Cloud Hands (original) (raw)
Weather in Vancouver, Washington
The City of Vancouver, in Clark County, Washington, USA, is situated on the north side of the Columbia River, directly across form the large City of Portland, Oregon, on the south side of the Columbia River. Portland and Vancouver have the same weather.
Karen and I live in the Orchards neighborhood, northeast of the City of Vancouver, in Clark County, about 7 miles north of the Columbia River along the 205 Freeway.
We can see both Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens from our area.
Average Annual Precipitation: 43.55 Inches (Some sources say 39 Inches)
Number of Days Per Year with a Trace or More of Precipitation: 151
Number of Cloudy Days: 229
Vancouver, Washington, USA, Zip Code: 98662
Hardiness Zone: Zone 8a: 10F to 15F
Average First Frost: October 21 - 31
Average Last Frost: April 1 - 10
Koppen-Geiger Climate Zone: Csb - Warm-Summer Mediterranean Climate
Ecoregion: 3a - Portland Vancouver Basin
Palmer Drought Index: Extremely Moist
Average Annual Rainfall: 43.55 inches
Heat Zone Days: Rare Over 86F
Elevation: 171 feet above the Pacific Ocean
General Geography:
The Pacific Ocean and Astoria, Oregon, is 100 miles to the West from Vancouver, along the Columbia River. The south side of the City of Vancouver is the Columbia River, and across the river is Portland, Oregon. The Cascade range and Columbia Gorge is to the East. Looking north:165 miles to Seattle, 307 miles to Vancouver, Canada; 105 miles to Olympia, and 45 miles to Mt. St. Helens.
January Average: 33F low, 46F high, 6" Rain
February Average: 35F low, 50F high, 4.99" Rain
March Average: 37F low, 56F high, 4.38" Rain
April Average: 40F low, 60F high, 3.28" Rain
May Average: 45F low, 67F high, 2.67" Rain
June Average: 50F low, 72F high, 1.88" Rain
July Average: 53F low, 79F high, .8" Rain
August Average: 57F low, 82F high, .5" Rain
September Average: 49F low, 75F high, 1.91" Rain
October Average: 42F low, 64F high, 3.41" Rain
November Average: 38F low, 52F high, 6.49" Rain
December Average: 34F low, 46F high, 6.68" Rain
The Weather of the Pacific Northwest. By Cliff Mass. University of Washington Press, 2021, 299 pages, Second Edition. FVRL. Excellent overview, lots of photographs, for the lay reader but very thorough.
Rains All the Time: A Connoisseur's History of Weather in the Pacific Northwest. By David Laskin. 1997, 215 pages.
Backyard Birds
Karen Garofalo has taken many fine photographs of the many kinds of birds that visit our backyard bird feeders and bird bath.
We took care of our daughter's two
brown dogs for a week.
The Colors of November
The autumn colors are very dramatic in Vancouver, Clark County, Washington. The four maples in our back yard are quite colorful at present.
"Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We'll smell smoke then, and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure."
- Thomas Wolfe
"Lo! sweeten’d with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All its allotted length of days
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil."
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Lotus-Eaters"
I walk with my dog, Bruno, for 40 to 60 minutes in our neighborhood. Here are a few photographs of our walking environment.
Gardening in Vancouver, Washington
Gardening Information
Understanding your gardening environment is essential to success. What are the climate conditions in your area during a year's cycle? What is the soil like?
What kinds of plants are grown successfully in your area? What nurseries are nearby.
Vancouver, Washington, USA, Zip Code: 98662
Hardiness Zone: Zone 8a: 10F to 15F
Average First Frost: October 21 - 31
Average Last Frost: April 1 - 10
Koppen-Geiger Climate Zone: Csb - Warm-Summer Mediterranean Climate
Ecoregion: 3a - Portland Vancouver Basin
Palmer Drought Index: Extremely Moist
Average Annual Rainfall: 43.55 inches
Heat Zone Days: Rare Over 86F
Elevation: 171 feet above the Pacific Ocean
Soil:
Nurseries: Yard and Garden, Shorty's, Tsugawa in Woodland, Lowe's and Home Depot.
General Geography:
The Pacific Ocean and Astoria, Oregon, is 100 miles to the West from Vancouver.
The south side of the City of Vancouver is the Columbia River, and across the river is Portland, Oregon. The Cascade range and Columbia Gorge is to the East. Looking north: 165 miles to Seattle, 494 miles to Vancouver, Canada; 105 miles to Olympia, and 45 miles to Mt. St. Helens.
January Average: 33F low, 46F high, 6" Rain
February Average: 35F low, 50F high, 4.99" Rain
March Average: 37F low, 56F high, 4.38" Rain
April Average: 40F low, 60F high, 3.28" Rain
May Average: 45F low, 67F high, 2.67" Rain
June Average: 50F low, 72F high, 1.88" Rain
July Average: 53F low, 79F high, .8" Rain
August Average: 57F low, 82F high, .5" Rain
September Average: 49F low, 75F high, 1.91" Rain
October Average: 42F low, 64F high, 3.41" Rain
November Average: 38F low, 52F high, 6.49" Rain
December Average: 34F low, 46F high, 6.68" Rain
Falling Down
I was working in my front yard yesterday. The whole west side of our yard slopes down to the street. Because the area is not flat, we must be very careful when working there in our vegetable garden so that we don't fall.
Yesterday, I turned and misjudged the curb edge at the street, stumbled, lost my balance, and fell hard on the street asphalt. Injured my right hip, right knee, left leg inside abductor, and right elbow. The right knee was injured the most. Bruises and scrapes in a number of areas.
I iced the knee and elbow. I put antiseptic cream on the abrasions. Rested! Complained to myself! Pissed off about falling. Mumbling Cussing ... for little while.
I fell once in the July of 2016 at Red Bluff. I feel once in December 2016 my daughters Alicia's home in Vancouver. Both times the injuries were painful and serious. I consulted with an orthopedic doctor. I did physical therapy on my left kneecap, right knee, and right hip. Now, I fell again in June of 2023.
I guess I should not complain. At the age of 77 many folks get out of balance sometimes, stumble, or lose their balance temporarily. Three falls in 25 years ... what am I complaining about.
Still, getting out of balance and falling and hurting myself really pisses me off. Carelessness? Physical Health? Dangerous area for working? Clumsiness? Balance Isses?
I do think my practices of Tai Chi Chuan, Qigong, and Walking do actually help me maintain better balance.
So, for now, REST, and ICE, and Gentle Movements. Slow Down. Be More Careful. Watch my Step! Be careful in dangerous areas were stumbling or falling is a possible hazard. Be Patient. Stop complaining and move on!
Built from Broken. A Science-Based Guide to Healing Painful Joints, Preventing Injuries, and Rebuilding Your Body. By Scott Hogan. Salt Wrap, 2021, index, reference, appendices, 341 pages. VSCL, Paperback.
Planting Our Front Yard Vegetable Garden
Karen and I have maintained a summer vegetable garden for 50 years. Here are some photos of our current vegetable garden in Vancouver, Washington. It is located on the west side of our home, in the front yard, in a location with full sun.
We place seedlings and seeds into the veggie garden on May 1st in Vancouver.
Plenty of space for a home garden
Lots of Onions coming along
Note: These beds were garbage compost bins
a few years ago.
No seeds up yet - just seedlings
Early May - Front of House
We had a much larger vegetable
garden in Red Bluff, CA, from
1998-2017.
We also planted over 100 fruit trees
on the 5 acres of land.
More Weeding Work to be Done on Corner
Morning Gardening Projects
Summertime afternoon temperatures are now in the 80F - 93F range. I work outdoors on garden projects starting at 6:30 am. I rest indoors in the afternoon and evenings.
July Gardening: Quotes, Notes, Lore and Chores
"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world."
- Ada Louise Huxtable
I worked on the area by our mailbox at the southeast edge of our suburban lot. I weeded, planted more lavender, and placed wood bark chips on the area under the crepe myrtle tree. My neighbor, Dick, keeps a very nice front yard and garden.
I worked on the area to the garden bed area immediately to the west of our front door. I still have work to do to complete this morning garden project.
"Answer July—
Where is the Bee—
Where is the Blush—
Where is the Hay?
Ah, said July—
Where is the Seed—
Where is the Bud—
Where is the May—
Answer Thee—Me—"
- Emily Dickinson, Answer July
Backyard Details
All photographs, from yesterday and today,
were taken by Karen Garofalo in 2021
at our home in Vancouver, Washington.
"We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice, or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, and unique."
- Benjamin Jowett
"Science and psychoanalysis apart, the most profound development in thought since Nietzsche, as far as we are concerned, is the phenomenological approach to the world. Mallarmé sought "words without wrinkles," Baudelaire cherished his minutes heureuses and Valéry his "small worlds of order," as we have seen: Checkhov concentrated on the "concrete individual" and preferred "small scale and practical answers," Gide though the "systematizing is denaturing, distorting and impoverishing." For Oliver Wendell Holmes, "all the pleasure of life is in general ideas, but all the use of life is in specific solutions." Wallace Stevens considered that we are "better satisfied in particulars." Thomas Nagel put it in this way: "Particulars things can have a noncompetitive completeness which is transparent to all aspects of the self. This also helps to explain what the experience of great beauty tends to unify the self: the object engages us immediately and totally in a way that makes distinctions among points of view irrelevant." Or, as Robert Nozick, who counseled us to make ourselves "vehicles" for beauty, said: "this is what poets and artists bring us―the immense and unsuspected reality of a small thing. Everything has its own patient entityhood." George Levine call for "a profound attention to the details of this world."
- Peter Watson, "The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God," p.536
"The idea of one overbearing truth is exhausted."
- Thomas Mann, translated by James Wood
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
- Albert Einstein
"To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things."
- Zen Master Dogen
"The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God."
- Benedict De Spinoza
"God is in the details."
- Mies Van Der Rohe
"After appreciating and understanding thousands of the details, a common variety God is really superfluous."
- Mike Garofalo
"Caress the detail, the divine detail."
- Vladimir Nabokov
"Details are all there are."
- Maezumi Roshi
"We think in generalities, but we live in details."
- W.H. Auden
Snowing in April
This week, day after day, cloudy, overcast, gray, and raining. Today it snowed all morning.
Bundling Up in December
The December weather patterns are now upon us in Vancouver, Washington. The mid-morning temperature today in Vancouver is 40F, with light intermittent rain.
It was also cold and raining in December to February in Red Bluff, California.
December Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore, Gardening Chores
We tried to reduce electrical and propane bills in Red Bluff, and electrical bills in Vancouver, by keeping the indoor temperature low. We don't heat much at night.
We dress accordingly to stay comfortable indoors. Layered clothing, hat, scarf, and sometimes gloves are often used indoors.
When reading, I bundle up with blankets or afghans.
Here I am in 2012, in my study, bundled up in December.
Tsugawa's Nursery, Woodland, Washington
Karen and I enjoy browsing and shopping at the Tsugawa Nursery in Woodland, Clark County, Washington. It is a large and well stocked nursery. They have a good selection of bonsai and pots, maples, water garden supplies, tools, and plants, plants, plants.
I don't have a hypertext notebook/webpage with information and quotes about shopping for plants, plant collecting, local and area nurseries, browsing commercial gardens and private and public horticultural institutions, research sites, and gardens.
Photos of our Landscaping Projects at Our Home and Property,
Red Bluff, California, Tehama County, 1998-2017.
Photos of our Landscaping Projects at Our Home and Property,
Vancouver, Clark County, Washington, 2017-2021
Here is a photo of me and a Nandidia bamboo like plant on a cart
from a past Covid Winter trip to Tsugawa's.
Summer Activities: Reading, Gardening, Celebrations, Travel
Every month, I browse, fast read, or read ten to twenty books, and carefully read or study two or three books on the following subjects: the history of ideas, intellectual history, zeitgeist studies, philosophy of history, biographies.
Intellectual History - My hypertext notebook
This month, for example:
Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World, 1926.
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, 4 Volumes. Philip P. Wiener, Editor in Chief. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968, 1973. For example, Volume 1: 677 pages, Contains: Abstraction in the Formation of Concepts to Design Argument. An outstanding resource for under $70.00 for the four volume paperback set. VSCL.
I am retired, so I am like a college student again. I use libraries and bookstores to acquire new and used titles, and reread books books in my home library. I read articles on the Internet and this counts for six books.
Currently, I am reading books and articles related to the history of thinking about time, processes, the meaning of the future, process theology, ecology, feelings of duration, Whitehead, Hartshorn, Cobb.
Getting ready for Summer Solstice Celebrations, and busy with gardening at home. Our California weather permitted vegetable gardening all year, with "summer veggies" from May to October. The Solstice (June 21st) is one kind of a "Mid-Summer" celebration of maximum Sun during the day, fertility, productivity of agriculture, gratitude for blessings from the Earth, exuberance, zest ...
Our Summer 2021 travel adventures include a trip to cabins and boating on Silver Lake, Fourth of July fun, a wedding in Spokane, river boat trips, Olympic National Park (Forks, La Push), and mid-summer visits to the Pacific Coast. Canada is still closed due to pandemic flu rules, so our trip to British Columbia (300 miles north) will wait till later.
Lately ... Misc.
Lately, we have been busy with Springtime gardening projects, reading, ordinary household chores making a house a dwelling, exercise, playing.
I've been spending a lot of time reading about time, process philosophy, and intellectual history (1700-). Today, I'm reading Time and Free Will (1910, English) by Henri Bergson.
I have read books and thought about the subjects of ["process philosophy" (time, history, chronology, the present, seasons, experiences, aging, actions, viewpoints/systems, the future, causality, options, bodily motions, etc.)] since my early teenage years. I majored in Philosophy at California State University at Los Angeles, and was awarded a B. A. in 1967; and, I worked at the City of Commerce Library from 1963-1969. I keep a hypertext notebook on process philosophy and interrelated topics.
Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead. By C. Robert Mesle. Templeton Press, 2008, index, suggested reading, 123 pages. An introductory and supportive guide and introduction to a process philosopher's viewpoints. One appeal in support of various process theories/systems/suggestions is our own living experience as organic beings, living human beings, and our experiences in and of temporal phenomena, volitions, the ongoing flow of time itself, consciousness of, thinking. I enjoyed reading this book and was positively influenced by Mesle's style and presentation. VSCL.
My right shoulder has damaged cartilage and tendons from arthritic growths and 75 years of usage. The damage causes low grade pain, weakness, and restricted range of movement in my right arm. Also, I have tendonitis in my right bicep from an injury in March. Since I am right handed, I have had to learn to use my left arm and left hand more. These problems are ongoing, increasing, and require many adjustments to my daily routine to minimize pain and get by with daily tasks. The past two weeks I have rested my arm a lot to assist with healing and recovery. Sitting and reading are two ways [two sufficient causes?] of resting your right arm and shoulder.
Our west side sunny garden in Vancouver in May
My backyard view from my sitting chair.
My trusty electric screwdriver ... no more hammering.
Afternoon nap after gardening work.
Bruno, our dog, follows me at lot.
Taijiquan, Archery, Games, Reading, Smoking, Drinking Area
The northeast side of our yard.
Snowing in Vancouver
It has been snowing since Thursday (2/11). There is now 10 inches of snow in our area. Snow will continue until Monday. This is the most snow we have ever seen around any of our homes.
Our west side garden covered in snow.
This picture was taken on 2/12
The west side garden on 2/9.