There was another break in the weather and I ventured out with camera and tripod in hand to explore the neighborhood. Today I focused mostly on mosses and lichens. There is a peaceful elegance to the chaos of the tree limbs and the burst of epiphytes that grow on them.
As the day progressed and the sun rose higher, the fog gave way to some clear skies and we could see a few of the snowy mountain peaks on a drive back west toward home.
The Skykomish river flows near the highway in sections of the route and there is a place to stop and have a look near the town of Index. Since there was a dab of sunlight peeking through the trees and around the rocks, this seemed like a good place to make a few long exposures.
As you can see above, there is a lot of green in the water. I suppose this is partly due to the silt lead the stream is carrying and partly due to the reflected light of the trees. Whatever the source, it give the river a delicate pastel color.
Once you leave the floodplains of the rivers near the Puget Sound where we live, you enter seriously wet areas that really represent the temperate rainforest that this portion of the state is known to be. Here we find trees with branches covered in moss everywhere. I periodically try to photograph the way the sun lights the fringing moss along these leaves and am never happy with the result. At least in this image you get the general idea.
With all the rain we've been having lately, when there was a break in the clouds, E and I took the opportunity to drive towards the Cascades to see what we could see. At the beginning of the trip, before the sun (ha, ha!) had a chance to burn away the fog, we got to see some extensive fog on the mountains.
One of the few places in Snohomish I can go to get a reasonable view of the mountains to the east is a small park along the shore of the Snohomish river just outside town.
One of the things we do a great job of growing here is moss. there are companies that specialize in removing moss from your roof or sidewalk. ut no one removes it from trees. It just looks natural.
There are still a few flowers to be found out and about. These, as you would expect, are getting long in the tooth, but they still possess their charm. Just like me I suppose. Older may not be better, but it is at least different in a good way, Right? Besides, older is always better than not getting older.
After all the rain we've had lately, the Snohomish river is bursting at the seams...er, banks. Above you can see the swirling eddies as a tree is carried downstream.
When I go out for a photowalk these days, I find that I have to work pretty hard to find something that I haven't already photographed (a lot). On this particular outing, I spied some trees and a fun gate.
At some time in the past, there was a movie theater in Snohomish named Pegasus. This was well before we arrived. When we moved here, this building was a nostalgia store and tried to sell lots of junk. the folks that owned it retired and sold it. Now it is coming back as a couple much more upscale stores. While I'd still prefer it to be an art house theater, I'll take what I can get.
We've been having a torrent of rain here for the past couple weeks. Much more than usual. the rain let up for a few hours the other day and I got as far as the front porch to see if I could find a few things to photo. Perhaps the most interesting is to see drops of water on the bare twigs.
You likely recall my poor attempt to get an image by the waterfront in Everett. This spot is hardly a park since it is only a parking lot next to Port Gardner Bay. But it is easy to get to and seemed to have a bit of potential. Rather than suffer in the rain for almost nothing, I've returned when there is a bit of sunshine and no rain to see what I can do.
I realize that the hard drought of this year was not in the portion of Washington where we live. Yet, things did get a bit dry toward the end of the summer. Well, rest assured that this is now over. In October we had two months worth of rain, and we are getting more in November. The shows at higher elevations are well and truly underway.
Rest assured that we are near the end of leaves-on-the-ground season. Today I thought I'd show a few that were doing a nice job of showing off beds of water between squalls.
Out by the sound, there is a small park...well a parking lot next to a sidewalk at least. Here, in the rain, I attempted a photo. It sucks but it is all I got.to show for standing in the rain for 5 minutes. The plan was to get a nice smooth milky water in a long exposure, maybe a few of the clouds streaking across the sky, and showing off the distant break in the clouds. MY exposure was too short for any of that. But I did not want to stand in the rain for a 2 minute exposure so I took a 25 second one. Not enough.
And this post is not enough either. Sorry for my poor showing. Today. Some days the bear gets you.
Not only is this the time of colored leaves, it is also the time of berry production by the many bushes found along the streets of Snohomish. There aren't many bushes that produce blue berries (as opposed to blueberries...there are tons of those in the fields in the flood plain across the river).
Sometimes I can find a leaf on the sidewalk that provides a good contrast with the textured cement underneath.
You are probably getting tired of leaves by now. Well, so am I. But the truth is, there is not much else to photograph, at least on a regular basis. Yet, this combination of leaves struck me as interesting.
The fall contrast of colors and textures is always a winner in my book. I found these leaves lying in a neighbor's yard and thought the color contrast as well as the contrast with the out-of-season green grass was fitting.
