Ah, today's quiet morning was the perfect time for a walk. For much of my walk the air was filled with fat snowflakes, coming down heavily enough to create very wet surfaces. I could hear the soft sound of snowflakes landing on my jacket.
Wet, not white...
Quiet, not silent...
It was a beautiful late fall afternoon with temperatures barely edging above 50 degrees, (mostly) blue skies, and howling winds. It was a day that demanded some outdoor wandering, a good day to head to Plum Island and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.
With the sun low in a sky wearing a few clouds, the changes in light were quick, bright to dark and back to bright as puffs of white floated past the sun. I was amazed at the very quick changes in the lighting of the landscape.
There were birds all over; floating in the water in the wetlands, sitting in trees, flying. If you look closely there are marks in the sky of this first photo, marks that I first thought were smudges on the lens. Ah, nope, that's not it - the smudges were birds flying.
Am I seeing things? Perhaps my eyes are playing tricks on me.
I pulled up the weather forecast to check out the upcoming weekend days. My eyes were drawn to Monday's forecast. I stared, sure that I was imagining things. Why? It showed a 20% chance of snow & sleet, with a high temperature of 51 degrees. That temperature and mode of precipitation just don't seem to belong together.
Monday: A slight chance of snow showers before 8am, then a slight chance of rain showers and sleet between 8am and 9am, then a slight chance of rain showers after 9am. Cloudy, with a high near 51. Chance of precipitation is 20%.Forecast courtesy of the National Weather Service, Boston, MA.
Sometime early this week a bird left a perfect print on a window (at work). We saw the print the next day, a clear head, body, and wings. There were feathers on the ground, but no bird. Here's hoping that a quick rest allowed a recovery and a return to the air.
Poor bird!
November evenings bring earlier sunset times; that means that my evening walks are now entirely in darkness. I've snapped into winter walking, convincing myself that it is entirely normal to head out in the dark, checking layers, switching to walking boots in wet weather, wearing bright blinking lights (always).
The beginning of the week brought skies covered in heavy clouds, dark. The last two nights were different. The moon lit the sky, sometimes surrounded by a halo, highlighting clouds against a dark background. Beauty in darkness...
A change of pace was the order of the day, a walk among buildings instead of my normal wanders in a park or along the coast. I headed to Lowell National Historical Park for a bit of walking among the mill buildings and canals.
Sun, blue skies, and unseasonably warm temperatures, a beauty of a day...
It was quite cool in the morning but as the hour edged toward noon the temperature climbed into the low 60s. It was a good day for a ride unfettered by heavy layers, a ride with a warm wind on my face, warmth in November.
There's a bit of a chill in the air, a good day for soup...
Home from my coastal wander, I decided it was a good time to conjure up a big pot of soup. Today's taste choice started with a red lentil and tomato base. Then vegetables jumped into the pot - carrots, corn, edamame, chick peas, portabello mushrooms, tofu too. Soup, loaded with vegetables, a good meal for tonight, lunches for this week, and some to pull from the freezer later.
The recipe? Today's concoction was a slight variation of Soup #2 in last December's Soup season blog post.
Yesterday was a lazy day, a day to stay close to home. Today? I thought it would be a good day for a walk on the beach, so I headed to the New Hampshire coast.
A tree dressed in bright orange leaves caught my eye just before I reached the Hampton exit on I-95. My usual habit at that exit is to jump onto route 101, taking it east to the ocean. That tree pulled at me so I took the first right off of 101, hoping... Ah, found it! Just before the road was about to head under I-95 I saw the tree just off to my left. I turned, parked, and played.
It was still a wonderful day for walking along the coast, listening to the ocean. It just wasn't a beach day.
300 AM EST SUN NOV 7 2010
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WESTERN MAINE AND SOUTHEASTERN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT
THE HIGH ASTRONOMICAL TIDE THIS MORNING /11.4 FT AT 1113 EST AT PORTLAND/ SHOULD NOT BE MUCH OF AN ISSUE...ALTHOUGH SEAS REMAIN HIGH...SO SOME MINOR SPLASHOVER OR BEACH EROSION COULD OCCUR. THE HIGH TIDE TONIGHT IS ONLY 9.9 FT...AND NO PROBLEMS ARE EXPECTED.
Forecast courtesy of the National Weather Service
Gray colored the sky for most of the day, patterned, but very gray. Late in the afternoon the sun broke through, highlighting the clouds in bright white, blue emerging.
Acadia National Park is beautiful in any season, but I have to admit that I feel incredibly lucky to have been there when the park was painted in autumn colors.
