Autumn

This isn't purely advertisement for my photography stuff, honest it isn't. If it serves that purpose as well, then that's awesome, but that isn't the main point of this post.

The main point? I love autumn.

A photo posted by Raine Rucker (@earth_worshipper_photography) on Nov 18, 2015 at 5:13pm PST

My absolute favorite time of the year is early spring, and spring in general. But fall is a close second. I guess I just like the changing of the seasons.

I love the changing air, the smell of wood smoke, even the chill. Well, if I have warm enough clothing, I like the chill. I wish I could take all of this and stuff it into words to show everyone, but failing that I'm using photography instead.

A photo posted by Raine Rucker (@earth_worshipper_photography) on Nov 10, 2015 at 12:28pm PST

I also seriously love all the different colors, which fortunately is something that I can share with photography. It's amazing how the changing colors begin so slowly that they're hardly noticeable at first, and then it's suddenly all around us.

Go ahead and laugh, but when I was out with my boyfriend recently I kept saying "It's so pretty! The colors, it's so beautiful!" I just couldn't help it.

A photo posted by Raine Rucker (@earth_worshipper_photography) on Nov 9, 2015 at 10:50pm PST

And then, I can find a bit of fresh greenery among the dying leaves. It's almost surprising.

Is fall your favorite season? If not, what is it?

Autumn

Autumn may not officially start until September 23rd this year, but from the feel of the weather I'm going to say that this happy season is already making itself known in the Northwest. And given that we broke a couple heat records this summer, I'm quite relieved.

It started with a thunderstorm early Saturday morning, about the time that you aren't sure if it's really Saturday morning or if it's still Friday night. It's exactly when most people ought to be asleep, and that's the state I wanted to be in, but due to a virus I couldn't sleep or stay awake for more than a few hours at a time. Since I was already awake, and I figured that further attempts at sleep were pointless while a storm was raging, I wrapped myself up in a favorite quilt to watch it.

We rarely get thunderstorms like that in Oregon. Yes we get thunderstorms, but they're usually smaller, so although I wished I were awake for different reasons I was happy to be able to watch. And the rain, oh dang, after so much dry weather it was nice to hear the rain pouring down. I watched as the lightning lit up the clouds, noticing that I never actually saw the lightning itself. If you haven't seen it before, imagine looking up in the dark of night and suddenly seeing the clouds flash with a bright light. It was beautiful.

Sometime after I got to see a second thunderstorm cell sweep through the area (it surprised me to realize this storm had multiple cells) I eventually got to sleep. The next day as I looked outside, I saw the wind blowing leaves off a tree.

The season is turning, it's getting cooler, and I'm quite happy with that.

Lightning Dancing Across Sky

Not what the storm looked like, but I doubt many photographers consider shots of glowing clouds exciting.

Wildfire Smoke in Portland

There are wildfires burning in Oregon and Washington right now. I've been watching the news about them, sad to see them destroying homes and much worse, that some firefighters have lost their lives. I was surprised to see that Washington is even accepting volunteers to help fire fight. I also hadn't thought about how the smoke from these fires would spread far beyond the flames, though that should have occurred to me. After all, I can vividly recall traveling through desert in eastern Oregon and seeing a ceiling of smoke due to wildfires (that's another story).

The smoke moved into Portland Friday night. I guess I recognized it in my sleep, because I dreamed about fire. I dreamed that someone was either burning a field or their trash, I'm not sure which, before the dream moved on to auto accidents that resulted in fires. This probably wasn't helped by the fact that I had both my windows cracked so that I could enjoy fresh air in my bedroom. Or, I was supposed to enjoy fresh air. Instead I woke up to smoky air, which was a bit alarming.

If you want to know what it's like for the fire fighters you might want to check the news. All I can tell you is what it's like in the Portland area, and that would be officially unhealthy, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

map of air quality index

(Update added a bit after the rest of this post was written: I grabbed the above image late Saturday afternoon, about seven hours before I scheduled this post to go up. Doing a bit of double checking before letting this post go live I found that it's the same around Portland, with the differences being that there are now more red dots south of us plus one "very unhealthy" dot way on the other side of Mount Hood. That green dot is still there though.)

I guess it's not as bad as it could be, since the air quality is merely unhealthy and not hazardous where I am. Plus I suspect that the smoke overhead is helping to break the heatwave we've been experiencing. You know, keeping the sun off of us, like clouds would.

One of the strangest things about looking at the above map is seeing a little green dot of good air quality in between the red dots of unhealthy air. The wind's got to be doing interesting things for that to happen. And, as it happens, here's a video I found giving a visual of what the smoke has been and supposedly will be doing. It's fascinating, though it's in Washington whereas my map above is for Oregon.

Smell some smoke? Here's why.....I recorded the U.S. Forest Service's Blue Sky computer smoke forecast for the Northwest through Sunday night....made this "public" so share if you'd like.....here's where the smoke is coming from:
Posted by Bob Heye on Saturday, August 22, 2015

It seems that many of the fires aren't well contained, but I hope that changes soon. I also hope and pray that no more lives are lost in fighting the fires.

Perfect Moments

Every so often I find a moment of absolute contentment. Moments when, even though I'm aware that I've still got problems, everything seems right about that precise moment. One of those moments came this morning, and oddly enough started with a slug.

Tiny slug

I found a tiny slug hanging, as though from a spider web strand. I've no clue what was up with that, but I have provided photographic evidence in case of any skepticism. Naturally, me being me, I decided to catch and release the slug. (Yeah, I know they're nuisances and it's just going to eat the lemon balm and mint I love so much...I'm not smart when it comes to slugs.) When I stepped outside, slug in hand, I was surprised at what I found.

It was predawn, so early that I couldn't tell it from looking at the sky. But the birds were singing, strangely loud. It seems like they're louder before the sun rises, I don't know why. There was a gentle rain that was wonderful to listen to.

I sat for a while, my feet getting chilled despite my house shoes, and my butt hurting due to the concrete porch, just happy to listen. I also tried meditating, but that takes a person inside themselves, whereas I wanted to be present in the moment that was surrounding me.

And I thought of the Romantic poets I've studied, whose works so beautifully described nature. Yet, despite the grace of their words, they lamented that they could not adequately portray what they wanted to. Their complaints came to mind because, no matter how I try, I know I'll never be able to properly describe those perfect moments that I occasionally stumble into.

Spring Joys

Early spring is my favorite time of year. There's just something about how it feels. But I also love all of spring, and I've got photos to share. :)

Beginnings

The pear tree in the front yard is mostly past flowering, and you can see the very beginnings of a pear. Someday this will be yummy. For now it's tiny and green.

[Edit 4/3/2015: I don't know what I was thinking...this is the cherry tree, not the pear tree.]

Blossoms

The apple tree in the back yard, however, is still blooming. 

Purple somethings...

I'm not sure what these flowers are, but they're pretty. (Ignore the dumpster in the background...neighbors are doing lots of remodeling and apparently need a dumpster.)

I guess one thing I love about spring is that she does as she darned well pleases, which we see reflected in the weather. In the last two days we've had pouring rain, sun, hail, wind...I'm surprised we didn't have a thunder storm at some point. Something in me delights at all this.

Scraps of Happiness

For the last couple years I've kept a jar in my bedroom, and in this jar I've kept slips of paper with good things that happen to me throughout the year written on them. The idea is to look at them at the end of the year (actually, I planned for winter solstice) and then start filling up the jar again with the new year (or for me, any date after solstice).

I started neglecting the happy jar in summer, about when the anxiety really hit big time. This means that there are some things not in the jar that should be, such as spending Samhain with my boyfriend, mom bringing home the new dog, and when I got a new giant cage for the pet rats. I also didn't touch the jar on solstice, and am only now getting around to it. Here are most of the things that are in it.

Started back to school -- spring 2014

Spending time with "Murray" [note: I'm not using my boyfriend's real name] on Imbolc weekend, and Zoe [this one] apparently getting along better with Kokopelle. -- 2/2014

Watching Babylon 5 with Murray -- 2014 ♡

(Yes, I really did put a heart there. No, we've never been accused of being sappy. Why do you ask?) (Ok, maybe I'm lying.)

My cholesterol was checked, all looks normal. The "fish diet" worked! =) -- 1/31/2014

Mom finished her MBA program -- spring 2014

Spending Christmas evening with Murray -- cuddles and getting Salem's Lot -- 12/25/2013

Decided to go back to school. -- February/March 2014

CthulhuCon with Murray -- spring 2014

Fourth of July with Murray ♡ -- 7/4/2014

Field trip to the coast with oceanography class. -- 5/16/2014

I got three A's and one A- during my first term back to school -- spring 2014

Date with Murray, saw Godzilla and went to [library] to get Babylon 5 season 1. -- 5/2014

Went to [arcade] for the first time with Murray :) -- 7/2014

Portland Highland Games -- 7/19/2014

I went to my first Pride parade with mom.  -- June 2014

The smell of fresh rain late at night -- summer 2014

Brushing snow off a bush, and feeling soft snow under a layer of almost ice. -- 2/9/2014

Valentine's date with Murray. Visiting bookstore, movies, cuddles, and chocolate ice cream. ♡ -- 2/15/2014

I got my books out of storage =D -- July 2014

Walking outside and hearing snow melt around me. -- 2/10/2014

Same sex marriage legalized in Oregon! -- 5/19/2014

Jim Butcher book signing -- spring 2014

Despite the last half of my year being crummy (panic attacks for a couple weeks, anxiety, depression...) this list would be longer if I'd kept up with writing down the good things that happened. Now to start filling up the jar with things that have happened since solstice 2014.

Scraps of Happiness

Tracks in the snow

Everything in the Portland area has pretty much come to a screeching halt since Thursday due to snow. Well, snow and ice, really. Snow by itself is bad enough, but add ice into the mix and suddenly things get a lot worse.

But enough about the city coming to a stand still! What about the tracks I found?

I ventured outside to investigate a bird that flew into my bedroom window (I couldn't find it, I'm going to assume it flew away) and found various animal tracks. I don't know what they are, but they probably say something to someone who knows about them.

Imbolc

Today is Imbolc, or Brighid's day. I haven't done much, other than experimenting with new ways to cook bacon and cuddling my boyfriend. No, not at the same time. Not sure how well cuddling and cooking would work if you tried them both at once...

I do want to share a song, though. It's the same one I shared last Imbolc, but it's worth repeating.



And now that Imbolc is here, it looks like the local weather is going to get colder. So much for the winter weather being past, as I'd thought it was. I'm just going to say that if it snows, I want an actual snowfall, not just the little bit that normally happens when people panic over snow in Portland.

Scraps of happiness

In the last year I started filling up a small jar with little scraps of paper. The bits of paper were full of good things that had happened, and I'd intended to read them all on solstice.

Unfortunately I was sick on solstice, so that didn't happen. (Then I got better, only to get sick again. Dangit! This has not been a great last couple of weeks.) Now it's almost New Years Eve, and I'm finally getting around to looking at what good things happened in the last year.

I didn't write everything down, so this is hardly an exhaustive list. Here's most of what I found in the jar.

Duck pond with Murray, visited a farm where I got blackberry honey. -- summer 2013

Discovered that Murray can pick out the perfect pair of sneakers for me. ♡ -- summer 2013

Finished inspecting cells at work. -- summer 2013 [this was a special assignment that I was very happy to finish]

I was hired on to a temp job -- 6/14/2013

Murray and I had Valentine's dinner together at [a favorite restaurant] ♡ -- 2/15/2013

The smell of fresh rain at night -- 8/22/2013

Drank a whole Guinness, realized I'm developing good taste. The one drink made me tipsy. -- 3/16/13

Portland Highland Games -- 7/20/13

Beka is recovering. She's more active, and takes her meds more quickly. :) -- 12/31/2012 [this one is painful to read since she then took a turn for the worst and we lost her]

Birthday date with Murray ♡ -- 3/9/2013

Figured out how to clean the honey jar -- soak the lid in hot water, then wet a paper towel with hot water and wrap it around the rim. -- 1/25/13

Sabine, Kora, and Aniki move in together -- 3/6/2013 [and then were separated...but oh well!]

Temp job got extended -- 6/13

Started my new job -- 6/17/13

Sabine is recovered from her spay and is off her meds :) -- 3/3/2013

Got my first bra fitting -- 3/29/2013 [I know, I know...I can't believe I waited until age twenty-four, and it turns out that a properly fitted bra makes a HUGE difference]

Had my first Guinness. -- 3/16/2013

Drank my first cup of black coffee. -- 4/4/2013

I brought home Kora and Aniki. -- 2/1/2013

Got my birthday presents from The Belly Dancer-- 2/3/2013

I reached 200 blog posts on Dancing With Fey -- 2/11/2013

Learned how to hand wash bras -- spring 2013

Spring has sprung! -- 3/8/2013 [I don't care what the calendar says, when it feels like spring it's spring]

I could make a few comments on the previous year based on what I wrote on those scraps of paper, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Scraps of happiness

Snow in Portland

Ah, snow. That wonderful white fluffy stuff that wrecks havoc in Portland almost every winter.

It's pretty easy to tell who's local and who isn't when the white stuff appears. The locals freak out, start canceling plans, and ask how our lives can continue while it lasts. Those from out of state hurt their sides from laughing and point out that it's not even a whole inch of snow on the ground.

The problem is, we don't know how to drive in snow. I've even seen a bus driver pushing down on the gas pedal to get traction while stuck, and I'm pretty sure they're supposed to know better than that. After all, bus drivers drive for a living.

Disclaimer: I have yet to drive in snow. In theory I know what to do, but I don't know how well that would translate into practice. In a way I'm glad to be taking the bus to work regularly.

We had our first snow Thursday night, and it was a very dry snow that was lovely. Yeah, my hands were freezing while I waited at the bus stop Friday morning, but I mostly didn't care since I was watching at how the snow blew around in the street. I'd heard about that, but I didn't know it could really happen! :)

There's supposed to be more snow tomorrow. It remains to be seen how much trouble it'll cause this time, in a state where we don't know what to do about snow.

In the meantime, enjoy a song. It's Let it Snow, Star Trek style. I kept thinking about it last Friday.

Attn: Spring does as she pleases

"What's with the cold and rain? It's spring! It's supposed to be sunny. *pout* "

Every spring, and I mean every spring, people make this complaint in Portland. And I think it's time to share the following news:

Spring doesn't care what you want.

Spring has many personalities, and flits between them as she pleases. Sometimes in the same day. My brother may have said it best when we were observing the heavy rain earlier today, "Spring has multiple personality disorder."

If spring wants to rain, we get rain.

If spring wants to snow, we get snow.

If spring wants to thunder, we get a thunderstorm.

If spring wants to hail, we get hail.

If spring wants to be cold, we get cold.

If spring wants to be warm and sunny, we get warm and sunny.

If spring wants to be a few of the above in a single day, we get a few of the above in a single day.

Spring is a beautiful creature that does as she pleases, and that's one of the reasons this is my favorite time of year. This is why I love her many personalities, even though I have a definite preference for flip flop weather. Which...surprise surprise...we now have, despite the heavy rain a few hours ago.

Next time someone complains, maybe I should suggest they move to California. It looks like you're guaranteed hot weather down there, and you won't have to deal with this multiple personality stuff. But I doubt it'll be as interesting.

Daffodil In The Snow by Sharee Basinger

Leaky roof

We had lots of rain Saturday.

We had had lots of rain Sunday.

We'll have much more rain today.

Oh, did I mention that it's gotten really windy?

And our roof started leaking.

Photographic evidence

I was fine with the weather, even though I delayed going downtown to for fun due to a snow/rain mix in the forecast. But then the roof started leaking, and I suddenly became a bit dismayed.

At least we now have a landlady who we know will fix it. In our previous house it was sort of pointless to call about the roof leaking.

Rain music

Raindrops on window

Found at publicphoto.org

Anyone who knows anything about Oregon knows that it rains here. That is, we get A LOT of rain. As in, we're a car wash nine months of the year. At least nine months of the year.

But we didn't have much rain over the summer. In fact, after having record rain falls early in the year, we had a surprisingly dry summer. I'm not sure if we actually set records with our dry weather (I think we did set one or two records for heat though), but the news people were all over it when the rain finally returned last Friday.

The really amazing thing is that I had forgotten what rain sounded like.

How can any Oregonian forget what rain sounds like? Part of being an Oregonian is having the sound of rain stamped on your soul.

Yet our dry spell was so long that I had forgotten what it sounds like for rain to fall on the roof, roll along the gutters, and then fall onto the driveway by my bedroom window. I had forgotten that music.

Rain returns

Child with umbrella.

Found at www.reusableart.com

Yesterday was the first rainy day of the season, after an unusually long and unsually dry summer. It was the sort of day that left me feeling like I ought to cuddle up with some hot chocolate and a good book.

Actually, I did manage to do that, sort of, before work. I talked mom into giving me a ride, but she had to get me there early. So I went to the nearby Starbucks to get a pumpkin spice latte and breakfast, and to hang out for over an hour while fiddling on my iPhone and reading.

But getting home...I was entirely on my own for that.

The bus I caught wound up very behind schedule. Possibly because the first rain of the year always causes traffic problems, but also possibly because the driver was in training. I guess I couldn't complain too much, since I wasn't in a hurry to be anywhere. And the training was entertaining, and somewhat informative.

And now at about 9:30 pm (this post will actually go up on day two of the rain, in a couple hours) I am eating delicious brownies and drinking water, while blogging. Thus has gone my first day of rain.

Amazing sunset

This will probably be the last post about the Skagit Valley Games last weekend. And this isn't even about the Games, it's about the car ride up there!

There was some interesting weather, and around dusk it was getting sort of misty or foggy. It was the sort of weather that may not have been the most pleasant, but it was so beautiful and Otherworldly that I wanted to get out of that car and just enjoy it. It looked like the sort of place where the veil between the worlds was very thin, and where you might slip through and dance with fairies easily.

And yes, it looked like that from the highway. It must have been even better for those not stuck inside their cars, looking out of windows while traveling some 70mph. (Now I'm reminding myself of Clarisse from Fahrenheit 451...)

Then, there was the thunderstorm. At sunset.

I couldn't get a good photo, but Tall One had an app on his iPhone that handled the lighting better than mine did. So I eventually left the photography to him, and just enjoyed the view. The following photo is his, and yes it is lightning over the sunset.

Courtesy of my brother Tall One

FYI, Tall One has captured lightning with a camera before, though this time he was taking video on his iPhone and then got this photo from there.

There was supposed to be a thunderstorm the following day during the Games, but luckily the storm was a ways off and we only heard some distant rumbling. :)