Check out this view! Gorgeous, isn’t it? Happy Friday from the 30th floor terrace in Downtown Portland! A view of Pioneer Courthouse Square and the Pioneer Courthouse with the Willamette River, SE Portland and the Cascade Range in the background. Mount Hood was hidden behind the clouds. Have […]
Last week, Missy from thyme, and everything else posted a very scrumptious sounding rhubarb pie with cardamom recipe. It got me thinking about rhubarb and how I rarely use it in cooking or baking. My grandmother used to bake a yummy rhubarb cake when I […]
Summer is here and so are the hummingbirds! Hummers rarely sit still. This one however just sat and sipped nectar for a few moments. Crocosmia is a favorite hummingbird flower! “Lecker!” Delicious! Check out the tongue down below! I never get tired of watching hummingbirds! And […]
While sitting outside one morning last week, the Zendog and I suddenly felt a swoosh of air moving past our heads. For a moment all I could see was a bright blur heading straight for the lilac bush. Once this brightly colored bird landed, I […]
Another one of my favorite things “to do” when I visit friends in Northern California is getting a tour of Christine’s flower garden by Christine herself. We’ve been friends for nearly three decades, and despite not getting to see her very often, our friendship has […]
Santa Rosa’s Howarth Park is popular with many of the locals. The hiking trails around Lake Ralphine connect to Spring Lake, another favorite local spot to enjoy the outdoors. When we lived here, we spent lots of time at both of these parks. Every […]
Sequoia sempervirens the world’s tallest, living trees. There’s not much one can say about these incredibly beautiful, long-lived, resilient, fire-resistant and evergreen sky scraping giants! Even on a warm day the air within the forest stays reasonably cool. There’s really nothing else quite like it! […]
While running a bunch of errands on Wednesday I decided to take a break and visit this rose garden nearby. The Sara Hite Rose Garden sits on about an acre of land. There are so many spectacular roses in bloom right now and most of them are delightfully fragrant! […]
How do you spell potato? 😉 Late Sunday afternoon I I noticed a rather large creature rustling through the bushes around my wildflower corner. I looked up and couldn’t believe my eyes! Right there in front of me I saw this beautiful California quail. He […]
tranquil Lake Ralphine’s sweet Monday morning magic to start the week right One of my favorite spots to visit in Sonoma County is Howarth Park. it’s located in the southeast part of Santa Rosa, right on Summerfield Road. One of its draws […]
For Sandi! That same afternoon where I listend to Daniel’s fabulous cello music in Lithia Park, I had another unexpected encounter along one of the walking paths. Strolling south along Ashland Creek, I crossed the creek on one of the wooden bridges. Just past the […]
Day One of this year’s California Road Trip took me all the way to Ashland, a small town near the California border. When I arrived, I parked my car, checked into the hotel and headed straight for my favorite place in this city: Lithia Park. It’s […]
One of the things I love about traveling, is not having to cook for a few days. While visiting friends in California, I discovered a really cool Vietnamese restaurant just short walk from the hotel where I was staying. When I walked into the place, […]
There are several birdbaths in my garden, but this song sparrow took a dip in a puddle that formed on a black plastic tarp. Last spring I covered a large part of a flowerbed with it, in hope of taming some out of control alstroemeria. […]
While we were visiting Quebec, we also took a bus out towards the St. Lawrence Estuary where we got on a boat for a whale watching excursion. There were lots of Beluga whales, and also a fair number of Mink whales. The boat was a […]
It’s Friendly Friday again and Amanda”s prompt today is Illumination! Exactly three years ago this month, the Zendog and I were in Canterbury, England. We had flown from Portland to Amsterdam, and directly from there to Gatwick Airport, about 30 miles south of London, […]
… when you’re having fun! A little late, but here is my combined contribution to the last two Friendly Friday Photo Challenges. First came Amanda’s prompt, “Alleys”, and then this past Friday, Snow picked “Chairs” for the prompt. While sorting my digital photo library I […]
It’s Friendly Friday again and Snow from The Snow Melts Somewhere picked Posing for today’s prompt. This promptly reminded me of our trip to Seoul, South Korea a few years back. We were on our way to Bali and had decided to spend a few days […]
in cahoots with muddy boots 