nellebelle

I often think of Sandra when I see tumbleweeds - which we have plenty of here in southeastern Washington state.

There was a picture and article on the front page of our newspaper today. The first link shows a photo and the second is to the article. The links will only be good for today, Jan 12. (Tomorrow they will show a different front page.) The picture shows a lot of tumbleweeds!

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/7352432p-7264613c.html
Wild weather whisks Washington

Published Thursday, January 12th, 2006

By the Herald staff and The Associated Press

While heavy rains cause flooding in western and central Washington, Mid-Columbia residents fight high winds and tumbleweeds.

It must be January.

Cassandra Simkins awoke Wednesday to a wall of tumbleweeds stacked behind her south Kennewick home on South Quincy Place, off 47th Avenue.

"I've lived here two years and never have seen anything like it," Simkins said, looking at the tumbleweeds that covered a 6-foot fence.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The rest of the article refers to yesterday's storm across the state.



I heard something on the radio about people eating tumbleweeds during the dustbowl era. It must have been the young plants, and I'm not sure how much nutritional value was there or how they tasted. Maybe they are sweet, like many other young greens.



I added an album and some photos to the files, titled Mary Ellen. One I took while hiking on Badger "Mountain". A group of people purchased part of the land and reworked the trail for better access. There is a music festival here every Labor Day weekend called Tumbleweed Music Festival. Lisa was part of a dance troupe that performed there (and a few other places). The instructor is from China. She married an American she met in China and moved here a few years ago. Three of the girls have Chinese mothers, two have Chinese fathers. The instructor and the other Chinese women often spoke Chinese during our meetings, then someone would translate for me and the other non-Chinese mother. Their final performance was at a moon festival sponsored by the local Chinese association. We felt quite honored to be there, as it wasn't open to the public. So there is a dot connecting tumbleweeds to Chinese culture. The other photo is of Jackie and Lisa wading in the Columbia River in the spring on one of those glorious warm days when we homeschoolers can go to play at the park while school kids can only look out the window.

Mary Ellen

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