Better than expected

Starting point for Hertz trail

I don't have many pictures for today's hike; Melanie and I decided to walk the Hertz trail along Lake Whatcom, since the weather forecast was for constant rain. I heard it coming down hard during the night, so I was ready for it this morning with rain pants, my favorite raincoat, and waterproof shoes. As I drove to Mel's home early in the morning, it was raining lightly, but nothing compared to last Saturday's deluge. I figured the real rain would be coming along a bit later.

The lake under a cloudy sky

Although we had intermittent sprinkles on the first part of the six-mile round-trip walk, it wasn't long before we realized that we were not getting all that wet. It was warm and we took off a little bit of our gear as we walked, but kept our raincoats on for the expected rain. It didn't come.

End of the trail and turnaround point

You are not seeing any raindrops on the water, because there weren't any. We were very surprised by the lack of rain, but the warm weather and the occasional fellow hikers made for a lovely three-mile trek back to the parking lot.

The lake, the trail, just perfect

It wasn't until we reached the trailhead, right around noon, that we got a few more sprinkles. Then as we headed back in the car, the rain picked up in earnest. Now I am home, looking out the front window at the rain. It was, I surmise, waiting until we found cover before letting the deluge begin. This is just one more reminder that here in the Pacific Northwest, you cannot wait for a good weather forecast before heading out. You never know what is (or isn't) coming your way.

So we had another really lovely day and got to experience the best way to get your exercise: outdoors in dry-ish weather. I am now enjoying how nice it is to hear the rain hitting the roof while I am enjoying my lunch in dry comfort.

:-)

Signs of spring

First crocus of the season

While I was out walking today (yes, I can walk again, not as far as I'd like, and it hardly hurts at all) I saw these pretty signs of spring out of the corner of my eye. Of course I had to stop and admire the crocus (crocuses?) coming up out of the ground. I was actually surprised to see them and kept my eye out for more during the remainder of the walk, but these were the only ones. So far, that is: we are only a few days away from Groundhog Day (on February 2) and tomorrow, February 1, is Imbolc, a Gaelic festival that was traditionally a time of weather divination, with an old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens. From Wikipedia:

Imbolc was believed to be when the Cailleach—the divine hag of Gaelic tradition—gathers her firewood for the rest of the winter. Legend has it that if she wishes to make the winter last a good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. Therefore, people would be relieved if Imbolc is a day of foul weather, as it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over.

Yep, that sure sounds a lot like Groundhog Day to me!  Whatever the reason for the festival, I am really glad to know that from now on, the days will start getting longer more quickly, and soon we will be planting our summer harvest. And I will try to keep myself from getting re-injured by taking it much easier on the old bones and joints. It sure felt good to get outside in the sunshine today!

:-)

Getting rather warm outside

Chicory in front of Bellingham Bay

On Sunday, my friend Lily and I went for a nice leisurely walk along Boulevard Park. Not a fast walk or anything, just a nice stroll enjoying the light breeze and morning clouds. Before we finished, these clouds were gone and it had begun to warm up. I started the walk with a light jacket but removed it once the clouds dissipated. Absolutely, to my mind, perfect weather for being outside on a summer's day.

But today I am sitting inside the apartment after discovering that it's beginning to get uncomfortably warm, with full sunshine and the temperature hovering around 75°F. Any warmer than that, with full sun, and I don't walk around without complaining. I know, I know: I'm a wimp. There's a reason I moved to the Pacific Northwest; the weather is perfect for me most of the year. I do get tired of the incessant rain now and then, but mostly I enjoy it.

Which reminds me: last Thursday we had clouds and cool weather when we went on our hike (no rain, though), but there have been only a few morning clouds like the ones in the above picture since then, but what's coming this week? Take a look:

What is it about Thursdays?

Ever since I stopped skydiving, the weather seemed to change from cloudy weekends to cloudy Thursdays. I had to laugh when I saw this forecast. However, the clouds make hiking uphill much more attractive. I'm not sure where we're headed this week, since the place we have on the schedule is probably not safe yet because of large snowfields on the trail.

Oh, well, you know what they say about how in everybody's life some rain must fall. Sometimes it appears as snow showers, too. But not this week!
:-)

What a difference from last year

Iceberg Lake, one year apart in July

Last year at this time, we were sweltering in much above normal temperatures with below normal precipitation. In fact, I found this article stating that last July was the hottest on record for Seattle, which is a bit south of us. We tend to be a little cooler than Seattle, but last year it didn't matter: when we went on the Chain Lakes hike on July 2, we saw zero snow, but this year was a completely different story on July 14. It was just plain hot for the whole month of July.

Climate Prediction Center

See that little corner in the very northwest spot in the Lower 48 of the US? That's us this year. Frankly, I'll take our weather, even below normal, compared to what's coming for the rest of the country. Since they don't show Canada, I'm curious what that might look like, given that except for the coast of Alaska, the rest looks below normal, too. Strange weather!

I heard this morning from one of the ladies on the morning walk that another hiking group was scheduled to do the Chain Lakes loop today, but based on reports from the Forest Service that it is still dangerous because of deep snow, they canceled their trip. So I'm also doubly grateful that we all made it back safe and sound!
:-)

Battening down the hatches

From Climate Prediction Center

It looks like the majority of the country has got some cold weather a-comin' our way. The dark blue shows an 80% confidence level in the forecast that the weather will be colder than normal for the next week or so. My sister who lives in Florida will be having warmer than normal. I guess I should have made that plane reservation, but for now I'm staying home, battening down the hatches, and expecting to have temperatures 10–20 degrees F below normal. My hike next Thursday will be FRIGID, with the high for the day not getting close to freezing. We've done it before, but last winter never had any days this cold, if I'm not mistaken. I'll be ready.

Pretty blue skies

Yesterday five of us Trailblazers went out on an impromptu hike. It was supposed to rain later in the day, but it was quite mild and we never got any rain. In fact, the skies started to clear, and we even saw some sunshine. Today is another matter, however; it's been raining on and off, and tomorrow it's supposed to really rain, as in buckets, while the wind is predicted to blow a gale. The only place I'll exercise will be at the Y to use the treadmill, if I even do that much.

Our Thanksgiving table (sans salmon)

We had a wonderful dinner, and although I had seconds, I didn't overdo it. The salmon was just coming out of the oven when I took this picture so we could sit down and eat. Okay, the salmon's done. Here's a closeup of our magnificent meal.

Salmon, squash casserole, salad, wine

Today (Saturday), we finished up the last of our leftovers and Smart Guy is in the kitchen preparing our week's worth of steamed veggies. (We just had a minor interruption in our day, so I'll just sign off here, and look forward to writing more later, like on Tuesday.)
:-)

Sunny weekend ahead

From Weather.com

So far in 2013, the Pacific Northwest area where I live has not been anywhere NEAR 70 degrees F. But this weekend, that will change, it looks like. Starting tomorrow, MayDay, we've got mostly sunny weather projected. I think this means that I might (hopefully) get my knees in the breeze down at Skydive Snohomish this weekend. Since the tandem population will be quite large, and we only have a single Caravan for everybody, I might get a couple of skydives if I hang out for an entire day. I think I'll head down there on Saturday and hope for the best.

It's almost weird to see this sort of weather projection, since we are still crawling out from a wet, soggy springtime. However, May is often a beautiful time of the year around here. If I could somehow stop time and let a couple of weeks expand into a few more, it would be now, this time... the heady atmosphere, filled with smiling, sunburned faces, and white skin uncovered to feel the kiss of the sun's rays, which we've missed for so long. And everything is in bloom!

Thursday I'll be out with the Trailblazers, taking pictures and enjoying the weather with some of my favorite people. Until then, be well and enjoy!
:-)

A mackerel sky and burning calories

Bellingham morning's mackerel sky

I saw these cool clouds on my way to the coffee shop last week, after two wonderful days of full sun. And then... the rain returned. I looked up the meaning of these clouds and found that they are called "mackerel skies" because they look a bit like the markings of an adult king mackerel. These altocumulus clouds are also known as "buttermilk skies," which I would prefer if I didn't live around all these fishermen in Bellingham. Here's some information from the above link:

Moisture at lower levels combined with surface temperature instability can lead to rainshowers or thunderstorms should the rising moist air reach this layer (around 8,000-20,000 feet).

We have had pretty constant rain since I saw those clouds, except for a short break on Thursday when we were hiking. It continued to rain most of the day yesterday (Friday), and all night long. I wasn't at all sure whether I would go on the Fairhaven walk this morning, but I woke to find the rain had abated. I joined thirty other walkers for our morning trek, and I used the MotionX-GPS app on my iPhone to track it. My sister introduced me to this app, which tells me how far, how fast, and even gives me the ability to get a track of our walk.

The blue line shows our start and finish, and also told me we walked a brisk 4.2-mph pace for just under five miles. We enjoyed a nice time together afterwards, having coffee at the coffee shop where we started out. That has culminated in three days of getting quite a bit of exercise for me, with Thursday's hike, Friday's workout class plus the aqua Boot Camp, and today's brisk walk. I wobbled out of the Y yesterday feeling like a limp noodle but recovered quickly. This morning's walk gave me another opportunity to enjoy chocolate without feeling guilty.

Tomorrow my friend Judy and I will head to the Mt. Baker Theater to see a repertory theater, Stephen Sondheim's "Company." It is the last day for the show, which is held in the small in-the-round Walton Theater, rather than the larger venue available for bigger events. I've enjoyed shows there before. It should be fun. The website has this to say about the show:

Honest and witty, Company is a sophisticated look at modern relationships. The brilliant energetic score contains many of Stephen Sondheim's best-known songs, including “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “Side by Side by Side,” and “Being Alive.”

Sounds like just the thing to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! I'll be wearing green.
:-)

Scary storm

From Wunderground.com

I've been watching this storm develop (as most anybody with an internet connection or TV has been doing) for the past few days. People are calling it "Frankenstorm" partly because it's going to hit right around Halloween during a full moon. And my sister Norma Jean is flying toward it while everyone else is escaping it!

Norma Jean was scheduled to fly to Virginia to stay with her daughter Allison and granddaughter Lexie for a week, leaving on Tuesday. But she had to change her plans when the airline offered all passengers scheduled to fly Monday-Wednesday the possibility of changing their flight without a change fee. She elected to leave today, Sunday, instead.

Of course this has meant I've been watching the news to see if anything has changed from previous forecasts of this storm, and it seems that the scary parts of this storm only continue to intensify. They are making predictions of it being unlike anything we might have seen before, since the hurricane will be colliding with a Nor'easter and becoming an extratropical storm. Whew!

Many of my blogging friends are also in the path of this huge storm. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will not be as bad as they are predicting. Anybody else have a sense of foreboding?

Here in the Pacific Northwest we are having a fairly dry day, with clouds and sun, no wind. There's not enough sunshine for me to have the possibility of making a skydive, however.
:-}

News from my neck of the woods

From Cheryl's home page

I just finished a wonderful book. I first learned about it last week when one of my Senior Trailblazers, Peggy, told me she was reading the book and was enjoying it immensely. Although she offered me a chance to borrow it from her once she was finished, I was too impatient to wait and went online and ordered it from Amazon for my iPad. Although I first went to my local library, I learned that it already had 150 holds ahead of me! That meant it would be sometime next year before I had a chance to read it. For $13 I could have it right away. Amazon makes it awfully easy to order these things: in less than a minute it was downloaded onto my iPad.

However, it was a good move. The New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner had written a piece that made me even more impatient to read it, not to mention that I'm not exactly a patient person to begin with. Yesterday I finished it and will continue to think about it and read other things by the author.

Cheryl spent three months on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 1995, and the book is about her experiences. She was lost in many ways, since her beloved mother had died at the age of 45 from lung cancer a few years before and her marriage had fallen apart. She decided to hike the trail alone, although she had never even spent a night backpacking prior to this. Her writing style just kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. Although I'm not sure why it took her so many years to finally write this book, I'm so glad she did. If you decide to spring for it, I don't think you'll be sorry, although it's only available in hardback and it's a bit pricey, unless you go the electronic route.

Yesterday here in Bellingham we had a weather record of our own. I've been watching the awful scorching and dry weather that most of the rest of the country has been going through, and I'm grateful for the cooler weather here in the Pacific Northwest. However, yesterday in Bellingham we had the lowest high temperature for the date, by two degrees. It only made it to 61 degrees F (16 C) and was downright cold. We are already a month into the summer season and have had below-normal temperatures for most of it. That said, it's still a better summer than last year. Who knows if this is because of climate change or just normal variation? Hopefully at least some of what we are all going through is not permanent.

And finally, the other news from my neck of the woods is that my fisherman friend Gene has returned from Alaska. He goes up there for around two months every summer to fish on his boat. We not only don't see him at the coffee shop, but his lady friend Paula and his twenty-year-old parrot don't visit us either. Now everybody is back. I sure enjoyed taking this picture.

Paula with Poop-Stain

Gene says that the bird has the best summer of his life, since Gene used to take him to a bird sitter's home and he didn't get a lot of attention. Paula put a cage for him in her place, and he grew quite attached to her, as you can see. Since they don't live together (Paula and Gene), the bird now has two homes and gets plenty of tender loving care. He's also getting on in years and sleeps much more than he did even a year ago. Both of them speculate that he might have had a small stroke, since he has rather abruptly lost his squawk and is much more docile. I don't know, but I am enjoying seeing the three of them reunited at the coffee shop.

Well, as they say, that's the news from Bellingham, the City of Subdued Excitement, my neck of the woods.

:-)

That was some March we had

From NOAA's State of the Climate

I know that most of my blogging friends live in states that show up as red in this graph of last month's temperatures, and there's one state that was actually below normal. Guess where I live? Up there in the only blue-temperature state on the map! Not only that, but the entire West Coast had above-normal precipitation amounts during March; many of the soggiest places were on the West Coast, too.

Before we moved to Washington state, I lived for more than three decades in the ONLY red square on the precipitation map. I'm trying not to take it all personally. But I take heart in the fact that Texas has been in a severe drought, and now it seems like maybe it's easing up a bit. I know from a couple of my blogging friends that things are greening up quite nicely down there. Kind of shows why... and the Texas bluebonnets are everywhere in profusion.

We have just finished having a beautiful weekend with sunny skies, and on Easter Sunday Seattle reached 70 degrees F for the first time this year. Last year, we didn't hit 70 degrees until May 20! So, this Pacific Northwest springtime has suddenly turned incredibly lovely, with all the birds singing and flowers blooming everywhere. I took the picture of the blossoms on my way to the bus yesterday morning. And what is raising my spirits to no end is that for the first time since last fall, I'm seeing THIS as our predicted weather for the next period:

From Climate Prediction Center

Zippity-doo-da, Zippety-YAY! My oh my what a wonderful day... plenty of sunshine comin' my way, beautiful feelin', beautiful day. Hope it's gonna be nice in your part of the world, too. We are so ready for this.
:-)

Video chatting and weather forecast

I asked Smart Guy to take a picture of me talking to Norma Jean on iChat today. Ever since I went to visit her in February, I've talked to her this way two or three times a week, and it seems like we are right there together. She's sitting on her back porch in sunny Florida, while I sit at my desk in sunny Bellingham. I like to use the headphones because she can hear me much better, and only my part of the conversation is able to be heard in the living room. Sometimes I think Smart Guy isn't really listening to me, but then he will chime in with a word or two, and I know he's at least partially engaged in the conversation, too.

But it's really between the two sisters. Ever since I was there after her husband Pete died in February, I can be there like this and it doesn't cost us a thing! We also occasionally use Skype or FaceTime, but the quality of iChat on our iMacs tends to be the best. I visit with her, the dogs, and with her son Peter who is staying with her for awhile. He's doing all kinds of work on the house before he intends to go off to California to seek his fortune. (He was laid off in October from his job in Michigan.)

Tomorrow I'll be hiking with the Senior Trailblazers, and we have an amazing weather forecast. I don't know what exactly is going on with this La Niña business, because we don't usually see something like this weather forecast in the first part of December:

Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining! It's going to be a great day with a bunch of great people, as usual. I've now been hiking on Thursdays with my friends for three years now, and although I keep going back on many of the same hikes, they are always an adventure. Tomorrow's post should tell the tale. Until then, I'm wishing for all good things to come your way.
:-)

Mood swings

I wonder sometimes what causes my mood swings. On October 25, I went up in the High Country and got this picture of Iceberg Lake. I was in a good mood that day, partly because I was with my trekking friends and we were on an adventure. We didn't know if this would even be possible so late in the year, and I think it was the very next day that the road to Heather Meadows (the start of this hike) was closed for the season. If you enlarge this picture, you can see there's already a fair bit of snow on the trees, the mountains, and on the path in the foreground. Now it's probably an entirely different scene as the snow has been flying almost nonstop up there ever since.

Murr Brewster left a comment on my last blog post that got me to thinking. She said she had heard that going wheat-free can affect one's mood, and to pay close attention and let her know, since she's not "giving up my olive bread with slabs of butter for nothing." Her blog is one of my favorites, because I can count on having at least some giggles and maybe even some fall-over-laughing fits when I read it.

The weather certainly has a strong effect on my mood. I notice that walking out to the bus when it's raining hard and the gloomy skies show no signs of lifting, I'm not usually smiling and singing. One thing about this part of the country: when the sun comes out, everybody I see around me sheds their outer clothing and walks around with bare heads. The opposite happens when it's raining: dark faces obscured by hoods and rain gear are the norm. Of course, how could it be otherwise?

Three weeks wheat free now, a head cold and then an unexplained sore throat during that time, and I'm still feeling pretty sunny most of the time. It's impossible to tell what is causing what, because the sun is out right now and I'm feeling great. But our hike this Thursday is not supposed to be so nice. We were blessed with two Thursdays in a row with wonderful weather, surrounded by the days before and after filled with rain and wind. This week's hike is looking like it's going to have a bit of both, with some snowflakes possible as well.

I'll get the first good chance to see if my new expensive raincoat works as advertised. I'll be prepared, and it will also be a test to see if my good mood continues. Of course, mood swings might be much the same as the weather: how can I tell if I'm in a good mood if I don't have down days?
:-)

Heat wave

From Climate Prediction Center

Uh, isn't this exactly the OPPOSITE of what we've been having for the entire summer? Yes, it looks like summer will be making a short visit to my part of the country. Today, September 3, seems to be the first day of a long string of warmer-than-normal as well as drier-than-normal days. Today is expected to get into the high 70s and tomorrow the low 80s. Of course, there will be plenty of people around here who just LOVE this weather, but I have already begun to hear some whining. ("It's just not normal, it's too hot!")

Usually if we have hot weather around here it happens in August, but not this year. Now it is setting up to be a super-warm September, but that's really okay since it will cool down quickly at night. The only reason why my Canadian friends can't tell what is happening to their weather from that graph is that the Climate Prediction Center (link under the above picture) stops all predictions at the border. I'm sure they will be much hotter than normal, too.

This morning's walk with the Fairhaven group took us to Zuanich Point Park at Squalicum Harbor. Several of my blogging friends have been showing me their part of the world in their posts, and it occurred to me that you might be interested in seeing what my new home town of Bellingham has to offer. I have certainly been enjoying my virtual travels. Usually the water in the harbor is nowhere near this calm and the skies have clouds, but this crystal clear morning I took a few moments to take pictures.

I turned around to snap a picture of two of the walkers who brought their dogs along. Around 15-20 of us (and half a dozen dogs) met at 8:00am and took a brisk six-mile walk from the Farmers' Market to Zuanich and back, and then we had coffee together. I left just before 10:00am (when the Market opens) so I could be sure to get my collards first thing. As I write this, Smart Guy is chopping and steaming them to provide us with some very tasty and nutritious greens for the week.

My bookshelf is full again. After having read all the others I bought a month ago, I headed down to the Village Bookstore with nine to return and left with four new ones. Actually, all but one of them were used, previously owned and half price. They place the half-price books on the shelves with the new ones, and if I get a choice I buy the used ones. The bookstore will buy them back as well, I've discovered. I'm currently ensconced in another Jodi Picoult book, this time My Sister's Keeper. I thought I had read it before, but I haven't. It was made into a movie in 2009, but somehow it escaped my notice.

Hopefully you will have a safe and delightful weekend and, if you're in the US, a nice three-day weekend! Mine has started swimmingly (a half mile, to be exact) and tomorrow more skydiving, since the weather is, for once, not an issue!
:-)

It's a small world

This beautiful sunny morning in Bellingham began with me meeting the Fairhaven walkers for a nice brisk (almost chilly) six-mile trek through the Western Washington University campus. Then I headed over to the Farmers' Market to pick up some vegetables, and these flowers just took my breath away. You can see some veggies on the periphery of this picture, which I also checked out. My favorite vendor, Rabbit Field Farms, already had a dozen people lined up waiting for the bell to ring so they could purchase their own bounty for the week.

Aren't vegetables beautiful in their amazing variety? I bought some collards and kale and brought the goods home to Smart Guy, who has already steamed them up and put them in the fridge in separate containers, with my greens a little bit more done than his. We'll each take a bit when piling up our plates with the rest of our dinner and stick them in the 'wave to reheat. They don't last long, since they are so tasty I often have them twice a day, for lunch AND dinner, until they're gone and we start over again.

From Climate Prediction Center

Then I got on the Internet to read the news of the day. The Climate Prediction Center just put out a new set of probability maps covering the next two weeks. This one shows that the heat in the east will continue (maybe not quite as hot, let's hope), while we in the Pacific Northwest will remain below normal, temperature wise. However, it's a relative thing: now that the sun is shining and the rain has stopped, I'm certainly not minding the temperatures heading upwards of 70 degrees F (20 C). Right now, at almost 2:00 pm on Saturday, it's 71 out there, making me feel like we're in the middle of a heat wave. But of course we're not: it is not even cooling down at night over most of the country to our daily high temperatures.

And then there's Norway. I read about the perpetrator of all of yesterday's violence in Oslo and at the youth camp on the island of Utoya. Apparently the SWAT Team had difficulty reaching the island, and the gunman mowed down child after child for one and a half hours. I was chilled to the bone when I read about it on KOMO News here. The world is such a small place now; I felt their pain and cried for their parents and the surviving students. Norway is a place with so little gun violence that most police don't even carry weapons. Somehow I think all that might change after this.

Nobody knows his motivation. Is it just me or is the world beginning to come apart at the seams? Although twenty or thirty years ago, days would go by before all the details would be available to the rest of the world. Now, something that happens in Oslo is front page news on my news reader. People are sending each other messages on Twitter which race around the world in less time that it takes for me to catch my breath. My Facebook friends will be sending me to pictures and links that they think relevant.

So maybe it's not coming apart but coming together at the speed of light. Maybe because of the Internet we are more connected than ever, and that is the change I feel. Right now I grieve and am unwilling to read any more news, for fear of becoming overwhelmed by it all and allowing hopelessness to have the upper hand. On a beautiful sunny day, at that.
:-{

Blessing or curse?

From Climate Prediction Center

It's raining again. I woke to light rain and wondered about the wisdom of going on my usual Saturday morning excursion with the Fairhaven Walkers. Since I was afraid it might stop and I'd be kicking myself, I went anyway and enjoyed a nice damp walk with seven other ladies. But when I looked at the weather prediction for the next week, I wondered if I would rather be in Michigan or Illinois. Nope, I'm happy to be here, where it might be cold and rainy, but I can put on more waterproof clothes. It will not be so easy to go outside and get comfortable in New York City.

After the walk I headed over to the Farmers' Market and saw that finally the raspberries are showing up, a little late but this weather is pretty good for them. The county provides about two-thirds of all the raspberries in the nation, so there are a lot of happy farmers right now. I understand you can go out and pick them yourself at some of the farms, but I haven't done that yet. One day.

Inside the large covered portion of the market, this cheese market caught my eye. It's amazing to me how many kinds of cheese they offer, and to entice you to buy, they offer free samples. I learned my lesson last week; I stayed away but took a picture instead. Yum! You can see that, even though there was a light rain, few customers stayed away from the market, since it only exists for one day a week.

After heading over to the Y to get in my usual half-mile swim, I came home and took a picture of the new flowers I bought last week for the flower pot on my deck railing. I made sure that all the flowers are irresistible to hummingbirds, and now I am waiting impatiently for them to show up. They were here when the penstemons were blooming, but they disappeared after the flowers were gone. I am keeping my camera close by, just in case.

If the weather cooperates, I'll head to Snohomish tomorrow to jump out of perfectly good airplanes with my friends. Otherwise, I'll have to find something else to do. This afternoon my friend Judy and I will go to see "Beginners" with Christopher Plummer playing a 75-year-old dad who comes out as being gay after his wife passes away. It's gotten good reviews. So, life is good, even if it's a bit on the wet side right now.
:-)

More gloomy weather

Although the beauty of raindrops on these big leaves caught my eye this morning, I'm sorry to say that I'm really tired of all this rain. When I wrote this post last month, I thought the weather would soon begin to be more springlike. Actually, more summery was what I was looking for, and that just simply hasn't happened. I saw yesterday that SeaTac (the Seattle-Tacoma Airport) had a record amount of rain for the date, and it doesn't show any signs of getting better.

I just checked the Climate Prediction Center's outlook for the next month, and I found this depressing scenario:

From NOAA's Climate Prediction Center

What it shows for the Pacific Northwest is more of the same. We have already had more rain in mid-May than we usually get for the entire month. It wouldn't be so bad if we could have more than one day of sunshine between storm fronts, but that's all we have been getting. Smart Guy and I were all ready to go skydiving on Saturday when the beautiful blue skies of Friday disappeared. And then all day Sunday it rained. The Climate Prediction Center has even more good news:

Climate Prediction Center

Not only will it be wet, but it is predicted to be cooler than normal. My sister Norma Jean down there in Florida will be warmer than normal, but since she is close enough to the Gulf to get sea breezes, it doesn't even get nearly as hot as I've experienced in an Illinois summer. Some of my blogging friends have already seen temperatures in the 90s, but we still are waiting to see 70 degrees F (21 C). A few days when the sun was out we reached temperatures in the sixties, but only a few.

It's funny to think that I'm complaining (again) about the weather, because this is the one reason people couldn't understand why we decided to move to the Pacific Northwest, notoriously wet and gloomy, from Colorado. But if I had it to do all over again, I'd still move here. Even diehard Washingtonians are complaining these days, so I'm in really good company. The upside of the weather here is that in the summertime it rarely gets hot, and the temperatures in the winter are mild in comparison to what we experienced most of the winter in Boulder.

I will be writing about our mild temperatures in the summer while the rest of you will be sweltering; I'm giving you fair warning. We still plant our flowers and get outdoors. Our neighbors in the apartment complex have flowers beginning to sprout and bloom, and I get to see a beautiful view as I walk up the steps.

:-)

Sailors take warning

I remember hearing, for most of my life, the saying, "red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning." This is what the sky looked like this morning when I left for my Saturday walk. Then the sun came out and it was cold but really sunny and beautiful. Now, however, at noon, the skies are beginning to cloud over and rain is forecast for this evening. And it's supposed to continue into tomorrow evening, right when all the kids are supposed to be out on the streets having their trick-or-treat fun.

One of the ladies brought her dog in costume this morning. It also helped to keep him warm (or even hot). He didn't seem to mind, anyway. Afterwards, I headed over to the Farmers' Market to have my favorite Ethiopian breakfast. It's made of lentils, cabbage, carrots and potatoes spiced with turmeric. I had to ask because I thought maybe it was saffron, which also turns veggies a yellow color. Some information about turmeric from Wikipedia:

Turmeric is widely used as a spice in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking. In Nepal, turmeric is widely grown and is extensively used in almost every vegetable and meat dish in the country for its color, as well as for its medicinal value. In South Africa, turmeric is traditionally used to give boiled white rice a golden color.

This food is served on teff, a strange spongy kind of bread, and the whole meal has become my favorite food at the market. It turns out that teff is a kind of wheat widely cultivated in Ethiopia and Australia. We don't seem to grow it much here, but traditionally Ethiopian food is served with the bread, which is torn off and used as a kind of edible utensil. I use a regular fork, though. You can see the teff bread behind the closed container.

Under the covered section is a chicken dish that I don't eat, but these veggies and lentils can be made more piquant with the addition of the green stuff in the jar in the back. I'm not sure what it is; at first I was hesitant to use it, but now I add it onto everything. After buying a couple of delicata squash, I headed back home. Now I'm beginning to see the "red sky in morning" turn the beautiful sunny day into the harbinger of rain, rain, and more rain. I'm in the Pacific Northwest, after all.
:-)

Rex block

Working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research for 30 years, and then becoming a skydiver who wanted to know if the weather would be jumpable or not, I have become somewhat of a weather geek. The first thing I learned at NCAR was that meteorologists are very fond of jargon. I heard  people talking together in the halls about models and millibars, worfs and enseps (actually WRF and NCEP). I began watching the weather on TV and tried to understand weather prediction. There was a prediction map room at NCAR where scientists would gather and argue enthusiastically about the weather. The blackboard was full of predictions of precipitation and other contests. But I am not a meteorologist. Today I ran across something new to me:

Short term...a strong Rex block sits along 140w. An upper low over west central Oregon combined with a strong 1060 mb high over northern B.C. is combining to give modified Arctic outflow to the area today. Williams Lake to Bellingham pressure gradients are over 14 mb this morning and will stay strong through this evening.

Long term...the Rex block is established and will take its time to break down. New long term models are generally holding western Washington in the northern stream through about Friday and keep higher pressure to the NE of the area preventing the influx of marine air.

Rex Block is not a person, but rather a weather pattern that, in the USA, is most often found over the West Coast. According to the NWS weather glossary, a Rex block is "a blocking pattern where there is an upper level high located directly north of a closed low." The pattern takes its name from the meteorologist who first identified it. Here's what it looks like (thanks to Jeff Haby's valuable website here):

What this does here in the Pacific Northwest is dry things out.  And the wind! Oh my! Our weather today is predicted to stay windy and the temperature will drop all during the day as that Arctic front moves down. I am sitting here, toasty and warm, listening to the gale force winds outside. With the wind chill it must be in the teens right now. My latte may have to wait.

:-)