Stephanie says

Me and mom, walking down Front Street in Portland, circa 1969.   I’m a babe, 16 years old, hair down to here, skirt up to there, rockin those wedge heels.   Mom, 20 years my senior, is dressed to the nines in professional suit, fully accessorized with purse, shoes and jewelry.   And her hair, her amazing auburn hair done up in a French Twist.   She is such a beautiful woman.   We’re turning heads as we walk along.   Passersby and cars alike.   We’re walking along like we don’t notice.   My mother is carrying my dad’s 30.06 rifle, fully sheathed, that we just redeemed from a pawn shop from the seedy waterfront district of Portland, carrying that gun just like it was a bouquet of flowers.   Damn, that woman had such style.     I’ll say this for her, she taught me the meaning of aplomb.  

 Best I can do with my existing equipment.  It almost looks like a duck! The water is all-lumpy looking because of the water lilies.  They're thriving. I like this silhouette shot.

Field trips are just one of the perks.  Went for a ride on Friday into the mountains to check road conditions.  Rough, huh? Shot from Bell Mountain, just north of Elkton.  Views of the Umpqua River abound. High altitude  pasture land, (relatively speaking).  Reminds me of the Alps but the cows don't wear bells here. Douglas Fir forest

Driving home yesterday I neared a budding red tree, vaguely identified as a red leaf maple during earlier drives, (because I'm a tree geek,) and noticed extremely unusual bright yellow flowers at the tip of each branch. This is atypical of red leaf maple flowering habits so maybe I mis-identified the tree?  What tree is red with large yellow flowers?  I crane my head to get a better look when the bright yellow flowers morph into birds and soar away in a swarm.   Surreal. Have I driven into a Disney movie?  Acid flashback? I suspect they are Western Tanagers which migrate through this valley in the spring.  There are just so many of them!  I drove by again today and they are still here, although not as many.  A big cherry tree loaded with fruit may be the attraction. I'm waiting for confirmation from Terry.  And thinking maybe I should plant a cherry tree.  Am I turning into a bird geek?  photo by utahbirds.com

I've been watching this bird sitting on its habitual perch in the middle of the pond for weeks now.  It's taken a long time to identify but it's a Double-Crested Cormorant.  This is a pretty feeble attempt to photograph it, shot with my phone with limited zoom power.  Nice arrow though! There was a family of Canadian geese on the water today, six yellow goslings swimming in the vee of their mother's wake.  Papa tailed the brood.  Took the dogs out today, to their great delight.  It's been raining nonstop all week so this was our first outing in days, and they were rambunctious. Moose was ahead of me by just enough distance that I couldn't stop him from rolling in something fetid and foul. He got his when we got home:  a cold water spray down.  Ha.  I really should buy a shock collar...

so lovely and so fragrant

Portuguese Sausage, Scrambled Eggs & Rice I'm making Portuguese Bean Soup and just couldn't resist slicing off a portion of linguica for breakfast.  The combination of sausage, eggs, and rice is my Hawaiian comfort food.   I gave a nod to nutrition and used brown rice but have to admit I'd much rather eat white rice in this meal.  A little kim chee on the side, yummeee. Here's the link to the soup recipe:  Portuguese Bean Soup