Tom Robbins, my favorite-est author ever, on the (in)famous Pacific Northwest Rain*: On the mainland, a rain was falling. The famous Seattle rain. The thin, gray rain that toadstools love. The persistent rain that knows every hidden entrance into collar and shopping bag. The quiet rain that can rust a tin roof without the tin roof making a sound in protest. The shamanic rain that feeds the imagination. The rain that seems actually a secret language, whispering, like the ecstasy of primitives, of the essence of things. Yeah, that’s it. *from his 1980 novel Still Life with Woodpecker

At about 6:00 this morning, we awoke to some of the fiercest winds we’ve seen here so far. The enormous trees to either side of our house were moving from the force of the winds. Peter got the fire going again (it had died down overnight), and we spent a few minutes watching the wind and rain – until the lights flickered a few times and then died. We ran around unplugging any electronics that may be damaged by any surges, and then crawled back into bed. Eventually Peter remembered that our well pump is also powered by electricity, so he got up and filled everything he could find with water before the pressure ran out. Within just a few hours, the power had returned and the winds had died down, but the heavy rains continued for most of the day. The Weather Channel’s wind advisory for the area said we were getting “SOUTH WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 50 MPH…AHEAD OF A STRONG PACIFIC COLD FRONT.” Eventually we ventured outside to check things out. Overall, we seem to have fared pretty well – our only casualties were a large limb off of one of the aforementioned enormous trees (we were quite happy that the broken limb didn’t travel the few feet it would’ve needed to land on our house), and the canopy/screen tent we’d set up in our yard so we could still enjoy the out-of-doors during Oregon’s famous rainy season (otherwise known as fall, winter and spring). If you’re interested, here’s some photos of the aftermath, along with a little eye candy. Enjoy! Peter under the broken limb – if you look closely, you can see that it’s resting on some of the tree’s lower limbs: Another view of the broken limb, still hanging from the tree: Broken limb at the base: Peter sawing off the lower end of the broken limb: After he sawed off the lower end, the part of the limb that was still up in the tree came down – but only partway. It came to rest on the same lower limb, which wasn’t broken. The challenge was pulling the rest of the broken limb off, without breaking the limb it was resting on as well – but we managed… This is what’s left of our canopy: And now, for a little rainy-day eye candy… Raindrops on fir trees: A day-glow rain-soaked leaf: Ok, it’s rainy season in Oregon – that means mushrooms of all shapes, sizes and colors popping up everywhere. And most of them are fantastic – weird, outer-space-like shapes and hues. But WOW – we have the most amazing PURPLE mushrooms I’ve ever seen:

In one of my classes, we have an assignment to look at where we see beauty in our lives, and take photos that we’ll make into a presentation for our final project. Since the assignment coincided with the beginning of our first autumn in Oregon, most of my photos have revolved around the beautiful cycles of death and new birth that are happening just outside our door. This is a partial selection of photos for my project, which I’m planning to make into a computer slide show. Warning: Gratuitous overuse of photos! (In other words, this post is LONG.)