Caped Cascadia: Sustainability Superhero

Lover of the great outdoors, Caped Cascadia fights for environmental preservation and animal protection across the Pacific Northwest. She bravely forwards her cause through volunteering, voting, advocating, tithing to the cause, and walking her talk to lead humanity toward a humane, sustainable culture. Her superpower is her ability, through the powers of informed logic and articulate debate, to transform even the most self-indulgent, irresponsible consumers into mindful, conscientious citizens of the earth.

Note her sturdy runners and walking stick for long hikes, all purpose gloves for organic gardening, kayaking or snow shoeing, yoga tights and leotard, “whale pin” donation thank you gift from People for Puget Sound, short-cropped hair for easy care when swimming, camping, and participating in old growth forest sit-ins, the forest twigs that nonetheless got caught in her ‘do when she was sitting up in the ancient Douglas Fir, belt of quarters for riding the bus, and her “big dog” companion Gifford (all Cascadians love big dogs).


Thanks to Becky at “Girl in Short Shorts”, who clued me into the Superhero Creation Tool!

Pendleton Blankets

When I was a kid, there was always a car blanket or two in backseat of the Oldsmobile. We would use them on outings to the beach and mountains when, sitting in the car looking out over a stormy Pacific or snowy fir trees, we could have a picnic lunch of tuna sandwiches and carrot sticks and oatmeal cookies and maybe a thermos of tomato soup before heading out to build sand castles or snowtube.

They were always Pendleton blankets; big, woolly sheaths of slightly itchy, warm comfort. They would be on the boat and at friends' cabins, and on my bed at home on particularly cold nights. With bold stripes or bright Indian prints, they were an iconic element of my childhood landscape. They meant excursions and adventure as well as long car rides home. My mother and grandmothers also grew up with them.
The Pendleton Woolen Mills has been making blankets in Pendleton,Oregon since before the beginning of the last century. Originally, the blankets were not only inspired by Native American tribal designs, but manufactured for Native Americans. And, to this day they are prized ceremonial gifts in many tribes.

Pendleton blankets remain a staple in the Northwest. They fit into the sensibility, style and the landscape of Cascadia. (In fact, an early Dale Chihuly project was inspired by the blankets. He made a series of basket-like vessels based on the Pendleton designs.) Sturdy, multifunctional, beautiful, these blankets become family heirlooms, the kind that get used as well as loved.

Quality of Light

In my last post, I mentioned the water-laden air here. Light in Cascadia is heavily affected by this. There is often an iridescent or opalescent quality to the light, particularly on sunny days from fall equinox to spring, when the sun is lower on the horizon. Sunlight shines through the moist air, adding a soft quality and depth to the landscape. The moisture that coats the trees, basalt rock, ferns, everything, deepens their colors as well. The result is visually transfixing. The environment seems to glow. Colors are oversaturated. Capturing this phenomenon has long been the obsession of Northwest artists. (The book, “Iridescent Light,” which tracks the evolution of modern Northwest art through its artists, describes this well.)


(Left: Lupin on Mt. Baker)

Bodies of water in the landscape, large and small, affect the light and the environment’s color palette as well. When the sun appears, the glare off the Sound, the ocean, the lakes, and even the puddles can be blinding. Yet, late in the day when the low sun cuts across the landscape under a bank of heavy clouds, the effect is stunning… like a movie set.

Then, on days like this the steely sky is reflected by the water, and both turn grey. Everything is shrouded in muted tones. Color withdrawal sets in….