Short-lived Snow

Unlike most of the Northwest and much of the rest of the country, we are not buried in snow. We have had a couple pretty, light snowfalls that lasted only a day or so. The second was last night.

Here are a few photos from the first, on February 9.

Nightingale and Mr. Smith love to roll in the snow. Jessie Anne thinks they're nuts.

That snow was gone in a day or two and we were back to rain. Then last night, we had another snowfall. I took photos in the morning before it disappeared.

In the afternoon, I walked out to the swamp to put the trail camera back up. Then I walked past all the birdhouses to clean them out yet again... yellow jackets love to hole up in the nest boxes. Of course, I took more photos, but I missed getting a photo of a doe and her yearling fawn as they walked quickly out of sight into the woods.

The snow was mostly gone but the beauty remained. Our seasonal pond caught reflections of the trees.

This wonderful old maple doesn't mind the rain. It just grows moss.

Snow remained on some moss-covered branches in the woods.

The weatherman says we may get another snowfall tomorrow night. Bring it on. Any break from the rain is welcome this time of year.

Eye Surgeries

Cataract surgeries are commonplace these days. Just about everyone my age has either had them or is having them, me included. My left eye was done last Friday. Second eye will be done sometime in March. The surgery itself is simple, but for me the first week after, which is what I'm in now, is a bother. I'm not supposed to bend over (get my head lower than my heart) or lift anything heavier than 5 pounds. That makes farm chores rather difficult. Fortunately, Johnny has stepped in to help with some of the more impossible things, and I have become quite good at "squats" or ballet "plies" (however that is spelled) to keep from bending over. The five pound requirement, however, is a mite ridiculous so I figure if I don't have to strain to lift something, it's not too heavy.

Also a bother are the three sets of drops (not counting my regular eye drops for glaucoma) that must be taken four times a day, five minutes apart. Taken together, these requirements mean I'm not out pruning the pines for awhile, toting hay bales or feed sacks. I "could" be cleaning house but that is no fun and not all that easy with one eye that now is beginning to see without the need for glasses while the other eye still needs glasses. My brain must be very confused.

Earlier this winter I had laser surgeries on both eyes for glaucoma, in an attempt to open up the drainage canals that are too closed and causing elevated eye pressure which in turn is murdering my optic nerves. Surgery on the first eye did not seem to do any good at first so the second eye surgery was not done... until months later when the first eye's pressure dropped to everyone's surprise. Those surgeries were simple in-the-doctor's-office-and-out. And they seem to have worked. At least my eye pressure went from above 20 to below. I hope that makes my optic nerves happy as I had already lost some peripheral vision and would prefer not to lose any more. Johnny kept pointing out soaring hawks to me that I could not see without bobbing my head up and down until the bird appeared in a non-blind-spot area of my vision.

The eye surgeon says the cataract surgeries may also reduce my eye pressure some, which would be very good news. The other good news is that once the second eye's cataract is removed, I will only need glasses for reading.

Laser cataract surgery was invented, I recently learned, in 1981 by Patricia Bath, a remarkable woman born in Harlem, New York City, in 1942, just a few years before I was. Her father was an immigrant from Trinidad; her mom a descendant of slaves and Native Americans. Wikipedia says:

"She was the first woman member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, first woman to lead a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, and first woman elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center (an honor bestowed on her after her retirement). Bath was the first black person to serve as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University. She is also the first black woman to serve on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath is the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. The holder of five patents,^[1] she also founded the non-profit American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C."

Her story in Wikipedia is amazing and inspiring:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Bath

All of us who are having our clouded vision restored through laser removal of cataracts owe a huge dept of gratitude to Patricia Bath.

King Tides!

This full moon is the last of three King Tide periods of this winter, when the moon is closest to the earth, creating the highest tides of the year. So we went to the coast yesterday to witness the 9 foot tide. We thought, considering how spectacularly high the Little Nestucca River  was last week, Feb. 13, when we were there at low tide, that it would be even more spectacular yesterday. Wrong.

The flooding was spectacular last week because of massive snow melt and rain in the hills above. What new snow has fallen since then is not melting yet. Johnny thought I must have read the tide table wrong so we went to McPhillips Park on the coast to see the tide without the influence of river water.

Here is the beach on Feb. 13 at low tide.

And same spot on Feb. 18 at high tide with all those exposed rocks covered.

Even the one low rock where our grandkids played last summer was periodically inundated by waves.

 If we ever get a King Tide at the same time we get massive snow melt and heavy rain, the flooding will indeed be spectacular. Highway 101 will likely be flooded at its junction with Brooten Rd., where we access Pacific City, and likely Hwy 130 that we take to get to 101 will be flooded, too.

Yesterday, however, was floodless and beautiful.

 We checked out the beach at Bob Straub Park where I do a monthly beached bird survey. The tide was bringing in lots of drift wood.

One intrepid fisherman was fishing in the surf. The light-colored sand in the photo below ends at a steep ten (or more) foot drop-off.

 We drove north to Oceanside, where Netarts Bay was quite full, with the Three Sisters off Cape Meares lit up in occasional sunlight.

We bought lunches at the little deli and market in Netarts then drove up to Maxwell Point to eat them.

 The Three Sisters zoomed in close revealed about a jillion sea lions resting on the lower rock in front of them.

Maxwell Point is the site of a hang gliding launch point. The property is owned by our long time friend Reed Gleason. His flying buddies have thanked him with a commemorative stone bench at the site.

Also an informative sign gives the rules and regulations and safe landing beach sites. This is not a site for amateurs. Pilots have to be licensed and registered.

A bit of whimsy enfolds the outhouse.

After lunch, we drove down to Short Beach to look for Black Oystercatchers,which often hang out there in the off season and nest in the area in spring. Sure enough we spotted eight of them with seven flying to this rock close offshore.

We drove onward to Cape Meares where I noticed another one of the signs funded by mitigation funds from an oil spill. (I pictured one in a blog last year.) This one is at the north viewing platform.

From this viewpoint, we can see both the north and south toe, plus the two big offshore islands, Pillar Rock and Pyramid Rock off in the distance.

 A close look at Pillar Rock showed a Peregrine Falcon just to the right of where the top dips.

I traded my Panasonic for my Nikon Coolpix to get these close-ups.

Johnny noticed a Bald Eagle atop very distant Pyramid Rock.

Again, my Nikon brought it into view.

Fuzzy view but I have trouble holding this heavy camera still, even when braced on something.

We headed for home then but I wanted to stop at Munson Creek Falls off Hwy 101 south of Tillamook. It is the highest falls in the coast range at 319 feet. Johnny was a bit too worn out from all the hiking so he took a nap while I walked the 1/2 mile in, stopping to take photos of Munson Creek as it flows downstream from the falls. I carried my lighter Panasonic for this trek.

And then there was Munson Creek Falls! I had forgotten how beautiful... and how high... it is...

 With Johnny rested up for more driving, we headed home. It had been a lovely King Tide day even though the King Tide turned out not to be the high point of the day.

Our 52nd Anniversary

Although it seems impossible to us, we really have been married 52 years as of Feb. 13. We don't even feel like we've been alive that long. (Except for some days.) We do realize that our anniversary celebrations are not as ambitious as they once were. This year we drove to the coast and hiked on the beach. It was a beautiful day.

The day before, on not quite so beautiful a day, after many days of rain, we hiked through our own place. The path from arboretum into woods was a stream.

Johnny kicked the leaves out of the way so the water would go down the bank instead of along the path.

 A bear had been through the woods some time before us, leaving thrown up apples in his wake.

Our seasonal catch pond had expanded out of its banks.

Lichen from a tree had blown down on our path behind the south field. Pretty little red fruiting bodies, or something, decorated it. 

Usually lovely and clear Agency Creek was a muddy river. 

Spirit Mountain, above our farm, still had a trace of snow.

The next day, our anniversary day, we drove to the coast, stopping at Gunaldo Falls, as we usually do. In the dry season, it is barely a trickle and hard to see across the ravine. This day, it was a full fledged waterfall.

My excuse for going to the coast was to conduct the quarterly mile walk on the beach for CoastWatch, a program of Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition. "My" mile is in Cape Kiwanda State Park and accessed from McPhillips Park. As soon as we hiked to the beach from the access road, Johnny spotted a Peregrine Falcon sitting on the ground far north of us, below a big outcropping of rock. I could see it only with binoculars.

 I zoomed in my camera and clicked... just as it flew off screaming, apparently irritated by a pair of ravens, who quickly left the area.

However it soon landed on the large outcropping of rock and posed.

The tide was out, exposing usually covered rock formations.

Quite a few Moon Jellies were stranded on the beach. Johnny's foot shows a size comparison.

Beautiful ocean scenery along my mile walk...

From up on the dune, looking north, I could see a dot on the beach that was Johnny, dutifully picking up trash on his way back to the car, while I hiked over the dune to the south side.

Lots of exposed rocks on the south side of the dune, too, with Chief Kiawanda Rock in the distance.

By the time I walked down the beach to the Cape Kiwanda parking lot, Johnny had driven there and was waiting for me. We had lunch in Pacific City at our favorite Mexican restaurant, where the waiters all know I want Mango juice and Johnny wants lemonade.

It was a wonderful 52nd anniversary.

And now the rains are back...