Winter in the Northwest is not all Dark Ages; sometimes we get a sunny day or three. Or week. Or two.
But the underlying reality is that winter in the Northwest is cold and damp. So that when those sunny days arrive and the air warms up the ground is still...well, cold and damp. So in the lowlands the fog forms thick and dank in the predawn darkness and lingers until the sunlight dispells it like the dawn the old tales of night-terror.
Nothing of moment to say, other than that this was a pretty morning; the high hills of Forest Park and the Coast Range further on fir-green and crisp whilst the rolling bottomlands of the Tualatin Valley hid under the cotton sheet of Night.
6 comments:
Chief, it really is beautiful where you live, but it isn't cold. Not even close.
Up here, we had a nice balmy day today, high of minus five. I won't see green things growing for a couple of months yet.
Pretty. Thanks for the photo.
Jill
Thing is, Ael, that whilst we don't typically have the snowy, below-freezing winters I remember in the Midwest or the Northeast, those winters were really relatively dry.
I still remember playing outside in minus-temps in Chicago in the Sixties and Seventies (way before technical fabrics and polartec...). If you bundled up you would stay pretty warm. Yeah, it was freaking cold, but it was dry cold.
Here the irking thing is that while it doesn't get "cold" - a typical February day low is 42 and the high is 44 - it's constantly freaking WET. It's damn deadly difficult to stay dry, and if you can't stay dry it's almost impossible to stay warm.
I've spent more truly miserable days outdoors here than anywhere else I've ever lived.
I hear ya Chief.
When I come home from the office, my wife often asks how the day went.
My kids always look at me funny when my response is "Well, at least my feet are dry".
A bad day in a climate controlled office is nothing compared to being outside with wet feet.
I'd have a hard time in the drear and wet. I read constantly about what a groovy town Portland is, and I must see it one day, but I know the winters would be a tough proving ground. I 'spect I'd put in lots of light box time for I need sunlight or my mood dims.
However, 'tis is a nice photo and reminds me of parts of Scotland.
That looks absolutely beautiful!! We don't usually get below 0 degrees in Australia, so our winters are just wet!
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