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Week Fifty-Seven, April 8-14, 2002

Sunday, April 14, 2002

After yesterday's busy schedule, driving two cars down to Longview this morning so that we could fix the brakes on the Taurus before watching a Natalie MacMaster concert and then driving home tonight was actually pretty laid back. Natalie's dad and I had no real problems replacing the brake pads and cylinders on the car, other than a screwdriver that chipped a small section out of my left thumb, and the concert tonight was great!

Our nature highlight for the day took place right after Natalie and I arrived to her parents' home. We were sitting and unwinding for a few minutes in the living room, waiting for her parents to return from clam digging on the coast, when both of us heard an odd noise from outside. It sounded like birds, but I couldn't place it until Natalie asked what the sound was...then it dawned on me - it sounded like Sandhill Cranes. Sure enough, we stepped outside and saw a group of 75-100 cranes flying high overhead as they continued their migration north.

I am delighted that I recognized the calls of Sandhill Cranes after seeing them for the first time at the crane festival in Othello a few weeks ago! That as much as anything confirms it - I am learning something.

Saturday, April 13, 2002

Much of our activity today centered around a college graduation party for our friend Jana, held over at her home. I snapped the shot of a friend's puppy balled up in a basket toward the end of the evening at the party...

Friday, April 12, 2002

This trillium is currently blooming in the rainy weather along the north side of our house.

Thursday, April 11, 2002

The springtime rainy season has set in this week. It is hard to even remember the sunshine we saw on Monday, and with more than a half an inch of rain falling again today things are very well watered. The rain is falling in a steady drizzle, with a few periods of heavy rain that drop a tenth or more of an inch of the wet in just a few minutes. But the temperatures are warm, with the high today hitting 62 degrees, and as a result of the warmth and the rain I noticed today that the peas I planted a few days ago are starting to emerge - the first thing up in the garden!

Wednesday, April 10, 2002

I watched a couple of spring bird moments this morning through the large livingroom windows. First, I saw a hummingbird land at the highest of our two feeders. I wasn't able to get to the binoculars without scaring the bird away, but it looked to me like our first Rufous Hummingbird of the season.

The second birding moment was not so hard to see and document. I snapped the photo above of a male House Finch feeding a female as they sat in the snowball bush in our yard. And while House Finches are common birds, it is still interesting to watch nature take its course and the cycle of life here in the city. I was hoping to take the photo and catch a Northern Flicker in the frame, but the bird that had been sitting on the neighbor's roof right behind this feeding scene took off just before I could take the shot.

I was back on my bike today, adding another 10 miles to my total for the week. So far in three days I have covered nearly 40 miles that I would have normally driven in the pickup. That means I have saved nearly two gallons of gas, and I know that this exercise is bound to be good for me. Maybe I need to go without a vehicle during the day more often.

Tuesday, April 9, 2002

The forecasters were not kidding about rain. It rained so hard at times today that the sound of the water slamming against the roof and the living room windows interrupted me from working at the computer. The worst downpour happened this afternoon, and I stepped onto the front porch to snap the humorous shot above. In the shot, the neighbor's dog is standing and looking out the window, glancing down at the downspout to see what all the noise is about as volumes of water gush from the spout.

Luckily, I dodged the rain for the most part in my biking today. I joined Jason in biking over to his place where Natalie and I had dinner, and we timed things just right to avoid another minor shower. And while eating dinner I watched a single lightning flash in the sky to the northeast of Jana and Jason's house in East Tacoma.

With weather like this, there is no doubt that spring is here. One day it is warm and sunny, the next there are thunderstorms, hail pellets and volumes of rain - a month's worth falling in one 10-minute shower that overwhelms the gutters and the local creeks.

Monday, April 8, 2002

I started my week of using a bike and only a bike for daytime transportation today, and it wasn't the easiest of days to kick off this environmentally friendly activity that has been forced by Natalie's need for the pickup to get to her workplace and the brake problems with our Ford Taurus station wagon that won't get fixed until this weekend. I ended up pedalling more than 22 miles today, since I had a dentist appointment at a location six miles from here, and then this evening I rode another 10 miles to go hang out with M for the night while Natalie was at her writing group.

You would think with all of this biking going on that I would have had a good chance to find a decent photo somewhere along the way, especially now that daylight lasts until well past 7:30 p.m. and it was clear and warm all day long. But I didn't take the camera with me on my afternoon ride to the dentist, and it was too dark to shoot anything tonight. Instead, I just soaked up the sun while I could. It is clouding up tonight and predicted to rain off and on through the rest of the week...

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