A Drizzly Day on the Columbia

This is another of my "weather report" photos. Nothing special, except that looking out over the river is always special. It's been drizzly, and it's the most wintery summer I've seen here. People are starting to complain about it. I'm not bothered by it yet, but it is a little weird to be wearing a sweatshirt every day in August and still feeling cold. This is the only photo I took today.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

April 7, Astoria: Fog and boats on the river

I drove into Astoria early from Portland - well, it seemed early to me, since I had to get up before 7, but I didn't actually get back to Astoria until about 9:30. By 11:07, when I took this photo, the sun had burned the fog off of the town, but it still lingered on the water, making for yet another interesting permutation of lighting and elements. Note the "ghost ship" behind the pilings, and you can't even see the hills in Washington. The air still felt pretty chilly to me. I saw people walking around in t-shirts, but I was happy to pull on my warm jacket before going out.

I'm not sure if this is Coast Guard or someone else, but they're jetting across the scene to get somewhere in a hurry. On the right you can just see the green buoy. It's not really floating in air, but it looks that way. The air in the foreground is clear, but as sometimes happens, the fog lingers over the water. I took these pix from the old ferry dock at the foot of 14th Street.

March 19: The Global Sentinel passes Astoria

We had a notable visitor on the river today, the Global Sentinel, a trans-oceanic layer of fiber-opitic cable.

The ship was moving upriver at quite a clip, and actually making quite a lot of noise for a ship of that size. I didn't get a good photo, but I wanted to get something before she disappeared behind the sheds to the east of our place.

Lately I've taken an interest in the way each type of ship arranges the opening and ladder where the pilots enter and leave. This is almost like a regular doorway with a ladder in it.

It was just plain cold and wet and dreary on the water today. This bufflehead female floats on still water with raindrops pattering down. The hard rain seems to have stopped for awhile, but it drizzled much of the day. I was indoors working on the computer as usual.

Nice patterns and reflections in the still water of the Columbia.

Here's the radio tower, reflected.

By early evening, there was a steamy-looking fog over the river. It wasn't actually steamy because there was no heat. It's just the way the clouds were looking later in the day. It's kind of different from the usual - whatever that is - but the fog and clouds don't usually take this formation on the water. I don't mind days like this, but it IS why we get so excited when the sun comes out.

Ghost ships on the Columbia River

It was drizzly and foggy this morning, so much so that I would barely have recognized that a ship was passing except that it announced itself with its foghorn. I love the sound. It's interesting that even in the deep fog, you can see the reflection of the ship on the water.

A little bit later a Coast Guard ship came by heading for the dock just upriver from us at the Maritime Museum. It was closer than the big ship, as the trajectory had it skimming just past our location.

Here's the mast in the fog.

And some guys in the stern of the ship.

Now it passes the radio tower and goes out of sight and into port.