Tag Archives: aurora borealis

Chickalong update, aurora borealis

Emotional Support Chicken, Day 4

She’s coming along nicely! I’m about to start the breast. More short rows! In garter stitch, short rows are no big deal. I don’t use them a lot in my knitting life; I tend to think in straight lines. I also spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at safety eyes on Amazon; she’s going to need some peepers!

We had a great weekend. Yesterday the kids came over to make dinner for Mother’s Day. My pick? Oxtails. We used this Instant Pot recipe. Yummmm. I think next time I’d sub apple cider vinegar for the balsamic. It didn’t need a deeper flavor, but the brightness was nice. And we added more fish sauce for perfect umami. It’s super fun to hang out with these guys and play with food!

Friday night my Facebook feed blew up with pictures of the aurora borealis, seen from here in Portland and points further south, too. I went out at midnight to find a bit of dark sky. I ended up on Marine Drive on the Columbia River, looking across to Government Island by the I-205 bridge.

Glenn Jackson I-205 Bridge, waxing moonset

I couldn’t see the aurora with my naked eye, but my iPhone XS picked up some color.

If you can’t see it with your eye, can you say you’ve seen the aurora? My eyes didn’t see the sky as green; it was black with a little bit of white-ish haze.

Aurora Borealis

I edited the previous picture to pop a bit more, and to match the background of what my eye was seeing (the blackness of trees on the island). This pinkness matches more what friends with newer phone cameras were seeing. I invited DH out the next night to see, so I could try his newer phone.

No aurora Saturday night, but night mode on his camera works great! (No flash, and the red is from the neighboring car’s tail lights). Our kids went out to Powell Butte to try to see, but there was’t anything to see. The lesson here: Wait until your Facebook feed blows up with pictures, and then you know it’s time to go!

So I’ve “seen” the aurora, and I haven’t! But it was fun trying. It’s still on my bucket list. Did you see it?