Scratchpad: It’s fall and there’s enjoyable available open air

Scratchpad: It’s fall and there’s enjoyable available open air

Published 6:00 am Thursday, October 23, 2025

Summer is my favourite season, however to all the autumn lovers on the market, you’ve bought some extent. The gentle susurrus of wind by falling leaves, golden sunlit afternoons and mushroom searching make it my second favourite season. On an out of doors stroll final week I noticed black beetles scurrying over moist composting leaves on the forest flooring and spied the occasional tough skinned newt. Indoors, I’ve been having fun with pumpkin primarily based sizzling drinks–sure, I’m a kind of.

As a lot as I recognize fall, it’s nonetheless onerous for me to say goodbye to summer season annually. It’s not that I hate rain. In so some ways I adore it. Recently from my lounge window, I watched the runners and walkers collect for The Great Columbia Crossing. It was wet, chilly and windy however the Astoria Bridge crossers had been undeterred. I respect their tenacity.

For those that like a slower tempo and wish to get exterior within the fall climate, Fort Stevens State Park is internet hosting a sequence of untamed mushroom walks and hikes led by Ranger Dane Osis.

Razor clam season this fall is bringing again reminiscences of going clamming with my dad after I was a child. On the way in which to the seashore, we regularly stopped on the previous Danish Maid Bakery for espresso and donuts downtown–an Astoria establishment that closed down in 2017.

When we arrived on the seashore, my job was to stomp round on the onerous sand on the lookout for air bubbles whereas my dad surveyed the scene in his hip waders, shovel in hand. All clammers appear to have their very own strategies and my dad wasn’t a clam gun man. When I pointed to a spot, he would get down on his knees and begin digging slowly and gingerly at first with the shovel, which turned a frenzied two handed dig the nearer he bought to the clam. When he bought one, he would stick his arm straight up within the air triumphantly saying “got it” till we caught our restrict and bought within the truck to drive house and clear our haul. I feel freshly caught clams are finest dipped in egg, coated with bread crumbs and fried in a sizzling pan, similar to my dad made them.