Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Yay, spring is finally here!!!
Yesterday was the first official day of spring. We've actually had quite a few sunny days for a while, and there have been a few times that I've felt a hint of spring here and there.
But this morning, I felt it. I saw the maple blooming outside the dining room windows, and went out to take a few pictures before going to church. The sky was blue with some wispy white clouds, and the maple flowers were beautiful set against the brilliant color. The sun was bright, and I could hear a bunch of birds twittering happily. I've heard birds a bit already, mostly chickadees. But this is the first time that I've noticed that many at once. Everything was so happy, and it filled me with hope and goodness. :-)
Maple flowers seem a bit insignificant at first, but if you look at them, they cover the branches of the tree with fluffiness. The light shines right through the little balls of stamens, and makes them glow like light through fiberglass. When the breeze blows through them, they dance. Maple flowers are pretty much the first things to bloom around our area, so it's always exciting to see them.
So far this year, I haven't seen any honey bees. Even though it's sunny, it's not very warm so I guess they haven't wanted to venture out yet. They love maple tree flowers. There will be so many bees harvesting the flowers, that the whole tree just hums and wiggles and shakes. :-D
Yesterday was the first official day of spring. We've actually had quite a few sunny days for a while, and there have been a few times that I've felt a hint of spring here and there.
But this morning, I felt it. I saw the maple blooming outside the dining room windows, and went out to take a few pictures before going to church. The sky was blue with some wispy white clouds, and the maple flowers were beautiful set against the brilliant color. The sun was bright, and I could hear a bunch of birds twittering happily. I've heard birds a bit already, mostly chickadees. But this is the first time that I've noticed that many at once. Everything was so happy, and it filled me with hope and goodness. :-)
Maple flowers seem a bit insignificant at first, but if you look at them, they cover the branches of the tree with fluffiness. The light shines right through the little balls of stamens, and makes them glow like light through fiberglass. When the breeze blows through them, they dance. Maple flowers are pretty much the first things to bloom around our area, so it's always exciting to see them.
So far this year, I haven't seen any honey bees. Even though it's sunny, it's not very warm so I guess they haven't wanted to venture out yet. They love maple tree flowers. There will be so many bees harvesting the flowers, that the whole tree just hums and wiggles and shakes. :-D
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
the day after
Well, the yard is a big muddy mess. My daughter went out today to walk around with our dog, and came in with her pants covered in mud. Most of the yard is bare, although there is still some thin layers of snow here and there, especially near the creek.
I've edited my last post, adding an "after" picture at the end so that you can see the differences.
I've edited my last post, adding an "after" picture at the end so that you can see the differences.
storm time again....yup, it's january of course!
I took some pictures this morning of our lovely 14-15 inches of snow outside, and I'm glad I did - cause it's mostly all gone! I've never seen anything like it. It's been nice and snowy (12-18 inches consistently on the ground) since after Thanksgiving time, snowing off and on again regularly to keep that nice, pretty white blanket. The temperature's been low, anywhere between -2 to hovering around freezing, but mostly somewhere in between. We've had some nice sunny days, but nothing has affected this winter blanket.
Well, tonight the wind started blowing and gusting and sounding like a big semi going down the road outside of our house. I always hate when this happens, as our house is in the middle of a wind tunnel affect created by our canyon. We checked the temperature this evening and was very surprised to see that it was 53 degrees. I mentioned at the time, that this must be a chinook.
Well, the whole family was watching a movie in our bedroom (which is a corner room towards the highway) tonight, trying to ignore the unsettling winds. My parents had just called to ask if we had power, as I guess a pole had gone down above us (my dad is a volunteer fire fighter up our canyon). We were fine, however, and went on watching the movie. Soon after, this bright flash happened, and the electricity went off. It flickered back on again, and then everything went black, as the whole room lit up with this brilliant white light, sorta with sparks as well, and we heard loud popping noises (not sure how to describe it). It felt like the light was almost falling towards us and I had a sudden fear that an electricity pole was falling on top of us or something (although I don't think that would be possible thinking about it afterwards, as the poles are too far away from the house). But it created a great panic, with all of us tripping over each other to run out of the room. It was quite exciting. Fortunately, the lights came back on almost immediately. We tried to peer out in the dark, but it didn't look like anything seemed to be out of place. My husband immediately called 911 to report what had happened.
Everything was very disconcerting, and we felt very nervous. I hate our periodic wind storms, that shake the whole house a few times a year. The worst one was of course two years ago this month, when the winds were up to 130 miles per hour and tore up so many trees and ripped up most roof shingles and took out some people's windows and small buildings/trailers, etc. The wind had sounded like a train going by right outside my window during that storm. Part of our neighbour's shed roof had managed to fly a couple hundred feet across our lawn and into the creek, made up of four 4x4's nailed together for beams, and sheet metal. Tonight, I started having flashbacks. That sort of nervousness/fear is hard to shake, when you realize your home could potentially not protect you from the elements outside. We American's have become very soft and take things for granted nowadays! :-p
We got a call soon afterwards from my dad, who was just outside our house on the highway, driving the fire truck. He said that it looked like some cable lines had snapped and when they were whipping around in the wind, then touched the electrical wires and arced. They moved them to the side to wait for repair people later. We still have tv and internet, however, because we use buried fiber. We were fortunate it wasn't worse, and had a good prayer with the kids, thanking God for His protection. My dad thought that the winds felt like they were around 50 mph. Later on, my husband checked the wind report for above us, at Mission Ridge, and it was reported that the gusts were up to 115 mph.
I took a peek out our back sliding doors, and realized that most of the deep snow from the past couple months was almost gone. That was a shock. I've never seen snow disappear that fast before, within just a couple hours, from this warmth and wind. Wow. I could see large bare spots, and the patches of snow that were left seemed to be an inch or less deep. I'm wondering what it will all look like in the morning. The gusts were very strong and loud, but I braved my fears to snap a photo into the blackness. The real trick was afterwards, when I had the camera on the tripod still and tried to stick it outside sorta to video the wind. It started blowing around in my grasp, as the wind tried to pick it up and take it away from me. It sounded like something very loud and roaring was rushing towards me, so I thankfully closed the sliding windows quickly.
Picture from this morning, with 14-15 inches of snow:
Picture at about 10pm tonight, with maybe an inch or so of snow (the deck to the right of this picture is completely bare)
Here is the next day picture, almost totally bare, except for some thin patches near the creek. (the yard to the right is mostly bare, but this picture is facing the lower part of the yard towards the creek, which is always colder.)
Well, tonight the wind started blowing and gusting and sounding like a big semi going down the road outside of our house. I always hate when this happens, as our house is in the middle of a wind tunnel affect created by our canyon. We checked the temperature this evening and was very surprised to see that it was 53 degrees. I mentioned at the time, that this must be a chinook.
Well, the whole family was watching a movie in our bedroom (which is a corner room towards the highway) tonight, trying to ignore the unsettling winds. My parents had just called to ask if we had power, as I guess a pole had gone down above us (my dad is a volunteer fire fighter up our canyon). We were fine, however, and went on watching the movie. Soon after, this bright flash happened, and the electricity went off. It flickered back on again, and then everything went black, as the whole room lit up with this brilliant white light, sorta with sparks as well, and we heard loud popping noises (not sure how to describe it). It felt like the light was almost falling towards us and I had a sudden fear that an electricity pole was falling on top of us or something (although I don't think that would be possible thinking about it afterwards, as the poles are too far away from the house). But it created a great panic, with all of us tripping over each other to run out of the room. It was quite exciting. Fortunately, the lights came back on almost immediately. We tried to peer out in the dark, but it didn't look like anything seemed to be out of place. My husband immediately called 911 to report what had happened.
Everything was very disconcerting, and we felt very nervous. I hate our periodic wind storms, that shake the whole house a few times a year. The worst one was of course two years ago this month, when the winds were up to 130 miles per hour and tore up so many trees and ripped up most roof shingles and took out some people's windows and small buildings/trailers, etc. The wind had sounded like a train going by right outside my window during that storm. Part of our neighbour's shed roof had managed to fly a couple hundred feet across our lawn and into the creek, made up of four 4x4's nailed together for beams, and sheet metal. Tonight, I started having flashbacks. That sort of nervousness/fear is hard to shake, when you realize your home could potentially not protect you from the elements outside. We American's have become very soft and take things for granted nowadays! :-p
We got a call soon afterwards from my dad, who was just outside our house on the highway, driving the fire truck. He said that it looked like some cable lines had snapped and when they were whipping around in the wind, then touched the electrical wires and arced. They moved them to the side to wait for repair people later. We still have tv and internet, however, because we use buried fiber. We were fortunate it wasn't worse, and had a good prayer with the kids, thanking God for His protection. My dad thought that the winds felt like they were around 50 mph. Later on, my husband checked the wind report for above us, at Mission Ridge, and it was reported that the gusts were up to 115 mph.
I took a peek out our back sliding doors, and realized that most of the deep snow from the past couple months was almost gone. That was a shock. I've never seen snow disappear that fast before, within just a couple hours, from this warmth and wind. Wow. I could see large bare spots, and the patches of snow that were left seemed to be an inch or less deep. I'm wondering what it will all look like in the morning. The gusts were very strong and loud, but I braved my fears to snap a photo into the blackness. The real trick was afterwards, when I had the camera on the tripod still and tried to stick it outside sorta to video the wind. It started blowing around in my grasp, as the wind tried to pick it up and take it away from me. It sounded like something very loud and roaring was rushing towards me, so I thankfully closed the sliding windows quickly.
Picture from this morning, with 14-15 inches of snow:
Picture at about 10pm tonight, with maybe an inch or so of snow (the deck to the right of this picture is completely bare)
Here is the next day picture, almost totally bare, except for some thin patches near the creek. (the yard to the right is mostly bare, but this picture is facing the lower part of the yard towards the creek, which is always colder.)
Saturday, February 9, 2008
snow
We were supposed to head over to Seattle this weekend (for a nice little getaway!), but our record snow on the passes had different plans for us. :-( Yes, I did cry a bit.
The passes have been dumping and dumping, and there have been lots of avalanches and closures. Cars backed up, cars covered in avalanches, etc. Lots of great fun for for all the poor people going back and forth between the west and east sides of the state.
So this weekend, all 3 passes were closed. I guess that's not happened for 11 years, and of course it happened when we were wanting to head over. The closures lasted for almost 2 days. I guess I can't complain, we could have been buried or be waiting in lines! Here's an article discussing it: Linky
Of course, this also translated to a great winter snow cover here this year. It's the best, consistant snow level and intermittant snowing that I've seen in maybe 12 years. I enjoyed it! Maybe because I spend most of my time inside, so I could look at it and be content. I hate when it's freezing outside, but there's no snow on the ground. If it's going to be winter and cold, we might as well have pretty, comforting snow as well. And it's better for the plants!!!
I think that this weekend, ironically, marks the change in the wind (literally), leading towards spring. Last night, we were at a friend's house who live up at the base of Burch Mt. (higher up the more exposed slopes above N. Wenatchee), and almost all their snow was gone. I was commenting to them that we still had snow. We figured it was the sun exposure, and the recent winds.
Today, though, I've been surprised to see that our snow is very patchy, for the first time since late November. The winds lately have been rattling our house and windows. One night, it was reminiscent of our big windstorm January of '07. A bit scary, that sound of a train going by outside our bedroom. Fortunately, the train wasn't as fast and close as that January. But it still gave me the chills.
These are the chinook winds, that bring a change of weather. I'm starting to think about spring for the first time in months. I've enjoyed the season.
The picture above, is outside of the Valley View Seventh-day Adventist Church this evening (Kboy was at Pathfinder Bible Bowl). It was very dark, and I took this panorama quickly, I'm surprised I got anything out of it. Open it up to see it better. It shows the last snow on the mountains before spring sets in.
The passes have been dumping and dumping, and there have been lots of avalanches and closures. Cars backed up, cars covered in avalanches, etc. Lots of great fun for for all the poor people going back and forth between the west and east sides of the state.
So this weekend, all 3 passes were closed. I guess that's not happened for 11 years, and of course it happened when we were wanting to head over. The closures lasted for almost 2 days. I guess I can't complain, we could have been buried or be waiting in lines! Here's an article discussing it: Linky
Of course, this also translated to a great winter snow cover here this year. It's the best, consistant snow level and intermittant snowing that I've seen in maybe 12 years. I enjoyed it! Maybe because I spend most of my time inside, so I could look at it and be content. I hate when it's freezing outside, but there's no snow on the ground. If it's going to be winter and cold, we might as well have pretty, comforting snow as well. And it's better for the plants!!!
I think that this weekend, ironically, marks the change in the wind (literally), leading towards spring. Last night, we were at a friend's house who live up at the base of Burch Mt. (higher up the more exposed slopes above N. Wenatchee), and almost all their snow was gone. I was commenting to them that we still had snow. We figured it was the sun exposure, and the recent winds.
Today, though, I've been surprised to see that our snow is very patchy, for the first time since late November. The winds lately have been rattling our house and windows. One night, it was reminiscent of our big windstorm January of '07. A bit scary, that sound of a train going by outside our bedroom. Fortunately, the train wasn't as fast and close as that January. But it still gave me the chills.
These are the chinook winds, that bring a change of weather. I'm starting to think about spring for the first time in months. I've enjoyed the season.
The picture above, is outside of the Valley View Seventh-day Adventist Church this evening (Kboy was at Pathfinder Bible Bowl). It was very dark, and I took this panorama quickly, I'm surprised I got anything out of it. Open it up to see it better. It shows the last snow on the mountains before spring sets in.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
cool afternoon
Water Lily, cuddling Jack Jack.
Razz!
This is my favorite spot to photograph from the deck. I love the lone pine on the left, the color of the earth, how clouds gather behind the tree. 
The two above pictures: one of our neighbours houses peeking over the hill. This house was built a couple years ago, the first time I saw it I was surprised.
Our other neighbour's house, the one that pearches over us. They're to the (our) left of the other neighbour.This is my second favorite spot to photograph. I love how the ponderosas collect along the folds of the hill. This spot changes so much throughout the year.
All the pictures below are panoramas, stitched together from 2 or more pictures:
Made from two pictures. I love this spot, and how natural the cottonwoods look. There is recent evidence of two different neighbours building in the area. You can see a pole for some utility or other, and a trailer. We always dreamt of being able to buy all the land around us over time when it eventually goes on sale. But when the time comes, it's not been possible. We still have one section next to us that we could possibly buy some day if we're able to at the time. It's the most important spot I suppose, because the building is right next to ours and we share a driveway. But it still sucks to have our views ruined by development, and having people looking over us. 
A two picture pan of the lone ponderosas.
A panorama of the wash, which I didn't line up well enough to crop succesfully. But I like the picture so much that I'm posting it anyway. You can see both houses in this picture.
A pan of part of the ridge above us. You can see the lone pines there towards the left.
Same view as above, just further out and wider. All three of these last pans look best viewed large for detail, just click on them!
A full panorama of the view from our back deck. I love it during the winter (I guess you can tell by the picture I chose for this blog's header), the bright blue against the white snow. (you can see our house roof in the upper right hand corner)
Thursday, January 17, 2008
new sightings!
Since living on this property, there are two animals that I have never seen here: Deer/Elk and Coyote.
I've seen Deer tracks in the yard every winter, as they have social trails parallel to the creek. They also ate a lot of the arborvitae in our driveway before we moved in. The bushes have filled in a bit since then, I'm not sure what's different, but they don't seem to go through our driveway since we came.
And I hear Coyote very near our property quite a few evenings. This winter has been especially strong, I hear them yipping and yapping almost every night it seems. I always stop what I'm doing (turn of the tv if I'm watching), so I can listen to them. I love to hear them, it sounds like a choir of high-pitched clear voices. I've also seen Coyote scat in the driveway, so I know they come on our property. I'm sure that we've lost outdoor kitties to them!
On January 2, All41 noticed two deer stuck inside our neighbour's deer fenced property. He said they'd been there for a while, don't know how they got in. It was a male and female. I'm still amazed that these are the first ones I've seen since moving here. He got a couple shots for me. The camera is zoomed all the way (15x).
Today, All41 called me into the dining room, saying he saw a coyote across the creek. I grabbed the camera asap and took a couple shots before he jumped through the fence and into our neighbours. I apologize for the quality, it was zoomed all the way in (15x again) and the settings were a bit off because I didn't have time. So I lightened them in photoshop. Isn't he so cool, though? Very plush, almost like a fox.
I've seen Deer tracks in the yard every winter, as they have social trails parallel to the creek. They also ate a lot of the arborvitae in our driveway before we moved in. The bushes have filled in a bit since then, I'm not sure what's different, but they don't seem to go through our driveway since we came.
And I hear Coyote very near our property quite a few evenings. This winter has been especially strong, I hear them yipping and yapping almost every night it seems. I always stop what I'm doing (turn of the tv if I'm watching), so I can listen to them. I love to hear them, it sounds like a choir of high-pitched clear voices. I've also seen Coyote scat in the driveway, so I know they come on our property. I'm sure that we've lost outdoor kitties to them!
On January 2, All41 noticed two deer stuck inside our neighbour's deer fenced property. He said they'd been there for a while, don't know how they got in. It was a male and female. I'm still amazed that these are the first ones I've seen since moving here. He got a couple shots for me. The camera is zoomed all the way (15x).
Today, All41 called me into the dining room, saying he saw a coyote across the creek. I grabbed the camera asap and took a couple shots before he jumped through the fence and into our neighbours. I apologize for the quality, it was zoomed all the way in (15x again) and the settings were a bit off because I didn't have time. So I lightened them in photoshop. Isn't he so cool, though? Very plush, almost like a fox.
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