5/3 Padden blooms, swallows, fishing, coal export, BC oil, farm and sea, scotch broom, microsubs

Horsetail Cone (Dave Green)

Dave Green in Lake Padden News shows: Blooming in the Park May First  

Laurie MacBride in Eye on the Environment reports: ‘Violet-Green swallows are back, fresh from their long journey from the tropics. They visited us four or five times in April, announcing their arrival in that lively bubbling language that is so unmistakably “Swallow”.’ Return of the Swallows

New blog: Brussels, Baltimore— now back in Bellingham. Travel Notes: Back To The Little “B”

Spring fishing opportunities are in full bloom to catch lingcod, trout, spot shrimp, halibut and razor clams. Lingcod opened Tuesday to good fishing. Trout, spot shrimp, halibut and razor clams also abundant in area waters for anglers.  Spring fishing is now in full bloom  

Portland General Electric may have put the brakes on one of two coal export terminals proposed for the Port of St. Helens. The regional utility leases land at the port where Kinder Morgan wants to build a coal export facility. But PGE spokesman Steve Corson says the coal export project isn’t compatible with his company’s natural gas power plant nearby.  Oregon Utility Vetoes St. Helens Coal Export Terminal  

Vancouver city council is being "silly" in drafting a bylaw to require tanker operators to indemnify the city against the effects of a major oil spill, a maritime lawyer said Tuesday .... The city's opposition sets the stage for it to be a participant in hearings before the National Energy Board when Kinder Morgan applies for permission to double its Alberta-B.C. pipeline and triple the volume of oil sent for export at its Westridge terminal on Burrard Inlet in Burnaby.  Vancouver council called 'silly' for seeking oil spill indemnity  

A century ago, farmers from Vashon and Bainbridge islands brought goods and produce to a city too crowded to grow or produce their own. They came on wooden boats and steamships, moored in the bustling corridors of Pioneer Square and Pike Place, and offered what they could to their Seattle neighbors. Today, that farm-to-water-to-market tradition has been revitalized by FarmBoat, a nonprofit floating farmers market. The boat-based market officially kicks off this month at the Lake Union Park Wharf, and will continue every Thursday until December.  Nautical market fuses farm and sea  

Bainbridge celebrated its Scotch Broom Festival — a local tradition known mainly for being unexpected, rather quirky, and resulting in a horde of cheering islanders marching around downtown with handfuls of scotch broom.  Winslow's classic Scotch Broom Festival surprises downtown   On the other hand: Let’s get busy and yank out the broom  

Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of the first self-propelled "microsubmarines" designed to pick up droplets of oil from contaminated waters and transport them to collection facilities. A report in the journal ACS Nano concludes that these tiny machines could play an important role in cleaning up oil spills, like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico. First 'Microsubmarines' Designed to Help Clean Up Oil Spills   

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 837 PM PDT WED MAY 2 2012
THU
NE WIND 5 TO 10 KT...BECOMING NW 5 TO 15 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 5 FT AT 9 SECONDS. A
 CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE MORNING...THEN A CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON.
THU NIGHT
W WIND 15 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 3 FT. W SWELL 4 FT AT 8 SECONDS. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE EVENING.
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