Water, Water

Astoria, Oregon ~ November 23, 2011

It's been storming and blowing for days. A lot of the area had power out last night from downed trees, but I was fine here - only a flicker of the lights during the evening. In the photo, the rain on the river was so heavy my camera didn't know where to focus. It's always interesting to see what washes down. Above, it was a good-sized leaf. Below, a small log.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Another River-front Weather Report

October 24, 2010

I love the light and colors of storms! Today's storm was more about shading than colors. It began early. In fact, the lightning flashed through my eyelids before my eyes were open. The lightning didn't last long, but it came back later. I didn't see any of the strikes, and they were not terribly close, maybe four miles away at the closest.

I've noticed that the seagulls hunker down and look very flat in the rain.

This time it's not rain, but hail.

Heavy hail.

Hail and rain against the side of the workroom window. I thought I was getting the mother and baby stuffed opossum (top of the bins on the left) in the photo, but they aren't visible. They seemed not to mind the crashing hail or the thunder.

Hail outside the window. This is where the lovely tangle of plants lived until last summer. The neighbors tore them out, then got as far as putting in a few big rocks, but no plants I guess until next spring (I hope).

When the downpour stopped, a familiar pattern of clouds emerged. So often, there's this layer of clouds over the river obscuring the hills of Washington. It takes one form or another, but is usually separate from the clouds above. I thought the arrangement today was striking.

And it rained again. As I type this at 9:37 p.m., I've just seen lightning outside the window. I wonder what's in store for tomorrow? The big winds didn't materialize yesterday. The forecast usually gives a hint, but it's usually not spot on.

Web stuff: I finally decided today that I had too many blogs going on, and while I like the theme of all of them, I concluded to integrate "On the Pavement" with Tapirgal's Daily Image. I had very mixed feelings, like ripping up a piece of artwork, but went for it anyway. I also spent some time putting these plastic floating/swimming fish online in a way that people could order them from the site. It turns out that the page on the gift shop blog featuring these fish was by far the most popular of all my pages, but since I didn't have them online in the store, people had to order them by phone. Here's the new set-up. Let's see if they're as popular as I think they'll be.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Laurel's baby shower, with Teagan in attendance!

I think everyone brought diapers. Laurel has just posted on her blog about the shower. As she says, the timing was not exactly as planned. Teagan wasn't supposed to be born yet, but I'm glad he was. He was a good guest :)

Laurel's friend Jen gave the shower at Laurel's Aunt Jane's house. I had nothing to do with it except that I went and had a good time and, as usual, took pictures of many things, including some people. Laurel looked radiant - very pretty, and very happy. Here she's holding up a pair of very cute little shoes. After awhile one of the game rules had to be changed so nobody could use the word "cute" without losing the clothes-pin around their neck to the person who caught them saying the banned word. EVERYTHING was cute. Imagine all the newborn-size baby outfits with ears, bears, pockets, etc.

Ashley helps one of the guests with . . . something-or-other.

From the back left: Erika, DeLyne, Laurie, Jane, young lady whose name I don't know, Laurel, and Laurel's mom, Chris. I think that's Maggie's head in the lower right.

Nice table setting - nice food :)

Outside it was drippy and rainy. We were having snow and storm warnings. For the moment it was just a lot of rain and colder-than-usual weather.

Kids. The two little girls in front are Maggie's twins. The kids are entertained.

One of the games the adults played was about the names of baby animals. Everyone said, "Sheryl's going to do well on this one." Ummm. Not. I love animals, but I didn't know a leveret from a pout until the game was over. Some I should have known, but I must have been working too much and retarded my brain. I got eight right. I think Erika won with a whopping 18 out of 21 or something like that. Here they are, for the reader's education and so I won't ever forget:

Raccoon: kit

Wolf: pup (I put cub, and I might argue that it's at least in common use, if not correct, or maybe it's an alternative-type wolf baby)

Goose: gosling

Elephant: calf

Swan: signet

Turkey: pout (and who has ever heard of THAT?)

Zebra: foal (I had "colt" - not close enough)

Eagle: eaglet

Rooster: cockerel

Owl: owlet (at least I got that one)

Lion: cub

Goat: kid

Fox: kit

Kangaroo: joey

Ostrich: chick

Tortoise: hatchling

Rabbit: kit (don't ask me how I got it, but I did)

Hare: leveret

Bat: pup

Koala: joey

Shark: pup (!)

Well, that was fun.

Also at the party were birds at the feeder. (Fun with long lenses.)

James and Teagan had been napping (?) in the bedroom, and they finally came out. Laurel presented Teagan, the second guest of honor (or vice-versa).

Dad (James) joins the party and feeds little T. in the front room.

Cake. I wasn't going to, but I did. With ice cream (2 scoops).

Hello!

Here's Maggie feeding Teagan as the party winds down and people begin leaving to get home ahead of the storm.

Here on the water we had loud crashing waves like on the ocean and logs banging against the building all night. It's kind of romantic and even comforting unless you're the one paying for upkeep on the pilings (which I am not).

December 12: Gearing up for a storm in Astoria

There was a storm in the making out over the Columbia and beyond to the north. The day started with rain, and the waves were higher than usual. It almost looks like the ocean, but remember - the Columbia is only a river. Here in Astoria, we're about 10 miles from the ocean.

Dark skies to the north make this ship stand out dramatically.

Here's a pic of the same ship with the pilot boat alongside. I left the original large. If you click on the photo, you can see the pilot climbing up the ladder and people on board waiting for him.

The background as the stern went by was even more dramatic than the first picture.

Here the sun popped through for awhile and warmed up the lighting. The waves seem to have gone down a bit also.

Yes, this is the same day a little bit later. These waves again look like they belong in the ocean. I was informed by one of the pilots that our storms normally come from the oceans to the south of us, which doesn't give the waves a chance to build on our side of the river. This storm was coming from the ocean to the north, across the water. The river is about four miles wide here, so allowing for the angle, that's maybe six miles or so that the wind has build the swells before the waves reach us. They're not huge - they're nothing to worry about - it's just unusual and it makes a lot of noise when they strike the pilings.

High waves at high tide on the other side of the old Englund Marine building. One car, just out of the picture on the right, was getting a bath.

The underside of the River Pilots' building on our east side wasn't that much above high water, either. We had a 10.6 high tide today, which may have been the high for the year. Tomorrow or yesterday had one equally high. Barbara and I had both noticed how high they were just looking at them, and later I checked the tide book.

To our left is the other River Pilots' building. Here a door to the "basement" (well, not really, it's just the screened area under the building) was knocked off by the bigger-than-usual waves. By the time I alerted someone and we tried to snag it with the pike pole, it was too late. It washed out pretty fast.

Just another shot of the river - a boat on the choppy water, dark skies beyond.

Later in the day Lee and I drove across the Youngs Bay Bridge to Fred Meyers. I couldn't quite catch the beam of light coming down through the hole in the clouds. Drizzly day.

This is a shot from the other side of the bridge. Again, it's taken from the car and isn't too great, but I like the colors and muted feeling of the sloughs here.

And we returned through Hammond or Warrenton back toward the bridge - the decorations are trying to be cheerful. I like the lights against the soggy sky, but it doesn't come through quite the way it looks in real life.

Spring storm, Palisade, Colorado

Here it is the end of March already. Not all of the trees have leaves, but the globe willows are glorious in their bright pale green. This is some of the first color in the trees each year. I love it. I love the wonderful contrast between our globe willow, the sky, and the Bookcliffs on a day like today.

These are all taken from our front yard on Milleman Street.