Saturday, September 7, 2013

Fall is in the air

Red mountain ash berries
Last Thursday I noticed that not only the blueberries are abundant and ripe, the other colors of fall are beginning to show up, too. Those berries (if I'm not mistaken) have changed from a light color to red, heralding the change of seasons in the High Country. It's been more humid than normal around these parts, but nothing compared to what the Midwest and East Coast experience on a regular basis. I noticed this morning that it was 62 degrees when I first woke up and checked the weather, and saw we had a dew point of 61. This is quite high for our area, where dew points generally remain in the mid-40s to mid-50s. So it's been feeling a bit on the sticky side.
From the web cam at Harvey Field in Snohomish, 3:15pm
Why was I checking the weather first thing? Well, I wondered if I might be able to go skydiving today. The web cam showed rain and low clouds until just a few hours ago, and it's almost 4:00pm. Those people who live close by might be making their way to the DZ, since it's now quite nice and, as we skydivers say, "jumpable."

I'll wait until tomorrow, when it's supposed to be much nicer weather in the Puget Sound region. My friend Linnie will be at Skydive Snohomish, weather permitting, and I'm hoping I'll be able to get my knees in the breeze a time or two. Once we get to the end of October, skydiving is pretty much over for the season in the Pacific Northwest. I sure do love it here, the change of seasons, the incredible beauty of the area. The autumnal equinox is only two weeks away: September 22 at 1:44pm on the West Coast. So let's go skydiving!
:-)

25 comments:

  1. Head over this way to see what "sticky" really is! ;-)

    I hope you have gorgeous weather tomorrow so you can play in the sky!

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  2. You always use the term "get some wind in my knees." The term has got me very curious as to where it comes from and that there's something I don't know about sky diving.
    May you have lots of wind in your knees tomorrow.

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  3. nice...seasons are starting to change here as well...cooler mornings drifting into early afternoon...had on a light sweat shirt today even...hope you get to jump tomorrow djan

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  4. I am in the "High Country" this week as hubby and I are at our NC home for a while. It is 57 degrees as I am typing this to you, and I noticed the berries here are briiiight red, too. The leaves on the dogwoods and the burning bush are already beginning to change. I love it!! I love being in the high country, and I understand your love of seeing complete changes in all 4 seasons. Beautiful!
    I hope that you have a beautiful day on Sunday as you enjoy parachuting. Stay safe and always take care of you
    Hugs to you, Jan,
    Jackie

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  5. Oh, you and jumping. Always such a marvel and inspiration to me. May tomorrow be perfect, dearJan. :)

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  6. I so hope you are able to soar tomorrow.

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  7. The season is changing in the land of the Bear. Yesterday I saw that one large tree had lost about half its leaves overnight. Other trees are turning, like you berries.

    I hope you had a good jumping day, DJan!

    Blessings and Bear hugs!

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  8. Have fun, DJan. I'm wondering if those ash berries are edible. I do miss the change of seasons here in Hawaii, but not in January.

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  9. You should have a great day for skydiving tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be hot. Too hot for me to dig in the garden, so maybe I'll get a little housework done.

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  10. I was thinking about the phrase that Red mentioned "get some wind in my knees" - I am familiar with it as when out on motorbikes, we have used and heard "get some breeze on our knees, eh" - Hope you feel the breeze either way and have a good one. We are having the most spectacular sunrise this morning - yellow hues of summer gone, replaced by that golden sky only autumn can bring. Aaaah :)

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  11. It must be nice to pick berries as you hike. I would love to experience that someday. Good luck on the weather!

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  12. I don't know how you do it but I am happy for those who can do more than me.

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  13. That top picture is another fabulous one! Hope the day turns out beautiful so you can *play*...

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  14. The birds will get drunk on those berries in the spring! Hope you have good weather for todays jump! Cool here today and raining:)

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  15. I would give anything to have a dew point of 61. Ours has been around 80 and it is miserable. Feels like the tropics when it gets that high, but without the advantages of having an ocean nearby for a swim.

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  16. Today we broke another 90's and sticky heat wave. Feels good to feel fall back in the air!

    The birds flying through cleaned out our Mountain Ash tree of it's ripe berries about a week or so ago, the last week in August.
    Seeing lots of subtle changes. Soon to pick up pace dramatically here!
    We have some family getting more & more into skydiving - My husband's uncle did his first jump.. he went with his daughter, who seems hooked and just mentioned interest in becoming certified! They've been very happy with the crew at Skydive Twin Cities.

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  17. Do be safe and have fun!

    Fall is tip toeing in here too.


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  18. So, did you get in a couple of jumps on Sunday?

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  19. Hello, hello, helloooo! :o)

    I was going to ask if you were able to do any skydiving this summer... but I'm guessing the answer is yes based on you saying here that you plan on heading out tomorrow (which would actually be yesterday I guess)! :p

    Fall colours starting already? We won't get much in the way of colours here, but the last week of August we had a weather change that was typical of late September (storms and wind and cooling down). So Fall seems to be creeping in a month early for us... It's nice to have a break in the heat, unfortunately it means the water is cooling down so swimming outdoors won't be an option much longer!

    I hope I can be a bit more present in the Blogosphere, I missed reading your posts! But time is a luxury I'm not sure how much I'll have this Fall...

    Hope you got in some good skydives yesterday! Cheers! :o)

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  20. Your picture of the red mountain ash berries is beautiful! I too love the seasons, and Fall is one of my favorites.

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  21. There are only very subtle signs of Fall on this side of the mountains but then the High Country would be way ahead of us. If your weather was like ours on Sunday you definitely got in some dive time.

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  22. Jump away!

    It is hot and smoggy here in the San Joaquin Valley. The Rim Fire in Yosemite is blowing smoke our way. And out temps are over 100 each day. At 8 pm, it's 97 degrees. I could sure go for some cooler air.

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  23. Well now, while I was gone...did you get your chance to go jumping then?

    Ahhhhhhhhhh, wishing it were more Autumn-like here. Not quite yet. But at least we're getting some [a lot!] of rain. Which is good. And temps are becoming a bit more mild.

    LOVED the beautiful image you showed us at the top of your post.

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  24. Dear DJan, I read this posting as well as the one before on your walk up the saddle, down to the lakes, then back up the saddle and down to your cars. Thank you for the photographs that made clear the trail you took. And oh, I'd so like to pluck some of those blueberries. I'm just wondering how you could restrain from eating more than a cup of them! Peace.

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