Bridge View

A slightly different view of the mill; usually I'm photographing from the bridge,
but for today a view of the bridge as well.

Rainy Day at the Grist Mill

We headed out to the grist mill yesterday for the annual cider pressing event. (Grist mill photo just to the right of this post...it's the cover for my 2016 calendar.) I was expecting scant crowds because of the weather, but boy was I wrong! The line for cider extended from the mill across the covered bridge, shown in background of my photo from under the cedar tree. We got 2 inches of rain, which is a lot for one afternoon in drizzly Washington. An umbrella rain, as we say. We wimped out, skipped the cider, picked up the fresh ground winter wheat for our long-ferment, gluten-neutralized sourdough, and headed home. I'll pick up some cider at the store later on today.

Cedar Creek Grist Mill

We headed up to Gifford Pinchot National Forest over the weekend to find the perfect Christmas tree as part of the National Forest Service holiday tree forest-thinning program.  Our drive up toward Mount St. Helens winds along the Lewis River, and this working grist mill is just off the main road.  On weekends you can come up here and get freshly ground wheat or cornmeal.  It's an idyllic historical spot; this photo was taken from the sidewalk portion of an old covered bridge as the roof shielded my camera from a misting rain.  I've photgraphed this mill several times in the last few years, but I've never been satisfied with the colors until today. I really like how the moss on the nearby tree turned out. In our rainy season the moss turns a rich shade of green, and I'm happy with how it photographed against the diffused foggy background.