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Week Twenty-One, August 6-12
Sunday, August 12, 2001
This evening's sunset was far and away better than most of the recent cloudless skies at sunset. Although it was another warm day, with temperatures in the upper 70s to low 80s, by evening there were scattered high clouds overhead. I wandered out with the camera two or three times, between sessions cooking dinner with friends on the back yard BBQ and sitting down to eat. And I snapped today's photo looking to the north over the front edge of the house. This was taken just before sunset, and I was drawn to the composition because of the swirling nature of the clouds along with the contrast of the white and gray colors against the bright blue sky.
Saturday, August 11, 2001
We spent our morning hours working on a salmon habitat recovery effort down at Puget Creek. I ended up with boots full of water as I repaired a half-baked attempt that someone had made without any permit to create another weir along the bottom of the park, then it was time to put up poultry wire fence around this spring's plantings, to keep those who use the park and their dogs out of the plants and give them a chance to get established for a couple of years. We spent about three hours working at the park, then came home and crashed for a nap as the temperatures rose into the 80s outside. It was not nearly so hot today, and in fact there was a bank of fog over Commencement Bay when we made the trek down to the park for our work project.
I snapped today's picture back at home. The last few days I have watched these skippers, a type of butterfly, feeding on the lavendar near the sidewalk in front of the house. They are feeding whenever they can sneak in and grab a bloom before one of the plethora of bumblebees beats them to the chase. I haven't been able to identify this particular skipper just yet. I need to spend more time digging through the books and Web resources for IDing butterflies, and that can be a painstaking process sometimes.
Friday, August 10, 2001
This was our hottest day of the summer, and I doubt we will have another that pushes the 90 degree mark. My home weather station says we hit 87.5 degrees F today, but a number of public thermometers atop banks and such around town peaked around 92 degrees. Since my thermometer often reads low in the summer, and it isn't in any direct sunlight at all, it may have a low reading for today.
Because of the heat, I didn't spend a lot of time outside today. It has been one of those days to kick back inside and think ahead to the rains and winds of fall, to relish the smell of wet earth and hang on for a cooler evening of lingering outside while the house cools. I did step out to snap a couple of photos, including the shot above that I really like of a bee gathering pollen from the fennel blooms in the herb garden.
Thursday, August 9, 2001
I just stepped back into the house tonight, from the dark outside where temperatures were still in the mid 70s as I lay on the still-warm sidewalk that leads to the front porch and gazed at the stars above. It is still early, but I was watching the sky for a couple of reasons - the annual Perseid meteor showers are starting and it is much cooler and more pleasant outdoors than indoors after having the hottest day of the year so far.
I didn't take a photo today. I came close a couple of times when I wandered out into the heat and saw a butterfly fluttering over the weeds in our garden, but it appeared to be a western tiger swallowtail and by the time I retrieved the camera from the office and went back outside, it left the garden. I saw it again later, but it didn't hang around long enough to get a photo. It was obviously looking for flower nectar, but there isn't much food around for the butterflies right now in this part of town. Elsewhere, the buddeleia, more commonly known as butterfly bush, is in full bloom. But we don't have any buddeleia in our yard and have no plans to add it in the future. And the only things in bloom in our yard are a few fireweed plants, endless numbers of dandelions and a few other assorted bushes. I would love to see a butterfly feeding at the fennel blooms in the herb garden, but so far, no luck. So, without a fresh photo from today, I include a shot I took a couple of days ago, of a pink yarrow bloom rising above the strawberry patch in front of the house.
The Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak on August 12. If the skies stay clear, I will have to spend time each night between today and the peak of the showers outside watching the show. There is nothing like a meteor shower, even one seen through the veil of light pollution here in Puget Sound, to put our place in the universe in perspective.
Wednesday, August 8, 2001
It is easy to tell from this Weblog how, along with the rising temperatures and the stacking up of one sunny day upon another makes it harder for me to be as interested in getting out into nature and observing the change of the seasons right now. My journal entries are short, I have missed a few days worth of photos and I spend my afternoons sitting in the cool of the house rather than lingering in the heat outside. But this too will pass. I can bet that in another three or four weeks that things will cool down and my favorite season will be upon the land here at the southern edges of Puget Sound. I can't wait! Meanwhile, the cool evenings will beg me to linger on the front porch and watch the sky turn from bright to pink...
Tuesday, August 7, 2001
Sunshine dominates the weather these days, and its heat makes the world go slow. But in the early morning hours and late evening hours the world comes alive. People are out walking in the neighborhood, birds are making their runs through the air for food and to and from shelter, and insects fill the air. One of the loudest places on our property right now is the patch of lavendar near the front steps. Bees are working over the fragrant blooms, harvesting the pollen and filling the hairs on their small bodies with the dust to take back to the hive.
I stepped out to the garden for my photo today, and I took the shot of the red cabbage above looking straight down from above.
Monday, August 6, 2001
Back into the swing of a normal week - normal save for the fact that we are underemployed at the moment. I spent my morning hours writing and re-writing photo captions and photo credits in what I hope is the last step to getting the Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula off to the printer and into book stores. This book project has been a major source of frustration lately, but it looks like it will finally be finished soon. Patience...patience...
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