I’ve been working in our Bellingham, WA head office a lot lately, and since I like to take walks during lunch, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that our office is no more than 50 metres from one of the trailheads of the Whatcom Falls Park.
It’s a wonderful urban park and such a welcoming escape from paperwork and computers screens – the sound of birds, running water, and trees rustling in the wind is exactly what you need to refocus, recharge, and re-energize.
Note the burned hulks of trees – perhaps 3 years ago there was a leak in a gas pipeline that crosses the creek, upstream of this photo. After spilling for perhaps hours, the gas ignited, sending sheets of flame flying almost a hundred metres above the creek. 3 teens were killed downstream of this pic, and many trees were torched … it was a fairly significant disaster for Bellingham.
I happened to see some very odd spiky-looking flowers on one of my walks through the park:
I don’t have a clue what they are, but they’re vaguely prickly, and very photogenic …
[ update August 12: a co-worker says they’re called Teasel, or something like that. And in fact, that’s what they are. ]