December Snow: Night Shots

Click here to go straight to the night photos

Click here for another batch of snow pictures from earlier

Hey all: here are some night shots from the snow up here!  Sure is pretty; and getting colder again.  Here's three to whet your appetite!  Click on the link above to see the rest of 'em!

 

  

Big set of snow pictures

Click here to go straight to the pictures; (what, you don't like my writing?)

Not lot to say; highlights of our weather?  Low temperature was this morning at my house of 8 degrees (of course, that was at about 8:15 AM, so it might have been colder before that).  We topped out at 9+ inches of snow.  It is beautiful, but cold.  Enjoy!


(The Holly is out in Full Force right now)


(Our cul-de-sac)

And Whatcom Falls Park;









Click here to go straight to see all the pictures!

Strange Mix of Pics...

I know, this is a strange mix of pictures...3 shots of downtown Fairhaven, and 3 of my nephews (at least two of them).  Ok, well there you have it anyways...

Snow part II

The big "dump" - I woke up very disappointed, thinking our weather-men had blown it (again) but Oh me of little faith: it started snowing in earnest about 10:00 and didn't really stop until about 4:00.  Here's just a few pic's from the day;

Weather

I love the snow...actually, I love any type of unusual weather; storms, wind, hard rain, sleet, hail, but my favorite, is severe cold and snow.  Don't know why; as long as I can remember I've always loved the snow.  My mom always said it was because it snowed on the day I was born.  I'm not sure about that, but it's as good a reason as any.  At any rate, I've had a blast watching all this Bellingham snow and have even developed a reputation as an amateur weather hound; (not sure if it's a good rep or a bad one).  At any rate, I thought I'd share my favorite weather websites.

1) komonews.com/weather - I love this website because they do a lengthy write-up about the weather and usually include all the details I love to read about.

2) national weather service, Bellingham - I love this site because you get accurate forecasts, especially short term.  You also get in bright bold red letters, any warnings or special weather statements (like, right now, as I write, there is a Winter Storm Warning for Bellingham).

3) intellicast radar - When weather is happening, I go to this radar loop - my brother-in-law who is a pilot put me onto this site as a good one for seeing what's actually happening; (blue for snow, red for mix, green for rain).

4) accuweather, Bellingham - I just found this site and love it for long range forecasting, as in 15 days or so.  Accuweather actually had this arctic blast predicted about 10-11 days before it actually happened.  Keep in mind though, long range forecasting is very iffy, especially in the NW.

5) weatherbug.com is fun too, but I'm not sure it's very accurate.  Stay with the local guys for the most accuracy - a couple more are kirotv.com/weather and king5tv.com/weather, both Seattle based but still have good reports on Bellingham.

So there you go!  Those are my favorite 4 weather websites.  Got any suggestions?

If you missed my most recent post, click here!

Snow Pictures 2008...

Straight to the pictures (lame)

Ok, nothing big to write home about here, but have gotten the camera out a few times the past couple of days.  Here's 3 of them...(click here to see the rest)

A Brilliant Bellingham Sky

Straight to the pictures here;

So, it's been awhile since I've blogged.  To be honest, I haven't felt like it and haven't had anything to write about.  That changed today.  I brought my camera to work on the off chance of seeing something.  As I pulled into the parking lot for work this morning, I found some brilliant red "berry looking" type things (sorry, I don't know plants).  They were glistening in the morning sun.  The best was yet to come...

Thursday is my "late night" day of the week where we have our music rehearsal.  I usually leave around 4:30 to get dinner and am back to the church by 5:30.  As I left for dinner today, I saw the most brilliant sunset of the year by far - I was both running back for my camera, kicking myself for not leaving 10 minutes earlier, and praising God that I actually caught the part of the sunset that I did catch.  I pulled of the side of the road and snapped a bunch of pictures.  Truth be told, the pictures are all totally straight off the camer, not "touched up" in any way.  Notice how the colors change as the sunset went on.  Enjoy (and check out the rest of the pictures here).

AUS Day 8: Crystal Cascades

Straight to the pictures (wimp - read the blog first!)


Day began with a trip to the dock where we were fortunate enough to see the "grouper."  It was a very large fish!  You know, a funny thing happens when someone with an australian accent says the word "grouper;" it comes out "groper" - the difference is subtle, the meaning is entirely different...for example; "have you been down to the dock and seen the 'groper'?"  Hmm.  Well, we did have fun watching the huge fish and watching a couple of fisherman drop him a shrimp.  The fisherman don't like the grouper; apparently, he hangs around the dock area and is known to steal a "caught" fish right off the line.  Well, enough about the fish...on to other things.  Prior to making it to Crystal Cascades, we ended up at a park.  Julie, Nathan and I went on a walk while Dave and the other boys played some ball.

We spent this day walking around the Crystal Cascades area.  This is a "lesser known" area that is not really populated by tourists.  There were two parts to this day; the first part was a hike up to a waterfall.  This hike involved some scrambling and at one point, we didn't think we'd actually make it to the waterfall.  However, thanks to Dave who pushed on up the ridge (and my wife who followed), we eventually found our way up there.  It was beautiful and well worth it.  One especially cool thing was this very large tree that had fallen over the creek-bed (there's a picture of Julie exploring this fallen tree).  The boys also had fun playing around below the waterfall.

The second part of the day was a walk along the river.  There are a number of swimming holes and places to explore.  The boys had fun playing in the water, and we also saw some locals who were swimming and doing some clifjumping.  At the end of road was another waterfall.  All in all it was a beautiful day and a lot of fun.  Make sure you read the captions on some of the pictures for more.

See the pictures

Worth the Wait

So on Monday, Julie and I are leaving the house and driving on Electric when we pass by the familiar Eagle's nest on the left.  Sure enough, there was an Eagle up there.  We decide to turn around and go get my camera.  We rush back to the house, grab the camera, and sure enough, the Eagle is still there.  I turn the camera on and doh!  No memory card in the camera.  Rush back to the house one more time to grab the card, and get back to the nest...only this time, no bird.  Gone.  Not too bad; it was a cloudy day anyways.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning and I have an early morning meeting.  I decide to throw the camera in the car just in case.  Meeting gets done, sun is out, I swing by the nest and wouldn't you know it, the Eagle is there.  I managed to hike down a little towards the nest and waited for him to show...he did. Click on the pictures to see them larger size.

Sauk Mountain Colors

Straight to the Pictures here

Made it to Sauk Mountain a 2nd time this year; this time a couple of weeks ago. Went with my brother-in-law Matt, his wife Nicki, my father-in-law and my dog-in-law, "Captain Jack." The hike was great, the view was great, the fall colors were best down at lower elevations, however. Still, we had a blast.

Straight to the Pictures here

Another Bear: & Fall Colors up at Mt. Baker

Click here for all the pictures:

I've made it up to Baker the last two days to check out the Fall colors. The leaves are beautiful everywhere right now; including up there. There are lots of blueberries still hanging on, but most are looking more like raisins these days. Also, there has already been a couple of snows and some freezing weather. Still, lots of great colors. Enjoy.

New Camera Lens

Got a new Canon Camera Lens...so, of course, I had to go out shooting with it. So far, so good! I love it. The pictures are posted on my website, here at a higher resolution. And if you haven't checked out my Flecker Garden pictures, check those out too.

Lopez Island

See all the pictures of this trip here

Lopez Island: Ahhhh. Driving out to the San Juan Islands ALWAYS has a calming effect on me. once the ferry boat leaves, you feel like you're leaving all your cares behind. Julie and I have spent quite a bit of time on the islands; mainly Orcas Island. For this 4 day/3 night trip we had one goal in mind: rest. We found it.

We stayed at Mackaye Harbor Inn, a perfect place to rest. Not only is the Inn situated right on the beach, but one of the "perks" of staying there is a $35 dollar kayak rental - that's for the whole duration of your stay. Most places on the island charge about $35 per hour for a kayak. I took full advantage, getting out 4 times to tool around the Harbor (Julie with me three of those trips). We saw some amazing things; seals, an otter, amazing birds, small fish, and all kinds of sea life along the clif edges including those bright red jellyfish, sea-stars, and more.

I'm making sound like an active vacation but in truth, we spent a lot of time reading. We purposely left our bikes home, just to help insure that we rested. Our favortie spot to read was iceburg point - here we found a beautiful point to sit and watch the world go by. We were fortunate to see a pod of Orca Whales go by the first time we visited; and on our last night, we watched the sun go down and light up the sky with amazing color.

See all the pictures of this trip here

Hannegan Camp/Peak

See all the pictures of this trip (click here) (including captions).

Julie and I had a chance to go back-packing/camping with Dave & Kathryn; (Julie's brother and our sister-in-law). We hiked in 4 miles to Hannegan Camp, at the base of Ruth Mountain. Day 2 was a hike up to Hannegan Peak in the afternoon, where we spent a good chunk of time. While waiting for the sunset to come, we hiked out on the ridge towards Granite Mountain; then came back to Hannegan Peak for dinner and the sunset/moon-rise.


Highlights and memories of the trip were plentiful;
- Hanging out with good people
- Very cold evenings (no campfires allowed)
- The hike up to H. Peak; the sunset and moonrise were both amazing, along with the "back-lit" red leaves/flowers that literally glowed.
- Hiking down off H. Peak by moonlight (and our headlamps).
- Loved all that freeze-dried food!

Again, see all the pictures of this trip (click here)

Heliotrope Ridge - Amazing.

See all the pictures here:

Went on another hike yesterday, to Heliotrope Ridge. The hike takes you all the way to the edge of the Coleman Glacier, which leads right up to the summit of Baker. It was a cloudy morning and the time we spent at the glacier overlook was foggy and cloudy. The glacier is AMAZING - you are literally right on top of it. There were a bunch of guys practicing there skills in the crevasses; ice axe, crampons, ropes, the whole bit. It looked very unsettling and dangerous...being on the glacier, that is. It was also awe-inspiring; reminded me of Superman's home. However, we decided to backtrack 1/2 a mile and take a turn up the climbers route; this is the route that those who wish to summit Baker take.

The climbers route added another couple of miles, and another 1000' of elevation gain, but as you can see, it was worth it, as the clouds finally gave way to some sunshine. My two companions, Julie, and my sister-in-law Nicki, did great on this hike as they made it up almost all the way. The last little bit got really hairy so I left them below and climbed up to the 1st camp. From what I can tell, there are two camps you can make on your summit bid; this lower camp which is at the 6000' level, and a higher camp much higher up. There were a bunch of guys setting up tents to make there early morning summit bid. I have to confess, there was a big part of my heart that wanted to join them...that may be coming one day.

Before we made our way down, Julie thought it would be fun to shrink me to miniature size. Thankfully, she didn't leave me in that state.

AUS Day 7: Botanic Gardens, Hike

See all the pictures here;
Day 7 was our photo-shoot in the Botanic Gardens,(jump straight to the pictures here). For those who like lots of color and cool plants, and who have a affinity for photographer, it was a dream. Plus, it was drizzling off an on which made the many colorful plants "pop out" even more (I've heard of some professional photographers who carry a squirt bottle with them to simulate rain/dew). The Gardens tour was just me and Julie, Dad and Traci. The highlight was a jade/green plant, a color that is extremely rare in plant life. Besides that, I'll let the pictures do the talking; CLICK HERE!


Following the Garden, David, Traci, Julie and I went on a "hike/walk." It was supposed to be a hike that started on a road and led into a trail that ended at a waterfall. Alas, we never got off the road, never found a trail and never got to a waterfall. Still, it was pretty amazing to get out and "up" high into the rainforest. Didn't get any cool pictures, although I did put a couple up anyways. That evening we were back downtown at the night-market and looking at cool birds.