标签 华盛顿 下的文章
Rhododendrons and azaleas blooming around Moon Bridge, Kubota Garden, Seattle, Washington (© Mary Liz Austin/Alamy)
Rhododendrons and azaleas blooming around Moon Bridge, Kubota Garden, Seattle, Washington (© Mary Liz Austin/Alamy)
It's Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
As Asian Pacific American Heritage month kicks off today, we're visiting Kubota Garden in Seattle, part of the city's extensive park system. The 20-acre Japanese garden is tucked away in the Rainier Valley district—one of the traditional centers of Seattle's Asian American community.
The garden was founded on five acres of converted swampland by self-taught gardener Fujitaro Kubota, who emigrated from Japan in 1907. Founding his own gardening company in Seattle by 1923, he built a reputation by applying Japanese techniques to gardens across the still-young city. He established his namesake garden in 1927, and it quadrupled in acreage over the next decade. Later, during World War II, Kubota and other Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps and the garden was abandoned. But after the war, Kubota restored the garden and his business. He died in 1973, aged 94. But he lives on through his now-public garden, and as one example of the millions of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans who've helped build and beautify our nation.
普尔曼附近的帕卢斯一辆拖拉机在耕作时扬起尘土，华盛顿州 A tractor kicks up dust while tilling fields on the Palouse near Pullman, Washington (© Ben Herndon/Tandem Stills + Motion)
普尔曼附近的帕卢斯一辆拖拉机在耕作时扬起尘土，华盛顿州 A tractor kicks up dust while tilling fields on the Palouse near Pullman, Washington (© Ben Herndon/Tandem Stills + Motion)
Spring comes to the Palouse
The Palouse region of the inland Pacific Northwest is an unusually hilly prairie that straddles the state line between Washington and Idaho. Farming seems an unlikely endeavor here, but the soil and weather patterns make it ideal for growing certain crops, especially wheat and lentils. This time of year, when the wheat and barley crops are young, the hills brighten to fresh shades of green.
Before Europeans and early US settlers arrived, the Palouse was occupied by the Nez Perce people, who bred and raised horses with spotted coats—a breed that would eventually come to be known as 'appaloosas'—a gradual permutation of the name 'Palouse.'
红宝石海滩的日落，华盛顿州奥林匹克国家公园 Sunset at Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park, Washington state (© Adam Mowery/Tandem Stills + Motion)
红宝石海滩的日落，华盛顿州奥林匹克国家公园 Sunset at Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park, Washington state (© Adam Mowery/Tandem Stills + Motion)
Red skies at Ruby Beach
Reddish crystals in the sand inspired the name of Ruby Beach, one of the coastal stops within Olympic National Park in Washington state. A few miles from the shore is Destruction Island, where birds such as rhinoceros auklets may stop and rest after a day of gobbling up krill and squid in the cold Pacific waters. While the park includes miles of colorful Pacific coastline, it's also famous for the Hoh Rainforest, an inland temperate forest notable for its towering old-growth hemlock and spruce trees.
Time-lapse video of lenticular clouds over Mount Rainier, Washington (© Delrious/Shutterstock)
Time-lapse video of lenticular clouds over Mount Rainier, Washington (© Delrious/Shutterstock)
A peak in the clouds
World Meteorological Day brings us to Washington's Mount Rainier, a huge stratovolcano with a habit of creating its own weather systems. Jutting out about 2 miles above the surrounding landscape, its high altitude interrupts the flow of air that comes in off the Pacific Ocean, creating unusual weather such as the saucer-shaped clouds on our homepage. They're called lenticular clouds, and because of their distinctive appearance, they've been suggested as an explanation for some UFO sightings. Thanks for the science of meteorology, we know they're a normal weather phenomenon, commonly occurring on the downwind side of obstructions such as mountains, buildings, or other tall structures.
华盛顿州帕卢斯地区的农田 Farmland in Washington state's Palouse region (© Art Wolfe/Getty Images)
华盛顿州帕卢斯地区的农田 Farmland in Washington state's Palouse region (© Art Wolfe/Getty Images)
Harvest time in the Palouse
The Palouse region of inland Pacific Northwest is an unusually hilly prairie that straddles the state line between Washington and Idaho. Farming seems an unlikely endeavor here, but the land, and the weather patterns, make it ideal for wheat and lentil farming. This time of year, the soft white wheat harvest is on, as the crop turns from green to gold, and for the farmers, from harvest to profit. Before Europeans and early US settlers arrived, the Palouse was occupied by the Nez Perce people, who bred and raised horses with spotted coats—a breed that would eventually come to be known as 'appaloosas'—a gradual permutation of the name 'Palouse.'
The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC © Cvandyke/Shutterstock
The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC © Cvandyke/Shutterstock
DC is the place to be
The building in our photo today is the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington DC. It's part of the large network of the Smithsonian Institution, and has branches in New York and Maryland. All three share one of the world's largest collection of Western Hemisphere Native artifacts, ‘from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.' Architect Douglas Cardinal drew on his Blackfoot cultural history to create the soft, curved lines of the building in the nation's capital. It's meant to evoke limestone cliffs, with rock walls smoothed by the elements. The landscape around the building simulates a wetland environment.
