Northern Lights

This video was taken out an airplane window and is pretty cool.

My lap quilt

I finished my lap quilt and I am really happy with it.

Fun stuff from friends

My friends Ted and Susan (a couple) each sent me a fun link, so fun that I am sharing them here.

First Ted:

Now Susan:

Snow fun

The guy who makes that snow art is Simon Beck.

Riding in the Silver Twinkie

We went to visit John's mom in the hospital at OSHU.  We walked to the Max train, took the train to the streetcar which took us to the south waterfront where we could catch the tram (aka silver twinkie) to OHSU.  It was our first ride on the tram.  Of course we have seen it up there in the sky before and it's been controversial, especially for the folks who live under it and feel their privacy is invaded.

Houses under the tram

OHSU stop

Coming into OHSU

Chocolate Chip Cookie Science

Cookie Science

Winter sports

Frozen Waterfalls

All the waterfalls froze during the record cold and several intrepid hikers went out to take fabulous photos.

Trip report for photo

Trip Report for photo

Trip Report for Photo

Dealing with record cold

It's really cold here for Portland.  It got down to 12 last night and I fear for my plants.  In the meantime, we are working to keep the cold at bay.

The hummingbirds are fiercely guarding the feeders.  When it gets this cold, we have to thaw the sugar water about once an hour or so.  Look how puffed up their feathers are.

Here is a lovely way to stay warm...

Both our front and back doors are a little warped and have cracks the cold can get through.  I stuffed some quilt batting in the cracks.  Works great to stop the draft!

We closed off the upstairs completely.  I used some foam insulation panels and a lot of curtains and towels to seal it off as best I could.

We also left the water dripping in the upstairs bathroom to prevent bursting pipes in case they should freeze.

Thanksgiving photos

Now we are in the middle of a terrible horrrible cold snap but just a few days ago it was Thanksgiving and the weather was delightful.  We made Peking duck for Thanksgiving.  The skin didn't come out as crispy as we like so we'll have to try again.  Still, it was an excellent duck.

Drying the duck for Peking Duck

It was a beautiful day and we went for a walk in the park.... lots of people were out enjoying the day.

We did the stairmaster a few times...

Clerodendrum tree, still with flowers and berries

Our peking duck roasting on the grill

The view out an upstairs window.

This is the picture my friend Susan sent me with her Thanksgiving greeting.  The photo was taken in her back yard.  It's such a nice photo.

And here is my latest in progress quilt.

How to make an okay art quilt stunning

Melody Johnson makes wonderful art quilts and she also is very generous about sharing her techniques.  Recently she made an art quilt that didn't come out as well as she would have liked so she fixed it.  Here are the before and after photos.    And here you can read what she said about the fixing.

After she fixed it...

Before she fixed it

It's quite an amazing transformation and very nice of her to share the before as well as the after.

Now how cute is this

Pippin loves to be warm...

I like a sunny bathroom

Fall Colors at the Japanese garden

Waffle Stomper at Portland Hikers

To see many more gorgeous photos check out Just Peachy's photos on Flickr.

Photos from this week's walks

It's still fall here and our errand walks have been delightful.

This one taken on the return walk for groceries.

These were taken at Portland Nursery, where we walked to check out shrubs with fall color.  We've been taking some things out and so we need some replacements.

To our surprise, we found they built this big display around a new water feature.  You can see the white sales  information attached to the plants.

We walked to Meat on Burnside to check out their raw meat for cats and these were taken then.  The gold fountain has water that spills from the upraised arm.

And this is what our back yard looks like now.

John's lap quilt

I finished John's quilt and it's getting a lot of use.  John and Ozy and Pippin (who is under the quilt) are having nice naps.

A handmade funky cabin

I love whimsical fun buildings like this one.  Though I must say, I am not sure how safe that wall of windows is.  More about it here.

John's Wine Closet

John is making wine racks for his wine closet.

Happy belated Halloween

These photos were all taken on Halloween...