Sunday Photo(s)

Yesterday, winter arrived in the Puget Sound region. You know it's here, because all of a sudden it's a bone-chilling cold outside. Yes, it's still almost a month until the winter solstice, the official start of winter, but in this part of the world, the really bad winter weather usually begins around Thanksgiving (late November for you foreign readers) and Valentines Day (mid-February). Yes, we sometimes have cold snaps and winter storms through March, but as we saw last year, spring usually starts before the vernal equinox, too. I suspect that's because this far north, there is a substantial difference between the length of the day in winter versus summer. Our temperatures tend to vary with the Sun a little more than most places in the U.S.

That means that fall here is usually rather brief. It comes between the last warm days of summer, which are usually in early October, and the middle of November. These photos were taken at Federal Way, Washington's Celebration Park toward the end of that time.

This first photo is a sort of reverse-angle view of this photo from last fall:

Image credit: All photos by Cujo359


Here's a nice contrast between the evergreen trees and the deciduous:

I'm not sure what kind of trees these are. Lockwood identified similar trees as being plum trees, and I suspect that's true here, too. Here's a closeup of their leaves:

Whatever they are, they turn from yellow to orange and then red in a couple of weeks. It makes for some interesting photographs if you get out on the right day:

Speaking of Lockwood, who did his best to be a geological spirit guide on a trip through Oregon this summer, he mentioned in that link above that he feels the need for some tie to geology in his photos. So, here you go, dude:

There's a rock for you. As I understand it, it's a kind of big, explody rock that's called a volcano. And you thought I wasn't paying attention ;).

That's Mt. Rainier, of course. It's not clear from this photo, but this is actually about the best time to see it around here. It's mid-afternoon, and the western face of the mountain is lit up beautifully. Unfortunately, most digital cameras don't seem to do well at contrasting white with pale blue. At least, that's true when the subject in question is back lit, which it's going to be when it's to the south this time of year. I wish the folks who make the things would work on that.

Meanwhile, as always, click on the photos to enlarge. Have a good Sunday.