End of summer

I took this somewhat dreary end-of-summer photo on September 22. Compare it to this one taken on June 16th. The green stuff (moss, algae?) has almost burned away in the last two months of comparatively dry and occasionally hot weather. The gray building is the Columbia River Bar Pilots' dispatch office (and what a location for an office, eh?); you see it from the other side in the June 16 photo. The pilings are what's left of city structures and (perhaps) sheds to dry and mend nets. I haven't checked the exact history of this block, but an interpretive plaque nearby says, "Before the fire of 1922, much of downtown Astoria was built on pilings over the river. People built out from the original hilly shoreline, creating a level commercial district with access to the water. Every type of business might be located over the water: hotels and taverns, churches and fish canneries, lumberyards and a railroad depot."

Some people complain that winter brings rain, and that we have all too much of it, but I look forward to winter, too. The visiting crowds thin out, the pilings turn green again, and the skies are brightened with the most amazing sunsets. We even have a number of bright t-shirt days. At the moment, however, toes and noses are pretty cold.