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[lithicbeads]

A mile from our house is a great blue heron rookery.  They have been repairing the nests lately, and in the high winds early this morning they were soaring and swirling in ways I have never seen before.  I counted about 35 at one point, before they started landing in the trees and becoming obscured to a degree.  They are about 4 ft tall.  The greatest threat to these birds locally, after developers, are bald eagles.  They regularly eat them in our neighborhood.  If the herons find an osprey nest with trees appropriate to a rookery, they will build the rookery in that location because ospreys are ferocious birds and will drive off any eagle in the neighborhood.

[lithicbeads]

Our house is protected by a nearby mountain range from westerly winds, but when we got to the northern part of the island, we were beyond the protection of the mountains and continuous 35 mph winds were blowing.  There was extensive surf, but not surf of the largest kind, for that the tide has to be a bit lower than it was.  The shot looking toward the mountain range is basically looking right at Goodearth's house.He lives (ed) about a mile from the water.  Miss those two.

[lithicbeads]

Clinker is fascinating stuff.  Its cooked rock, rock cooked by coal beds, usually naturally started on fire by lightening.  I grew up about 50 miles from a coal fire, naturally started, in Pennsylvania.  It had burned for over 250 years when I was a child.  There was really no way of putting it out.  Clinker was forming there at that moment.  This clinker is likely sandstone that has been cooked but also has been infused with gassified hydrocarbons from the coal bed being consumed.  Most of this has likely burned to carbon, but definitely not all.  I have cut a number of rocks over the years that have been infused with hydrocarbons, and the instant you touch them to the grinding wheel, you can tell.  I've never cut clinker, but I would really like to try a little bit for the heck of it.

[ToTheSummit]

Thats a lot of herons!  And your pictures always give me a chill.  The cold weather is just something I don't relate to.  I was digging holes in the desert in 95 degrees last weekend!

[lithicbeads]

There are some pictures of cases and a couple pictures of posters depicting club activities.  This Bellingham show is quite a strong show, as is the town itself.  Its still relatively affordable by northwest standards, and it has a diversified economy.  In addition, its essentially a suburb of Vancouver, Canada, which is a giant city by west coast standards.  Canucks everywhere!  Including at the show.  Good to see our neighbors.  More tomorrow.