A Full-time Life

Petroglyphs and Sunstones

… both found in Oregon, way in the back of beyond.

 

Behind where our trailer was parked in Adel

Far away from the population centers of the State of Oregon, we spent four nights in the town of Adel.    Not so sure you could even call it a small town -- the population is only 201.  There's a restaurant/bar with a post office next door .  We parked in one of the four or five RV sites behind those buildings.    There is really nothing much else there except sagebrush and cows.    (This is where we were staying when we woke up to the cattle drive passing right behind us.) 

Eighteen miles away on a secondary highway is the even smaller "unincorporated rural area" of Plush.  Around 50 hearty souls live there.  We had already driven through Plush on that fairly decent highway  as we were out exploring.    But  the travel planner/driver was tired of good roads.  After all, we were on vacation -- why drive roads as good as those at home?  (Normal people would answer that differently from dyed-in-the-wool road warriors.)   Our maps showed a  country road that would eventually also emerge at Plush.    

So we took "the road less traveled."    And that road was unpaved and narrow and winding with very little to see along most of it but sagebrush and the remnants of abandoned dreams.   And we loved it!      

 

 

 Before too many miles, the road got narrower and more winding with rocks and boulders to navigate around.    Bill knows how to drive them and I trust him -- mostly.   There was the one time I had to get out  to direct us around a huge boulder in the middle of the road.  It was on a rise that we couldn't see over.   We rocked over that one, but the road gradually got worse and worse.  We talked about finding a turn-around place, but there really wasn't a good one.   It was then that we came to a fence and rusty wire cattle gate that looked like it hadn't been opened for years.   But "we" managed to open and then shut it behind us. The road continued to deteriorate and shortly our car was straddling two-foot deep ruts that we were afraid we'd slide into.  (Did I mention that we hadn't seen another living soul all day?)   It was definitely time to give up.    But at least there was a good place to turn around.  

One of us thinks that a reason to use four-wheel drive makes any trip worthwhile.  And the other one of us likes to take pictures of abandoned buildings and big skies.   But before we realized we would need to turn around we had already made a wonderful discovery (new to us anyway) that would have made the trip worthwhile in itself.     We found petroglyphs!   

 

Greaser Canyon Petroglyph Site

(Click to enlarge, but there are close-up shots below)

There was no sign along the road pointing to this historical site which is quite a ways back from the road.  And, in fact, we had  driven past by the time I really realized what I'd seen from the window.  After the well-known "STOP" screech,  Bill was able to back up (a good trick, because see above).   This  site is on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property and there is a small sign at the base of the rock wall. It said there had been some archeological reconstruction due to vandalism.   I assume the rocks were moved from the ground to protect them somehow although they were not fenced at all.   The sign also warns that altering the designs in any way is a violation of federal law.  It is horrible to think that anyone could take time to get to this remote place and then try to destroy  such treasures from our past.   (But it is very remote -- once  again on this whole day of exploration we  did not see another person or car.  I don't know if that makes it good or bad for the  safety of this site.)

    

These photos are enhanced.   I don't have a fancy editing tool, but I used Picassa  Boost  to bring out   the shapes of the petroglyphs.  

 We didn't know a single thing about these petroglyphs before stumbling on them and had seen nothing in any of the visitor guides we looked at, but later found  a bit of information on the web.  The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Archeologists believe the designs were scraped into the boulders around 12,000 years ago.   Back then lakes filled many of the high desert basins and the people who occupied the land camped and hunted near those waters.  The meaning  of the marks they left behind has been lost over time.  As with most petroglyphs and pictographs, no one knows exactly why they were made or what they represented.    It is poignant and almost incomprehensible to think about the people from so long ago who once walked right where we were walking.  And to wonder ...   

 

 

People have disappeared from this area in more recent  times too for reasons it is easier to comprehend.   Here's an illustration just waiting for a sad story to be written.   We saw this abandoned home before we turned around to back-track to our home away from home.   The picture is zoomed in -- the house was pretty far from the (very poor) road!    It felt so remote and  lonely.      

The next picture was taken on a a different day, along the highway between Adel and Plush (the good road).  

 

 

We saw these sweet babies run to the fence every time we drove that road.  It seemed almost like whenever they heard a car these donkeys thought they would be getting a treat.    We didn't stop  but I  hope their owners did so frequently.

 

And here's a sign at the gas station letting us know  that Plush is "a small quiet drinking town with a cattle problem."   I wouldn't doubt any of that except that I'm pretty sure that a  population of around 50 doesn't actually make it a town at all.   And then we saw this other sign on the fence around the station:

 

We had read that sunstones could be found somewhere in this area -- and this sign told us that a dig was located 24 miles from Plush.  Just past a Dust Devil?  Plush itself is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and now you can drive 24 more miles to see some stones you know nothing about?  And the collection area might be hard to find because who knows exactly where the dust devil would be!  We thought the sign was a joke (dust devils are what we here in the West call those little mini-storms of soil  that the wind sometimes whirls  on arid lands and fallow farm fields).      But the trip even further into the back of beyond sounded like just the kind of thing we loved.  So off we went -- and when we got there we learned that the sign wasn't a joke after all.  Dust Devil is actually the name of a commercial Sunstone Mine.

 

And this is it!  The Dust Devil Mine.   It's open to the public to sort through the conveyor belt  (for a fee)  and there is also a free BLM dig area where people can camp and dig for the stones.    It  looked like paying for a lot of hot and dusty work!  So we decided  to  collect information, but not gems.  After seeing so few people while we'd been exploring the area, it was amazing to see quite a few campers and gem hunters at this commercial mine and at the other campground.  

 

from the Web public domain

 

I was still a little freaked out talking to people and didn't take many pictures because this was back in early June and we seemed to be about  the only people there still wearing Covid masks.  But everyone we spoke with was friendly and we did learn  quite a bit about the sunstone  which is the official Oregon state gem.   (I didn't even know we had one.)  One lady showed us a few she had found and some jewelry she had made earlier.  And people who helped out at the mine told us a bit about the operation.    For anyone who is more of a jewelry person that I am, there are several websites and people sell their sunstone creations on Etsy.     But we were just happy to have found the site and to learn something new about our home State.

 

 

We saw a pair of sandhill cranes along the road on the way back to Adel after that interesting day.  Every day really was an adventure during our time in Southeastern Oregon -- we were happy and grateful to get to travel again and to see and learn all we did.    

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing sites:  

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TUESDAY TREASURES;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS; and  SATURDAY CRITTERS;

CRATER LAKE COOL DOWN

 

It used to be kind of boring to talk about the weather -- not so much anymore, sadly.  A massive heat dome is expected to cover most of the country this week, bringing yet another round of extremely hot summertime temperatures.  Meanwhile, the Bootleg Fire in SE Oregon has surpassed 400,000 acres and is burning toward Summer Lake, the area I blogged about last week (where we visited the Wildlife Refuge in early June.).         I am afraid catastrophic weather events (fire, flooding, extreme heat) are the future barring a miracle and I hope for that miracle for everywhere. 

But meanwhile I'm tapping into my inner Pollyanna (thinking only happy thoughts ) by posting pictures that may bring some cooling thoughts  ... most of them are from last month.

 

 

June in Oregon (but not the part of the State where we live).   

We stopped at Crater Lake National Park near the end of our early June trip.  The above picture is on the highway between Crater   and Diamond Lakes.     There was still quite a bit of snow  and some of the roads inside the park were not yet open.  

This was the first time we'd visited Crater Lake since 2009.  So long ago! The mosaic below is from that earlier visit, which was in late July of that year.   That's usually a better time to visit, but I am very glad we were there earlier this year.

 

Crater Lake NP, July 2009

Top: View from the rim; Wizard Island; Phantom Ship.   Bottom Row (all views we were unable to get to this year) :  The Pinnacles; Vidae Falls; Pumice Castle.  

You can see there was still a little snow even then, but all of the roads were open by  that time, so this shows some of the Park's attractions that we were unable to visit this year.      

The rest of this post is from last month's trip.  Information about the Lake (in bold) is taken from the Crater Lake Visitor Guide given to us as we entered the Park.   (We always take and read those newspaper-format handouts when we visit any National Park -- they are an invaluable resource.)  

 

Crater Lake from the rim of the caldera -- with a view of Wizard Island

Crater Lake National Park is dedicated to protect the deepest lake in the United States.  The Lake is located inside a caldera formed 7,700 years ago when a 12,000 foot volcano collapsed after a major eruption.   Wizard Island is a cinder cone that erupted out of the Lake around 7300 years ago.    Now the slopes of the volcano are covered by old-growth forests that are home to birds, mammals, and hundreds of native plant species.  The Park is a central part of the cultural traditions of local American Indian tribes, whose ancestors witnessed the lake's formation.

Clark's Nutcracker

A pair of  Clark's Nutcrackers were having a loud argument in the trees that edge the Lake at one of the best viewpoints.   A good bird photo op can distract my camera from anything.   Update:   Thank you to Sondra (see here) for correctly identifying this bird.  

   

Phantom Ship Island

I'm using that distraction as an excuse for this poorly focused picture of the Phantom Ship.  This island is as tall as a 16-story building.  Made of erosion-resistant lava that is 400,000 old, it is the oldest exposed rock within the caldera.  

 

 

All of the  pictures are straight out of the camera.  Crater Lake is this blue year-round because it is so clear.   And it stays clear because there are almost no nutrients in the lake to support things like algae. There are no streams or rivers to bring nutrients and sediments into the lake.   Click here for an article from Oregon Public Broadcasting about true blue lakes in the Pacific Northwest.  I found the explanation very interesting when I read it shortly after our visit. 

 

 

Grateful that we've been able to visit many of our country's beautiful National Parks and thankful for all that the dedicated NPS employees do  to protect and share these national treasures.  

 

LINKING this week to the following, with thanks to the hosts:

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TUESDAY TREASURES;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS; and  SATURDAY CRITTERS 

SUMMER LAKE AND DERRICK CAVE

All is well in our little corner of the world.  It's too hot and dry here just as it is in pretty much the entire western part of the United States and Canada.  We've  had a few smoky mornings from the fires south and east of us but so far nothing is burning in the county where we live.  

 

Summer Lake Wildlife Area

I'm still posting about our June trip to the other side of Oregon, an area that has not been so fortunate.   When we visited, southeastern Oregon was dry with warm days and cool nights.  This month it is hotter and drier and wildfires threaten some of the places we visited.   One  is burning near  Summer Lake, where we visited  the Wildlife Area. 

 

American Avocet in Breeding Plumage

This wildlife area was established in 1944 by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife "to protect and improve waterfowl habitat and to provide a public hunting area."     I wish they could alter that to add something like "public birdwatching area."  I really do believe  that is more important to many people these days than hunting.

 

 

Black-necked Stilt

We didn't really see a lot of game birds when we were there.  Hunting is never allowed for shore birds and wading birds like the ones pictured here.

 

Avocets

 

Summer Lake is a real oasis for wildlife (and wildlife watchers) in the middle of this rather arid, desert-like part of our state.   We can only hope that it will not be permanently harmed by these fires.  

 

Summer Lake

Now on to another day's destination during this trip.    (If I don't combine places, I will still be blogging about this trip when we're ready to start another one!)

 

At the visitor center at Fort Rock Historical Park we had seen "Derrick Cave" listed on "things to do in the Fort Rock area"  so one day we set out to find it.     As with everything on that side of Oregon, "this area" encompasses a lot more miles and acres than you might think.  And rougher roads than you might expect.  Wikipedia says "The road to Derrick Cave is very rough and there are no facilities at the site."   Wikipedia does not lie!  Bill drove in four-wheel drive for part of the way and, on our way out, in trying to make the drive a circle, we encountered the first dead-end road we found on this trip (but not the last).  We backtracked often.

 

 

 

The cave is on Bureau of Land Management property and open to the public.  However, we contented ourselves with the adventure of driving there and hiking in to view the cave once we finally arrived at the nearly unmarked location.   They don't work real hard over there to make things easy for travelers.  (Which is kind of nice in a way.  We didn't see another soul on that day's journey and I'm not even sure we saw another car. ) 

 

There are eons of history connected to this hole in the ground!  The  tubular cave was created by lava flowing from a vent north of the cave.  The exact age of the eruption  is not determined but based on lava fields on the surface area is known to be between 6,845 years and 13,000 years ago.

 

 

Quite a bit more recently, but still quite a while ago, the cave was used by Fort Rock homesteaders as a summer recreation site -- those pioneer families used ice formed in the cave.  Then, during World War II, area residents planned to use the cave as an air-raid shelter, but it was never needed.  In 1963, Derrick Cave was designated as a nuclear fallout shelter.  Supplies of food and water for up to 1200 people were stored behind a locked steel door in the cave.  Fortunately, the cave was never needed for this purpose.  By 1970, all of the Civil Defense supplies had been stolen by vandals or removed by authorities.     

 

 

  Grateful for all the roads we take whether rough or smooth and all we learn from wherever they take us.

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:  Thank you to the hosts.

SATURDAY CRITTERS; MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TUESDAY TREASURES;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY  BLISS 

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL 2021

 

To celebrate Independence Day, July 4 2021.   

Pike's Peak, Colorado

 

I wish "America the Beautiful" were our National Anthem.  With all respect to Francis Scott Key, the words of Katherine Lee Bates better express what we  celebrate about our country.  Here are a few of her words and a few of our archived pictures from places we have been fortunate to visit in our travels:  

 

Oh Beautiful for spacious skies

 

Colorado Front Range

 

For Amber Waves of Grain 

 

Palouse Country, Washington State 

 

For Purple Mountain Majesty 

Mt. Rainier, Washington

 

Above the Fruited Plain

(why have I never taken a picture of a fruited plain?)

...

And Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood,

Oregon - Central Pacific Coast 

 

From Sea to Shining Sea

 

Atlantic Ocean - from Acadia National Park, Maine

 

 

We are grateful.   Happy Fourth of July!  

 

Linking this week to the following:  Thank you to the hosts.

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  and FRIDAY  BLISS;  

Fort Rock Basin

End of June and it is HOT HOT HOT.  Hard to believe  that here in Western Oregon we are staying indoors because of heat and not rain.  Grateful we have air-conditioning.  Because of our usual moderate climate, many people do not.  Happy too that we traveled to the other part of our State earlier this month when the weather was still more moderate.  I would still be blogging about that trip anyway because we saw and learned so much, but it is especially good not to have to dig into the photo archives, because we're sure not outside getting new pictures this week.    

 

 

Today is about the Fort Rock basin,  the first area we explored along Oregon's National Outback Scenic Highway.  We stayed (and parked our travel trailer) in an RV Park in LaPine for the first three days of our trip.  

 

 

Fort Rock was created during the last ice age when  magma exploded beneath a prehistoric Lake. Back then, immense lakes covered much of this region.

 

 

Today, the hills and valleys of Oregon's Outback are austere and dry.  But during the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million to 10,000 years ago), the interior northwest received more precipitation than it does now.    As the climate dried, the lakes evaporated.  Lake beds have evolved into broad, flat deserts and sand dunes.    (A million years ago, this picture would have been a Lake -- or maybe underwater. )

 

 

The Fort Rock Basin is one of most significant Pleistocene fossil sites in North America.

Paleontologists have found  bones from small animals and fish from that era.  Among their finds have been giant beavers (over 7 feet in length), North American camels, giant sloths, and wooly mammoths.    Those species are long gone, but some species. such as chipmunks and jays. survived the transition from wet to dry climate.

 

(click to enlarge this portion of informational sign)

Archeologists have found evidence of  thousands of years of Native American settlement.  For at least 13,000 years Paiute, Klamath, and Modoc people and their ancestors lived and camped along the area's lakeshores and rivers.  Many of their traditional gathering places are visible along the Byway.   On a later day, we found petroglyphs while exploring a backroad (future post).   

Much, much later -- in the 19th Century --  an expedition led by explorer John C. Fremont brought changes to the Great Basin. 

 

 

 In the Fort Rock area, as in the rest of the Basin, the expedition marked the beginning of transformation from desert, grassland and forest to ranch land, farms, sawmills and towns. 

We visited the Fort Rock Homestead Village, where  a schoolhouse, church, several homes, and various artifacts such as the water well drilling rig (above)  have been gathered in one place to preserve the history and legacy of these more recent pioneers in this area.  

 

 

The little homes look quite lonely out there in the desert as they are now, but when people actually lived here, their homes would have been miles and miles apart rather than within walking distance of each other.   I'm glad the town of Fort Rock has preserved these remaining structures -- had they been left in situ, they would have disintegrated with very few people ever getting this glimpse of what their lives were like back then.

This was kind of a long post -- but after all it was covering over a million years of history.  I hope that writing about our visit will help me to remember some of it.   Information about the Fort Rock monument was taken from National and State Park signs in the area -- any errors are my mis-interpretation.  I'm linking this week to the following sharing opportunities:  Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TUESDAY TREASURES;    MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and  FRIDAY  BLISS.

The Vast Oregon Outback

We spent most of our two week vacation road-tripping in Southeastern Oregon.  The one word description of the area is "Vast".  It is large in size and small in population.  

 

 

There are many hidden treasures for  road-trip adventurers.  Places to see and things to do  -- you just have to drive a lot of miles to get to them.   I will have more information about those we visited in other posts, but today I wanted especially to remember the sense of  open space.  (And also, to be honest, I don't have the pictures  labeled yet, so it is easier to show an assortment of pictures taken at different times during the two weeks.) 

 

 

Eastern Oregon is mostly high desert country -- part of the Great Basin.   Its climate and terrain is very different from the western part of the State.    Sixty percent of the State's population lives in the Willamette Valley, the portion of western Oregon where we live.  So we get a strong sense of  being somewhere else without leaving the state.  But it's such big country -- we put 1700 miles on our car during this trip, with only about 100 of them being out of Oregon (more in another post).      For a sense of the size of our state, Oregon is the ninth largest state in area  and is, according to Wikipedia, slightly larger than the United Kingdom.   

 

 

Some of the miles we traveled were on good roads -- the Oregon Scenic Byways shown on the sign above.  But many miles were covered exploring by backroads.     (Before traveling those roads, we had unhitched the trailer at the RV Parks where we were staying.)   On some of those travel days, we would see no other cars or people at all until we returned to our "home away from home."  

 

 

One of the special places we discovered was  Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge.   There was still good spotting, even though  it was a little late for the best migrating birds.   April and May are the best months according to what we read,  but it was  cold enough in mid-June for me --  snow wasn't long gone.  I am not an avid enough birder for  winter weather watching.

 

 

Big country -- narrow winding roads.  Lots of sagebrush and big sky!

 

 

There would be space for a lot of people -- if only there were water!  What there is space for is cattle.  It is said it takes 100 acres of this sagebrush land to support one cow, but there are lots of acres.     It's open-range cattle country and that led to some interesting experiences.  

 

 

 

 Pictures down the left column  are of a roundup that came through early one morning right behind the RV Park where we were staying.  That was some alarm clock!   Middle column pictures are a "cattle jam" -- taken through the car window on a secondary highway we were driving.  These cattle were just walking down the road all by themselves to another pasture, paying no attention at all to our car.   On a different day, we were out exploring when we encountered the herd on the right.  We had just driven 20 miles and reached a locked gate across the road that was not marked on any map.  These cows were very interested in watching us turn around so we could head back over the rocky, narrow, 4-wheel drive road.    

 

There were many dry-lake areas.  Water is scarce and  geo-political battles over its allocation have been going on for years and continue.  

Shade trees are rare on the desert.   Very different from the forests around where we live.   We are fortunate to live where we can experience these contrasts -- there's a different kind of beauty in both parts of our State.  

To further highlight the contrasts, here are a couple of pictures of the places where we book-ended our  excursion:

 

 

 

This is Crescent Lake,  where we stayed the first night away from home.  Brought back lots of memories, as we  used to camp there often in our previous life. 

 

This is Crater Lake near where we stayed on the last night.  It is the deepest Lake in the US and is Oregon's only National Park.   We enjoyed visiting the high desert country of Southeastern Oregon, but it felt good to be close to home again.    

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:  Thank you to the hosts.

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  SIGNS SIGNS;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS; and  SATURDAY CRITTERS;

 

Planned-overs for a busy week.

Because  it's been a  busy week, we're serving "planned-overs" today.  As with many of our meals during that kind of week, I like that term better than "left-overs".  But it is the same thing.  Obviously.

We are going on a camping trip in a few days and getting ready seems to be taking up a lot of my brain cells as well as a lot of time.  In the before-Covid times, we used to get away at least once a month and  getting ready was easy, whether we were camping, boating,  or staying in hotels.   I am definitely not back into that routine yet.    So there are no new pictures, just re-worked and unused older ones (planned-overs for blogland).

 

 

The greenhouse we visited earlier this month reminded me of looking through a kaleidoscope.  I played with the pictures and made it look even more like that.  The many little pieces also remind  me of the state of my brain right now.

 

 

Bill spotted the wild turkey in a field of buttercups almost as soon as we started our walk at Hendricks Park.  Of course she immediately turned her back on us and refused to pose.  But it's such a pretty surroundings .. what turkey wouldn't want to play in  fields  of green grass and  buttercups. 

Here is a  mosaic collection that is more restful than the first one:

 

These trees are all on our children's country property.  You may recognize the one in the center because I have taken and posted about a hundred or so pictures of it .  But there are at least that many other trees on the property.  I keep meaning to ask my son-in-law if  he has a count.  

The next three pictures are two of their flowering trees.   

 

Smoke Tree

I walk around the property when everybody else is busy or away.    Later, or on a different day, when everybody is home and we all sit  down to chat I forget all about the questions I had while I was walking by myself.

 

Photinia

We will take the tiny travel trailer on our camping trip.  It is stored in the barn on the kids' property and while I'm taking pictures of trees Bill has been working on it.   He has added more storage by  redesigning  a cupboard under the sofa and has also made some necessary repairs.    It really is a blessing to have this space to work and play, while still enjoying our easy to maintain small home lifestyle.  We are grateful.  

 

Smoke Tree

We have owned quite a few RVs over time and lived in a much-larger one for over ten years.  No  matter what size or configuration, they all need maintenance and repairs, just like owning a home.     We love the RV life though, fulltime or part time, so it's all worth it.  And we're looking forward to this trip.

We'll be heading to the Eastern part of the state (Oregon's outback) so no post next week.  But I hope I'll  be out taking pictures for next time .    

 

LINKING to the following sharing opportunities:  Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS; and  SATURDAY CRITTERS;

MAY Flowers -- and Showers

We went to see the rhododendrons at Hendricks Park Friday.  Most of last week was colder and wet and so we jumped at the chance to get out when the morning looked at least partly sunny. I have to laugh at myself because last week I wrote  about things getting back to normal after the "Covid Year" and here we are doing the same thing we did around this time last year -- oohing and aahing about May's beautiful rhodies.    But this time, now that we're vaccinated,  we weren't wearing a mask as we walked around the park!   

 

 

Last year, we visited at the exact right time -- it seemed like every bush in the park was in full bloom.  We were a trifle late this time, but there were still many many perfect flowers.  It's very hard to stop taking pictures -- rhododendrons are so photogenic.  Above is in one of  my favorite colors.

 

 

The colorful flowering bushes show up as soon as you turn into the park and surround the parking areas.  But Hendricks is way more than a rhododendron showplace.   It's a gorgeous woodland as well.

 

 

Once you get away from the cars, it is easy to forget that you are within Eugene's City limits.  It's  in the South hills -- the other side of town from where we live, but if it were my neighborhood park I would visit frequently.  (I'm happy to live where I can walk to the River paths however.)   We are lucky in natural surroundings in this corner of Oregon. 

 

 

 

 There are lots of hidden wonders in the park  and I remembered to take pictures of some of them rather than  duplicate the pictures   from last year.

 

 

This Rufous-Sided Towhee showed off his pretty eye.  (Red eyes are attractive on this bird.)  Below is one more shot of perfection:

 

 

Pretty in Pink!

All the pictures in today's post are actually from last week, except for the one just below.  The greenhouse is one of several at the flower farm we visited a couple weeks ago:

 

Johnson Brothers Nursery

I'm still a little uncomfortable shopping, so I didn't take anywhere near as many pictures as I usually do at nurseries or flower shops.      (Sometimes I have been surprised that they don't charge a photography fee.)    And this time we were actually there to buy something.  

 

 

Above are the two hanging flower baskets we brought home that day.    We usually aren't at home in Eugene at prime plant shopping time so we've never had our own flowers at the apartment home where we live now  -- of course last year we were here, but we certainly weren't doing any shopping.    

 You know it's been wet when the neighborhood mallards take up residence in the  backyard:

 

We don't even have a pond or fountain  in the complex where we live -- the grass is just a bit saturated.    Ducks and squirrels were steps away from our back door when I went out to take pictures of the baskets.  The squirrels are a bit confused -- they seem to think it is Springtime.  

 

Hendricks Park

We do need the rain and I'm thankful for it, but also grateful for a blue sky day in between showers.   It was a good week.

 

Linking this week to the following sharing opportunities.  Thank you to the hosts:

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS; and  SATURDAY CRITTERS;

Archival Wandering

It was a good week -- life is slowly coming back to normal.   But not many pictures, so it's archive-mining again -- from earlier this month, a year ago, and a few years (too many) ago.    

 

 

'To see we must forget the name of the thing

we are looking at."  Claude Monet

 

Wonder if it counts if you never knew the name in the first place.  I am fond of yellow flowers, even when I don't know what they are.  

 

 

Make that usually fond.  Not of this one.    This eye-catching bush is Scotch Broom, an invasive plant here in this part of Oregon.  And one that is highly allergenic.  (Eye-catching in the case of this plant means that our eyes will water as we sneeze.  It is nobody's favorite around here.)    Both the above pictures are from this month, this year.  The collage below is really mining the archives -- it is from 2014.

 

 

We spent that whole summer (May through September  2014) in Alaska.  Wonderful memories.  These are some of my favorite critter pictures from that beautiful State.  Sea Otters, Puffin, Mother Moose with very new and wobbly baby, Eagle and gulls, and one bird I'm not sure of.  I'm trying to label old pictures but it is slow work.  However, that  project was the impetus for this trip down memory lane, so it is  always worth the time even if I never complete it.  

 

 

This  is from a couple of weeks ago, but I blogged a different picture of the same tree last year and from bloggers who know things I learned that it is a Laburnum Tree.  We have always called it by it's nickname: Golden Chain.   

I always appreciate learning. 

 

 

 And here is my picture from May a year ago.  We saw this ring around the sun while social distancing in our daughter and son-in-law's yard last year.   It's called a sun halo and is caused by sunlight passing through ice crystals within the Earth's atmosphere.     That information was shared by blogger friend Mary Beth who recently saw a similar halo from her yard in Stanwood Washington.  Her post reminded me of this one!    Thank you Mary Beth.  (Her blog is here.)

 

Thank you to all the bloggers who share the beauties of nature and of just plain living life from so many places all over the world.  I am grateful.    Thank you all for wandering through these memories today.  And special thanks to the hosts of these sharing opportunities:

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS; and  SATURDAY CRITTERS;

 

 

 

 

UPPER FALL CREEK

 

The mini-roadtrip of the week was to Upper Fall Creek, SE of home  about 40 miles.       This particular loop wasn't as familiar to us as some of the other areas up the McKenzie or Willamette Rivers.

 

Upper Fall Creek

 

It was a perfect Spring Day.  We  did a little light exploring of the area, including checking out several camping spots for possible longer getaways later in the season.

 

And we found this little bit of magic .  This pretty  almost hidden gem didn't even have a name.   I love waterfalls.

 

 

 

The wildflower color scheme was definitely green and white, with the tiniest touches of pink.    Wild Dogwood was in full and beautiful bloom, but  my favorite find was patches of the one below:  

 

 

I think I'm going to have to become a wildflower watcher instead of a birdwatcher -- they are certainly easier to photograph.   But I'm not much better at  knowing their names.  I have been reading about plant identification apps and I think I'll try one,   although I didn't find the bird ID one worked too well for me.   Anyone have suggestions for either plant or bird ID apps?   (You never know, one of these times a bird may again sit still long enough for me to photograph.)

 

Meanwhile, back closer to home, the color scheme for tame flowers was strongly on the lavender/purple spectrum:

 

 

This perfect iris is from our daughter and son-in-laws' acreage. 

 

 So is this iris and the wisteria.  I don't know what the big leafed plant in the lower panel is, and I'm not sure about the flowering tree below.

 

 

But I won't need an app to identify these -- I'll just ask the gardeners when I see them next!   

 

 Closing  with just one more virtual photo album page from the Fall Creek trip:

 

 

Grateful to live here in Eugene where we can choose to go to the mountains or to the ocean,  to the rivers or to lakes  -- and still be back home in time for dinner!     (Still,  as the weather warms up and now that we are vaccinated, we are looking forward to some longer roadtrips.)  

 

LINKING this week to the following:  Thank you to the hosts.

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  and FRIDAY  BLISS;