A Mystery (Or Not)

Some photos don't tell the whole story...

 

 

They may leave you wanting to know more...

 

 

And more shall be revealed in time dear visitors.

But first...

 

 

The talk of the beach...

Do you see him?

There were two sharing the same tree.

This was yet another time I wished for a better zoom!

Still it was quite exciting:)

 

I LOVE it when the ocean is blue...

 

Ah...

nothing like the sea on a sunny day in January.

Unfortunately north of here near Arch Cape there is a wildfire

and we are in a drought situation...

in winter when we usually have our fill of rain--

and snow in the mountains.

 

 

 

I missed this little arch first time around...

amazing how a few steps one way or another changes things.

 

 

But back to the beginning...

here's another photo of 'those' things pictured at the start of this post.

 

Now do you know what they are and what happened decades ago?

 

Perhaps this video will help.

Either way, I think you'll enjoy it--

I find our history fascinating...

such a wonderful world we live in!

 

 

 Have a great weekend!

Do you have plans?

I do...

but if I don't get some more tasks done today,

 my plans won't become a reality.

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

The above video can also be accessed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYG2EuV_yfs

Video produced by Michael Durham.

 

Photos:

Neskowin Beach

January 2014

 

 

 

Treasures at the Seashore

This weekend was glorious!

Blue skies lifted our spirits;

sunshine warmed our bodies.

And beach treasures enriched our day....

 

 

I found this on our first day...

a treasure to decorate my granddaughter's sandcastles.

The amazing thing?

It was still there on the second day!

 

A coastal 'wishbone'--

how could we resist not making a wish?

One guess as to whose wish is coming true?

(of course love would have wished for her wish to come true)

 

Love the detail...

 

Beautiful!

 

One of my favorite views looking out towards Cascade Head

(and to your right is Proposal Rock).

Not seen is the gorgeous long stretch of beach north of this rock.  

LOVE this place!

 

 

Not too far away is another beach--Cape Kiwanda.

Cape Kiwanda is the southernmost of the 'Three Capes'

and home of the Dory Fleet.

It is truly a gorgeous beach

(especially with the right lighting which is NOT midday when we were there--LOL).

I like it best during the week when the crowds thin

and the 'natives' abound:)

Here is a post I made a few years ago at this beach

(if you're a gull fan, you might like it)

 

And of course, one of our family treasures...

in case it isn't obvious,

she is running towards her 'treasure'--

Papa:)

 

Well since sunlight is streaming through my windows and blue skies are overhead,

it's time for me to find some more treasures (tempting)

or maybe just get some tasks done!

 

BTW, has anyone seen Disney's 'Frozen'?

Went to see it this last weekend with Small One.

There I devoured a whole lot of buttered popcorn (YUM),

loved the Nordic elements of the movie (fjords, trolls, crafts, etc.)

and the really nice musical soundtrack,

fought back tears at the end of the film 

(yes, really. I think I am in my second childhood--LOL)...

and had an all together amazing time!

 

But now, two days later,

I can't seem to get Elsa's song "Let It Go" out of my mind

(above link to Disney Animation video on You Tube).

Oh well, at least it replaces last week's reoccurring song

:)

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Photos:

North Oregon Coast, Mid January 2014

Indulging Myself (Fluffy White Puppy Video)

I hope you'll indulge me for about 3 1/2 minutes...this video of an American Eskimo in Alaska brought back some awesome memories of my own pup, and it contains a few of my favorite things (fluffy white puppy, gorgeous snow capped mountains, pup in snow, a catchy tune, nice 'scrapbook' video format and more). Hope you enjoy it...



Love it!
May you smile for a long, long time my baby:)

Blessings,
Aimee

You can also find the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q76vrC58Ko
By TheAlaskanEskimo


Here are a few more photos of my little Eskie:

 

 

Stormy Weather -- Must be Time for a Roadtrip

For most people, stormy weather means staying home and safe. But for us--or at least for my DH-- it means it must be the perfect time for a road trip in the mountains. a

And since I am DH's DW, and since I have been known to do a few (somewhat) semi-daring things in my life (like walking on frozen ponds and attempting to walk on semi frozen creeks), well off to the mountains we went. Fortunately we lucked out and our road trip was 'between' the two bad parts of our storm.

Here are a few photos from one part of our trip today.

 

On the hilltop -- upper Nehalem Valley

Well there we checked out the camping sites...

I can HARDLY wait till camping season begins--our RV looks SO lonely without company:)

 

 

DDD (in this case dear daughter dog) saying to herself--

"Are you crazy mom? There's a storm going on you know!".

 

And the photo missing here...

me with my long hair blowing straight UP because of the wind...

(we found out later they had issued a warning for cold funnel clouds

 in addition to the high wind warnings)

 

One of the lakes I love to visit when I am in need of seeing some ducks...

this used to be a millpond, but the city of Vernonia has turned it into a park with hiking trails and such. So peaceful here--on the Banks-Vernonia State Trail

(which also runs through a state park and over an old railroad trestle).

Here are some (sunnier) photos of the trail in the trestle area:

http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com/2012/09/in-footsteps-of-my-farmer-boy.html

 

Of course there is ONE trestle you DON'T want to go over because it kind of ends halfway over.

I couldn't get a good photo of that one today...

but it is fascinating to see! It was damaged in the mid 1980s by a fire.

Here is an earlier photo of it from Highway 47 which travels under it.

 

 

You can't really see the destroyed section in this photo, but it would be to your left.

If you are driving through you can't miss it.

 

 

Wonder what they're thinking?

What do ducks think in stormy weather?

 

 

I love this photo for two reasons--

first, the one duck has the cutest backside (LOL)

and secondly,

what beautiful coloring on the brown duck!

 Don't you think so?

 

Well we've come to the end of another week and 'the end' of my tale!

 

Have a blessed Sunday. I hear we're going to have some sunnier weather later this week:)

Maybe time for another road trip???

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

A Little Knowledge Can Indeed Be A Very Dangerous Thing :)

The saying goes that "A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing"... well I could not agree with that more right now! But the good news is that after weeks of dealing with an update issue which made my computer run like molasses in sub zero weather (no kidding)....and then, foolishly, once that issue was solved, pressing a button under settings while attempting to solve an issue in blogger (which then made my blogger dashboard inaccessible)...well the solution to that problem has now, obviously, been found and I am back. You gotta love the Internet and all the new 'challenges' it brings to our lives:)

Let me first start off by apologizing for those who have left comments this past week. I am SO  sorry I was unable to post or respond to them--but as you can see, they are now posted and I will try to reply to them ASAP. Thank you, thank you for your patience!

Well on to reading your comments---a 'task' that seems MUCH more like a blessing than a task:)
Blessings,
Aimee

Scenes of the Season: Advent + Christmas 2013

Happy New Year!

 

Life has been super busy here the last month or so

(hence the lack of posts).

 

During that time we've had our share of challenges:

a long arctic freeze

(brrr!),

some related house woes

(sigh)

and

others I won't bore you with.

 

 But we've also had our share of blessings:

a HUGE answer to prayer which brought some much needed PEACE to my life,

the departure of the arctic front

(yippee)

AND

some VERY, VERY special visitors!

 

Isn't life always like that?

Challenges AND blessings know NO season.

 

 

Here are two of our special visitors--

you probably recognize the small one...

well the bigger one

('hiding' out in the background there)

is small one's daddy 

AND we had the pleasure of seeing them for almost 2 weeks!

An extra benefit is my kids all LOVE to cook--soooo 

I had almost no cooking responsibility for the entire time.

COOKING VACATION!!

 

In this picture the daddy-daughter team are fixing us lasagna:)

Mmm.

It was very good!

 

Another visitor was Santa's Helper who filled in for Per (our tomte -- elf) who was AWOL

(meaning grandma forgot she left him up on top of the bookcase SINCE last Christmas)

He was a BIG help--

leaving gifts for us to pick up at the store,

leaving ornaments out for the Christmas tree

(our first one in years),

and delivering a few Advent gifts for the small one.

Come Christmas Eve, he promptly disappeared, his job done.

Such a magical season:)

 

Per, our missing tomte.

This year I added two more tomte to my collection

(yes, this season ALWAYS includes at least one trip to a Scandinavian shop)

Santa's Helper,

currently taking a long deserved nap in an undisclosed location, will someday be another tomte--

after a little bit of work on my part.

This season also ALWAYS includes at least one visit to a craft store too:)

 

 

We had some visitors outside too--

two hummingbirds

(thanks to a post by Teresa last year we found out our native hummingbirds

 should be fed during the winter)

AND this cutie

(thanks son for the GREAT photo!)

 

 

As I've mentioned,

it's been a LONG time between Christmas trees...

but Santa's Helper managed to find quite a bit of Christmas ornaments packed away in our house

AND

with a few new ones the DH and son picked up,

we were ready to decorate the tree...

 well except for the fact that I had NO idea where our tree stand was--

AND

there were none to be found in the closest town.

 

 

No prob! Farmer Boy did as his family had done for years when he was a boy--

one LARGE plastic bucket,

quite a few LARGE rocks from the garden,

water

and we were set!

 

 

Yes, I admit--I have a THING for reindeer.

It wouldn't be Christmas for me without tomte with red caps and shiny reindeer--

yep, even when we don't have a tree,

I always enjoy having a few of them somewhere in our home.

This year it was awesome to put them on a tree!

 

 

I leave you with a photo of the small furry one all dressed up in her Christmas sweater...

More later--

if I can that is.

One of those new challenges?

 A problem with our laptop.

 

New Year's Blessings,

Aimee

 

Sorry about some of the photos--

sometimes you just have to capture the moment and can't worry about whether your phone

(or camera) settings are correct for the lighting--or lack of it :)

Sorry also for any unintentional grammatical/spelling errors--

it's been a long, long night of troubleshooting :(

 

Saturday Sojurn in the Land of the Elk

Brrr!
It's cold outside--definitely cold enough for snow,
 if ONLY there was a LITTLE moisture to go with this Arctic Front...
sigh,
Alas, no snow here yet, but the sunny skies have been nice-
very special blessings at this time of the year which is known more for gray than blue!
How's the weather where you're at?
Are you bundled up like we are too?

Brrr.

And now,
onto the theme of this post--
elk, elk and more elk:)

After a wonderful 'Beach Friday' last week...
the next day found us outdoors again,

this time several hours north of that area.

Our goal was to see some Roosevelt Elk and to visit one of our favorite beaches
on the north Oregon coast.

First the elk...

 

 

The first sighting was along the road--but since only ONE of us saw the elk

(my eagle-eyed hubby of course and not me),

we're not going to count that as an official sighting:)

Therefore, our first REAL sighting was at Jewell Meadows Wildlife Refuge.  

 

 

Gorgeous aren't they?

 

 

Not the best photo--sorry.

 

 

And, as a bonus, just because I LOVE it--

a photo of hanging moss!

As I said, I LOVE this stuff:) 

Does anyone know what kind it is?

I know I have seen it all over NW Oregon.

 

 

Next, MORE elk --

this time on a meadow overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

This was a planned destination-

because it's one of our favorite North Coast beaches;

the elk sighting here was a totally unexpected bonus!

 

 

I would have ventured closer, had I not been with my granddaughter,

but I didn't want to take any chances with her by my side--

elk are beautiful, majestic, amazing creatures--

but they are wild, not tame, ones.

 

 

And, a later sighting.

It was a GOOD day:)

 

 

A very, very good day!
(and yes we played on the beach. Doesn't everyone when it's late autumn?)

 

Blessings,

Aimee

Photos:
Jewell Meadows Wildlife Refuge
(located on Highway 202 which is a fun road to take from the Upper Nehalem Valley
 to Astoria when it's good weather. You can also visit Fishhawk Falls at Lee Wooden County Park a few miles from the refuge--beautiful and not too long of a walk.
North Oregon coast
 

Black Friday vs. Beach Friday

Some celebrate 'Black Friday'.

 

 

I choose to celebrate 'Beach Friday'

with lots of... 

 

 

 'Lake Friday'.

 

A little 'Food Overlooking the Bay Friday'...

 

and some 'Playing at the Park Friday'.

 

Topped off with a  bit of 'Pretend Princess Friday'

 

It was a great way to usher in the coming Christmas season and we were not alone in our celebrations

(although we were the only ones playing in the sand at the lake).

There were also people celebrating

'Fishing Friday',

'Boating Friday',

'Beachcombing Friday'

and there was even

one person celebrating

'waterskiing Friday'!

 

How did you celebrate 'Black Friday'?

 

Have a blessed weekend!

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Photos:

Central Oregon Coast today:)

 

Thanksgiving

Every year I write up detailed plans for celebrations...

from the menu to the décor and the dinnerware,  

it's all there in black and white

(or blue depending on what pen I am using--LOL)

But, for the last several years, real life has stepped in

and the detailed plans have all had to be put aside in favor of something much simpler.

This year was no exception--

it all started with a sick dog.

I will spare you the details,

but suffice it to say that I am extremely thankful for the lovely invention of pee pads right now

and a bathroom that has vinyl flooring.

Sigh. Small furry one is not a happy camper right now and

 may have to be seen by a Vet tomorrow...

Aimee not feeling so well right now either--

but no doctor visit needed thankfully

(and there are lots of leftovers so no need to cook for hubby today if I don't feel better).

 

 

Decoration plans were changed...

no time to rummage through the storage cabs and containers with everything going on--

the end result was not exactly what was first envisioned but it was colorful--

and contained for the first time REAL aspen leaves --

(photo below)

And, did you see?

Sunshine on Thanksgiving Day!

 

Decorations done, cleaning finished;

menu pared down more--

and the prep of the 'bird' began...

a cold shower,

a search for any hiding 'parts'...

oven bag and cast iron skillet ready

(LOVE cast iron).

And then--

the DH decides NOW is a good time to do pond maintenance,

which will, of course, require Aimee's participation 

 

Now?

Yes.

Sigh.

Turkey will have to wait for seasoning but bird is at least in the oven.

Hubby takes a walk into a very icy pond;

Aimee takes a walk into the very dirty, cobweb covered greenhouse...

yikes!

Two pond filters off line, maintenance complete and cooking resumes.

Turkey pulled for seasoning; 

timer reset.

So thankful for modern ovens, hot water, refrigerators, supermarkets,

a nice warm car and dry weather!

 

And so it went.

But that is what we do.

We don't give up;

we keep going

and we count our blessings as we do so,

because no matter how trying our circumstances are,

we all have blessings in our lives.

Yes, we certainly do.

So thankful to hear from ALL three of my children today

(miss you though).

 

 

"Behold, now, another providence of God..."

From Plymouth Plantation

(William Bradford)

 

I think back to my forefathers and how they crossed the sea to come to a new world.

I recall how they didn't give up when faced with hardship, sickness,

death, hunger, deprivation and loss.

Instead they prayed at all times

and gave thanks for God's never ending Providence.

Providence that came in the form of a safe ocean crossing,

Providence that came in the form of help offered from the Native American population.

 

No, they weren't perfect people,

but they were definitely a people of faith--

and that got them through their days--

both those that were good

and those that appeared to be very bad.

And, even though times have changed dramatically since those early days in Plymouth,

we I can learn a lot from following their example.

 

Ah! A wishbone--

can't let this little tradition slip by...

(wishing, wishing...)

And this one time I will share my wish with you,

because my wish is for YOU+

 

I wish for you --

joy in times of trouble,

serenity in times of stress,

peace in times of anxiety and change,

love to comfort you in times of loss

and

blessings always.

 

Aimee

 

Photos:

This year's pared down and changed decorations--

a mixture of real autumn leaves (dried) and not so real.

pine cones, dried flowers, candles, ornamental corn and more.

Fiesta (made in USA by Homer Laughlin China Company) dinnerware--

LOVE it:)

Corn on the cob plates

 (made in the USA--these were my mom's)

Lace cloth napkins

(with flatware inside).