The Local Scenery

We finally had a day with a little sun peaking out at sunset, so we jumped in the car and rode across the Snohomish River to the marsh lands. These seem to mostly be for farming now and most likely the reason the city development hasn't engulfed Snohomish...can't build in the floodplain.



To the east of us are the Cascades all covered with snow. More or less east of Snohomish is Stevens Pass with a ski resort and such. It isn't too far: Seth and Anna go for some snow boarding as day outings.

But the setting sun, the snow, and the intervening farmland makes a beautiful view.

So many colors to catch the eye in the clouds and trees.

These photos were taken at a focal length of around 350 mm. the compression give the impression that the barn in the lower right is in the foothills of the mountains. Well, they sort of are, the distance from the barn to the mountain is round about 30 miles.

Closer to us in the fields are birds. We saw flocks of Trumpeter Swans and Snow Geese. The geese were all too far away to photograph, but I did get a shot of two of the Swans. This shot has a mix of adult and immature birds.

But the real star of the day was the sun setting on the snowy mountains.

It all seems so peaceful here, but rest assured, I am standing at the edge of a busy road with cars whizzing past a few feet away. It is hard to find a place, even in the floodplain, to get away from the population filling the space between the mountains and the sea.