Spring colors have been vamping it up all over town. The gaudy celebratory technicolor blossoms bring unfettered joy. You can't not notice, no matter how grumpy or anxious you're feeling. Then I began noticing the backdrop of the quieter plants, the greenery, the natives. They're doing a happy dance of their own, their desire on parade, just not as flashy as the flowers...
Birdwatching
Bird World
Training Scrub-Jays to trust you is time consuming work. I've been tossing peanuts to them from the doorway all winter. Now the couple waits and watches from their nearby home in the back shrubbery, and even if I pass the doorway, they come out to watch and wait.
Spring at Powell Butte
Powell Butte has wide open spaces alongside forest that gives you big sky and a fat dose of trees and meadows. An oasis amidst gritty city commerce for birds, animals, and humans. And clouds. So many clouds.
Washington On Your Side
Washington in February may have been a misguided vacation plan. Sub-freezing temps, every layer of clothing I own, more miles of walking and more sitting in the car than is good for me - I kept hearing Little Feat's Old Folks Boogie: "And you know, that you're over the hill, when your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill."
Cranes’ Landing and Fog
We went for another glimpse of Sandhill Cranes, but everything was submerged in an opaque fog, and we could have been anywhere.... I listened intently for that bugling call, or the cry of the geese. Apparitions rose from the fog as I peered around, and my ears strained to hear
Cranes’ Landing
We spent a cold, rainy afternoon looking at birds, most especially, the migrating Sandhill Cranes. To watch them majestically take off and soar, or wheel around for a landing, is to stand in awe, rooted.
On the Road Again
Finally, everything aligned, and it was time to get out to the Oregon coast. I packed every bit of warm clothing, binoculars and bird books, notebooks and fiction, and we set out to the south in a drizzle. The sky was a tumult of grays and whites, and we drove over rivers, between pastures, past wetlands and bogs...
Snow Day
With daily temps hovering just below freezing we just walk the neighborhood as usual, round and round.
Natural Miracles
To walk with children is to slow down and see differently instead of the movie that plays in my head - you know, the thinking, projecting, dreaming, remembering, planning, spinning. Children are awake to the present moment, curious about things I no longer attend to or things I think I already know about....
Roots and Wings
Once the snack hits his bloodstream, the six year old jolts into action, running headlong up the trail... The nine year old is on a different sort of journey; carrying a notebook and pencil...
Rivers and Roads PDX 