Hey all! I got into Portland late last night. All went well during travel, save for a short delay at JFK. The only bad thing is my rental car. It has California plates. This is not good for someone driving around Oregon. Especially if you are a native. I think I may put a sign up in the window saying, "OREGON NATIVE. THIS IS JUST A RENTAL. PLEASE DO NOT SPIT ON ME."
Anyway, today is a lovely April day- lotsa sunshine. My folks aren't around right now, but I thought I would share some shots of some of my favorite things about staying with them.
1. Pacific Tree Frogs. My parents live in between the Columbia River and the Columbia Slough on a flood plain. As such, there are tons of these little guys around (they range from 3/4-2 inches long). This guy was spotted- but that could change. Pacific Tree Frogs can vary in color from this shade to bright lime green, depending on their habitat at the time. The other nice thing isthat they make lotsa noise despite their small stature... nice at night.
2. Favorite trees. I love these trees as I grew up with them! The willow, located in my neighbor's yard, was the site of many Tarzan-esque bouts of swinging in my youth. Hell, I'll probably go over there today and swing from it.
These two are in my family's yard. In the foreground is a plum tree that yields a TON of bright yellow sweet juicy plums every summer. In the backgrownd is a Colorado Blue Spruce,under which I used to have tea parties and the like... it's very fort-like underneath.
3. And here is a random shot of some of the things around my parents' yard. A fun eclectic mix of stuff, which explains my own eclectic style!
Will be back soon with more actual pictures of people- although for me, the nature stuff is almost as important ;- )
1 comment:
My favorite T-shirt from the 80s was a depiction of I-5 crossing the Columbia River from Portland into Washington. It had a sign that said "Californians Left Lane," which of course was a truncated off ramp which just dumped them in the river.
Then in Seattle I made the joke that on New Year's Eve the city had a tradition much like the ball dropping in Times Square: At midnight we'd throw a Californian off the Space Needle.
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