After twenty-fives years in the rain forest, I should be used to grey, wet fall days like the one that challenges Aki and I today. But we just enjoyed the driest October in history, which makes it hard to accept the return of normal fall time weather. November is shaping up to be the usual festival of cold, wet rain and wind.

The little dog and I have Eagle Beach to ourselves. A high tide floods over the river sandbars and pushes river water over the meadow. We have little to look at—no birds, no glaciers, no mountains—just November gloom.