Fall diversions...

Pacific Standard Time is back again, with early light and early darkness changing the daily routine of someone, who experiences life in step with free run chickens (the ones which don't enjoy perpetual artificial light in their cages). That means up and pecking with the first light, and off to the coop with the last of it.

In between, one deals with autumnal overcast skies, a few storms travelling south from Alaska, and of course our emblematic North West Pacific Rain.

I check the temperatures of Buenos Aires (between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius) and count down the days to fly from clammy northern climes to humid southern ones.

So - one heads towards the box of pencils and brushes....

THE CAT







The neighbours wanted their mini Bengal Tiger captured by something other than photographs. This feline is the epitome of domestication gone slightly awry. She loves her 'handlers', the couple who delude themselves and think they own this savage little creature.
However, if anyone else enters her territory (the house, but not the off limits garden) she retreats at the speed of lighting into some inaccessible crack behind, between, under the most unusual hiding place. Ergo - hard to meet this girl 'in person', impossible to catch her on camera, even if one of the owners attempts to hold her for that purpose....determined clawing, screaming, struggling results in the same hiding manoeuvre within a few seconds.

This is one attempt to sketch her from a photograph that caught her in one of her moments of disapproval....

From home to nature's backyard. Down at Gulfstream River, the Chum Salmon are defying all predictions of no-shows and jump, struggle, swim their way upstream in search of their gravelly place of origin. There they court each other, fight each other, mate and procreate, and protect their precious eggs from predators (like the guys above) wait for their skins to flake off, and die a slow death.

Here they are all lined up, heads upstream, tails downstream, progressing slowly up current until they have reached the very spot where their own parents have placed them atop clean gravel about four years ago.



Salmon couples circle over 'their' spot, wiggle their fins to prepare a smooth gravel hollow, which they defend vigorously. After the mating they are so exhausted, that they just seem to give up, flop a little, and then literally turn belly up and fall to pieces.

The clean up crew anticipates the rich banquet. For appetizers: fish eyes. Then a short interval to let the leathery skin marinate a little, and one goes for the main treat.

Here is the heavy clean up equipment, not as numerous as our winged friends. However, these fellow don't worry about how far the fish carcass has decayed, they just swallow the whole thing in one piece.

The whole show takes place under the canopy of ancient cedars, who have witnessed a few salmon runs in their lives. Traces of salmon, which made their way through gull droppings into the surrounding earth and from there into the trees, are found in the oldest growth rings of these giants of the forest. Recycling and composting are not exactly a new invention.

Keep the bears at bay! School kids are getting a hands on biology lesson made palatable with a little picnicking on the river side.