A Smoky Sunday

Fires in the Northwest are causing smoke filled skies almost everywhere. The smoke is not too bad where we are (yet) but we can see it against the hills above us, which periodically disappear behind their veil of smoke. This morning the smoke was thick enough to cause my eyes to tear a little and I could smell it. But it was not enough to stop us from taking a Sunday drive up Agency Creek Road to look for Dippers.

Here Johnny stands above "The Chutes" which is now a trickle. All the baked looking rocks to the right are normally under water. We have never seen Agency Creek this low.

Upstream a ways, I found these interesting shadows formed from leaning trees.

We found two Dippers at different places along the creek. Neither was very cooperative about having its picture taken. I finally got a photo of the rear end of this one.

I stopped for a photo of this mini falls that is usually a mega falls covering about five times this area. In my first attempt, the camera focused on the nearby bushes but I decided I rather liked this impressionistic picture.

Here's the better focused version...

Back home, I went out to check the bananas beginning to form inside the banana flower. So fun to watch it happen! I had no idea this was how bananas were made. I'll take photos periodically and make a blog someday of the process from start to finish... presuming they continue and actually make bananas.

Outside the perennial sweet pea is one of the few plants I manage to keep watered. It is blooming its thanks.

 
Also favored with the hose are the dahlias. Bumblebees love them.

This evening my email received this warning from the Oregon DEQ: "Conditions are expected to worsen this evening and smoke is expected to last through Wednesday."

Glad we took our Dipper drive today. Tomorrow we're off to the coast where the smoke has not yet arrived thanks to that lovely ocean breeze.