A Full-time Life

SUMMER IN THE CITY 2018

 

Busy summer days here in Downtown Eugene.   A month-long Visual Arts Festival kicked off  mid-week. 

 

 

Temporary  street signs like this one  point to the various Festival venues around town.         And then Sunday was the Downtown Neighborhood's  weekend for Sunday Streets.

 

 

Streets normally open to traffic were closed off for walking and different forms of non-motorized transportation.  It's fun to see people taking advantage of the safe streets.  Walking, many kinds of bicycles, a few skateboards, lots of young moms and dads pushing strollers and keeping an eye on toddlers and small children riding starter bikes.

 

 

It's hot again though -- and the happiest kids were probably those who got to splash in the fountain at the mid-city park blocks .... or who got to indulge in a treat  from this people-powered ice cream cart.

 

This Artist was enlisting  the public's help in creating this colorful mural.   People could leave messages on the kaleidoscope-like flower petals and shapes.     The paper sign on the hummingbird says 'please don't draw on the birds'  but obviously some of the passersby couldn't read.   I hope she is able to paint over those 'contributions', while leaving the ones that are where they are supposed to be.      This is the second year of a push to create murals in the City, but we have not been super impressed with most of them.   Honestly this is the first one I've really liked.   

 

 

The mural creation was part of the Visual Arts Festival of course, but these other entertainment venues around town were there because of Eugene Streets.   There was entertainment on most every  corner of the downtown blocks .... as always with street entertainment,  something for everyone.   

 

 

 

And on every corner -- festival or not -- there are beautiful hanging baskets or flower boxes.    Kudos to the City staff who keep these beautiful even in the 95 degree heat! 

 

 

Random Saturday Farmer's Market  picture of the week ---   It's a visual festival every week.

 

LINKING THIS WEEK TO:  MOSAIC MONDAY;  GOOD RANDOM FUN;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; FLORAL BLISS; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SIGNS SIGNS;

 

THANK YOU to the hosts.

SKINNER BUTTE NEIGHBORHOOD WALK

 

 

Thankfully, our  summer temperatures are back down to where we like them  and so it was a great week for walking in the City.    This one was kind of my version of a penny hike.  That was something  Girl Scouts (or Brownies -- the youngest scouts) used to be able to do -- just some kind of coin toss at the corners to decide whether to turn left or right or go straight.  (I'm guessing not too many kids are able to do that these days.) 

I didn't actually toss a coin, but starting with no particular plan except to walk until I got tired,  I decided at each intersection which path looked the most interesting.   Here are some pictures from along the way:

 

 

 

This is YaPoAh Terrace, the tallest building in Eugene.  It is a senior citizen residence with 222 apartments, some of which are subsidized for  lower income seniors   Even though it is our City's closest thing to a skyscraper, the apartment is located at the edge of an 'urban forest' at the foot of Skinner Butte Park.  Next to the building on the street side are community flower gardens for the tenants.   

The building is 50 years old and according to our local paper, the owners plan an extensive remodeling process later this year.  The paper said that the owners plan to move tenants to temporary housing on a floor-by-floor basis while new windows and other upgrades are completed.   It said that no current residents would be displaced permanently.   But I imagine there is a certain amount of anxiety on the part of the tenants.

 

 

 

My next turn took me just a few blocks further up the hill to the Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson House, locally known as the Castle on the Hill.  This  Victorian style home is listed on the National Register of Historical Places.   It was built in 1888 for the first owner and deeded to Lane County by the third.  It is now owned by the City of Eugene and kept open to the public by a non-profit organization.  I'd like to see the inside of the house and plan to take the tour this summer.  (I've had this goal ever since we moved downtown -- this year I am really going to do it!)

 

 

 

I strolled past  a few cute little smaller homes  that made me smile .  I'd be more at home in them than either a 22-story building or a 'Castle'. 

And then as I walked further on a quiet block of older homes with no particular interesting features, I spied what I was sure was a statue of a deer in an overgrown garden ....  

 

 

 

... until the statue noticed me!      

 (I'm not sure which of us was the most startled.)

 

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And then I saw the rest of the little family!   I checked my step-counter and this home was less than two miles from our apartment -- which makes it even closer than that to the middle of downtown Eugene.     Gotta' love this kind of City life!

 

 

 

A little further on  was  a block of  mostly historical homes.  The architectural details on these homes are always interesting.  If I owned a two-story historical home, I would definitely plant a window box of geraniums!

 

 

All of the  historic homes in that neighborhood are currently occupied; these are some of the signs near their front doors.  In Oregon, there are certain tax advantages for owners who put their qualifying homes into the historic places registry (more information here).  The small print on  the Pironi House sign says 'Craftsman Bungalow.'

 

   

 

This street dead-ended near Skinner Butte Park and I walked along the Willamette River Path in the general direction of home.

 

 

A step-counter check back on our own little corner of downtown Eugene showed I hadn't quite made that elusive 10,000 step goal, but it was close enough to deserve a treat at a nearby bakery.   It was a good morning in the City.

 

LINKING TO: 

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TUESDAY TREASURES; ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS; WEDNESDAY AROUND THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; LITTLE THINGS THURSDAY; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS.   

 Thank you to all of the hosts.

 

 

THE WEEKEND IN PURPLE and GOLD

   

 

It's hot here in Eugene!  Temperatures were in the 90s all last week (it cools down at night).    Still it's  hot enough that we don't have much desire to go for long walks.  

  

 

But we're urban dwellers here and it is less than half a mile to the Eugene Park Blocks where the Saturday Market takes place every week during the season (April through November).    We can -- and do -- walk that in any weather during the time we're at home in Eugene. 

 

 

 

Beautiful berries are in season ... The top two pictures and the middle (sign) in the bottom row are from Saturday morning's visit to the market   .... But I didn't buy  any of those   ... because we had already brought home  absolutely free blueberries from our daughter and son-in-law's six prolific bushes.  

 

Friday morning we drove out to the country to see them   -- and I'd had every intention of "helping"  by picking some berries while we were there.  But Cyndi had beaten us to the draw and had baskets of berries on her kitchen counter (the ones in the bottom two pictures).  She had already picked  the bushes clean (for a day or two).     I will have to learn to get up earlier!  Maybe.  The company was great and the berries were delicious --without a bit of work on our part.       

 

 

Here is a  cart parked at the edge of the Saturday market.  (It is either a portable potty or a place for Clark Kent to transition to Superman.   I didn't check it out.)   

On Saturday afternoon (after I'd put the tomatoes and salad greens and vegetables away and stuck the weekly flower arrangement in a vase) we decided to drive up the McKenzie River toward the mountains.  It was a good afternoon to get out of the hot valley.

 

 

 

There was a Lavender Festival at a small farm in Deerhorn.    The beautiful plants nestled on flat farmland located just next to the highway between the hills and the river.   Everything looked (and smelled)  wonderful!   I've always wanted to visit a lavender farm, so this stop made me happy.   There were stalls selling food and lavender products and some fairly good music going on, but the best part for me was the U-Pick field.  The picture on the right is the bunch we brought home with us.   (It was still hot out there and I wasn't tempted to pick more than a token ... just so I could say I'd done it!)

  

 

We drove on up the Old McKenzie Scenic Highway to the town of Sisters, where we had a good dinner before heading home.   It's always been amazing to me that any trees can grow in these lava fields that we pass on the way up .... the ghost-like dead ones are more what I'd expect. 

 

 

A long view of the Three Sisters across the lava field and trees.   It was a good weekend.  We were glad we didn't let the heat keep us at home.   

 

 

THANK YOU to the hosts of the following sharing opportunities :  OUR WORLD on TUESDAY; NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; FLORAL BLISS; WEDNESDAY AROUND the WORLD;  SIGNS SIGNS; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY.

 

 

OREGON COASTING

     Notes:  please scroll down for  Wildlife van SIGN.     Thanks   to Eileen, Sondra, and Ani,  I have learned that the birds which I couldn’t identify in my pictures below are Pacific Loons. 

 

 

We like to drive to the Oregon Coast as soon as we can after we get home -- just to make sure the ocean is still there after our months away.  Of course, we're never surprised when it is.      But we were a little surprised to find the Pacific Ocean living up to its peaceful-sounding name --  it was much calmer than usual!  We're used to seeing wild waves splashing on the rocks and shore.   That is Simpson Reef above -- it's on the South Central Coast, south of the town of Coos Bay where we stayed overnight.  

 A little way  North  is Shore Acres State Park and we stopped there first because it is one of our favorite places to visit in the area.  Here's a link to an earlier post that gives the history of this Park.

   

 

And here is a bouquet of roses from the Test Rose Garden at Shore Acres Botanical Park.

 

 

Simpson Reef near Cape Arago is  named after the same person who donated the land for Shore Acres.  It was very low tide when we were there, showing off the rocky reef and shore.

 

 

The reef  is  home to a large population of Stellar  sea lions (permanent Oregon residents) and also to California sea lions when they migrate North. 

At this time of year, only male California sea lions are still in Oregon.  The females have gone back home to California where their babies will be born.

We were surprised to see a naturalist from Fish and Wildlife Service (US Department of the Interior)  at the overlook.  We parked next to her scenic van.  She had several spotting scopes and binoculars to loan and seemed quite knowledgeable about the wildlife and the area.  To be honest, I was very surprised to see anything helpful coming from our Federal Government these days.

 

 

 

Some of the people at the overlook were lucky enough to see several whales just past the rocks.  Bill  was a little frustrated because I wasn't able to spot them, no matter how hard he tried to show me.  Sigh.   Maybe next time!  (This is also the time of year when whales are migrating North.)   

 But I sure did see lots of Sea Lions. (It would have been hard to miss them.)

 

 

There were rafts of seabirds out among the rocks, but it was hard to get decent pictures -- just a little too far out.  I'm not sure what this one is.  Probably something common in slightly different summer coloration from what I could find.   ID help is always welcome.

  

 

 

 Back at Shore Acres ... these are the Great Blue Heron sculptures from the pond.   This picture looks almost exactly like the one in the post from several years ago that I linked to above, but it is one of  those iconic scenes that I look for every time.  Seeing it makes me feel like I'm home!  

 

 

 

LINKING THIS WEEK TO:  SATURDAY CRITTERS; RATHER B'BIRDING; ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; MACRO MONDAY; OUR WORLD on TUESDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; FLORAL BLISS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

 

TREE(S) and MOUNTAINS and FLOWERS, OH MY

 

  

We have been home (in Oregon) for almost two weeks and this is the only picture I've taken in all that time.   It's part of a bouquet  from a flower stall at the Eugene Saturday Market where we walked only four days after we got home.  Our empty suitcases were still in the middle of the room, we'd barely stocked up on groceries, and we definitely hadn't caught up on sleep.  But we had flowers .... happy days!  

 

The rest of this week's pictures are from other happy days -- during our stay in beautiful Colorado earlier in June.  

 

 

Above are views from when our Colorado 'kids' took us up into the mountains west of Crested Butte.  Beautiful certainly -- but there isn't enough  snow for this time of year in the Mountains.  (Most of these pictures were taken when we were at 10,500 feet ... in June there should be definitely still be snow up even higher than that.)   

   

 

 Kebler Pass is home to the largest Aspen grove in the State.  Because a stand of Quaking Aspen is  actually only one very large organism rather than individual trees, this stand is actually the largest living thing in Colorado and according  to some scientists a good candidate for one of the largest single living entities in the world.     Info Source:  Denver Magazine  

 

 

 An aspen grove is a clonal colony --  every one of what looks like individual trees  grew from a single root derived from a single seedling.  The seedling reproduces and spreads by root sucker.  With sunlight, suckers sprout up from the roots until a whole stand of what looks like individual trees forms.  This clonal colony covers hundreds of acres and would weigh thousands of tons.  Info Source:  Wiki 

     

Can you imagine how beautiful *this colony* looks in the Autumn, when all those green leaves are a beautiful golden yellow?  I am definitely counting on certain people to visit the stand again in October or November and text pictures to their parents!!! 

**(it was really hard not to write 'these trees' here but I forced myself not to, since I'm trying to cement these interesting facts about aspens into my brain.)

   

 

 

The Wildflower Festival in Crested Butte is scheduled for mid-July, but it looked a bit like the season was going to beat that date.  Again, so beautiful but a much warmer spring than normal.

I am grateful that we had the chance to visit this beautiful mountain area thanks to our Colorado family!    And am always grateful for the opportunity to learn something new .  

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:   

 ALL SEASONS; NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  THROUGH MY LENS;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS ; FLORAL BLISS;  Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

 

 Thank you to the hosts who do so much to  make blogging fun!