Today Let's...

Today was a great day.

It was a sandals and no jacket day.

It was a 'if I had a pony still', I'd be riding it day.
But since I don't still have one...

it was a let's go explore both the coast and Cascade foothills day.

Let's spend time at a lake day.

Let's watch the fishermen on the river catch fish day.

It was also a let's take a hike by a creek and over a bridge day.

Can you tell it was a wonderful day?

Hope yours was great too!

~

More photos to follow after the weekend ends.

AND

now...

it's time for my treat of the week:)

Blessings,

Aimee

~

Photos: foothills of the northern Oregon Cascade Mountains

After the Spring Snow

Small patches of snow still cover the land here and there

but a beautiful blue sky is overhead and the temperature is rising.

Did several walks in the garden today--so much is blooming!

Seems like daily there are noticeable changes;

this season is SO exciting!

The colors are such a welcome change after the gray of winter.

The lighting in the early morning and late evening a delight!

With all the signs of spring that are filling the garden now,

I am thinking that BBQ season isn't far off now

(last year our first one was in mid April).

Now that thought makes me hungry...

hungry for my youngest son's awesome barbecued salmon and asparagus.

But back to the garden...

one of my favorite daffodils is blooming now.

I love the nice sunny color and fancy petals!

Do you?

Next to it is one of our early blooming blueberries.

YUM, blueberries...garden walks can cause one to get quite hungry you know.

The daphne has started to bloom now (not shown in bloom here)

I had been checking it frequently and not seen an open flower yet.

I walked near it today--

the fragrance left no doubt that buds had opened and soon I found several.

And while sitting on the deck,

admiring the beauty and fragrance of the daphne,

I saw that the rosemary is starting to bloom now too.

Rosemary and lamb,

rosemary, garlic and chicken...

you know where this is going, don't you?

Nope--you're wrong.

I like to leave most of that to my cooking blogging buddies:)

Although on occasion I do go there with a recipe or two.

Did you hear we might have at least some sun here in the PNW for 2 days?

I know...I'm smiling about that too.

Blessings,

Aimee

A sad note here for garden loving me...

our Oregon Spring viburnum did not survive the spring snow unscathed.

Yesterday afternoon it had major surgery and isn't its old self anymore:(

We consider ourselves lucky though-

at my sibling's home they lost a fully mature Japanese maple

(now that hurts).

Luckily for them it didn't hit their home.

Notes:

primroses, pieris, bleeding heart (a type of), daffodil, daphne, rosemary, plum

(shiro, satsuma blood and our wild plum all now have blossoms).

On Being Wrong: I

I've been wrong before

and I know I'll be wrong again.

But when I said I didn't want anymore snow...

I was most definitely WRONG!

Because when I saw the lovely, fluffy white, bright snow this morning...

I knew it was what I really deep down wanted and had hoped for:)

And when I stood on our deck,

taking photos in sox and pajamas only;

then later when I threw on a pair of boots

and a light jacket and happily made my way through the snow;

and finally when I listened to the serenade of a solitary bird in a tall tree,

I thanked God that He,

once again,

knew I was wrong

and made it right.

For deep, deep down I had hidden a wish that our garden would turn into a winter

(spring) wonderland, at least once more,

just like the wonderland I had experienced at Mt Hood not so long ago.

And then I came indoors where I drank two mugs of wonderfully hot sweet orange tea
and enjoyed the snow blessing from the warmth of our home.

And now, since I've been up all night, it's time for a long nap.

~

Thank you God for your blessings!

Aimee

~

Note:

As you can see we have a few things blooming (or just about to bloom).

They are: the plum trees, daffodils, pieries, the magnolia, the forsythia.

Just heard today on the news that the latest spring snow we've had is in early April...

do you think?? :)

Welcome Spring!

Tonight, a little after 10 PM,

God opened the door to a new season...

the season of spring!

May it bring you lots of blue skies

beautiful blossoms

warmer temperatures

and hopefully NO more snow (pretty please).

Wishing you a season of many blessings, Aimee

Photos: Astor Column, Astoria, OR
Cherry blossoms, Salem, OR
Wooden Shoe, Woodburn, OR (sorry about the quality--old photo)

The City of Roses (Before the Roses)

So many things I could say about Portland, Oregon's largest city,

but I'll let the photos do most of the talking...

Portland is known for being bicycle friendly;

many of its residents use their bicycles to get to work.

Some even commute from their homes in the suburbs to their jobs in the city on bike. We saw several bicylists during our time there, including this group of 'bicylists' found on top of a building in SE Portland. I do LOVE public art and Portland has a lot of that:)

Portland also has a mass transit system including buses, MAX (lightrail) and streetcar should you not want to ride a bike or walk. (IMHO it is a bit challenging to drive in downtown Portland, hence I let my wonderful friend, who is quite familiar with the downtown district do all the driving).
Oh I should say Portland has an aerial tram too--

Here is a photo I took of it in 2010.

Speaking of public art...

Portland is known for its bridges...there are 10 bridges that cross the Willamette River, the river that runs through the middle of Portland. The oldest, the Hawthorne Bridge, was built in 1910. Today we used the Burnside Bridge, built in 1926. I am particularly fond of its towers and think it is much prettier than the Marquam Bridge built in modern times.

The city has many historic churches-on both sides of the river. In the downtown section of Portland it seemed like their towers were everywhere I looked; some day I would love to spend time exploring them. Meanwhile I keep adding more photos to my collection of PNW historic churches...do you think it has something to do with the fact that I have some ministers in my ancestry? Maybe. But it could also be that I just adore the architecture of historical churches and imagining what it was like when they were new.

Did you notice the wind turbines on top of the skyscraper? The one behind this old church?And what about that combination of historical and modern; yes that is Portland too. We have historical buildings in the more rural areas of Oregon, where I happily reside, but it was quite exciting to see so much history in such a small area. I LOVE it!

This is the Keller Fountain; this is the dry Keller Fountain. I know this one well from having spent a lot of time in Portland when I was younger (during the so called hippie era) when we attended a church there. This is the first time I've seen it not running--but then I don't go to this area of Portland a lot anymore. It is quite popular when it is flowing during the summer; pretty too.

Portland is home to several colleges--both private and state. One of them is PSU (Portland State University). These spring blooms were on their campus.(BTW, the roses Portland is famous for start blooming later in spring--around May or so. Portland celebrates this with a big Rose Festival held in June. One year a friend of ours took us on his boat while it was going on. Quite a different view from streetside).

I should be in bed...that is if I want to get anything done today plus html is NOT cooperating with me so I will close with this photo that is SO Portland: a bike rack, electric car charging station, an eco (green) roof at a downtown office building...I LOVE the eco roof, don't you! If ever I get my dream of having a stabbur, it will have a green roof:)

Night all!

Blessings, Aimee
(SO sorry about the horrific formatting)

Links for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon

(wikipedia was one of the sources for some of the info in this post)

http://wikitravel.org/en/Portland_%28Oregon%29