Icy Ivy

The day before yesterday, we had a ton of hail. But apparently that's not good enough, because we had snow yesterday morning.

Snow.

In the middle of April.

What's up with that?

The photo above is where it stuck for a bit on some ivy in my backyard. The snow actually lasted for quite some time, but it only stuck a bit on some plants (at least at my house) before it left and was replaced by more hail. Repeatedly. This is really getting old.

Of course, come August when it's in the 90's (F) I'll be yearning for days like today.

Well, Hail

We had a heck of a lot of hail yesterday. It was in the mid-30's (F), and we had a big huge amount of hail. It is spring, right? Because it certainly doesn't seem like it.

My photo above shows part of that large quantity of hail covering my driveway. Guest photographer Moe's photo, at right, shows some lovely tulips with, as Moe put it, a hail garnish.

Right-hand side photo is copyright © Moe. All rights reserved. Do not copy or reproduce in any way without permission of photographer.

Bits And Bits And Bits And Bits

We had hail again yesterday. That's twice in a week. Somebody really needs to tell the powers that be it is spring. The above is a macro of some hail on a glass table on my patio.

In other news, there is now a Salem (Oregon) Daily Photo blog! This is awesome. Salem is about 15 miles northwest of Stayton, and is the state capitol. Go on over and say hi.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the monthly City Daily Photo theme day.

Hail, Hail

We had some decidedly non-springlike weather yesterday. First we had rain mixed with snow, then a major hail storm which turned everything white for a while. This isn't normal for late March.

The photo above was taken on my driveway. The photo at right was taken in the middle of the street in front of my house. I'm glad I didn't have to be out in it when it was coming down.

Into The Blue

It's been raining here a lot lately. So I was happy to get a brief glimpse of something other than rain and clouds way off in the distance in the form of the light line of light you can see in the photo. I took this just as it was getting dark, so the distant light really stood out.

Mini Snow Mountains

These mounds of snow were found in the parking lot at Bi-Mart (a store sort of like Wal-Mart) on Shaff Rd. I like them. They have bits of yellow paint in them where whatever gathered the mounds up scraped the paint in the parking lot. It gives them character.

If I'd been more adventurous, I could have tried to ride over them with my scooter. Mind you, I said tried... I rather doubt I would have succeeded.

Cold And Lonely

Yesterday was cold and very foggy. What better place to take pictures during such weather than a cemetery?

This is the Lone Oak Cemetery on the corner of 3rd Ave. and Fern Ridge Rd. It's actually a very peaceful place, but the tombstones, fog and the big, ominous looking tree made for an interesting mood.

Reaching Out Towards The Heavens

The sky was doing some pretty awesome things yesterday. The clouds were all swirled up and beautiful, and fortunately I was out where I could take some pictures. I couldn't really do them justice, but I did my best.

I took these while standing atop the hill just off of 10th Ave., near the hospital, which is the best place in town to view the sky.

To Wonder At Its Vastness

Friday's weather was rather icky. It was cold, rainy, foggy, and snowy, all at the same time. And I had to go out in it on my scooter twice. As I said, ick.

The field in this photo sits behind Power Yamaha, which is just off of Cascade Highway, towards Sublimity (Stayton and Sublimity are separated by about a mile).

Eye In The Sky

The sky the other afternoon had some nifty clouds, and through part of the clouds the sun was shining through all pretty like. Taking a picture of it at a normal exposure just caught a bright spot of white, so I turned down the exposure down completely to let less light through and took the picture that way. The results are above. The sun shows, the clouds show, the sky... eh, not so much.

Raindrop

Today's photo is of a raindrop on a lupinus/lupine leaf. It rained a lot yesterday. And it hailed a lot. And it thundered so hard it shook the house. That means I went as far as my backyard to take pictures, and even then it was only briefly, in between rain showers.

After the Rain

It's rained a fair bit the last couple of days. One of my poor pansies didn't quite hold up under the weight of the water pounding down.

Poor pansy. Poor pretty pansy. Poor pretty pathetic pansy. Poor pretty pathetic purple pansy. Poor pretty...

Oh, heck. I better stop before it gets out of hand. Again. Is it my fault alliteration is so perfectly pleasing? So perfectly perpetually pleasing? So...

Ack. Stopping now.

Snow Driving

Yet another photo of the snow from a few days ago. This photo came out like you see above... overexposed and a bit blurry, but I ended up liking the effect. The falling snow gives it an interesting texture. It kinda looks like it was photoshopped to be that way.

We've had a definite cold snap this last week, with high temperatures not even reaching freezing, which isn't normal around here. That should break on Tuesday, so hopefully I'll be able to go out and take new photos. Going out in 20-something degree (Fahrenheit) weather on a scooter isn't so fun, you know? :)

Snowy Branch

Another photo from Stayton's big huge (or not) snowfall of Wednesday and Thursday. This time it's of a rather small tree branch piled with snow. I like how the texture of the snow comes through in the photo. It's amazing the things a camera can capture the human eye can't really see all that well.

There's Snow On That There Hill

It snowed again today. It was a bit more than yesterday, but still not very much, and it didn't last. I did, however, take more photos before it melted. I consider it my sacred city daily photo blogger duty. ;)

Today's photo is of some Douglas-fir trees in front a rolling hill which is a bit north of here, between Stayton and nearby Sublimity. Those are farm fields on the hill.

Framed

It snowed yesterday. It didn't amount to much, and melted away pretty quickly. I did take some photos, though, so you can fully expect me to milk the snow thing for all it's worth for at least two or three days.

Today's photo is 'framed' by two Douglas-fir trees, and shows the snow falling amongst the branches.

Frosted Trees

I haven't been able to go out and take photos over the last handful of days, so I hope you'll forgive me for posting another from Stayton's recent "big frost" which painted the whole town white.

Now if the weather would just cooperate for a bit, I'd go out and take new photos. If anyone out there has an "in with Mother Nature, ask her for some nice weather for a day or two, eh? ;)

Frosty Branches

Here's another photo from Stayton's recent "big frost" which turned the whole town white without any snow. It's of some branches from something or other... can't remember where I took this one, so I can't remember what tree or trees it's from. I literally have no clue. Huh.

Framed in Frost

Here's another photo from Tuesday's big frost. To me, the edges of the leaves on this bush look like diamonds.

I've been ill the last day or two, and we're in the middle of a big rain spell, so please forgive me if I don't go out and take new photos. I'm sure I'll post something, though.

A Town in White

Yesterday was very cold, but absolutely beautiful. Frost settled on all the trees, bushes, etc., in town, and stayed there the entire day. And since the trees and so on are everywhere in Stayton, the whole town looked like a crystallized wonderland. The photo above is overlooking town from partway up a hill.

Note: the photo is in color. Nature, however, was in black and white. :)

I again visited the Christmas tree field I posted two days ago -- the thumbnail at right shows the trees covered in frost. Click on it to view a bigger version.

Today's weather will be a bit warmer and rainy. It would be nice to go above freezing for a change, but there was something magical about yesterday, and I'm sorry to see it change.

Fog Over a Christmas Tree Field

Since it's almost Christmas, I thought I'd revisit the Christmas tree field I first posted back in June. Back then the weather was warm and sunny. Yesterday's weather was cold and foggy, and there was frost on the ground.

Wikipedia has some interesting information on Christmas tree farms in their section on natural Christmas trees.

Tree farms are great in that they are virtually a never ending supply of Christmas trees without harming the environment since they don't contribute to deforestation, the trees themselves help the environment while they growing, and the trees can be turned into mulch after they're cut down.

Wikipedia also has a section on the environmental impact of Christmas trees, both real and artifical.

Note: I'm not affiliated with any tree farms. I just like Christmas trees. :)

Post-Wind Wind-Up

You may have heard about the wind storm the pacific northwest had a couple of nights ago. I went out briefly around town on Friday and didn't see any major damage. I did hear that at least some parts of the Stayton area were without power. We came close but didn't lose our power, though the cable was out for several hours.

The small tree above in a yard on 3rd Ave. appears to have blown over in the gusty winds, and the thumbnail at right shows what one of the streets in my neighborhood looked like yesterday morning.

A metal-framed canopy tent we normally have over our patio tipped over and started to go for a trip through the yard before we caught it. My brother in nearby Salem had trouble getting home last night due to downed trees littering the roads. What is normally a ten minute trip took over two hours.

We all are safe, thankfully, so it could have been much worse.

A Storm's Brewing

I took the photo above late last month, when we were having storms every two seconds (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration). This was taken on E. Hollister St., looking west towards 3rd Ave. It had rained earlier in the day, and was very close to doing it again.

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A Little Snow And Hail

Monday brought a great big huge enormous weather event in the form of some hail and a bit of snow. It was simply terrible trying to trudge through the mildly damp street to get to the snow, which only stuck to yards and rooftops.

I decided to take my photo from a neighbor's yard, since I don't think they would have appreciated me trying to climb up onto their roof. I wouldn't have appreciated me trying to do that, either. ;)

For other Pacific Northwest snow photos, check out Seattle Daily Photo, Not Strictly Seattle, and Sequim Daily Photo, all in Washington.

We have a decided lack of Oregon daily photo blogs, being as I'm the only one in the City Daily Photo group. There was a Portland one for a bit, but it didn't last. I'm so lonely. *sniff*

Technorati tags: stayton / willamette valley / oregon / daily photo / photoblog

Mighty Sun

There's been a bit of a battle going on the skies over Stayton -- the sun vs. the clouds. And, unfortunately, the clouds are winning at the moment. I did manage to get a photo of the sun almost breaking through the other day. It was a glorious, albeit brief, moment. ;)

In case you were wondering, that tall thing on the bottom left is a light post in a parking lot. It reminds me of a helmet.

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Early Morning Fog

Yesterday morning was thick with fog, so I toddled outside to take a few photos of it just before sunrise. I'm anything but a morning person, so in my sleep deprived state most of the photos came out blurry. The one above is the sole survivor of my excursion.

That excursion, incidentally, took me as far as my backyard, because it was darned cold. The above is the tip of a barren branch from a mountain ash, and the tree in the background is a Douglas-fir.

Technorati tags: stayton / willamette valley / oregon / daily photo / photoblog

Wet leaves on pavement

Sometimes there's nowhere to go but down. The leaves in the photo not only fell to the ground, but they ended up plastered there by the rain. Today was actually dry, so my big outing was to the store (Bi-Mart, which is kinda like Wal-Mart but smaller), which is where I took this photo. Yes, friends, it's a parking lot. Oh, the glamor. :)

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Break In The Storm

The torrent of crappy weather continues here in the pacific northwest. The breaks in the rain have been few and far between, but I was fortunate enough to go out for a bit a few days ago and take the photo above.

It was taken looking out above the hospital on 10th Ave., which is the tallest hill in Stayton.

For a great photo of the icky northwest weather, visit Kim's When The Rains Came at Seattle Daily Photo.

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Really? Where?

There are various large puddles around Stayton during and after our recent rainstorms, and the sign above had been guarding one such puddle just off of 6th Ave. When I went by it a couple of days ago, though, it was still there, a silent sentinel on mostly dry street, nary a puddle to be seen.

Note: I revamped this here blog thing. I'm hoping it loads faster and is prettier to look at. Your thoughts are welcome... just leave a comment below.

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Big sky

Montana may be "big sky country," but the sky here in Stayton yesterday was doing a pretty good imitation. We had a break between rainstorms, and some blue decided to peek out behind the clouds. The sun was also doing its best to find a way through, but didn't quite succeed.

Oh, sun, how I miss thee. Fair thee well, until we meet again in the spring. ;)

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Umbrella

Oregon's known for its rain, despite an average rain fall that's less many other states, including Florida. The difference is our rain tends to be more spread out. Rain started in earnest yesterday here in Stayton for the first time in several months, and looks to continue that for at least the next week.

So I was trying to think of a way to illustrate the rain without getting my camera wet and killing it. What I ended up with -- a photo of my umbrella sitting on a very wet street. I did get rained on a bit taking the photo, but my camera survived, so I'm happy.

FYI: Calling all Staytonites (yes, that's what we're called... dunno why) -- check out this month's Our Town Monthly (it probably came in your snail mail box yesterday or the day before) for a Q&A article on this here blog. It's on page 10. Thanks to Elena Castaneda Hammond, who wrote the story.

Technorati tags: stayton / willamette valley / oregon / daily photo / photoblog