My shovel bounces off the soil in my garden bed, my fingertips are cold even with garden gloves and my pea seeds, usually in the ground by now, are still in their packets. What’s a gardener to do?
I’m distracting myself with pondering who discovered what, how old does that species live, and what’s a big dingy, anyway?
So join me in an odds-and-ends outdoors quiz. Answers and explanations are at the bottom of this column.
Answers
1. B. A logger accidentally discovered the entrance, but a Boy Scout troop did the initial exploring. The lava tube was named the Ape Caves in honor of the St. Helen Apes, a group mostly of foresters.
2. Whatever you picked, you’re right. The very small town is near the Yakima Indian Nation.
3. D. Dungeness Spit off the north end of the Olympic Peninsula, near Sequim, juts out into the Strait of Juan De Fuca. The New (1857) Dungeness Lighthouse is at its tip, maintained by a nonprofit’s volunteers.
4. D. All are beetles found in Washington.
5. A. All have alpine meadows and flower fields.
6. B. Syracuse, New York, decreed in 1992 that snow was illegal if it fell before Christmas. It snowed two days later — before Christmas.
7. C. In 1921, over April 14-15, 87½ inches fell in Silver Lake, Colorado, although snow actually fell over 27½ hours. Nonetheless, it’s generally accepted as a record for a 24-hour period … give or take.
8. D. Our 4- to 5-feet-long, 250-pound sleek swimmers have a fairly long life. They can go up to 23 mph, remain submerged for up to 28 minutes, and can dive to almost 300 feet.
9. All of the above. These are four of more than 40 marine state parks; with 8,500 feet of public moorage space, it’s the largest state-managed mooring system in the U.S.
10. C. Otter Point is correct. But where is Daroga? you might ask. It’s off Highway 97 between Winthrop and Wenatchee, with 127 acres and 1½ miles of Columbia River shoreline.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or songandword@rockisland.com.
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