This North Coast Place: Interregnum

Places in the northeast and midwestern states have been having their late winter snow storms, but the weather is also a little confused here. It's been raining and blowing here for more than 12 hours straight. Normally we would call this a winter storm, which aren't abnormal in late February. Seasons are kind of indefinite here in the first place, at least along this coastal strip where the difference between summer and winter temperatures is on the order of ten degrees. At any given moment of the year, something here is blooming.

But things do seem a little unhinged. This storm started very early this morning with thunder. We were guests for dinner in a house overlooking Arcata our first year here (Sept. 1996) with a fine vantage point to view some lightning. Our host told us to enjoy it, because we wouldn't be seeing much of it here. He was right. If we saw lightning or heard thunder once a year, it was a lot. But a few years ago, that was no longer true. Thunder and lightning storms aren't frequent or even seasonal, as they were in my western Pennsylvania summers. But they are no longer rare, and they occur at any time of the year.

Earlier this week there was ample sun and spring-like warmth. Which came after a series of rain storms, our brief winter a bit late this year. So it's both spring and winter, and therefore neither. At least the rain held off until after the candlelight Vigil last evening commemorating Indian Island. That's always a beautiful occasion and I'm sorry I missed it this year.

I've noted that our hummingbirds are still here. The last time I saw two was about 10 days ago, but I saw one yesterday, and the day before. I'm not a good enough observer to say if it was the same one, but I would guess it wasn't. My recollection is that in past years I started not seeing them around Valentine's Day, when the feeder would be untouched, the red liquid slowly losing its color over the following months.

The total eclipse of the moon the other night was unaccountably visible here. At this time of year especially, but even in the summer, you learn not to get your hopes up about observing celestial phenomena because the nights are often cloudy or blanketed with high fog. The clouds and fog hover at the horizon even more often, but the big rising moon was clearly visible as the eclipse began: quite a sight. I was doing errands in Eureka, and the moon was dead ahead of me as I started driving home. Later I could see the eclipse ending over the house across the street. Pretty neat. I still remember the first eclipse I saw as a boy, peering out my parent's bedroom window, and the awe I felt trying to get my mind around what I was seeing.