Author Archives: Mark

The inversion (warm and clear skies above, cold and cloudy in the valley) has now persisted for eight days, with one more day predicted tomorrow before rain moves in with enough wind to mix the air.  We might see some … Continue reading →

Unfortunately for those who enjoy sun and warmth, the Willamette Valley is prone to inversions.  This means that on the ~30% of winter days that it isn’t actually cloudy or raining, the valley is often trapped in cold, clouds, and … Continue reading →

Despite mostly rave reviews, Cloud Atlas has failed to pull in much money at the box office.  That seems a shame for a big-budget movie with a cast full of famous actors that also happens to be the best movie … Continue reading →

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to this blog; sorry to those who have been checking! Our summer drought (only 0.12″ of rain between July 1 and October 12) came to an abrupt end, with nearly continuous rain since … Continue reading →

No, not the events that we all are watching these days, but the Olympic Mountains of northwestern Washington where I spent last weekend hiking with Steve and Nora.  We did two overnight, 9-10 mile trips, the first one along the … Continue reading →

My blog has fallen silent, or so it seems.  I have quite a backlog of photos which may never get posted – more spring wildflowers, a hike in Opal Creek Wilderness with Kelly, the annual morel hunt adventure (we found … Continue reading →

June 5th, in addition to being Elizabeth’s birthday, was the date of a most-rare astronomic occurrence: a “transit” of Venus across the Sun.  Every 1.6 years Venus “laps” Earth, passing between us and the Sun.  This is known as an … Continue reading →

The honey flow, that is.  That’s beekeeper-speak for the time of year when nectar is sufficiently abundant that bees can collect more than they need on a daily basis.  Around here the main “flow” is blackberries, and they are just … Continue reading →

If you tried to check my blog last week, you probably saw an error message.  The site was down as I transferred luterra.com from Chris’s webhost to my own, replacing the now-defunct StoneConnection.net. Last Sunday we set out to explore … Continue reading →

We had 80 degrees today, almost a record high and the third in a string of summerlike beautiful clear days.  The solar tank reached 161º yesterday, enough for about 20-25 minutes of showering.  Our bees were out in force, pollinating … Continue reading →