Columbia Gorge

This photo is from a Portland Hikers trip report

Trip report source

I always loved these guys

How many people still recognize this as a telephone?

 

Shore Acres

Breaking Waves from Uncage the Soul Productions on Vimeo.

Shore Acres is on the Oregon Coast.  It takes a while to get there because you have to drive through Coos Bay and wind around a bit.  It's a wonderful place to visit and I miss going there.  It has an interesting history as well.  At one point it was owned by lumber baron Louis Simpson.    It is now a state park.

Breakfast Outing

Now and then we go out for breakfast at the Bijou Cafe.  John likes their oyster hash and I like the roast beef hash.  We are celebrating John's birthday season and this was part of the celebration.

source RoadFood.com

The Bijou Cafe is in on the other side of the river so we drive and park on our side of the river and then walk across the bridge to the cafe. That way we get our walk AND our breakfast.

Crossing the Burnside Bridge over the Willamette River (on foot).

The Steel Bridge

Passing Voodoo Donut, where the line was too long to wait (again)...

 Back in our neighborhood where the streets are covered with "pink snow" from the cherry trees.

 Our house, behind the trees.

John in front of the house.

Not quite 64 

The garden is in the pink

Happy Anniversary Ozy

April 15th marks the anniversary of Ozy's fifth year with us.   Here he is enjoying an encounter with "Wooly Bully".

Hike on Eagle Creek

Yesterday we went for a hike!  We haven't done much of that in recent months.  It is hard to get away long enough for a hike because of our diabetic cat.  Yesterday the stars aligned.  Ozy's blood glucose was in a safe range, the weather was stellar, and we didn't have anything scheduled.  Off we went!

It was wonderful to be out, even for a relatively short hike.  There were many other happy people hiking this popular trail as well.  There were lots of wildflowers and those lovely little azure blue butterflies were flitting about.  I didn't take many photos but here are a few.

start of the trail

I love these gnarly oaks

John on the trail

wild delphineums

moss draped tree branches

John on the trail

dodecatheon on a vertical wall (hanging garden)

 hiking attire.  So cool.

 Salmon berry flowers

Around our neighborhood

John walking in the neighborhood

Neighborhood house front stairs... Nice!

our front yard now

peony in our yard

tulips on fire

Fairy chair

 This is my favorite garden view right now.  John is bothered by my broken down chair but I think it is essential.  It's where the fairies sit.  Could it be that John can't see fairies?

Sad hummer babies update

Yesterday the mama hummingbird disappeared.  The nest has been removed and taken by a "rehabber"

Road trip to the outhouse

I've been asking John to take me for a drive.  I've been asking for a few months and finally yesterday he took me.  He was motivated by the need to use up the gas that has been in the truck for more than a year (we don't use the truck much).  And maybe also motivated because I was threatening to hire someone to take me for a drive.  We drove out to the Vista House on Crown Point, a little more than a 20 mile drive from our house.

There it is up ahead.

By today's standards, that is a short drive but when the Vista House was built, it was a comfort stop for Portlanders going out for a drive (it was a long, windy road then and cars didn't go very fast).  Vista House was dubbed Portland's $100,000 outhouse.  And it is pretty fancy.  You can read about its history and architecture on Wikipedia and on the Vista House website.  It fell into sad disrepair but was restored to its original glory a few years ago.  The restoration cost over a million dollars.

It's a really cool building, sitting high above the Columbia.  There are lots of wonderful pictures of the Vista House by better photographers than I am.

Here is one I really like.

This is a nice shot of the inside

photo source

And here is a link to lots of others.

Here are some more I took.

 The view from parking lot.

The building

John with the Columbia Gorge view behind him.

And since it is known as Portland's Outhouse, here are few of the bathroom, which is done in marble and mahogany.

 The inside of the building has many stairways and long hallways.

Hummer Babies update

I am watching a web cam of baby hummingbirds and I posted about them last week.  This is how they look now.

Just a week ago they looked like this.  Now that is what I call growing fast!

What happened to the child's fairy garden?

Last month I posted about a child's fairyland that is close by.  The other day when I walked by, it was gone.  Staci, who is the mother in the household, told me that her little girls said they were done with that lovely little play spot and so she removed the toys and planted the strip.  Now it looks like this.  The plants are still small and I am sure they will grow.   But still, I miss that fairyland spot and I am sure the fairies miss it, too.

It used to look like this

I was disappointed to see the fairyland toys go away and especially to hear that the girls had outgrown their little fairyland, since I wanted to play in it.  One should NEVER outgrow fairies.

So yesterday I added a few little additions to the new garden spot.  I added a tiny little clay pot and a paper umbrella.  I hope the girls will be inspired to add a few more things.  Or maybe Staci will.  And I intend to add to it, too.  Staci said it was okay.