Our native maples are Big Leaf Maple and Vine Maples. There are Red Maples all over town now and they are exquisite and spectacular. Rain is supposed to start this Friday and since we still have bad air quality from the fires in Eastern Washington, I think we will all be glad for rain.
I took this yesterday at Chetzemoka Park. I went to see if the air was ok to beach walk. It was not ok.
The panoramic photograph shows the smoke obscuring the Seattle area and the hazy sun. It is worse there than here but it is not good here either.
I wonder if the trees have trouble breathing too? I am wearing a N95 mask any time I step outside. The cats don’t want to go out right now. They don’t like the smoke.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: exquisite and for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
KO Rural Mad As Hell Blog 
My cousin lives in Seatlle and sent a photo of the smoke from his perspective. He was probably aiming in yuor direction! We normally have bad fires after the rainy season as the tall grass tuns brown, but so far it looks like the rainy season is never going to end. I bought a portable air purifier at Costco that does a great job of clearing the smoke from an enclosed area..at times the only way I could sleep at night as the entire bank of mts. behind my house was on fire–another time the lot beside me was also totally aflame. It is fortunate that almost all of the houses here have tile roofs and are of brick and concrete. The occasional palapa roof is the first to go.
This hasn’t happened for the past few years, however, thank goodness
hugs. I am planning to make a Corsi/Rosenthal air filter today. https://engineering.ucdavis.edu/news/science-action-how-build-corsi-rosenthal-box