The rains came with torrents and downpours all night and yesterday... mist is now a regular in the morning hillside trees. The dry streambeds are starting to gurgle and sputter... water is brown. The hillsides that are predominatly maple ('bigleaf maple' is indigenous here in Portland) have largely turned yellow in two days... The cottonwoods that line the Willamatte and the Columbia, are still dark healthy green, and ther rivers themselves are running as low as they are going to get... The sailboat race sunday on the lower Columbia was well feuled, About 20 knots, steady.

I haven't been able to see the mountains lately... the snowline is a bit of a mystery... Maple seeds are flying like little propellers, and whole clusters are being blown free, to pile on the ground...
It doesn't just feel like autumn here now, it is fall. My very favorite time of the year. It is time to watch "Old Man And the Sea". Cheers, and good thoughts, ttr