02.24.06
JT, JLB, and I head out on a phenology mission. JT and I studied botany in college and the last time I came to the Gorge with her, her daughter was just 19 months old, saying, "Touch. Touch mama” from the baby backpack. Today JLB runs along the trail on her own "thenology" mission. She's clearly out to study something, even if we are not sure what the -ology is. On that earlier trip I had predicted that JLB would be speaking botanical Latin by the age of 5. At breakfast this morning she proves me right and speaks our mission quite clearly: "Sisyrinchium" (Sysrinchium douglasii var. douglasii)
There in the moist moss we spot a few fuchsia colored heads. Most specimens are in the vegetative state. Long thing leaves clearly of the monocot world. I count 6 petals and not 3 bold yellow stamens that confirm the iris family. JLB tip toes on rocks and finds a few "fat leaves" that her mom tells her are flower buds.
After feeling fuzzy pussy willows and Verbascum thapsis JLB conducts an unprompted experiment. "I'm exploring nature," she says with hands in her overall pockets. "I'm exploring which rocks make a big splash and which rocks make a small splash." I can't stop taking photographs. When we leave the creek bed, we head up the trail to gain the ridge, the Columbia River behind us, rolling on. After seeing tracks in the mud, we practiced walking quietly through the woods so that we might see this animal. I asked JLB about the habitat and colors and characteristics of this creature. Like a 4 year old, she gestured as she told of the fuzzy animal that moved carefully all around this place. But like a careful scientist moments later she exclaimed, "Wait! I have an idea! We can look at its poop. Then we can see what it eats, or if it's fresh, where it has been."
Just before turning away from the creek back to the car I hear, "Wait! Close your eyes. Listen. Take a deep breath." Our young nature lover reminds me to soak it all in.
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