Nature's beauty, No. 12

Another cropped close-up from underneath the rose on the tall stem. Thanks for indulging me with my photos of these flowers, dew drops and spiderwebs.
 

The same photo, uncropped.
 

And here's the same flower a moment later, after the wind had rearranged the spiderweb beneath the petals on the right.

Nature's beauty, No. 3

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I particularly like how this photo turned out and happily cropped it so that you could see the wind blowing the spiderweb. Believe me, I felt extremely lucky when I uploaded this photo and realized that, thankfully, the wind didn't make the flower blow at the same time, or I'd have nothing but blurry dew drops all along the spiderweb.

My March Madness continued with people watching--a fine sort of sport--in the gusting, blowing wind outside the Rose Garden Arena

When this man approached from my right, just as he got even with me, his hat blew right off! "Your hat!" I hollered. He had felt it lift off his head and altered his course to chase it down. I had no hope after watching it flip a couple of times. Imagine my surprise when it landed just as you see it and sat there! I saw him later on inside the arena and said, "I'm so glad you got your hat back!" He replied, "I am, too. Where are you from?" I guess my Mississippi accent gave me away.


I saw these two coming and decided to take a photo just after they had passed me by. Look how the wind is plastering that man's pants to his legs! He's smart to hold onto his cap. She's probably wishing that she hadn't opened her umbrella which looks to have been a nice one for keeping the rain off. And how about the new part in her short hair, center-back-of-the-head? I had a blast watching people while waiting for the doors to open.


I hope the look on these three faces gives you an idea of just how cold that blowing wind really was. A cold that hurts. If I were the man in the red hat, I would have had my friends wait for a moment, turned my back to wind, and zipped up my jacket before taking another step. Does it look to you like the youngster on the left is pulling his hands into his sleeves? To keep them warm? He's wearing shorts, for goodness sakes, and he's worried about his hands?


Just after the man in the cap handed the Session 1 ticket to his friend who must be truly grateful that he has real hair and not a toupee, the man in the cap walked away to my left. The envelope flew out of his hand, and he didn't feel a thing! I yelled, "Something blew away!" His friend with the great hair had seen it and was fast after what turned out to be the envelope which held the rest of the duo's tickets. The man in the hat rejoined his friend who had retrieved the envelope. Smiling at me, he walked left again, envelope still in hand. If it blew away again, I didn't know about it.

My March Madness continued with a trip to, then a wait at, the Rose Garden Arena

My NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball tickets for both of Thursday's sessions. I'm on the MAX light rail train, making sure for the umpteenth time that I actually have them with me, safely tucked into my wallet which is ensconced in my purse when I decide to take a photo to the two of them. Love how the holograms turned out, especially the one of the left.


Portland's picturesque Union Station, seen from the MAX train window through the rain.

I got off the MAX at the bottom of the slope and walked up towards my goal--the set of building doors closest to the intersection, where there existed a somewhat narrow overhang which I planned to stand beneath for the the 40 minutes until the doors opened.

As I neared the door, I stopped to ask an employee who had just stepped outside the building, "Is it true? What I heard on TV about everyone exiting the Rose Garden after the first two games and then coming back inside for the last two games." The man said, "Yes, but you can just get back in line once you exit." What a relief. And if the rain had stopped then, it would be nigh onto perfect. I figured that the line would be a packed crowd, but I also figured that since I had to do it, I surely did hope that the rain would be gone by then.


After a little while, the rain slacked off, and the wind kicked in. While I waited beneath the overhang at the doors near the fountain, which thankfully was not on because one thing we didn't need was more liquid in our lives, I noticed the trash bag blowing almost parallel with the courtyard. You can see a little water standing here and there, too. I proceeded to watch people in the wind.

A scene you won't see in Portland today

On a September Saturday, these two women stood talking on SW Broadway. The woman on the left had been to the PSU Farmers Market, filling her navy blue bag with untold fresh goodies. Maybe the woman on the right had been there, too, and had stored her goodies somewhere in the scooter. Can you guess the reason that scenes like this won't be repeated today? It's pouring rain and blowing, blowing, blowing wind. I can hear it hitting the windows of my apartment right now. And after work yesterday I had to hold my hood shut, or it would have blown right off my head! On my way to the basketball game and hours later after the game!

Here's what KGW Channel 8's meteorologist Nick Allard has to say about the weather online: This morning it is mild, wet, breezy and will be all day. Another round of heavy rain is moving in to the area and later today it will be really wet again. The winds are staying pretty active this morning and also will for the rest of the day. There is a High Wind Warning in effect for the central Oregon Coast until this evening. Winds will be sustained between 30-40 mph with gusts that may approach 50-70 mph especially right at the coast line. The rest of the area will be breezy at times with moderate to heavy rain. In fact anywhere from half an inch to an inch is possible all over the place. Highs will top out in the mid-50s. The snow level will stay high today in the 7-8,000' range.
Tomorrow another round of rain will push in, but the heaviest rain will stay south of our area. So overall the rain will be much lighter. However into Friday another wet and breezy system will move in for rain during the day and some decent mountain snow by Friday night.

Thursday, August 25, Part 2 of this day's fun!

We continued east in the SUV. Our plan was to go south at Hood River, Oregon, and have our picnic in Parkdale, Oregon, beside the Ries-Thompson House. Given the blue skies, I knew we'd be able to see Mt. Hood.

Little did I know that just when we turned off the interstate that we'd notice lots of colorful activity right there on the Columbia River. Quickly we decided to head to the park beside the river for a closer look. I stopped at the shack at the entrance to the parking lot, asked the young man what we needed to do to park for about 20 minutes, and he told us to back up and park in an empty space on the entry road--no charge. Sweet!

We walked towards the river, looking here, looking there, the wind blowing our hair inside out.


Color and motion everywhere. These waves are made by the wind, not a big ship going by.


I don't know what these sail-wing-things are called, so I'll guess colorful, flexible fun.


Here's a dog having fun with a fluorescent tennis ball.


Walking out into the river.


Sort of make you think of that old saw, two ships that pass in the night, doesn't it?


Looks like fun, even to scared ol' me.


From this photo you can certainly understand why I said that our hair was blowing inside out, can't you?


Folks having fun on the Columbia River.