I love Silver Lake. It is full of marshy wetland goodness. I wish I knew it in all seasons, but even though I don’t, I can already tell you that one of my favorite months is May. That’s when the yellow iris burst out all over the place, and the yellow water lilies are also blooming, and then there are other, tiny, fuzzy white flowers that look like stars.

They’re really good at reflecting sunlight, too, which makes them difficult for my camera to deal with. But we did our best.

The patterns of light, shadow, and plants against the water made for some rather artistic moments.

One day I shall process the hell out of that one and make it art.

These flowers, for some reason, are favorites of the local beetles. My photos of them from last year (sadly not accessible on this computer) have beetles lounging on them, perhaps because they are so soft and fluffy. This year was no different.

Here’s a closer look at the two on the flower – I have no idea what they’re doing.

It’s possibly either poronographic or Not Nice, but hey, nature. Whaddya gonna do?

While these bugs were doing… whatever… their buddy went climbing up a different leaf.

I utterly adore these little flowers, and the beetles are pretty spiffy, too. Hopefully ya’ll will be able to tell me what they are!

For those interested in the catastrophic geology behind this serene and marshy lake, you can go read my post upon it, which rather gave me the inspiration and the title to blog the lead-up to the May 18, 1980 eruption. For more about the rather epic geologic history of the whole area, I also wrote up the story I found in the quad map documentation, which turned out to be some of the most fascinating reading I’ve ever done. I’m not even being a tiny bit sarcastic. There are times when I pick up a paper, expecting it to be a bit dry and possibly opaque, and I come across a beautifully-written scientific story telling me about other worlds that existed right here on Earth. People wonder why I spend so much time reading this stuff. That’s why. It’s just impossibly neat.

I’ll probably be talking lots about Mount St. Helens, as I’m working on expanding my series of guide posts into an actual book suitable for taking up the mountain. I need to try to get back there soon, too, so if you want to meet up there and do some exploring, perhaps we can arrange something. Bonus if you have a kid who’s willing to be all photogenic on the kid-friendly stuff. I’d like a portion of the book to advise parents on great things to do with the kiddos, so I’d like a young tester who’d like to help me illustrate some of the more awesome features. Also, could folks with disabilities either come along, or let me know what they need me to scope out for them? I want everyone to be able to find fun stuff to do.

Back to research for me. Good luck with our mysteries!