I am considerably less than 100 miles away from the worst of it, so totally with you on the air quality. Skies look like they are right out of Fallout 3. Heard some rain was in the forecast for Tuesday, maybe even Monday. Here’s hoping.
To give a sense of scale for those not familiar with US geography, the time to drive between Portland near the top of the picture and Eugene down by the bottom is approximately 2 hours.
Good luck and stay safe. Here’s hoping you have good air filtration where you are.
Here you can see the purple mountains rising majestically from the… Wait, where did they go?
Smoke’s real thick here, near Vancouver Canada.
Bleh. I’m like, 10 feet from the mountains in Boise, and it’s just haze for days. Normally, during fire season, you can head North and get above the smoke in a couple hours, but this year North is on fire, too.
We recently had the luxury of spending a few days an hour away from home in the Black Forest. This is a rather typical sight:
We call this cultured or cultivated landscape. A bit further south is the National Park which is an attempt to return a bit of wild nature to the Black Forest. Anyway, it’s relaxing and hiking / walking paths are everywhere. And:
I have no idea if these are common outside of Germany. They are called “Kneipp Baths” (after this guy) and the water is really cold and you are supposed to walk through it lifting the foot out with each step. By the time I finish one round, I am usually jumping out of the water as fast as I can. Here I didn’t make it beyond the first round…
Only seen them in two spas. One in my homeland in Gran Canaria and one in the UK. I don’t know it that makes it common, though.
.Beautiful pics from the Black Forest, the more I see about it, the more I want to go visit. (And yes, the “gateau” adds to it too)
Here, we only have these:
Hot spring footbaths.
(We do have cold baths next to hot spring baths too, but not specifically for feet)
For me this has been “next door” all my life. To see how it might be special, I need to put on my photographer’s hat and try to view it through the eyes of someone else. I love walking around familiar places pretending I am seeing them for the first time.
I live in an area full with beautiful places and sights that fade into “normality” for someone who has been around them for decades. The running joke around town is that one big travel page used to say “nothing to see here”, usually the joke is immediately followed by an affirmation how much people like living here and at the same time one of the best things about living here is also how quickly you can get away from it: Frankfurt (Airport) is close, the Alps are within reach, France is just a hop over the Rhine etc…
PS: the gateau is overrated 
it’s mostly whipped cream, a bit of chocolate sponge and you kind of have to like cherries. Much better to use the cherries to make Schwarzwälderkirschwasser–which is the only form I’ll have cherries: fermented and distilled.
The view out of my front window on Christmas morning…
Since then, it has all melted… and then re-accumulated more or less to the same depth (about 15-20cm in most places).
I truly can’t remember the last time I saw proper snow on Christmas. And now I live down on the south coast, I don’t imagine I ever will again!
This was yesterday at the local park. No snow in sight. The only snow of the year was the one day I had to drive somewhere early in the dark.
My parents had some heavy snow the day I was due to drive back home cross country. Fortunately the only tricky bit ended up being getting off their street 
Funny enough I had single figures on my car temperature this morning, and it is supposed to be summer, brrrr. Coldest December since I have been to NZ, this southerly feels really chilly.
One year while I lived in Canberra it snowed on Christmas Day in Thredbo.
Thing is, I am 5 mins away from the warmest city in the country, Hastings.
But that must have been quite something.
When i was in Melbourne, we had 30+C on New Years Eve. Snowed on New Years Day. So bizarre
“If you don’t like the climate in Melbourne, wait an hour.”
