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

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 2,  Chapter 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.”

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--”

Oh, yeah

Lugging the soaking-wet carpet and padding up from the flooded basement of one of the school buildings in the aftermath of last week's storm was a huge chore. Staff slashed the stuff up with box-cutters and I went and recruited a few strapping teenaged students to help pull it out to the garbage.

Trivia Quiz on the Clearwater Bus

by Shawna Lee, Clearwater staff member

We regular riders of the Clearwater bus look forward to Trivia Thursdays on the bus ride back to Seattle. Thad comes up with the vast majority of the trivia questions, though Kallisti, driver and staff member Matt Garrity and a couple of other student riders have also contributed some stumpers. Thad is highly knowledgeable about many topics. One of his areas of expertise is geography, so we've all gotten a little better on that topic, thanks to his geography questions. Thad graciously agreed to go through past trivia quizzes and pick 20 of his best questions for readers of this blog.

Thad, Trivia Master

On the bus, we don't allow ourselves to access the internet; we depend on our collective knowledge to come up with what we hope is a correct answer. We also pick someone who is authorized to give our collective decision as the final answer.

To make this a reasonable challenge for you, the answers are "beneath the fold".  Pretend you're on the bus and don't peek before attempting to answer all the questions. Feel free to consult with others in your company, but don't use the internet. If you'd like to comment, it would be fun to know if you found the questions easy or difficult and how many you were able to answer.

Feel free to put some trivia questions of your own in the comments. We're always looking for great trivia for our bus ride home.

Q1: What was Dr. Seuss's real name?

Q2: What was Disney's first feature-length animated film?

Q3: What was the last time the U.S. officially declared war?

Q4: Name all 7 "-stans" in Asia.

Q5: The funk band well-known for their hits "Low Rider" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?" combines with a slang term for "goodbye" to make what classic novel?

Q6: What famous murder prompted research into the phenomenon now known as the bystander effect? You must name the person killed.

Q7: Match the following countries to their respective continents: (a) Monaco, (b) Oman, (c) Samoa, (d) El Salvador, (e) Suriname, (f) Eritrea. Continents in alphabetical order: (1) Africa, (2) Asia, (3) Europe, (4) North America, (5) Oceania, (6) South America

Q8: What are the shortest and longest Beatles songs?

Q9: What company produces the candy bar Snickers?
Q10: Ottoman rulers and the members of Dire Straits share what king-equivalent title?

Q11: This Serbian film is renowned for its terrifying content; it was subject to a police investigation and banned in Spain, Brazil, Norway and an Australian province.

Q12: What is Brunei, out of the following?
1) A province of Malaysia, bought from Indonesia
2) An independent monarchy with a developed economy
3) A now defunct nation; it was annexed by the British in the 19th century and remains a territory of the UK
4) An island of Indonesia famed for its early role in the sugar trade

Q13: In which modern country was Christopher Columbus born?

Q14: Name The Simpsons' three policemen.

Q15: On what day of the week was Easter Island discovered?

Q16: Name the four locations (other than the USSR) named in the Beatles song "Back In The USSR".

Q17: Name the two domesticated camelids native to South America?

Q18: In the modern British Monarchy, which is higher ranking: Earl or Baron?

Q19: What are the two closest living relatives to humans?

Q20: Name the four singles off Nirvana's premier album Nevermind.

Around the School Photos

I don't know if you've heard, but Clearwater is (still) revamping our web site. I was given a short list of photos the designers want, and I've taken a few hundred this week. Here are a few - maybe worthy, maybe not, but interesting anyway.

Computer Room shots are very hard to get right, for this very reason.

Tales of Warcraft - Chapter 3

Those of you who have been following Meghan's original story set in the Warcraft world are long overdue for the third installment. If you haven't read or don't remember the story so far, be sure to check out Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.  If you'd like to re-read the first chapter, click on the link above, then enjoy Chapter 3, below. The story is told from the point of view of Salith, a female half-elf, half-troll rogue. 

Tales of Warcraft

Chapter 3
Stormy escape

Salith awoke to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. She got to her feet and looked out of her cage at the sky where clouds so gray they were almost black gathered on the horizon.

“A storm is brewing,” she said, grasping the two nearest bars and gazing out at the darkening sky.
“Indeed.” A cool voice came from behind her.
Startled, Salith whipped around and bared her teeth.
“Who are you?” she demanded as thunder rolled once more.
“I am known as Delaralas(1),” the stranger replied.

He wore a long emerald cloak and leather garments, half-concealed by the cloak. As he pulled down his hood Salith realized he was an elf, with long purple-ish ears and markings painted across his face.
“What are you doing here?” Salith’s accent faded and she hid her tusks.
“I am here to rescue you. Don’t bother hiding them, I know what you are,” he said.
She scowled and showed her teeth, eyes flashing.
“Why would you come to rescue me? You’re an elf of high-birth and I’m nothing but a lowly half-breed. I don ‘t get it.”
Delaralas shook his head and exhaled softly.“Heh. Neither do I, my friend, neither do I.”
Salith spat contemptuously while lightning flashed behind her.
“Anything but, elf!”

Delaralas actually laughed, echoed by thunder, closer now than before.
“Come now, you don’t want to be stuck in here when that storm hits, now do you? Grab my hand and we’ll get out of here,” he said, sticking out his hand and stuffing the other into his robe.
"I’ll have to trust him…" Salith thought.
She grabbed his hand and just as their palms touched, the storm broke.