Saturday, February 25, 2012

Clearwater Reach Restoration Planting

By Shawna Lee, Clearwater staff member

Work is nearing completion on the North Creek Clearwater Reach stream restoration project.

The final phase of the project involves planting thousands of native trees and shrubs in the riparian zones at both The Clearwater School and Clearwater Commons. Scott Moore, Native Plant Steward at Snohomish County Surface Water Management, created a planting plan and plant list to re-vegetate the construction area.

Shrubs awaiting planting on west side of North Creek

In the late fall, members of the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) planted 1,000 trees on both sides of North Creek running through school property.

Hundreds more shrubs on the eastern slope of North Creek

In early February, 3,000 shrubs were delivered and placed. WCC did much of the planting, and last week members of that crew trained Clearwater students and staff how to plant the remaining several hundred shrubs to ensure a high survival rate. We have this week and next to finish the planting.

WCC crew member explaining technique to Justin, Lily and Tommie
...and they set to work

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Tales of Warcraft - Chapter 5

Here is the fifth installment in Meghan's original story set in the Warcraft world. If you haven't read or don't remember the story so far, be sure to check out Chapter 1, Chapter 2Chapter 3. and Chapter 4. The story is told from the point of view of Salith, a female half-elf, half-troll rogue

 Meghan as Jay Warren in Clearwater's current steampunk LARP

Chapter 5
Deja Vu

Salith's eyelids fluttered and she groaned, lifting her head. An earsplitting headache had made its way into her skull and it was very distracting.

“Mordink” Said a voice to Salith's left. It sounded as if the person to whom the voice belonged had a very broken nose. Salith slowly turned her head towards the voice and, trying not to hurl, she spoke. “Morning...Who are you?”
Salith saw a small and frail-looking human. A tattered light-blue tunic and what looked like a wide variety of rags sewn together and loosely called pants, adorned her ragged figure. The human looked as if she had been thrown down a hole full of starving imps and left there for at least a day, then pulled up with a chain around her neck. Salith felt sorry for her, despite how Salith herself looked. The human took a little while to answer. She seemed to be looking Salith over, then finally, after a long pause, she replied, “Rowda.”

Salith inhaled deeply, still trying not to hurl. She nodded to the girl, “Salith. Nice to meet you, Rowda.” Rowda laughed, which segued into a large and lethal-sounding coughing fit. Having composed herself, she corrected Salith. “Do, R-o-w-n-a”
“Rowna?”
“Yes”

Salith assumed 'Do' was meant to be 'No'. She continued, “What happened to your nose?” Rowna shrugged “I was undonscious for most of it. I just dow it hurt, a lot.” It looked like it took a lot of effort for Rowna to talk, so Salith decided to leave her be for the moment.

She looked herself over. Salith was still wearing the prison clothes Ceradar's men had put on her--a simple brown shirt and pants, but the pants were shredded near her feet and the left sleeve of her shirt had been torn off completely. With a pang, Salith remembered that she had left Delaralas and Varawien to fend off all of those men by themselves. She surprised herself with how much she cared about the two that she hardly knew. A ferocious sneeze coupled with a sick splattering noise from Rowna's direction made Salith finally throw up. She spat on the floor repeatedly, disgusted.
Worgen

The clattering of chains and bizarrely familier shuffling footsteps made Salith look up, and there before her was the undead she had seen talking to the mysterious worgen lady--and, to Salith's horrified surprise, Varawien.

“Vara!” Salith cried, remembering too late as she tried to pull towards her friend, that her bindings were rigged to cause her horrible pain if she moved. The undead laughed cruelly as Salith dropped her head, barely holding back a scream and fighting tenaciously to stay conscious. She had fainted too many times recently to do so again.

Varawien looked dead. She was pale and broken-looking, wearing nothing more than Salith herself. Various torture scars were showing on her bare arms, some even still dripping blood. Salith stared straight into Varawien's dull eyes and felt her spirits plummet.
She asked quietly, “Delaralas...?”
Varawien looked away. “Dead.”

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Tales of Warcraft - Chapter 4

Meghan

Here is the fourth installment in Meghan's original story set in the Warcraft world. If you haven't read or don't remember the story so far, be sure to check out Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. The story is told from the point of view of Salith, a female half-elf, half-troll rogue

Chapter 4
Traveling

They were back on the road. Varawien had decided to join them on their 'quest', as she called it. She was astride a great black steed with white socks and a white diamond-shape on his forehead, whom she called Topaz .
Y'know, I don't think she believed a word you said!” Varawien laughed.
After a small silence in which the birds sang and the wind gently rustled the leaves on the trees, she continued.
“But it would have looked too suspicious if she hadn't let us go--with the innkeeper watching and all.”

Salith stayed silent, watching a hawk flying lazily overhead.
“It was still a bit of a close shave. However did you come up with all that?” Delaralas asked, riding up so that Drake and Topaz were neck and neck.
Salith shrugged.
“Not all of it was made up. Erilikoth is real, so is Alin'kah, and the Emerald Grove is a myth,” she said, still watching the hawk.
“Not all myths are legend,” Delaralas said, sounding rather mysterious.
Salith slowed Bandit to a walk.
“What do you mean?” she asked, bewildered.
“I mean, some say dragons are only of legend, but they are blinded by their own limits. If they opened their eyes, they would see that--”