On the Trail

 Hazel and I are finally venturing out a bit beyond our neighborhood.  She is still learning to walk on a leash, but she is much better about it when we are off the sidewalks and on a trail. Since trail-walking is my preference too, I'm alright with that for now. We have started doing my old walk with Clover, through a field and small woods not far from the house. As you walk through the edge of the wooded section, through some large fir trees, the lighting causes the leaves to glow like stained glass on the tree photographed here.  I photographed it once before with Clover, but didn't know what kind of tree it was. Since then we discovered hazelnuts growing on it. So this year I can report that these are Hazelnut leaves. Seems fitting. I can already see that sometimes Hazel is going to get that nickname, and I think it's a good one.

A Good Day

 ...for staying inside and getting things done.

And if you must go out, don't forget your rain boots!

The Bright Side

We've been blessed with an abundance of rain this year, and the moss is at its greenest. 

Hopefully this will mean a bumper crop of wildflowers this spring too. 

Torii

Thinking some more about the witch hazel plant I found in the park last week, in my post Witch Hazel (2-25-17). First, I did buy myself the Chinese Witch Hazel (Hamamelis mollis) plant for sale at Yard and Garden Land.  It's nice, and blooming beautifully, but I can tell that it's not the same as the witch hazel in the park.  My little plant has smaller blooms, downward facing, straighter branches, and is faster growing. It got me wondering if the tree in the park was a Japanese Witch Hazel (Hamamelis japonica), and that got me thinking about an old gate not too far from the witch hazel plant.  I think it's a Japanese torii, Shinto gate, and was part of the old homestead that used to be on this land.  I think the witch hazel, the gate, and a small dammed up pond are all that is left of the original home.  I searched around the area for a foundation but can't find anything or even guess where the home would have been located.  But given that the gate is Japanese, that also makes me think that the plant is Japanese.  One thing is for sure, Japanese or Chinese, it's a very old cultivar, and not one that can be purchased in nurseries these days.  I took a small cutting, and bought some rooting hormone, to try to propagate it.  Evidently witch hazels are not the easiest to grow from cuttings, but I'm following the instructions carefully, and I'll know in a few months if I succeeded or not.  In the meantime, my next step is to check the county records to find out who lived here, when did they build, when was it torn down, etc.  To be continued...

More Rain

So far this month we've had over 9in of rain, which is about 6in above average. I read in the paper this week that our February record is 11in, so I think there's a chance we might break the record. Guess that's good news for practicing with my camera rain cover, which I got to use again today. The cover is shaped like a capital letter T. The camera zips inside, with an opening at the bottom of the T stem for the lens and openings at either ends of the cross bar for your hands to fit in and operate the camera. It's a bit clumsy to work with, but a lot easier than trying to hold an umbrella in one had and work the camera with the other. It turns out there is a Velcro strip around the lens opening, so it can be secured snugly, so I had no trouble with the cover wandering into my shots today. This scene is from the edge of the "field" near my house where Clover and I walk. It's wooded at one end, and this portion includes an interesting double row of cedars planted tightly together, and is nearly overrun with ivy. I don't know the history of the plot, but suspect the cedars were planted around the border of an old homestead, and the ivy was perhaps planted along the edge of the home. Purely speculation. Ivy is horribly invasive, but I have to say I always think it looks pretty in this little woods, especially today completely waterlogged with all our rains.

Coming Storm

The rain began today and is forecast to continue through the weekend with the arrival of Typhoon Songda.  A typhoon?  Yikes! For today I'm photographing from the warm and dry safety of my car.  A reprieve of the 'through my rainy windshield' series.  More to follow, I'm sure...

Salmon Creek

Salmon Creek at dusk, looking pretty full after all our rain so far this winter.
Linking to Weekend Reflections.

Wet Leaves

We dried out over the weekend, but on Thursday in the gorge it was still pretty wet. This photo of big leaf maple leaves was taken from the same location as yesterday's Multnomah Falls shot: the parking lot.

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 Umbrella

It's not very waterproof. I got pretty wet.

Rush Hour

Winter Orchard in the Rain

Ok, I'm not sure how I feel about this one.  It was also supposed to be mimicking the Cezanne style, but I'm thinking that I've ventured too far from photograph this time.  For all our rain this week and for all my experimenting with photographing through my windshield, I have to say I haven't cracked the code to what makes some photos work and others not.  But I'm posting this one anyway, because it's probably my best attempt from today.

Cezanne Study

Paul Cezanne: Chestnut Trees at the Jas de Bouffan 1885-1887

My artistic photography class continues for another six weeks, and for homework it looks like we will be submitting a different study of a famous artist's style for each class. Last week I submitted my Whistler photo, so this week I'm working on Cezanne. My earlier attempt at Cezanne was too out of focus, and I'd like to figure out how to fix that before the next class. I was hoping for heavier rains, thinking that would best replicate the his brush strokes. I'm pretty happy with how my photo turned out, even though it was less rain than I wanted. And especially happy to try replicating Chestnut Trees at the Jas de Bouffan, which was one of my favorite Cezanne landscapes. Our rain continues through the weekend, so I'll keep practicing, but for now, this photo is my favorite for class.

Counting My Blessings

Today has turned into a big prep day for Thanksgiving, mainly because I've got to get some fermented veggies and chutneys going so they will be done in time.  It's got me reminiscing about past Thanksgivings, family, my own childhood and my grandparents. Playing charades, wearing radishes on my fingers, making a fort under the table as the adults had their conversations, the dessert table at Strongbow's, the turkey platter shaped like a turkey. And it's got my thinking of Thanksgivings to come.

It's a rainy day, and sort of unusual to have the rain hit the back window like this, but I thought it was especially pretty. Somehow the warm kitchen, the festive cooking, the beautiful scene out my kitchen window, and fond thoughts of family have all come together in my mood today.

Baking lots of love into my Thanksgiving dishes...

New Direction

Well, I actually wanted to pick up the camera yesterday, which I consider a very good thing.  I'm not really sure why this particular parking lot scene inspired me, but I'm not going to question it too much either.  I've had a couple of day trips in mind to do all month, and hopefully now that I'm feeling a bit more inspired and energetic I'll be up for taking a drive with my camera later this week.  Also, just on a side note, after a long dry summer our rainy season is finally arriving!  I'm sure I"ll be sick of it by March, but right now I'm loving it!!!

Rainy Reflection

Some mossy old logs were jutting out of the water at Round Lake in Lacamas Park. I thought they made a neat reflection, and liked the idea of combining the reflection with the rain droplets. 

Link to Weekend Reflections

Lacamas Park in the Rain

The weather can change quickly around here, especially in the spring. During my visit to Lacamas Park in Camas we got a light rain, then sunshine, then another light rain, and sun again. Rainbow weather, although I didn't see any. The weather here constantly amazes me. I've probably said this on the blog before, but in the Pacific Northwest we can get more weather patterns in a single day than we got in the Central Valley in an entire season! I thought this reflection pattern caught the weather changes pretty well. I went for my fastest shutter speed to freeze the little water droplet rings in the reflection.

Spring Showers #2

I think this is the photo that best shows the rain coming down, mainly along the top edge of the image.  This must have been one of the last photos before I headed to my car, because the rain was getting worse as the shoot went on.  By the time I got in the car it had turned to a full-blown Midwest-style downpour!  If I had some special gear to protect my camera, it would have been fun to try some photos.  I've seen people just cutting small holes in plastic bags; I should keep some on hand for any future rainstorms during a photo shoot. 

Early Bloomer

I thought this might have been the prettiest tulip yesterday at the Holland America Bulb farm. It certainly stood the tallest in a 'notice me' sort of way. One thing that shows up pretty well in this photo is that the tulips are really just starting to bloom. Maybe in a week or so the fields will be in full bloom, and then I won't need to use this narrow focus close up framing that works so well for individual flowers. 

Spring Showers

We've been getting a lot of rain this week. Not a bad thing for this time of year, plus I've been wanting to get a more rainy version of my closeup tulip photo.  Timing the weather has been tricky though.  Ideally I would photograph in a light drizzle or just after it finished raining, and I've been second guessing myself about photo opportunities all week.  Today I just went for it. I left this morning in a light drizzle for Holland America Bulb Farm in nearby Woodland, and by the time I got out in the field with my camera I was standing in a driving rain.  I had raincoat, umbrella, and puddle boots, but still managed to get drenched and hope I kept my camera dry enough!  I like the photos though, and I'll probably post several (I really hope you guys don't get tired of seeing tulips here this month!) The rain is actually visible in the photos, although not so much in this one.  Just one streak in the upper center of the frame.