Snow Day

The great privilege of living on Portland is that we can chose our weather.  Sure, it's rainy and grey in town most of the time, but all we have to do is drive 45 minutes up the mountain to be in sun and snow.

The Sprout must have read too many Christmas books about snowy winter days because she was insistent that we would have snow for Christmas.  We didn't.  She was sad.  So we took her up the Mountain one Saturday to play in the snow.





Apparently, her romanticized dream of snow did not include:  a) cold  and b) snow so deep you can barely walk in it. 



She was not a fan.  She made a few snow angels, walked a few hundred yards and was done.

Two big thumbs down.

Maybe next year.

Back to Blogging

The last few weeks of blog silence can be directly attributed to the intensity of the end of the school year in my district. I work as a Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) for the director of special education in my district coordinating the high school and post-high special education programs. That means I work beside the teachers on the cases of complicated students and oversee a lot of legal paperwork. The end of the school year is always busy but this year was even more so with shrinking budgets (again) causing the closing of some schools and a reconfiguration of buildings that means my office needed to be completely packed up before I left for the summer.

Whatever. This blog isn't about my job, but I thought you deserved an explanation for the absence. So let's get on to the real business of this blog, alright? Pictures of the Sprout for her adoring fans (aka grandparents)









In the midst of the end-of-year stress, the talented Rachel Austin and family invited us out to the Oregon coast for the weekend. Miss A. and the Sprout are good playmates and friends so it was a restful break for me and gave me the energy I needed to power through the end of the year.

Flora

When we are hiking, I'm usually lagging behind looking at all the wildflowers and taking pictures.  
At  home I pull out my Pacific Northwest wildflower books and try to figure out what I saw.  Plants here are so different from my childhood meadows and woodlands in Indiana that I am learning so many new-to-me plants.

Above:  Bear Grass in bloom (xerophyllum tenax)
Below: Vanilla Leaf or Deer Foot (achlys triphylla)







Above:  Under the towering Douglas firs, I love the understory of vine maples (acer circinatum) and Pacific dogwoods (cornus nuttallii, not pictured).  The dappled light under these trees reminds me of my favorite Japanese gardens.




Above: Evergreen violet or redwood violet (viola sempervirens)--somewhat rare

Below: A bad picture of a fairyslipper (calypso bulbosa, but in this case I happen to love the common name more than the scientific name)

Mini-Break

Do you ever just feel a little....frayed...for lack of a better word?  Nothing bad is happening. There is no major crisis.  All is well.  It's just hard work, this thing we call living.  It's relentless.  Sometimes I feel a little frayed around the edges, and I need to take a break to play, pray, and reconnect with my partner.    

Last fall, I nabbed a Groupon for the Lodge at Suttle Lake for the Wise and Bearded One and me.  I had a brief moment when I forgot  that we had a child and booked us into the adults-only main Lodge.  Wups!!!  Fortunately, we have several adopted "aunties" here in Portland who were happy (or at least pretended they were) to hang out with the Sprout for the weekend.

The Sprout was ecstatic to have her first sleep over with her great friends, T and R.  They are the Super Sitter's children, and the Sprout has claimed them as her brother and sister.  More adopted family.  It's what you do when your biological family lives thousands of miles away.  Although not as ecstatic as the Sprout, I wasn't anxious to leave her because I knew she was in her most familiar and comfortable places--the Super Sitter's house Friday night and then our own house Saturday night with the Housemate and the Little Housemate. She did great, and is already planning her next sleep over.

The Lodge at Suttle Lake did not disappoint.  Tucked in the midst of the Cascade range, surrounded by jagged peaks, and recently covered with two feet of snow, it was perfect for winter hiking and snowshoeing.  The Lodge was cozy and welcoming.  And the wi-fi and wine in the Great Room gave us a nice place to wind down every afternoon before dinner.  It's just up the road from Sisters, Oregon, one of my favorite little western towns with a great coffee shop, a quilt shop, some bookstores and restaurants.  What more could you want, really?

It was just the mini-break we needed to play, read, and refresh for the next round of busy-ness.

P.S. Please ignore the hat head.

 

 

Walking in the Woods on a Snowy Day

I don't miss living in snow, but I do miss playing in it.  I've been wanting to share the joy of snow with the Sprout this winter.  All week, Portlanders were abuzz with rumors of snow.  But seven years here have taught me to be skeptical of our chances of getting any REAL snow in Portland.  So we headed up the mountain on Sunday to get our snow fix.

We didn't go any further than the ranger station in Zigzag because we didn't want to chain up, but that was just far enough to get into 5 or 6 inches of fresh, beautifully-packable snow.  The Sprout's been battling a cold this week so we didn't want to overtire her.  An hour was just right for tromping around in the woods, making snow angels, snowball fights and eating plenty of snow (mostly that was on the Sprout's behalf, but I'll admit to always having to take a bite or two myself).   

As we drove down Mt. Hood back to our own cozy house, the snow kept falling.  We ended up with a light dusting of snow in our own yard too while we took our afternoon naps.  Perfect Sunday.

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all photos taken with Canon Rebel xTi, 50mm 1.8 lens,

Sunday Photos: Family Photos in the Park

Although we tramped around the park today, these photos are from last weekend.  Our talented photographer-friend, Roger J. Porter, met us in our favorite park, and took some family photos for us. 

Although the rainy weather sometimes gets to me, it has one huge redeeming value--the multitude of greens.  Roger captured the beauty of hiking in the woods on a rainy, winter day.  Of course, Mt. Tabor is always, always beautiful, and one of my favorite places to take photos.

   

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Check out Roger's Etsy site here.  He has five kids and a job to pay the bills, but the heart of an artist.  If you live in Portland, I recommend him for professional, reasonably priced photo sessions, weddings, etc. 

Portlanders, Take Heed...

Two "crafty" events this weekend are calling my name.

1)  What:  The DIY Fair
     Where:  Imago Dei Community 1302 SE Ankeny, Portland, Oregon
     When:  Saturday November 19, 10:30 a.m. -2:00 p.m.

My church hosts this every year as part of the Advent Conspiracy.  It is always interesting and a lot of fun.  It's basically an exchange of ideas of things YOU can make to give as gifts.  I don't have a booth this year, but if you're curious about what I've done other years click here or click on Advent Conspiracy category on the sidebar.

2)  What:  The Colette Sewing Book Signing and Fabric Swap
     Where:  Powell's Books, 1005 W Burnside, Portland, Oregon
     When:  Sunday, Nov. 20 at 4pm


I mentioned last week that I was sorry to miss the party thrown in honor of this book.  But Sunday afternoon I may have a second chance to meet Sarai Mitnick, buy a copy of her beautiful book and maybe even swap some fabric.  Any Portland fabric-hounds wanna go with me?

Happy Weekend whereever you are!

Rainy Day Photos

Hello there,

If you're at all like me, I often find photography more akin to alchemy than a true science.  All the lingo seems designed to confuse and the math is contradictory.  Bigger numbers for aperture when there's a lot of light, bigger numbers for ISO when there is less light...  Do you get my confusion here?  Or am I all alone in this?  Anyhow, I've tried dozens of times to master the illusive equation of aperture + shutter speed + ISO by reading manuals, talking to other photographers and surfing photography blogs on the internet.  Somehow, it just never seems to stick for me.

My dear friend, Stacy, to the rescue!  She saw a Groupon for a Chimpsy class and pursuaded me to sign up with her.  Chimpsy hires professional photographers in larger cities to host "field trips".  Basically we met up in the photographer's studio on a rainy Saturday.  He talked us through some basics and made sure everyone knew how to find all the functions on their DSL cameras, and then he took us out on the town to take pictures.

Since it was a really rainy Portland day, we hung out under the Fremont bridge.  I don't know that there's anything remarkable about any of these photos.  But they are remarkable to me, because I shot them in FULL MANUAL SETTING or shutter priority.  It's the first time I have felt like I had any understanding of how to make these work for me.  I'm pretty doggone proud of myself, I gotta say.

And this time, I think the lesson is sticking!  Woot!

Here's to good friends who egg us on to small personal accomplishments,

Deb

Bloggity Backlog: Labor Day Weekend

I seem to have an extensive backlog of blogs written in my head.  Unfortunately, the wireless device connecting my brain to Blogger has yet to be invented.  And blogging from the iPad still seems wrought with problems.   So it's likely the extended version of these posts will never be written. Instead, we'll just hit the highlights.

One of September's highlights:  a long weekend at Manzanita with some of our favorite people in the world, Uncle Wil and Aunt Kathy.



We love the moody weather of the Oregon coast--both the bright sunshiny days and the grey, foggy days. We love tide pools and sand castles and our favorite bookstores and coffee shops in Manzanita. We love renting a house far nicer (and cleaner!) than our own. We love the crabcakes and fish tacos that the Wise and Bearded One makes with fresh dungeness crab and halibut. We love living less than two hours from the ocean.

Sisters, Oregon

I love living in Oregon. This past weekend we took a mini-vacation to Sisters. Nestled in the Cascade range, this faux-cowboy town doesn't have a whole lot going for it as a town, but the view (The View!) and the easy access to the pleasures of the back country make it a fabulous place to vacation.

We did a little hiking, some fish feeding and some photo taking. We celebrated my 38th birthday by going out to dinner one night. But mostly we took it easy, sleeping in each day and spending afternoon nap time at the cottage we'd rented from a friend. Oh, and we worked on potty training. The ice cream cones, they were a reward for...um...doing the business that needs to be done where it needs to be done.








Feeding the fish at Wizard Falls Hatchery on the Metolius River





Proxy Falls, on the rainy side of the mountains



The freakish landscape of the Belknap lava fields






Sunset over South Sister, Middle Sister, North Sister and my two most beloved people.