Chester tonight

Cells phones are annoying and horrible inventions, but I have one anyway because there's always the possibility I might fall into a ravine and break my legs and have to call for help (anti-spoiler: that is not what happens in this entry). My very old, decrepit cell phone was finally starting to die, so I got a new one, and the new one has a crappy camera. The camera is very crappy, and the pictures are not worth posting, but they are good for reminding me what I saw while I was out without having to try to shove a notebook and pen in my pockets in addition to wallet, keys and cell phone.

Chester tonight was lovely, and surprisingly unpeopley (maybe everyone was at the carnival or grilling dead things in their backyard?). Some serviceberries were ripening at the edge of the trail just past a rocky drop off, and I managed to pick a few without falling into the ravine and breaking my legs. Later I found a trove of ripe wild strawberries growing in the cracks in the rocks alongside the creek that had somehow escaped all other human and critter visitors to the park. The berries were tiny, maybe a quarter inch to a half inch long, but very soft and sweet. The leaves and flowers were all very tiny, too, which I guess is what happens when you are growing directly out of stone.

Also growing in the rocks along the creek was a cheerful clump of harebells, which are another favorite flower of mine (I have many favorites) and I found exactly one stalk of blooming white pyrola. Thimbleberries are finishing up flowering and are starting to produce fruit, but it's still fairly flat and very green still. In one folded thimbleberry leaf that I saw, a funnel weaver spider had built its nest. Outside the park, along Skyline, wild raspberries are starting to ripen. I'm usually pickier than that about not eating stuff on the roadside, but I ate them anyway.