Overcast, light winds. Temperatures in the 40s, minimal rain (at least where I was out and about).
I spent much of the day continuing to work on the new gallery set up for my website. I’m increasingly optimistic that it will better suit my needs. I think it will be result in less friction to publish, so hopefully make it easier for me to publish the posts I’ve writing.
I’ve written a photojournal entry every day for the last 3 or so years, and all but a few days going back to my Uncruise experience in 2019, nearily 6(!) years ago. In that time, I’ve managed to publish only a small fraction of them. This has led to 2300+ draft posts waiting for photos to be uploaded and to be marked as published. It’s hard to imagine anyone but me will ever read all of those, but it will be nice to have them there for reference.
I think/hope that with a more streamlined process for the photos, I can work through that backlog.
I did get out today. Kitty had arrived last night on the late flight, so I gave her a ride out the road to where she stayed. She needed a ride back into town this afternoon.
After dropping her off at the harbor, I checked the channel and Swan Lake. Nothing too compelling, but I did get my observations for the day.
Swan Lake is still mostly covered in ice. The openings all the shore have begun to get bigger, and the ice has thinned. Given the forecast, I suspect ice will be gone this weekend.
Yesterday I had noticed city workers cutting out part of the large willow tree that is down towards the radio station. Today it was completely cut back to the base. Over the years, that tree has been visited by some interesting birds, so it’s a little disappointing to see it gone.
It wasn’t the only thing missing, as they had gone along and cut back most of the alders and willows that were growing on the bank between the road and the lake. They do this periodically, though the large willow had clearly been spared previously (it wasn’t actually growing on the bank), so I’m curious what prompted them to cut it out completely this time. It will likely start growing back in the spring, but will be some years before it begins to approach the size it had been.
This evening we played ultimate. One of our summer regulars is headed back to school later in the week, so wanted to try and get one more game in. The rain held off and wind was managable, so we had a nice game, with as many as 5 on 5.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
