Signs of the season

We have been busy making things, not unlike Santa's elves. Our kitchen has been busy with smoked salmon and hot cross buns. I know the buns are traditionally served at Easter, but why not enjoy them now as well?

Bori cut the boughs for the door swag from spruces in our yard, and I assembled them.

My wish for the holiday is Peace on Earth.

Winter is here!

Oregon is on pace to set a record for the driest December on record. Instead of rain, the coast has experienced lots of clear days, ending with green flashes, followed by cold nights. While this doesn't bode well for skiers, it makes crossing the mountains a lot easier for everyone.

Here is a sample of what is hanging on the noble fir at our house.

Enjoy the Winter, and stay warm!

After the storm

The Pacific certainly doesn't look very calm after several days of storm fronts moved through here. Today's new moon brought a very high spring tide as well, with lots of white water, and quite a build up of sea foam at the edge.

A few juvenile black turnstones didn't manage to migrate south, and were resting on the rocks.

The lull before the storm

A large storm system is forecast to roll ashore and pound us in a day or two. What a difference a day makes!

Today we walked out on the south jetty in Yaquina Bay and were amazed to see how calm the inlet was, as well as the Pacific Ocean. These shots include the inlet (to the west), Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, and the Yaquina Bay Bridge (to the east) which has just celebrated it's 75th birthday.

On shared birthdays

As a child, I often shared a birthday party with my older sister. Usually, it fell on the Saturday between our birthdays (she was born 51 weeks prior to me).

This year, I celebrated my birthday with my grandchild. Our exact birth dates are one day and several decades apart. So why not celebrate a birthday with a grandkid? First of all, the activities might kill you. Seriously, I may have been the oldest person on the skating floor, but I didn't break anything. We had 2 days of parties, lots of chocolate cake, and lots of fun.

Happy Birthday to all.

Eating close to the earth

October is a great time to "shop" in the Oregon woods. Today was a lovely day, so I went for a walk and a little gathering. I came home with 2 cups of wild huckleberries, a nice king bolete mushroom and half a pound of chanterelles.

When life gives you rocks ...

Not all of our coastline is sandy. Many basalt headlands and outcroppings interface with the ocean. And when sand castles are out of the question, people engineer the materials at hand into charming installations of rock art.

Rock on!

The cloudy season

After a few remarkably warm and lovely days, the sun is abandoning us, and hiding behind several layers of clouds. This time of year, we are always happy to catch a glimpse of the golden orb, especially as it winks goodbye at sunset.

When the fish aren't biting

We spent the afternoon on the Yaquina River, fishing for salmon. Although we saw many small coho salmon jumping out of the water, none was interested in our bait.

All along the river, we encountered several bird species that also fish. Many of them were resting, but we saw pelicans and loons catching fish, and egrets and herons fishing. Gulls were flying high, chasing aero-plankton (probably swarming carpenter ants).

The photos show cormorants, brown pelicans, and gulls hanging out around the oyster house and it's nursery piers.

A walk in the fog

Saturday the sun was out, and our temperature hit 75 degrees. However, on Sunday, we didn't see much of the sun, and the temperature didn't get above the low 60's. What a difference a day makes.

I walked to town around and across Alsea Bay in the fog. First I encountered a great blue heron that was fishing. Then as I was crossing the bridge, I stopped to view the harbor seals that were resting on a sand bar. A few steps later, the sun came out for a couple of minutes, for a better view of the seals.

Moonset

This evening, as the summer slips away, and the sun sets on August, a graceful, crescent moon set into a pastel sky over the Pacific.

Goodbye August. Hello September!

Opening Day!

All kinds of grand events are brought to mind by the words "Opening Day". However, on the Oregon coast, we don't have professional baseball, and hunting and fishing seasons come and go throughout the year.

But for blueberries, the brain food of champions, "Opening Day" denotes when the U-pick blueberry farm in Siletz opens to the public. Last year's season lasted one day, I believe. As a result, this year, many people planned to be at the farm at opening time (8 AM), on opening day, today. Pickers came in all sizes and ages, and were generally a very happy group, eagerly anticipating a future filled with blueberry pies and other tasty recipes.

In about 90 minutes, we picked 30 pounds of blueberrries. Half went into the freezer, 8 cups went into blueberry chutney, some went into dessert with fresh peaches, and the rest awaits us, in the refrigerator. Oregon berries are big, and tasty.

Quadruple double

By yesterday, over the last three weeks, Bori had a triple double. Which is to say that he had caught the limit of 2 Chinook salmon per day, three times. These included both hatchery fish and wild fish, in 2 rivers.

This morning, the ocean conditions a few miles from home were calm enough that I joined him, and watched him catch 2 more. That brought him to quadruple double status. What can I say? Either this year is a very good year for Chinook salmon populations in Oregon, or fish simply can't resist him.

Regardless, we have plenty of salmon in the freezer to feed friends and family, for quite some time.

If fish don't fear him, they should.

How the garden grows -- veggies

As much of the country experiences a hot summer, in the Northwest, we are having cooler than average temperatures. My zucchini plants seem stuck in a rut, with tiny fruit. However, kale is king, and growing abundantly (last week I gathered a 5-gallon bucket full of kale leaves). The artichoke plants seem happy as well. Today, I harvested my elephant garlic. So without any farming skills, we are occasionally able to eat home-grown produce.

Fishing and gathering wild things

The season has begun! On Saturday, I gathered the first chanterelles of the year (bottom photo). On Sunday, we collected 12 Dungeness crabs. And today, Bori caught 2 Chinook salmon, his first of the year (top photo). So the freezer is filling up.

A day at the beach, for turkey vultures

From spring through fall, we often see turkey vultures soaring in the skies above us, or feasting on road kill. But we have never seen them sunning themselves with their wings spread. They were acting like solar cells, just as cormorants and anhingas do.

Some birds from the Cascades

As a result of heavy snow levels, and cool spring weather, many of the anticipated summer wildflowers had not yet bloomed, and few of the ducks we encountered had ducklings.

Instead, we encountered white pelicans on 2 lakes (bottom photo).

Gaggles of Canada geese were seen on several lakes. The group at Hosmer Lake seemed very disciplined, walking in straight lines and swimming in straight lines (middle photo).

And western grebes were busy fishing on Odell Lake (top photo).

Summer in the Cascades

We have just returned from a trip into the Cascades. As lots of snow fell in the Cascades this year, including several inches in June, "summer" seems like more of a state of mind (or calendar) than an actual season. And yes, we needed to wear lots of fleece in the morning or evenings.

Odell Lake is located just below Diamond Peak (bottom photo), which was covered with more snow than we had ever seen during our "summer" trips. Any wind blowing down past the mountain was chilled by the time it hit the lake.

Impressive snow drifts remained across several of the hiking trails in the area.

As one consequences of all the snow, and the cool spring, streams were running fast and high, and lake levels were higher than usual. The top photo is of the marsh at the south end of Davis Lake, which was submerged by about 3 extra feet of water.

The Cascade Lakes Highway has been plowed (from the south) through to Mount Bachelor, which was open for skiing on the Fourth of July. The snow banks were impressive to drive through.