A.M. Scenes.

Our first morning on the water.

From the dock...

And from the house, upriver...

downriver...

and across the river.

 

I was largely unconscious until the age of thirty but I do remember my part of Washington being known for its apricots, cherries and, of course, apples, and as I traveled the state as a teenager, mostly on my thumb, a high percentage of the orchards consisted of these crops.

These days one sees grapes, and I mean a LOT of grapes. Washington produces half of the nation's Concord grapes (Mom and Dad grew them in our yard) and is now second only to California in the production of winegrapes. There are 350 grape growers and 650 wineries, and nearly 100% of winegrape production takes place in the arid and hot rainshadow of the Cascades, right where we were. (Short history, geography, and economic lesson here.)

You're looking at orchards across the river, and the slender poplars you see growing in a line are not decorative but functional.; they serve as a windbreak to protect the vines and trees from the VERY high winds that can and often do blow here.