Rain!

 Over an inch of rain yesterday (Saturday, September 19) washed the smoke out of our skies here in the western coast range. Salem and points east are still in smoke but the rain is helping the firefighters. Oregon and Washington's smoke is blowing east, all the way to Europe already. Our friends in Maryland have smoke high above with the telltale orange sun.

But here it was beautiful today.

A couple days ago, the second bloom of the Fire Orchid opened. Now I'm calling it the Fire and Rain Orchid.

Before the smoke cleared, I learned that the N95 masks with vents Johnny uses in his shop work for smoke but not for Covid, so I donned one and presto! no more smell of smoke and no more headache! So I spent that day outdoors, watering everything... flowers, veggies, arboretum trees... and discovered that all looked kind of pretty in the weird lighting. So I took photos.

Brush Rabbit

Male American Kestrel

Sun through smoke

roses insist on blooming, no matter what...

Double Delight

Dolly Parton

not sure what this rose is!

asters

Buxton Gum in Australia section of arboretum

Seven Sons plant in China section of arboretum

Seven Sons with Amur maples turning red behind

flowers of Seven Sons tree

After watering the arboretum, I wandered to the pond-turned-swamp to turn off the irrigation pump and took the photo below of Jewel Weed...

The goats were watching me...

Annie Puppy came to see if she could "help"

 

The goats are not crazy about Annie's variety of helpfulness...

And then to the flower garden...

Autumn Joy sedum

Peonies blooming in the strange light...

And the Naked Lady is still blooming tall... (really belladonna lily)

No mask needed today. Hallelujah!