"There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." ~John Ruskin
 DescriptionDate
RaccoonSnow1.jpg As the storm today was getting started, I looked out my window and saw one of my resident raccoons scrambling among the branches. I took this shot out of my office window.12/20/2008
RaccoonSnow2.jpg Where's Waldo? Or more accurately, where's the raccoon? Look very closely near the middle of the photo and you'll see him.12/20/2008
RaccoonSnow3.jpg And here he is watching me.12/20/2008
Branch1.jpg At this point we had gotten aound 5 inches or so of snowfall. Look closely at the branch in the middle of the photo above and to the left of the edge of the railing. Compare it to a similar shot that I took tomorrow morning, Branch3.jpg.12/20/2008
Trees.jpg Here's the snow covered trees behind my house. The one in the foreground is a cedar, the other taller ones are Douglas Firs. Those particular one are actually in my neighbor's yard.12/20/2008
Street.jpg Looking down the street while the snow is falling heavily.12/20/2008
House.jpg And looking back at the house in the heavy snow.12/20/2008
HouseAndTrees.jpg In this shot, you can really see the house, trees, and heavy snow.12/20/2008
Tree.jpg This cedar is actually in my neigbor's yard, but it's beautiful in the snow.12/20/2008
SnowyNight.jpg It was a nowy night in Tualatin. I have no idea what that object was that looks like the moon at the top of the photo. There's no way the moon was out here, it was snowing very heavy all day.12/20/2008
CarAtNight.jpg Here's Alix's car at night in the heavy snow. I love the way the snowflakes appeared in this shot.12/20/2008
Icicles.jpg These icicles are hanging from my neighbor's roof. I am looking through my courtyard to their house.12/20/2008
Branch2.jpg Another shot of the back yard in the snow. If you look closely you can see the branch again here, and compare it to the same branch in the next shot taken the next morning.12/20/2008
DeckAtNight.jpg Looking at my deck at night during the snowstorm.12/20/2008
Stars.jpg Here the snow looks like stars. But it's just more heavy snow.12/20/2008
Branch3.jpg Overnight we got half an inch of ice on top of the 8.75 inches of snow. All the branches were heavily weighed down. That same branch seen in two other shots is now bent to the ground. You can also see my birdfeeder through the rails, and it was resting on the ground instead of hanging several feet off the ground.12/21/2008
Street2.jpg Here's my street the morning after the storm. Or at least the initial wave of precipitation from the storm. We got more later in the day. Tualatin and other Portland area towns don't get this weather often, and therefore don't have the equipment or budget to deal with it. They never plow the neighberhood streets, just the major streets. So our block will look like this all week until we get warm weather next weekend.12/21/2008
NextDoor.jpg Looking through my courtyard to my neighbor's house. Even here in the courtyard enough snow fell through the small opening to accumulate to a sizable depth.12/21/2008
SnowGarden.jpg The front garden in the snow and ice.12/21/2008
Snow.jpg You can sort of get a sense of the snow depth in this shot, with the mounds of snow.12/21/2008
IceOnCar.jpg The lock and door here on Alix's car are frozen shut.12/21/2008
Pile1.jpg One of the piles of snow and ice after I shoveled the driveway. This was by far the biggest storm sinceI have lived in Tualatin. Most times when it snows I don't even bother to shovel, I know it will be gone in a day or two when it warms up. But this time it was too deep and more snow and ice was in the forecast.12/21/2008
Pile2.jpg Another shot of the same pile of snow.12/21/2008
Pile3.jpg And here's the pile of snow I made next to my mailbox.12/21/2008
Mailbox.jpg My mailbox totally covered in snow, even high enough to cover all the numbers on the side. The street also is snow covered, and you can't even see my vegetable garden.12/22/2008
Backyard.jpg My backyard, with the wight of the snow and ice causing all the branches to droop, some of them down onto the ground.12/22/2008
Yardstick.jpg This is a yardstick, showing that the pile of snow is well over three feet high, probably close to four feet.12/22/2008
SnowCoveredTrees.jpg From down the block, this is a great photo of the snow covered trees behind my house. You can also see many cars on the street that nobody was bothering to shovel, since nobody could get anywhere anyway.12/23/2008
AlixSnowshoeing.jpg It's a little blurry, but Alix and I went for a brief snowshoeing journey. Here's Alix walking down 86th Avenue.12/23/2008
Branches.jpg And here are some of the many branches that littered my yard once they all started falling. Fortunately I didn't suffer any real damage.12/24/2008
Amy2.jpg My mom after relaxing on my deck the day we got back from Yachats.9/30/2008
Raccoon.jpg One of the raccoons coming home later in the morning than usual (around 11:00 AM)7/3/2008
RaccoonEntrance.jpg Here's the space under the deck where the raccoons go in and out. During they day they sleep under my deck, and each evening they come out to do whatever it is they do each night. They come back in the morning to spend the day under the deck sleeping.7/3/2008
WatchingRaccoons.jpg Here's Mazama watching intently as the raccoons come out from underneath the deck.7/3/2008
AdamOnFence.jpg Alix and I walked over the new bridge in Tualatin park to watch the fireworks in Cook Park on July 4. Here I am waiting on a fence for the fireworks to begin7/4/2008
AdamAndEJ.jpg No, that's not my child! This is Adam with Elijah, Alix's grandson, on St. Patrick's Day 2008. He was just over one month old when this was taken. (Elijah, not Adam).3/15/2008
Entrance.jpg The entryway to my house as decorated before Halloween.10/27/2007
OregonGrape.jpg These are the four Oregon Grape plants that I planted this fall in memory of Halli. Hopefully they'll start growing in the spring, and eventually block the fence a bit.10/27/2007
Pumpkin1.jpg The Jack-O-Lantern that we had on our mailbox for Halloween this year.10/27/2007
Pumpkin2.jpg Here's the Jack-O-Lantern all lit up at night.10/27/2007
WitchHat.jpg Some home decorations for Halloween.10/27/2007
Butterfly.jpg A Swallowtail butterfly in my Butterfly Bush in my front garden.7/6/2007
Sunset1.jpg We had a few really nice sunsets during June. For this one, I tried to take a few shots.6/16/2005
Sunset2.jpg Another sunset photo. They came out pretty good.6/16/2005
Sunset3.jpg These were all taken from my front doorstep...6/16/2005
Sunset4.jpg ... which explains the less than ideal foreground images.6/16/2005
Sunset5.jpg Oh well, it was still quite a sunset.6/16/2005
Sunset6.jpg Another sunset shot.6/16/2005
Sunset7.jpg This one really shows the color through the pinte trees across the street.6/16/2005
Sunset8.jpg One final shot, with the trees slightly out of focus.6/16/2005
Clematis1.jpg Our Clematis vine in the our entryway did well this year.5/4/2005
Clematis2.jpg Another shot of the clematis. It was actually doing better a week or so earlier, but I forgot to take a picture until this.5/4/2005
Garden2.jpg Yet another shot of our garden, the first one for this year.5/4/2005
Butterfly1.jpg A Swallowtail butterfly in our garden, conveniently perched on "Butterfly Bush".7/15/2004
Butterfly2.jpg Another shot of the butterfly.7/15/2004
Garden1.jpg A view of our front garden from the roof.7/15/2004
WeatherStation1.jpg For all those who wondered what my weather station looks like, here it is. It's mounted up on the roof, from this angle you can see the solar panel (the dark rectangle directly under the anemometer) that powers it. This view is facing NE.7/15/2004
WeatherStation2.jpg Here's a view of the weather station facing south, with some nice Douglas Firs in the background.7/15/2004
Snow1.jpg What a winter storm we had in early January 2004. Around 3 or 4 inches of snow, followed by about 3/4 inch of sleet/freezing rain. Since the temperatures stayed cold for a few days, nothing melted, and the city effectively shut down for 3 days. Winter weather is pretty unusual here.1/8/2004
Snow2.jpg Another shot of the snow/icestorm. Note how our driveway is a sheet of ice. Also, since winter weather is unusual, there aren't many sanders and plows. As a result only main roads are maintained. Even a week after this storm hit, our street was still covered in snow because they don't plow or sand any neighborhood streets.1/8/2004
Yard5.jpg A shot of our garden near the end of the year.9/5/2003
Yard6.jpg Another shot of our garden near the end of the year, from our driveway.9/5/2003
Hail1.jpg Our new garden during a mid-May hailstorm. Still quite a bit of planting to do.5/15/2003
Hail2.jpg Another shot of this hailstorm. It was quite torrential for a good 10-15 minutes.5/15/2003
BeforeGarden1.jpg A photo of what our front lawn and garden looked like before we had it excavated and redone.9/10/2002
BeforeGarden2.jpg Another "Before" shot of our front yard.9/10/2002
Wall.jpg The work on our front has begun. Note the wall in the front has been knocked down.9/10/2002
Yard1.jpg The work has now begun in earnest. You can see the beginning of a new retaining wall in the front.9/20/2002
Patio1.jpg Halli admires the beginning of our new front patio. It appears we also had a four-legged creature checking it out as well.9/21/2002
Yard2.jpg The next day. The retaining wall is almost complete here.9/21/2002
Yard3.jpg More progress on the yard. The retaining wall is now complete.9/22/2002
Patio2.jpg The patio is now just about complete.9/24/2002
Yard4.jpg The earth moving is now just about done. Here you can see the paths that we will have running thought the garden. Now if we just had some plants!9/25/2002
BeforePaint.jpg Here is our house before we painted it last year.8/1/2001
AfterPaint.jpg And here it is after we had it painted.8/15/2001
VegetableGarden1.jpg Halli's vegetable garden.8/15/2001
VegetableGarden2.jpg Another shot of Halli's veggie garden.8/15/2001
VegetableGarden3.jpg And one more of the veggie garden.8/15/2001