The Woman Who Crossed the Cascades and Inspired Batman

I’m rather a bit in love with a dead woman. I met her in a moment of desperation, when I was running low on Dame Agatha Christie and had finished all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stuff, and still had a yearning for turn-of-the-last-century detective literature. There she was, one of the helpful recommendations on my Kindle Fire: Mary Roberts Rinehart, mystery writer.

Mary Roberts Rinehart, image courtesy Wikipedia

And I was like, meh. She was an American author. I wanted British. But I looked her up, and there were these little hints of someone I should get to know – American Agatha Christie, inspired the whole “the butler did it” meme. Also, Batman.

Batman?!

Well, a Batman fan such as myself can’t resist that siren song. I downloaded The Circular Staircase and got to reading. I didn’t know I was embarking on a journey that would lead from a murder scene in the billiard room of the moneyed leisure class to the crest of the Cascades, or that I would find myself enthralled not just by her writing, but her life.

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The Woman Who Crossed the Cascades and Inspired Batman
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Accretionary Wedge #43: Proof That Geology Diagrams Aren't Boring

I unfortunately missed #42, “Countertop Geology.” Everybody’s already seen the only countertop geology I have, which consists of random stone tiles placed on top of the hideous solid white Formica counters. Additionally, I was off the internets and completely missed the deadline. But I have returned for #43, “My favorite geological illustration.”

Geological illustrations, one and all, are things of beauty to me. They may be beautiful in and of themselves, or beautiful for the information they share and the understanding they promote. A good illustration helps a layperson like myself grasp difficult concepts, and makes things go ping after several paragraphs of confusing description. They can be information-dense, concise, dry as an anhydrous mineral, simple or complex.

They can also be hilarious. Observe:

Metamorphic facies diagram from The Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College*

Note the upper left. One of my geo friends on Twitter posted this ages ago (I wish I remembered who), and it still makes me giggle.

It’s also a damned handy diagram to have around when you’re trying to figure out what happens to rocks while a subduction zone’s squashing and roasting them. Who says you can’t have utility and humor?

 

Link to image source

Accretionary Wedge #43: Proof That Geology Diagrams Aren't Boring

Mystery Flora: Rosario Bloom

The problem with putting together posts like this is that they make me itch for summer. Right now, it’s butt-ass freezing cold (by Pacific Northwest standards), peeing down rain, and the whole region seems permanently cloud-locked. Wah.

For you, my darlings. For you, I’ll torment myself. Besides, I’ve just hit Chapter Three, “The Coast Range Episode,” in Evolution of the Pacific Northwest, and it’s nice to look at these rocks again with a slightly better understanding of their context. Still. Suffering. Wanna get out and play – and find you more mystery flora before we run out.

This solo plant enchanted me. There’s a portion of the head that overlooks Rosario Bay that’s been stripped of soil. It’s just bare rock, contorted into wild shapes by the forces of colliding plates, overlooking the tide pools. A few determined plants cling to cracks here and there. And there was this delicate peach-colored flower (or remnants of a flower – I’m not sure we didn’t come upon it after most of its bloom was gone). It’s ethereal, ghostly, a hint of subdued color amongst the dark rock.

Mystery Peach Flower 1

It looks vaguely like Mount Hood Pussypaws, but the leaves are completely different. Also, not red, but that doesn’t mean anything, considering we may only be looking at the echoes of a bloom.

Mystery Peach Flower 2

I love finding things like this. There’s something about the scrappy little survivors clinging to a cliff that makes me cheer. Life, they say, will hang on wherever it can, no matter how difficult the conditions. And plants like these don’t rudely hide the geology. They merely enhance its aesthetic value.

Mystery Peach Flower 3

Those damned lichens, on the other hand…

Anyway, there’s your mystery flora, my darlings. Those of you who want to see more of Rosario can visit here and here for more pictures of the rocks and a focus on the geology of the area, which is truly wild. I’ll leave you now with a lovely ocean view, taken from a vantage point that’s practically on top of these flowers’ heads. At our feet is the cliff to which they cling. Before us, the San Juans and the sea.

Rosario

You see now why I’m chafing for summer. Oy.

Mystery Flora: Rosario Bloom

Free Geology eBooks Bonanza

Since getting my Kindle Fire, I’ve gone a bit mad. You can’t turn a bibliophile loose in an environment in which books that are not only free but good are readily available and expect anything less. I’ve not been on the internet much – too busy reading all those delicious free books – but when I have, I’ve galloped the tubes looking for moar free books.

(There’s also quite a bit of delicious paid content available, but after purchasing the Fire, and with several geological excursions planned, I need to keep expenses down. And who doesn’t love free stuff, amirite?)

I figured I’d share my finds. And if you’ve got finds, you can add them to the list, and between us all, we should have quite a resource going. I can add a new page to ye olde blog once we’ve got a solid list going. All I ask is that any recommendations you make aren’t pirated. Check to make sure the copyright’s expired or that the author actually did intend to give stuff away. Also, I’m concentrating on recent stuff in this post, but that doesn’t mean you have to: if there’s a geo classic you love, link it!

E-Books Directory. I stumbled across this doing a search for something. It’s glorious. There are books, plural: meaty, wonderful tomes, all freely offered by their copyright holders. Kid, candystore, I’m telling you.

Washington State Department of Natural Resources.  This is where I found a whole, big, beautiful, wonderful book entitled Roadside Geology of Mount Rainier and Vicinity and went mad with glee. There’s also a guide to Mt. St. Helens, some guides to Washington’s wine country, and a plethora of publications dealing in all sorts of geology. Have a look at their publications list and snag what you like. Your own state geological survey probably has some excellent stuff, as well – I know Oregon’s does. Let me know what treasures you find.

Ice-Age Flood Features in the Vicinity of the Pasco Basin and the Hanford Reach National Monument. I’ve only glanced through it, but it looks delish. I snagged the recommendation and link from the Northwest Geology Field Trips site, which has never steered me wrong.

Evolution of the Pacific Northwest. I’m in the middle of this now, and my only quibble is that each chapter is a separate pdf. Not much of a quibble, is that? I’d have paid good money for this book. It’s gorgeously illustrated, the geology is top-notch, and it kept me up late the night I began reading it. Love love love.

I’m positive there’s more out there. Let us gather together the links, and fill our ereaders and/or computers to the bursting with free geology.

Cat Endorsing Evolution of the Pacific Northwest

 

Free Geology eBooks Bonanza

Some Nice Geology in Tommy the Movie

Heh. Curiosity got the better of me, and I took a gallop through YouTube looking for clips from the movie Tommy. This was just before some of you started sending clips my way, and yes, I agree, “Pinball Wizard” is zany madness that the theatre doesn’t top. I don’t think anything staged post-70s can.

I found this an interesting surprise. Roger Daltrey was (and still is) hawt. So is some of the geological scenery:

I’d climb that mountain. Day-am. Any readers here know where and what that is?

Special bonus video, for those poor souls who’ve never seen the Highlander episode “Til Death,” allow me to present Roger Daltrey as Fitzcairn:

A much longer sequence can be found here. I love the interplay between Daltrey and Adrian Paul. The two of them were magic.

The Who’s Tommy runs at Burien Little Theatre through March 25th. Yes, I know, it’s not the movie – but it’s awesome and if you’re in the Seattle area, you should go see it. No geology in the stage production, I’m afraid, but still well worth your time.

Some Nice Geology in Tommy the Movie

Mystery Flora: "They're This Big and Blue"

You’re racking up the successes, my darlings. Achrachno and Silver Fox finished in a dead heat identifying the flowers from Lava Butte: Ericameria nauseosa. Aspidocelis nailed the pretty purple tree: Paulownia tomentosa. That one almost made me decide to give up the Mystery Flora. It’s depressing to discover that your favorite purple tree is an invasive species. Sigh. Ah, well, ours is all alone in the park, so no sex and evil invasive bebbes. I suppose that’s some consolation.

Having recovered from that upset, I’ve decided I shan’t deprive you of flowers. The major impetus to this decision is simple: I’ve spent my productive writing time tonight scouring the Oregon and Washington Geological Survey sites, along with the USGS, looking for publications to download. That’s the thing about this Kindle Fire: it requires constant feeding. It doesn’t matter how much I pour into it. I finish a book or paper or two, and no matter how many I have left, I feel desperate for more. It’s all about the choices. I now have a fat collection of delicious pdfs and no time left for writing substantial stuff. Therefore, flora. Besides, you all seem to enjoy it.

Today’s selection comes from Hurricane Ridge in the Olympics.

Mystery Hurricane Ridge Flowers 1

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Mystery Flora: "They're This Big and Blue"

Darwin: Geologist First and Last

Shall we play a word-association game? I’ll say “Darwin.” And chances are, you’ll say “Origin of Species,” or “Evolution,” or “Biology.” Charles Darwin laid the foundation for modern biology. He changed our whole conception of how species come to be, why a single simple organism could be the root of a riotously-branching tree, how “from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.” Of course we associate him with biology. Rightly so.

But I have got a different word associated with him now: “Geology.”

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Darwin: Geologist First and Last

Mystery Flora: Juanita Bay Flowering Tree, Plus A Few Words on Dambusters

Right, my botanical detectives: I’ve got quite a nice one for ye today. Behold the Tree:

Juanita Bay Tree

This tree was in full bloom in early June. There’s something wonderful about a tree with big trumpeting purple blossoms standing tall by a lake carved out by a continental ice sheet.

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Mystery Flora: Juanita Bay Flowering Tree, Plus A Few Words on Dambusters

Right. You Asked For It. Flowers and Geology Are Served

And here I was afraid it wasn’t nice to torment readers with pictures of unidentified flowers that subsequently drive them mad as they chase through botanical clues… Well, you say you don’t mind. I’ll take you at your word. I disavow any responsibility for subsequent therapy bills.

These shouldn’t be difficult, anyway. If I wasn’t looking for something to brighten up your night twenty minutes before I have to go see Tommy, and if I wasn’t alternating between turn-of-the-last-century mystery literature and Geology of Oregon in my free time, I could probably manage these myself. They were snapped on the Trail of the Molten Land at Lava Butte, Lava Lands Visitor Center.

Mystery Lava Flowers

Aren’t they bonza? Something in the sage family, I should think. Totally fearless on baking hot, black, blasted terrain.

Mystery Flowers and Mountains

Here we have an utterly marvelous view of our mystery flowers across the lava flow toward some fine examples of Cascades volcanoes. The Sisters are in there, and I believe the one standing off by hisself is Bachelor, although I wouldn’t swear to it. Lockwood can specify for us.

The views from Bend, Oregon are, quite frankly, spectacular enough to make me want to move there. Sweeping vistas of lava fields and forests, with peaks in the background, and ponderosa forests giving the whole place that dry-land pine savor that makes you breathe deep and stand tall. It’s gorgeous. And I’d wax lyrical about it, only I’ve got a musical to get my arse to, now that the cat’s decided to make her own way out of my lap rather than make me court death getting free.

Enjoy, my darlings, and I shall return to regale you with tales of Tommy.

Right. You Asked For It. Flowers and Geology Are Served

Mother's Little Helper and Other Stories

I’ve got nothing, really. I was supposed to be watching a movie with a friend who’s in from out of town, but his family kidnapped him. I’ve spent the time finishing The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rhinehart, who has somewhat restored my faith in mystery novels written by late 19th – early 20th century women. I still prefer British authors, but how can I fail to love the woman who inspired Batman?

As a fake excuse for why I haven’t yet written about Darwin and geology, I present photographic evidence that my help was hindering:

Mother's Little Helper

You see that nice, fresh, shiny white notebook she’s lying on? I’d put that down not two seconds before, preparatory to picking up the Kindle and furiously taking notes. I know you can take notes on the Kindle, but it’s slow. Not quite as slow, though, as trying to take notes upon a notebook the cat has claimed.

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Mother's Little Helper and Other Stories