea invertebrate and vertebrate life, about an hour away from great hiking in the Olympics,

two hours from the Cascades and about three hours to the North Cascade mountain range
.
Additionally, this area is full of amazing wildlife including pacific tree frogs, a variety of salamanders and newts, marine wildlife (seals, otters, etc.) and amazing birds. Here is a picture of a Northern Flicker I took the other day—he was just outside my window digging around in the dirt.

I really love living in this area because of all the outdoor adventures available to me, just to name a few: Hiking, Biking, Kayaking, Birding, Skiing, Camping…the list is almost endless. Right now I am awaiting the spring to get out again, but when it comes I plan to visit the Hoh Rainforest (possibly the most amaing place on the planet—only 3 hours away)

and return to the ocean in a Kayak (which you can rent downtown or at Boston Harbor for about 15 an hour)
.

Posted by Ashley at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend my two friends and I went to see the winter Lunar New Years Concert. It was amazing! Hosted by Evergreen Professor Hirsh Diamant and some of his students from the program Children and Education; a Silk Roads Perspective, the concert featured many amazing talents.
There were a number of dancers, who performed native dances from all areas of China, as well as some Orisi (or-ee-see) dancers from Evergreen, who performed animal dances and whose exceptional dancing abilities portrayed perfectly the animal which they were imitating.
There were also a few musicians who performed and plucked these harp-like instruments called zhengs,

...

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Posted by Ashley at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This has been such a busy week!
Monday was filled with school and work as usual and today, Tuesday (one of the only days off from school I have) was packed with action! This morning I gave a tour to two really nice prospective students from New Mexico. Dana and I showed them around, gave them “Welcome to Evergreen, our school rocks, this is why you should go here” spiel and sent them off to explore on their own.
After that I returned home to find I had forgotten to give my professor Hirsh (who I will be traveling to China with along with 17 students and Les Purce-Evergreen’s President) my passport and visa application (more to come on China trip later). So I went to school, only to find I had to have a picture accompanying my visa application...

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Posted by Ashley at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)