As many of you probably know, British Columbia-- just to the north of us, here in Washington state-- has recently been ravaged by wildfires on a scale not seen for over 50 years. More than 25,000 square miles-- 65,000 square kilometers-- of forestland has been destroyed. As a point of reference, that's almost as much as the entire country of Ireland!
4pm sun on a "clear" day, last week
Because the the prolonged drought conditions, the fires have been very hard to get under control... and it seems that as soon as one burns itself out, another starts up.
Anyway, for the last few weeks, large plumes of smoke have been drifting south, sometimes covering the entire state of Washington.
Last week, Mrs. Denmarkguy and I would sit out on the back porch with our afternoon coffee... and watch the sun-- on a "clear" day-- completely disappear from view into a brown haze, about two hours before "official" sunset.
We've also both felt a slight throat tickle for a while... like almost-having-a-cold.
So Last Night it Rained!
At about 9:30pm last night-- for the first time in 67 days-- a few raindrops started falling, gradually giving way to several hours of light but steady rain. This morning, there was still a bit of drizzle.
The view today.. a little hazy, but blue; and we can see the mountains
Now the sun is out... from a clear blue sky, with white clouds scattered about... and we can actually see the mountains, for the first time in weeks.
It wasn't much rain, but just enough to knock the smoke and the tiny ask particulate out of the air.
Above all, we realized that we could breathe clean air again... and hence this moment of gratitude.
We don't realize how much we take for grated to have clean clear air... until we no longer have it.
So... remember to be grateful for what you HAVE, that you may be taking for granted!
How about YOU? What are you grateful for, today? What are some of the "small things" in life you perhaps take for granted... till they are sometimes missing? When was the last time you took a moment to be thankful for "what is?" If it has been a while... why not take a moment, RIGHT NOW? Leave a comment-- share your experiences and feedback-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170813 13:43 PDT
We definitely do all need a little reminding of the fundamental things we take for granted from time to time and the quality of the air we breathe is obviously one of the most so. The area of land you mention is staggering and I can't imagine what a sight that must be to witness in the flesh. I hope it hasn't destroyed too much in the way of homes and businesses and obviously I hope no-one has lost their life or been injured but of course there will be the unseen damage done to the wildlife and animals in the area affected, which is devastating also. :)
I'm glad things are looking a little clearer for yourself and Mrs. Denmark, I hope it persists. We have some excess rain here in Scotland if you need it. :)
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This part of the world is normally known for being super damp and rainy, but this summer suddenly got incredibly dry. Normally we have a lot of sun, but we get a few showers... 67 days without a drop here; nearby "rainy Seattle" broke a 55-day dry spell yesterday. Parts of British Columbia have it even worse.
Many of the fires are burning in remote mountain areas with few people... but that also makes them super hard to get to and put out. If I remember correctly, at last count they have had over 900 individual fires. As far as I know, there have been no casualties, but at one point 40,000 people were evacuated from populated areas.
As a sense of scale... BC is very sparsely populated... only 1.9 million people live outside the primary metro areas of Vancouver and Victoria... in an area larger than the UK and France combined.
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I'm very glad to hear there are no casualties and hope things can get back to normal and stay that way.
I like the sound of that! :)
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I'm up in Bellingham and can definitely say that I am so appreciative for the fresh air. The smoke has just been intolerable.
Definitely made me realize how much I take it for granted most of the time.
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I live in the Okanagan in British Columbia. Today the smoke has risen.. We can breath, the sky is blue :) here is a recent pic I posted from where I live.
Post
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Wow... lot of smoky activity around you, then-- if you're in the valley, it must really get socked in.
Fresh air is definitely a good thing.
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amazing...I thought that last winter was especially cold and rainy in BC.
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Totally was... long, cold, rainy.
More snowpack at altitude than we've seen in many years.
LONG wet spring. Seasonal plants running 3 weeks late.
June came, and someone turned off the water...
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Unfortunately most of the time many of us are 'sleeping' and it's something pretty rare to wake up - it usually last few moments until we fall asleep again.
There's no one to blame about it - it's human nature. The key is knowing that human nature and applying 'remedies' here and there, so the torture finally transforms into a joy and we are finally aware of what Life is... yes.. in few minutes or hours or days we'll forget that again and our road will continue with the hope that we'll reach the same moment as soon as possible.
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It's just too bad so many memories are so short... we go along and learn these lessons of life, but if they were learned much more than a generation ago, we seem to "blissfully forget" that what's right in front of our faces is merely something that has played out dozens of times already... and we already have the answers; the remedy.
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Decades of generations and more weren't enough.. I agree, but when we say 'if', it all becomes if you know what I mean.. The fact that we forget comes to explain why so many things are being repeated - including phenomenons like the seasonal cycle. There are so many hints around us and most of the time they are hidden behind their simplicity. It's just unbelievable!
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Here's a picture I took of the moon a few nights ago:
All reddish from the smoke!
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Wow! It didn't seem quite that red here, but pretty close... cool photo!
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Thanks! The Sun was very red as well, but when I tried to capture that on camera, the brightness of the Sun and the adjustments the camera made to capture it, took out most of the colour and it was nowhere near as red on the image as it was in real life seeing it with my eyes.
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We forget to be trouble when happy we get, If only we are always grateful, i'm sure the universe will always beautiful and great place for life.
thanks for sharing @denmarkguy
if you aren't busy, let s visit my page @maulida
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It is important to stay in a place of gratefulness, yes.
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