What's outside of your picture window today?

In reply to Elizabeth's comment about our lack of rain: This isn't a cycle but a total change of weather over the past decade (or a couple of years more than that). Here on the Oregon coast, we've always had moisture during nights so that we got up to find everything wet, couldn't ever leave anything out all night. The weather was pretty much the same year 'round, although it was cooler during winter. Still, we could be outside in December wearing just a sweater...or needing a jacket in July. It never really snowed, dust a very rare light dusting.
Last winter was the coldest in 61 years. There have been single days where it was colder (very rare), but never in the 30s for months on end, plus we had not one but two actual snow storms that left inches of snow. which our trees couldn't support, didn't expect. I'm rich in firewood from all the limbs and trees that went down! A huge alder fell across our road during December, leaving us without electricity for three days, but with big rounds of fine alder that will make wonderful heat from our Earth stove, once it's totally dry and I split all of the big pile. We had one pine, an ex-living Xmas tree that was an eastern Oregon tree rather than a dense, short coast pine. It lost five huge limbs, has two hanging more than 50' up, and the trunk needs to come down now that I've cleaned up all the limbs and mess on the ground. Unfortunately, it's too pitchy to burn inside...I thought I'd have lots of evening fires in my fire pit outside this summer, but we have a total burn ban, can't even use propane BBQs. We had a terrible forest fire here 9/7/2020, so we take fire danger seriously. Although almost 300 homes were lost, there were no deaths or serious injuries: both the fire crews and neighbors were very helpful in making certain that everyone got out at 2:00 a.m.! People arrived with horse trailers to move horses out, the only problem being that it took some time to find where some of those horses had been moved to temporary pastures a distance away! Unfortunately, the fire moved too fast to save chickens, outside cats, etc. Bears and cougars were displaced and showed up in people's yards for a couple of months, as they searched for new places to live.
Ordinarily, we always had some rain throughout the summer, just less than during the winters. But the past decade or more has given us totally dry summers where we have zero measurable rain all summer. My father, who died in '81, had a huge garden here...and never owned a hose. Now you need to water everything!
Our temperature data (from 31 years) on the river I monitor on the north coast shows definite warming. The only good news is that wild steelhead and salmon are smart enough to find thermal refuges (springs, little creeks dumping colder water into the river, etc.). Hatchery fish simply can't adapt and have very low survival rates. Our redd counts (where fish spawn) of wild fish are stable over all 31 years, in spite of three major floods, timber harvest, and a warming climate.

We finally had some rain this morning here, in southern Arizona, and were also blessed with a beautiful sunrise and a double rainbow. What a way to start a Monday!

Nature can be beautiful.

@ess7 -- Thank you for sharing your beautiful pix! Adorable kitty! Love the owl. So glad you and your son feel that new doctors are helping you more. Sometimes we just need fresh eyes to look at our case so they don’t just rubber stamp the visit. Prayers that you and your son will have more and more good days!

@johnbishop -- Great pix as always. Love the baby turkey! How fun!

@alive – I love rainbows and sunsets! Thank you for sharing your beautiful double rainbow and sunsets! Wow!!! I rarely catch a rainbow because the tall trees around my condo block my view and maybe because we don’t get much rain. Haha Lucky you!

@covidstinks2023 – That was so sweet to give that possum a banana! He thought he struck gold! Like you, I love all animals and I think possums are cute especially babies. Animals are the best!

To the rest of you sharing your love of animals and nature -- yay! Animals and nature can just bring such love and peace! I just can't seem to get enough of nature. I so enjoy all the animal photos, sunsets, rainbows and any other photos from our beautiful world. Thanks to all for sharing! 🙂

@ess77 -- See my last message to you above -- typed your screen name wrong.

In response to your comment about which half of CA I'm in, I am in beautiful Southern California and love it here. So, yes, we had the unusual tropical storm Hilary. CA can't handle rain like FL since it's a desert here and water doesn't absorb well. We also have a lot of hills, mountains, canyons and cliffs for additional rain challenges.

I'm about 5 miles from the coast so luckily I'm not in a flood or mudslide zone. I am, however, surrounded by 100 foot pine trees and other 50 foot trees so I was worried about those coming down on my condo in the wind and rain. They were planted in the 1960's so untested since our last tropical storm was in 1939. Winds were about 40-50 mph here last night. That's unusual for us. We lost some trees by the creek and big branches fell around the neighborhood, but around my condo it was just a thick blanket of pine needles covering everything. Those can be cleaned up. No damage. Phew! I was able to clear all the walkways this morning. It was a good workout.

This morning, the wind was gone and I went for a long walk in a light rain as the storm headed out. It was sooo peaceful and refreshing. As I cleaned up the pine needles, all my squirrels and crows came running to see me and fill up on walnuts since they were in hiding yesterday. A great day was enjoyed by all!!! 🙂

Sometimes I find it flat difficult to work at my computer. The elk photos were taken from my office window; the tree trunk at the left is about 10' from my desk/computer. The deer photos were taken from my front deck. Deer often come to my office window, in the hope that I'll come out to the deck with apple slices. I love the fawn's reaction to his very first apple slice!

@joyces Wow, I love those photos! How fun to have elk and deer coming by to visit. Yes, that fawn is so cute licking its chops in response to a delicious snack! Thanks for sharing!

@joyces, @californiazebra, @alive, @johnbishop, @gingerw, and all...Oh, my goodness! How blessed your fur neighbors are to have you as a friend. Apples must be a real treat, based on that little one's expression. He looks like he's thanking you and asking for more at the same time. You are in a wonderful place to share with the deer and other nature.

I think my trees, mostly live oaks-some 150-250 years old, various pines, palms of course, bay, maple, and others are one of my favorites. The development by humans in Florida has destroyed so much natural beauty, although we have preserved some areas, especially with the older trees. I've watched and literally cried after driving to work on our road surrounded by pine forests with scattered live oaks and others, then driving home to bare land! So horribly disrespectful to our world and each other...I love our trees! And where do the possums and raccoons and snakes and turtles and rabbits and owls and herons and all the other wildlife find new homes??? This is one reason I have way too many wild bird feeders and baths on my patio and back area. My tiny little contribution to help them survive living with us.
It'll be interesting to see how our Florida weather evolves over the next several years. As I mentioned, last year we had a very early freeze that damaged/killed several of my front and back plants, our azaleas, and others were caught by surprise. Then, a sudden late freeze did the same with the spring-blooming plants. It was a crazy winter...and this summer we've had extremely high temps for long stretches of time, as did the Northwest and other areas. Our rainy summer has been pretty normal, with daily afternoon rains and quite a few heavy storms this year. September is our dangerous hurricane season, which begins in June but September is when we have the big blows here, in northern Florida. I pray we don't get hit hard this year. We all need a break from disaster and illness and pandemics and inflation!

I don't have a generator to help when the electricity is out for several days. In 1964, we had Hurricane Dora hit NE Florida, a rare direct hit, and lost many coastal homes and beaches were damaged badly. We had no electricity for 3 weeks! My first year in Jacksonville! Since, we had a couple of years with snowfall, that stuck and caused havoc on our streets, and ice storms that closed our multiple high brides crossing the St. Johns River within Jax., both quite rare but occasional. I tend to flood easily, so am working now to prepare with some extra drainage rock around my place and some PIG flood protectors for doors and patios. Can't handle sandbags or even bags of garden soil I used for years...too heavy for me now.

I must have my bi-pap and oxygen at night to sleep or to survive, and lower humidity to breathe, so electricity for me is not a luxury. I can't go to a hotel with the machines so cumbersome, so must make some arrangements soon. Ain't the aging process fun! I love being 76, and look forward to 80, but do need to breathe!

It's a lovely, warm sunny day here today. Looks like we may have an afternoon rain, but that's normal and welcome. The 80s are a huge improvement over the 99-110 we were seeing...
Blessings and lovely days to all...Elizabeth

Well, God did it again today! I had a sick possum in the backyard Sunday to give a banana too and today a box turtle was walking across my driveway. His shell was rotting away. I picked him up gently and put him in the grass. Then I came back out with watermelon and blueberries. He wouldn't eat. He just looked so sick to me. I did all I could and he walked off slowly into the woods. I prayed for the Lord to take care of him. I believe HE did with all of my heart.

Folks, just like the animals need us, we need each other more in these turbulent days of getting older & sickness. Be kind. Be loving. Be attentive. Be on the lookout to be a blessing to other. Somebody needs YOU! God puts us here not only to bring HIM glory but to love and be a blessing to others. Hugs & Prayers....

I went out into the yard yesterday with my son's dog. The grasshoppers have all grown quite large, two inches and bigger. When I walked over to the front gate, there were two very large ones on the wooden gate posts. The one closest to me started moving sideways, so I watched him (or her) who was sitting vertically. Before I knew it, he had sidestepped slowly all the way around out of my view. As I looked over to the one on the next post, he was doing the same and I realized it was intentional to get away from me and I just began laughing.
I'll take my camera out with me me today and see if I can get a couple stills. My son said they do this quite often and it is rather funny.