Early February is a lovely interlude in the Pacific NW winter. We get a few weeks of warm blushing weather that fools you into the false belief that winter’s over. It’s as brief as it is pleasant. Who knows? Maybe this year with El Nino … anything’s possible.
“Silhouetted limbs” against the sky …
And swelling (lilac) buds …
This weeping willow is opening leaves already …
The days are longer now. Here’s a view over Lake Vancouver at about 6:30PM.
The steam is from a plant in Portland just past Kelly Point. The lights to the right are from the Port of Portland.
I grew up in southern California where “winter” was barely more than a hiccup in the balmy clime. Pacific NW winters — though relatively mild — offer more seasonal punctuation than California. Here’s my 2010 tribute to winter … (alas, sans photo)
Winter
In this quiet
Womb of winter
The sky and earth embrace.
Damp folds of white and gray
Accumulate and spill
In dank fecundity.
Pressed low upon the earth
Clouds kiss the weeping bough
And quench the open ground.
Nude limbs belie the coursing life
Toward the swelling bud,
While ‘neath the sodden earth
Life nudges darkly upward still
Embryos of daffodil.
In this hush of winter
Under deep obscuring skies
And silhouetted limb
I sense a great becoming
Tremulous and sure
Of things to be another time
But growing now
Within.
I went out on my first Forever Young hike for 2010. Moulton Falls is about 25 miles north of Vancouver. This was a leisurely 6 mile RT hike. In the middle of a solid forecast of drippy days Tuesday was a surprise of dry sunshine! It was warm too – in the mid-50’s.
This one’s for my friend Ron. Either some logger tossed this wagon wheel over a young tree many years back or a tree just happened to sprout there. Regardless, it’s a better story than image. This was an old wagon train route.
The Moulton Falls bridge was full of water in the morning.
It provided nice views of the river below.
Here’s one of our hikers coming over it.
This is a renowned summer-time rock — and apparently bridge — jump-off point. Here’s a terrific YouTube video of one such jump:
I bought several dozen tulips last fall. All but a few were planted in the ground. This is all I have to show for my efforts.
My neighbor has dozens of naturalized tulips. I thought they were a safe bet. But no, the squirrels just thought I’d buried their food.
Then there’s my Sarcococca (sar-ko-KOAK-ka) plant – touted for its “intense” even “piercingly sweet” fragrance. I was advised to plant it near an entry way as the fragrance would overwhelm a 100 foot area.
I must not have the “confusa” cultivar (but rather the “ruscifolia“). For the 2nd year running I can barely detect any fragrance (if at all).
On the other hand, my witchhazel (Hemamelis “Arnold Promise”) is blooming and nicely scented. I still have to put my nose in it, but it has a delicate powdery fragrance — very distinctive and “bewitching”.
The crocus are budding up and the primulas are developing.
Another casualty has been the lovely pink camellia by my front door. It’s been full of plump buds since last summer. But those over-ripe buds proved to be no match for a hard freeze in early December when the temps dropped to 10 degrees at night.
My camellia now has a skirt of plump brown dead buds. So much for best laid plans. As Robert Burns avowed, they “gang oft astray”.
I’m training to be a watershed steward. It is SO fascinating! I’ve only taken one night’s class and I learned so much already. So here’s the big picture for Clark County, WA:
Now of course these are both ’small’ pictures. They’re both part of the Columbia River basin — which flows through seven states and two countries. It’s the size of France!
Watersheds are always named for the body of water they flow into. Their perimeter is defined by the uppermost points — which aren’t always obvious, I must point out. There are no less than 5 aquifers underneath Vancouver and Portland. My tap water comes from wells as deep as 1,000 feet.
In Clark county the water moves at a rate of about one mile per year in a SW direction. Whatever goes in the ground comes out in the tap. Even washing your car in the street (or driveway) is a no-no. (I had no idea!) Any commercial car wash has to treat all the runoff before it goes into the storm drains! Needless to say, we don’t have a lot of car washes in town.
Every neighborhood in town has what I’ve called a “bio-swale”. The correct term is a “depression pond”. They’re the size of a family home lot and seem to be depressed about 6-10 feet. The idea is for the storm water to percolate through the earth rather than run into the storm drains and treatment plants.
We also have several water treatment facilities. They’re good as far as they go. Hormonal and pharmaceutical waste remains to be resolved.
Here’s a terrific link to a web tour of the hydrological cycle (and much more). Image below courtesy of NOAA.
Hello again! It’s taken me a while to get back in the saddle after being away for 2 weeks in the SF Bay Area and a 10 day trip to La Paz, Baja California. Came home sick as a dog. Yeah, yeah … life is rough.
OK, my latest venture was a tour of the Port of Vancouver. First off it’s “public” — that’s right state owned. Folks in Washington state had their fill of “corporatocracy” (from the railroads) back in the 1911 and passed the Port District Act. That’s their logo … I thought it was so neat (doubles as bow of ship or mountain).
No photos were allowed on the tour … what with homeland security. The photo above was on the web so I suppose it’s legal to reproduce.
A few Vancouver port factoids (as I remember them):
exclusive West coast port of entry for Subaru
niche market for wind-energy turbines (they’re big and heavy!)
6 different types of wheat … mixed by formula at the port!
Wind energy is the biggie. It’s keeping the port afloat in this down economy. Just one blade is 160 feet long — but a mere 10 mph breeze will turn them. These will be shipped by rail throughout the mid-west.
This market was made possible by a pair of very large cranes — at one time the largest in the country. Ours are blue.
Do you have a port in your area? All I can say is, go visit it!
The back hatch will flip open to expose an outdoor kitchen counter with stove and refrigeration. Tom’s looking into a solar charging system. The plan is to be able to grind coffee and blend margaritas!
Here Tom and his wife Vickie bend the door flashing on the kitchen island.
As any seamstress can tell you, when you bend a straight object … it buckles. With metal you just pound out the wrinkles. Amazingly, the buckles just get absorbed.
Here’s the fruit of their labor waiting to be trimmed, glued and screwed in place.
The Ventura-Oxnard alluvial fan is a rich agricultural Eden! Those green patches are largely agricultural — sadly, being greedily encroached upon by housing.
Besides citrus orchards, there are sprawling acres of strawberries, artichokes an celery — to name a few. They all seem to be in perpetual harvest and renewal. We drove out among the fields for a walk. There are miles of very flat off-highway roads and paths ideal for walking or biking.
Those distant mountains have snow on them! It’s a rarity in a place where my brothers complain, “What? Another sunny day!”
Back at my brother Art’s place we “rode the dogs” for long rides through the lush semi-tropical neighborhoods.
Then we were on to my other brother, Tom’s place just outside of Ojai. Our first excursion was a quick drive up to Rose Valley to see the snow first hand.
This was another wet portion of the trip — at least by Califoria standards. This open storm channel was flowing at a brisk clip.
This is where Krishamurti ‘retired’ — and you can see why. Ojai is a lush valley nestled in a bowl of mountains. It it home to orchards of avocado, pomegranate, apricot and a vast array of citrus — whose perpetual blooms scent the balmy evening air. (Can you tell I love this place?)
Here the clouds lift out of the Los Padres National Forest above an orange tree orchard.
My brother Art has a rental property in Simi Valley. You can’t drive there without seeing the Reagan Presidential Library up on the hill. We decided to pay it a visit.
Here’s Art at the entrance. I must avow that President Reagan was not a favorite of mine. I deplored his cavalier disregard for the environment and a host of other policy and tactical decisions throughout (and prior to) his presidency. I was a resident of California when he, as governor, closed all the “half-way houses” for the mentally ill. But I digress.
I only mention this to explain that I couldn’t bring myself to spend the $12 entry fee. Instead I walked the grounds and took in the sights while my brother and sister took the tour and saw Airforce One.
It is an undeniably graceful and majestic enterprise situated atop a mountain with vast vistas of classic California terrain. The flags alone were stately — on their towering parallel poles.
I kept trying to capture their grace.
At first, I couldn’t figure out when this garish slab was doing here. Then it dawned on me that it was one giant momento of the Berlin Wall.
Mr. Reagan is buried here. His mausoleum was indeed very beautiful.
I couldn’t help but find these pillars rather missile-like. Here the back courtyard is lit up by the setting sun.
The large windows made for awesome reflections.
I caught myself reflected along one wall.
It was hard to photograph the setting sun due to the glare. I stood behind a bush to block out the brightest light and caught these images.
With a camera in hand, there’s never a dull moment!
