Last week (Nov. 20), Jim and I worked in the area of the spring planting under a steady rain. Unlike the week before, the rain didn't stop. There were LOTS of morning glory roots, more than in the area on the other side of the trail around the ocean sprays.
Jim had cardboard so we used it around some of the plants, brought in mulch, and called it a day. The area has had a lot of fireweed. In fact, it's been a field of fireweed in summer. We'll see if digging out morning glory roots affects that. This past summer, the fireweed sprang up among our spring plantings, obscuring them from the trail. The twinberry below is doing quite nicely.
This morning, it was surprisingly dry. That is, not raining. Except I wasn't feeling well so I just wanted to walk over to the North Woods to see the tree that fell. Along the way, taking a brief detour, I took a photo of the trail that goes westward to the Southern Forest from the south pond. I suppose this is one way to deter walkers; the trail is flooded for a good 30 or so feet.
In the North Woods, what happened was that on Thanksgiving night, a tree took down the power lines along 155th and the lines in turn took down some poles to the west. Photos of fallen wires were in Shoreline Area News:
http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2016/11/wind-and-power-outage-and-clean-up-in.html
Here's the stump of the culprit, from inside the park. On 155th, you can't use the sidewalk from here to 1st NE; downed wired are still visible. Note the orange barricade in the photo.
Curiously, you can use the sidewalk going west, toward Meridian. We then encountered this interesting scene below, with part of a pole held in place by some wires. Further along the sidewalk you can also see a pole that's been sistered.
Back in the park, we trampled through the North Woods. I was complaining to Jim that the ivy we've taken out has been replaced by creeping buttercup. Here, there was a mix of ivy and buttercup. Also in the mix was Italian arum here and there.
In the creek, an oil boom had been placed to trap any oil. Jim said that the transformer that was knocked down contained oil that spilled. This then explains the presence of Department of Ecology in the SAN article.
Really no work on the walk today. I pulled one baby holly; Jim picked up a beer can. When we were back on Meridian and I was about to leave, Gary showed up. I left the guys at the park to do their thing.