I see no leaves from my bedroom window. I see more branches than normal, instead: a guy trimmed the trees behind the building a couple of weeks ago, and the trimmings are piled and tangled together, waiting to be taken elsewhere.
It’s been – let’s say engaging weather, the past few days, a little more dramatic and varied than March weather usually is around here. Snow happened Thursday, dusting the non-road surfaces in my neighborhood and accumulating on Pill Hill…while adding something like 20 inches of snow in one night to Mt. Hood. The ski areas are treating this as a gift. The mountains have been looking lovely, of course. I still remember, after how dry the summer of 2001 was, driving towards Mt. Hood and seeing so much gray on the slopes. I’m used to seeing Mt. St. Helens like that; I wasn’t used to seeing Mt. Hood that close to denuded.
We had big flakes falling at OHSU during the first half of Thursday; I predicted “Next we’ll see flakes the size of Yugos!” Sanela kept wondering when we’d be sent home early. No dice (on both predictions). Friday morning my friend/FSO Alicia e-mailed to inform me that she had about an inch of snow outside her apartment in Eugene, 100 miles south of here in the same river valley I’m in now. Friday night the storm clouds piled up in the Cascades to the east of Portland, at just the right time to look big and dramatic in the sunset light. Nice view.
Ah. More sun now. So, soon, less fog…