Reub's journey

19 January 2012

The weather turns


We don't often get snow here in the Willamette valley of Oregon, so when it arrives most people celebrate.




The wet snow clings to every available twig, transforming the world into a giant creation of mist, crystal, and lace.



It's like a huge wedding in which everybody is dressed as the bride.



I love it when it snows!



But when I look down to see the dogs' tracks turning coffee-colored, I'm reminded that the snow will soon turn to mud, and by Tuesday of this week that's what happened.


 
It stopped snowing, but it never quit raining. This is a temperate rain forest, so we're used to a lot of rain here. But relentless heavy rain? Not so often. That's why I'm home today though. The school where I work is built in what should have been left a wetland, so today the street in front of it lies beneath 3 feet of rushing water.

I'm hoping that it settles down so that I can go in tomorrow, but more rain is predicted. In the meantime I thought I'd take the dogs out on a walk, however the path behind our house has turned into a creek. A few days ago we could have skied  this path, but now we could take a kayak on it! What a marvel this weather is.


14 comments:

  1. You've got to love nature and her changeable ways. That first shot is a beauty. They all are, in fact. Nicely captured.

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  2. This is the exact thing that happened here! Only today it snowed again! Yahoo!
    Your pictures are amazing!
    There is nothing I hate worse than muddy dog prints all over my floors. :(

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  3. UGH! what i wouldn't give to get those heavy rains here!!! so uneven!!!

    be safe! sure enjoyed your gorgeous snow photos!

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  4. I have been reading about the bad weather and even worse weather that Seattle, etc. is getting. Great for photography...but hoping no one gets stranded or in trouble.

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  5. Did anyone notice in the side bar how beautifully I am pointing? Lookin' right at that flicker! I do this and do this, but nobody around here ever shoots anything, I don't get it.

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  6. Thanks Hilary! The shot with the flicker taking off was a surprise to me. I was taking his picture as he sat in the treetop, but the lag in my little digital camera caught him a second later. Lucky one.

    GG, We have an elaborate paw cleaning routine here, which involves a plastic swimming pool, loads of towels, teaching the dogs to spin and shake off...omg it's exhausting.

    twg: How I wish I could send this storm your way, or at least half of it. The full brunt of it has been too much.

    Tabor, just 10 miles from the school where I work, a car with a family of 4 was swept into a flooded stream, right out of a grocery store parking lot last night. The father and 5 year old were rescued, but the young mother and infant were found dead today. Everybody is shocked.

    Reub: I did shoot the bird, silly. With a camera.

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  7. 4" - 6" of snow that lasts about three days every five years or so is good. That's how I like snow. Beautiful pics though.

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  8. what horrible news about that family. i dread the floods here every spring - they terrify me.

    but what i came here to say was that your first photo (a luck shot?!) is STUNNING. i love it very very much.

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  9. Love the snow photos... how beautiful! I'm not really a snow fan, although I do enjoy how pretty it is before it turns to slush.

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  10. I love the Willamette Valley - I have family in Oregon and love spending time there. Spoke to eldest son last night who said it has been pouring as though someone upended an avalanche of buckets. He grew up in the Northeast (read snow) Kingdom of Vermont so he enjoys it when the snow actually falls on his adopted home.

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  11. Ellen: It's more like 2-6 inches every other year. Not bad.

    Laoch: Yes, nippy, but in a damp, bone-chilling way.

    Slim: It's just awful about that family. Usually the flooding here isn't as disastrous.

    Pup Fan: Thanks. In my side bar I'm featuring the Shelter Photography link that you mentioned.

    Pauline: This is such a beautiful place, but your son is right: it's been drenching us with rain via a "Pineapple Express" off of the Pacific. In the Cascades it's coming down as snow.

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  12. Gorgeous pics! I love winter. For two weeks. Then I'm over it.

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  13. How gorgeous!

    Love the paw print best of all. Awww

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