Re: Chilean fire bush -- My wife's NEW copy (2001) of the Sunset Western
Garden Book lists Chilean Fire Bush on page 325:
"Evergreen or Deciduous shrub or tree
Zones 5, 6, 14-17, 21-24
Full Sun or light shade
Regular to ample water
Evergreen varieties more hardy; all put on a showy flower spectacle in
late spring/early summer
Needs good drainage, acid soil, nonalkaline water, cold-wind protection"

Re: Lynx sighting near Raymond -- My father swore he'd seen a lynx cross
the highway in front of him last summer on the hills between Raymond and
Aberdeen.
While it is true that a large bobcat at a fleeting glimpse is very
difficult to ID, I find it not impossible that a few could have gotten over
there with their wide-ranging habits, especially of males. For a food
source, snowshoes hares may still be a possibility; consider the coastal
Oregon snowshoes discussed this past year on OBOL. And I tend to be less
skeptical about such things ever since I saw a wolverine on the eastern edge
of the Olympics, near Brinnon, in 1986. Kinda hard to mistake anything for
a wolverine, but everybody tells me they don't live there either. One of
these days I plan to reconnoiter the Olympics a little more thoroughly for
that critter.

Lee Cain
Aquatic Biology/Integrated Science
Astoria High School
lcain at seasurf.net