The Flickr Universitybridge Image Generatr

the 'main building' of Wroclaw University
along the Older, photo from the University Bridge
Wroclaw


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Pleasure craft heads west under the University Bridge in Portage Bay, Seattle

Seattle, 2024

It’s been stormy and rainy for over a week in Seattle. Yesterday, it began raining hard at the distal point of my first walk of the day and I got soaked walking the three miles home in a steady downpour. Fortunately I had a raincoat with me. The skies looked threatening all day and though I thought I had a two hour window to get a walk in, it turned out only to be an hour. I postponed the second walk due to rain. So it goes.

This is unusual in August, usually our driest period of the year. Not this year. I just got back from the same walk this afternoon. It rained steadily but lightly the first hour. It was dry the second half. So it goes, again.

This photograph from the University Bridge a few days ago shows exactly how the skies have been recently. I was impressed with this low bank of clouds looking loaded with water, hovering below the higher gray skies above. Almost like boxcars delivering rain.

It’s suppose to return to summer this week, and by midweek reach the 80s again with clear skies. Good. I don’t want summer to end this early.

#seattle #pacificnorthwest #pnw #americanlandscape #cloudscape #cloudsphere #adayinthelife #summer

University of Wrocław (main building / Uniwersytet Wrocławski - gmach główny / Hörsaalgebäude) and University Bridge✴ Wroclaw ✴ Poland

seen from Słodowa Island in the Oder

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Adelaide University Footbridge was built in 1937.

Denkmal mit Büchern auf der Schulter zur Erinnerung an das Oderhochwasser.

I walked a loop around Lake Union, mostly on the Cheshiahud Loop path, but deviating from it here and there to go see a little bit more. It was a nice, brisk, mostly clear day -- great for a photo walk.

I walked a loop around Lake Union, mostly on the Cheshiahud Loop path, but deviating from it here and there to go see a little bit more. It was a nice, brisk, mostly clear day -- great for a photo walk.

Seattle, 2022

Pretty much every day this October has been hazy and smoggy in the Seattle area. But this morning it was especially smoggy and smoky, most of it due to several nearby forest fires in the Cascades Range. The smell of smoke was strong and everywhere. We're used to it by now.

Undoubtedly, some of the smog is attributable to those everywhere leaf blowers the past two months which are blasting dirt and dust by the tens of thousands, if not more, every day in the region. I had someone blast me in the face with one yesterday as the user was blowing from a blindspot to the general public sidewalk. It took a good mile of walking to quit the sneezing and clean out the eyes. And this was not the first time getting blasted by these recently. It was just the most egregious blast.

But we're scheduled for some rain – maybe heavy rain – beginning Friday afternoon. That should dampen the forest fires and maybe extinguish the smoke. And, more locally, it should soak the leaf, lawn and gutter detritus so blowing them into piles will produce far less dust. I've been really enjoying the extended summer, but frankly I'm ready for a little rain myself. You're always somewhat reluctant to say this around Seattle, as once it starts this time of year, it may signal 4-5 months of damp, gray skies.

This morning, after running a series of errands I had to stop for the University Draw Bridge, maybe 1-2 miles from my home. The passing boat was a slow moving barge pushing a tall crane, something a little different from the usual sailboat mast. Being an enthusiastic and well-practiced – if somewhat pedestrian – photographer, I left the car in line and went to take a photograph of the smoky scene.