Low flow

Waders

The local paper had a headline Friday that read “Area rivers at historic low flows.”

Though our rainfall last winter was almost normal rainfall the snowfall in our mountains was pitifully meager – 7 percent of average. And that snowpack feeds the regional rivers.

River flows are low and warm and mortality rates are high for our spawning salmon. Two Olympic Peninsula rivers, the Elwah and Calawah, were measured at their lowest flow rate for the month of June in 117 years. All of our rivers are now flowing at rates more typical of late summer or early autumn.

Theme Day: Bicycle

Bicycle

“Bicycles,” the City Daily Photo theme for August, takes me to our local bicycle race, “Tour de Dung” (as in Dungeness, the region where the race is held each March). The cyclists are very fast and often colorful.

Click here to see other interpretations of today’s theme from photo bloggers around the world.

We’re doomed

Breadmaker

My mother never met a kitchen appliance she didn’t want or eventually own. I’d largely escaped this affliction but lately I’m not so sure. Case in point: the bread maker, above. I was innocently browsing a garage sale recently. It spoke to me. I didn’t even discuss it with DH. It was coming home with us, period.

Bread

The first couple of loaves were okay. Then I landed on a recipe for Irish soda bread. It’s not traditional, classic soda bread but it’s fine in its own right. I made the fourth loaf yesterday. Now we’re having our bread knife sharpened and DH is constructing a bread cutting jig. There’s no turning back.

Swarm

David Eisenhour 1

Another exhibit at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art that I rather liked was “Swarm” by David Eisenhour. Described as bronze and mixed media jellyfish, the work hangs and rotates, catching natural light from the Museum’s two story windows.

David Eisenhour 2

Can you make out the cherubic faces in this one?

David Eisenhour 3

All the jellyfish were interesting. Some were easier than others to catch as they revolved.