Insanity plea

The last two weeks were self-induced crazy. I felt it a great time to step up with some new gear, only to scramble and derange my kit in surprising ways before the proverbial dust finally settled.

It began with the idea that I could swap e-m1.ii for a D610 and get a pinch of money back. I did that quickly, well before thinking.

While doing that I acquired an Olympus E-3 to use with my three  four:thirds lenses. I did what? Three lenses?!? Hm, that was silly.

Oh yeah, and a new gx1 body stole my wallet briefly and ordered itself. Who could resist having a brand-new one of those? 

Chaos rules!

I then spent a weekend of active recrimination and swift action. I offered my hasty e-3 kit and gx1 and gx7 online, hardly caring which ones left or when. To my surprise the e-3 sold with two 4:3 lenses and the gx1 nearly sold. I was able to send that back to the seller instead, and sent a note about the D610 to the dealer, intending to get the em1.ii back but letting them keep the Lumix 20mm.

The day that camera reached the dealer an em5.ii showed up on their site for sale/trade! In the end (and after some quick research) I decided on the silver eM5b, battery grip and a spare Olympus battery instead, yielding more cash back than the D610 deal or the em1 return would provide.

Edit - never mind!

Soon after my posting the above, an eM1 Classic went up for an irresistible price. Worked hard and given a new shutter, it's ready to keep working for a new owner. The sensor is a dxo match for the eM5ii, tip not flip screen, and a better grip without additional accessories. Hm, sounds like my kind of camera!

April showers?

 It's been a strange April. A dry week, three damp days then over 10 days of warmth and hardly a cloud. Typical April weather returns late this week, and an inch of rain should soak in this weekend. It's been hard on new plants as I was late breaking out the hose.. at least I knew where to look for it! 

The dry times did allow me to refine the stone pathway, do some weeding and remove most of the fallen tree from the neighbor's yard. Once the weed monster is fully assembled, the blackberry vines will find themselves confined to a smaller area. They definitely ambushed me a few times during the tree removal but the scars have mostly healed.

April ended at about 30% of normal, and driest on record in Portland.

winter fades, spring leaps forward

We're seeing slushy rain this morning, just as forecast. Too warm to accumulate, and sunshine punctures the clouds at times - still, it's a cool day and frost is shown for tonight. This appears to be the last gasp of wintry weather though, with 70° expected in lower valleys and mid-60s here on the hill-top.

We assembled a standalone porch swing and gave it a test yesterday, as the clouds thickened and the cooler air began to pour in. Just a few days early, but it's ready for the fine weather!

I've also been reassembling the green-stone walkway that meanders past the flowers and up to the deck. Still working on that, but it's looking nice with its fresh mounds and solar lamps.

returning to near normal

 That could be taken many ways - but I have just two to share.

• I received injection #1 of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine yesterday. Followup shot in three weeks.
• And the excuse for this post - an well-liked camera from my past returns!

I wasn't looking for any specific item, just going over Oly and Lumix µ43 gear - and a GX7 came up at a decent price. Looking a little more I found an EX-condition copy in black at a reseller. I got quotes from them on the Sony stuff that came within $100 of the GX7 price, so I made the deal and sent away a box of stuff. 

The Nex-5τ  worked fine and has a higher rated sensor, but the gx7 looks better, feels sturdier - and most importantly, I already know it really well.

I like its useful features like AF in very low light (even on stars, which the eM1.ii isn't great at), very nice FHD video, a tilting touchscreen that I already comprehend, two dials in traditional locations. Touch-AE, nearly unique tilt EVF. Even basic internal stabilization, Lumix' first body with that feature!

It's comforting to dump gear in search of the 'right' camera and end up essentially at the place where you started, with minimal waste of funds along the way!

Edit - the dealing aftershocks continued for a few more days. An Oly 9mm fisheye, Lumix 35-100mm (the slow+small one) & Pentax-M 135/3.5 are racing the gx7 to our doorstep. With that I must shut the door and wedge it shut for a while. Stop sending me gear, people!!

Fun with photos (Mars edition)

 I spent about an hour puzzling out the Perseverance Rover's location tonight. News reports gave me enough data.. but on my phone it took a bit of sleuthing and several MRO magnifications to get it right!

La Niña takes the lead

 It's been an up-and-down season for snowpack in our area, but the late-season burst that is common in La Niña winters has shown up. Our 15" snowfall is down to a few foot-size lumps, but in the mountains it's been less prone to melting!

All my happy places are doing well, other than the Sierra Nevada. Still time to work that out too, but it's lagging in most southern basins. Nice to see western Wyoming doing well; the Wind River Range is as special to me (and the same distance away!) as the Sierra, and that timberline granite is such a cool place to  be..

Anyway - the state of Washington is comfortably white in the high country, and Oregon is just around average in the Cascades. Nothing drastic looks imminent in the summer as far as drought; wildfires have become something else entirely and are independent of snowpack.

Hopefully this summer will prove to be very unlike that last, when Covid-19 destroyed all plans and travel was frowned upon. 

Let us all hope for a different summer.

- and something it was!

 The storms that were forecast last week looked like Snobliteration! headlines would be appropriate. It didn't quite get to that, but it was pretty extreme - and we (barely) set a new accumulation record. Feet of snow and/or temperatures in the low teens seemed to be in the cards - but even as the storm knocked on our door the models were not in full agreement. The cold air was flooding through the gorge and a storm from the SW was plenty wet, but which would reach our area first, and would the southerly storm winds win the day?

It all began early on 2/11 with a trace on the ground when we woke, maybe a flake or two above 1/4 inch. By day's end we were a bit over three inches on the ground.. but at 35° nearly all day a lot of potential was wasted. This was not expected to be the Big Day, but it was a start. So for this day the SW nature of the storm was winning out at our place.

Awakening on the 12th we found 6½" on our measuring-stick on the deck, which being porous held more snow than most other areas. By day's end we had finally reached freezing, and small but persistent flakes brought us to just under a foot of snow. Winds were light and consistently from the east, so the snowdrift against our measuring-stick made the measurement challenging!

Saturday the 13th again found a decent amount of overnight snow, and we had 14½" on the ground, which matched our deepest record here on the hill-top. More flakes added up to 15" on the deck - and since previous measurements came from there, it was a new record. Our driveway stood at 13 inches and no drifts. The Fiat was a complete snow lump with only the mirrors showing (the radio antenna was lost the previous day). This was in fact the Big Day, with changeover to ..something else expected on Sunday. The Willamette Valley was already shifting to ice as the gorge winds weakened, and it was bad - 3/4 inch and more was wrecking trees and power lines. Portland was a mixed bag but the change was coming soon.

Sunday we awoke to just under 15½ inches on the deck (I wrote down 15.3"). Epectations was for another 1-2 inches, but we turned out to be in a dry slot as moisture chose to damage Oregon instead. We had drizzle, which was not falling hard enough to pull down cooler air from above; by day's end we were back to 13" and reached 40° for a bit. Ice continued south of us, but the event was ending here. The forecast for icing was again overstated, as we've never had freezing rain here. The drizzle did freeze on the snow and we got a few 8-inch icicles, but no clear coatings on any surfaces.

I'm writing this up on Thu 2/18, and we still have about 5 inches on the ground. I got the Fiat down the hill but it hasn't made it back up the driveway yet. I just scraped more snow out of the way, so I expect it will be up here again this evening. Update: WRONG

Photos coming, inevitably!