MorseBlog

Having arrived back in Sandpoint a little over a week ago, I find the weather much changed from when I left just before Christmas. At that time I drove down to Spokane in sub-freezing conditions but have returned in much warmer weather, often 10 degrees or more above freezing. This has been accompanied by light to moderate rain at times. The mounds of snow are shrinking slowly and the roads are almost entirely free of snow and ice.  Meteorologically, the conditions create a lot of gray skies and swirling masses of fog at all different altitudes. The warm most air (humidity near 100% most days) touches the deep snow fields and there is a ground fog that develops. Higher up great banks of fog eclipse the mountains and then dissipate into thin wisps and skeins of fog.  Overall the palette of colors remains restricted to grays and blues where sometimes a little sun makes its way through the clouds to add a small touch of warmth. It feels generally like black and white weather. I f...

Here on Lake Pend Oreille the lake is lowered at the end of summer by some ten feet. This being my first winter here I have become fascinated by the exposed shoreline. It also means that due to laws regarding access to waterways and lakes that one is able to walk and fish and hunt these low water margins even if the high water shoreline is private property.  Lower Sand Creek runs into the lake here at Sandpoint and the lake in summer backs up a bay over the traditional last reach of the creek. So now the bottom of the bay is exposed and the original creek meanders over a barren frozen mud bottom smelling still of estuary mud and rotting vegetation.  And so I thought I should explore this mudflat with the creek edge in ice. Here it is bordered by houses and business on one shore and highway 97 on the other side. There are also some bridge crossings as well.  It is busy and distinctly urban but also picturesque.  This afternoon did not seem promising with the thermomet...