Blossoms

April 27

We arrived home yesterday afternoon and started to settle into the home routine. We are off to the gym, then chores.

Hope you have a great day.

April 25

We did our Papa and Nana duties of reading, pushing the wagon, crawling around on the floor, going for a walk and keeping Nora occupied as we all worked outside on last fall's landscaping project. Nora loved the dirt and crawling through the tall grass before it was mowed.

Fun for all.

April 24 Matt's Birthday

Pam and Doug headed home. Nancy and I left for Klamath Falls after picking up some authentic Indian food (Matt's favorite) at the Taj restaurant in Ashland. We cruised over the mountain on a clear crisp spring day with snow still on the side of the road. In early March, we followed a snowplow for many miles to get over the passes. This was a much more relaxing ride.

We were greeted by Katie, Matt, Nora, Ginger the pug and two cats. Three hugs for the kids and lots of head rubs for the four footed members of the family. We all enjoyed the Indian food for Matt's birthday dinner. Katie made a scrumptious chocolate cake with mint icing -- YUMMMMM.......

Happy Birthday to Jackie, who was born on the same day, 29 years ago.

April 23

After MacBeth, today was light. The four of us went to Jacksonville, Oregon http://www.el.com/to/jacksonville/ The girls went shopping and Doug and I visited the Bella Union and enjoyed a beer and some good conversation. After a great lunch, we moved the shopping bags to the trunk and toured the back roads on our way to Ashland. The Medford area is great this time of year with hundreds of acres of fruit trees blooming. Most of the growers sell to Harry and David's http://www.harryanddavid.com/gifts/store/home___
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There are many vineyards and wineries here. We enjoy touring the area and tasting the fabulous wine.
http://www.applegatewinetrail.com/map.php



We all went to the Music Man. It was very well done. We quietly hummed the tunes while enjoying the story of the con man turned around by the power of love. As a bonus, all of the actors' heads stayed on.

April 22

Nancy and I traveled to Ashland, Oregon with Pam and Doug for some fun and culture. We saw MacBeth tonight. The staging and acting was very well done. Freud would have loved all of the characters. Psychotic breaks, hearing voices, heads removed in unceremonious ways and what happens when you get to big for your britches and develop a conscience.

April 21

I was honored to co-facilitate an ongoing counseling group of 5th grade boys. I will be doing this for the next seven weeks.

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Back to the tulip farm for some afternoon pictures. My friend Mark and I take trips to photograph places around Oregon. He uses a 4"x 5" film camera, with a hood. It is great to watch him in total concentration setting up to make an image. He made four images today and I took about 120 pictures. He is a great resource of information and fun to be around.





http://www.markreidphotography.com/

April 20 ~ One week later

Last Monday I had an operation on my eye lids. Here are the before and one week later pictures.

It is a real change for me looking in the mirror.

The weather was great, so Nancy and I set up the patio for outdoor dinning and relaxing. We also ate a very pleasant meal watching the robins dinning in the yard, humming birds debating who should eat first, squirrels lopping across the back fence and the next door neighbor power thatching his lawn at full throttle.

April 19 ~~ Great Sunrise and a Surprise

I woke up at 04:00 this morning and had been thinking about going to the Wooden Shoe tulip farm in Woodburn to take some morning pictures. The sky was clear, a crescent moon with Venus positioned right below the moon. I packed my camera equipment and headed the 40 miles south.

The first picture you see Mt. Hood in the distance.

I am doing fine and taking lots of pictures, then all of these trailers show up at 6:00 and start parking in front of Mt. Hood. Bummer. The last truck and trailer drives by and I hooted and jumped for joy. There was a convention of hot air.

I always wanted to watch and photograph this event. These are the first ones to take off in very very light breeze.

The balloon captains just hovered their balloons three or four feet above the tulips.

Some days are great and I was on the road home by 08:00.

The rest of the day was good too.
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April 18 Garden Day

I definitely needed a rest Saturday evening. I mentioned finishing our raised beds and had enough soil for two, sooooo.... I needed three yards more (6000 to 7000 pounds) of good garden soil to finish filling the remaining beds. The tomatoes, peas and peppers are in the ground and we are waiting for some seeds to arrive via snail mail to finish my junior gardening project.

Tax Day

I have spent the last two days getting bored, listening to books on tape and with ice packs on my eyes. I thought I would have more bruising, but it looks like a have bad make-up job on my upper eye lids. I will show you the before and after I have healed pictures later.

I hope you are not in a last minute rush on your taxes.

April 13

I will be off line for a couple of days. I will be going in for a little surgery on my eyelids. My eyelids are getting a little droopy.

http://www.surgery.org/public/procedures/eyelid_surgery
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Easter

A great Easter service and we headed for Albany to have a family dinner with our extended family. Great times.

April 11

The fish went on vacation today. Jef and I fished the Columbia from 6:00 to 12:00 and did not see a pole go down or a net out to bring in a fish.

Nancy and I went to the Ten Grands concert in Portland for the Snowman Foundation. This organization raises money for music education in our area. Ten grand pianos and 8 top piano soloists featured 2 young performers ( a 17 year old girl and a 12 year old boy). Each played a solo highlighting their own style, then joined the others playing duets, trios, and whole group selections. Several young guests played duets with the other performers.

Background for this thought - The organizer, performer and head of the Snowman Foundation (Michael Allen Harrison) invited area middle and elementary school music teachers to nominate someone who would like to perform in front of 3000 people. The most exciting moment for me came when Michael announced the person who would play their solo. We heard the name, then saw a child sprinting down the aisle like she was in the Olympic finals, her head bobbing just above the seat backs. In a flash the young girl appears on the stage. She announces that she is 8 years old and when asked what she would play said, "I don't know." With no hesitation she bounds over to the padded piano bench. She doesn't hesitate when the bench is too high - she just stands up and prepares to play. After a couple tentative notes, she starts knocking the audience right out of their seats. She played two pieces, bowed for a second and raced off the stage. Someone off stage must have lassoed her and guided her back to the stage. After two more bows, Micheal asked her if she would like to play at Ten Grands again. This time the answer was an emphatic "YES."

http://www.snowmanfoundation.org/

Finally a keeper

Mark caught this near the osprey nest. We had another one on the line for a while, but ......

It was good to get a keeper. Doug has been eager to have some salmon to smoke. The Reiners and Lanes will have fresh smoked salmon as part of our Easter dinner.

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It was a very nice day on the river with Doug and Mark.

Life is good.

April 9 --- Sex on the River

I went fishing this morning. One vigorous bite, but only a moment of excitement.

Background for the pictures. Oregon has an increasing number of raptors. Osprey (fish eagles) nest near the water on a high platform in a pile of branches and different kinds of fluff.

The best fishing for the next couple of weeks has many boats trolling slowly within a 100 feet of the nest. None of the fisherman bother the osprey pairs and the osprey don't seem to be bothered with the fisherman. This nest has been occupied for several years. The first picture is the pair building the nest and the second picture is the pair mating. I picked up my camera about three minutes before I took these pictures. Luck is a wonderful thing.

April 8

4:30 A.M. was very early today. I arrived at the boat launch on the Columbia at 5:30 and 30 boats were ahead of me. I launched a little after 6:00 and there were 40 to 50 boats waiting to launch. My fishing partners for today were Doug and Devin. By 7:30, there were boats (200 to 300) everywhere between the I-5 Bridge and the I-205 bridges (about 2 miles) We did not see many fish caught today (2) and about 9:00, Devon hooked a wild Chinook. Remember wild fish are released - hatchery raised fish make it to the table. For the technical difference between wild and hatchery is whether the fish has an adipose fin on the dorsal side of the fish just ahead of the tail (look at the picture and you will see a small fin just in front of the tail). The hatchery people will clip that fin before they are released. Today was fun, but no dinner.

April 6

Sunny weather visited us for the last two days. We ventured outside and it was weed patrol for Nancy and I finished building our raised beds. I have been rebuilding them and moving the dirt from one to the other. Now I have two empty ones to fill (OH joy). These beds are significantly higher than my old ones. It will make it easier to harvest all of our organic vegetables.

North Carolina is whooping Michigan State in the first half.

April 5

Busy day. Early church. A quick trip to Lincoln City to drop off a easy chair and we needed to check on things. On the way home we stopped at the tulip festival to take a few pictures, but the tulips are very late this year. So I have some nice daffodil pictures.

April 4

Nancy and I went to Corvallis, Oregon for the ordination of a young man, Lance Peeler, that grew up in our church. It was a very special special day.

April 3

Fishing again on the Columbia with Doug, Scott and Roger. No fish today.. Nancy and I went over to David and Sherry's to help them lay some sub flooring in preparation for hardwood floors. We will work on that later.

April 1

Wednesday was cold, windy and wet, so Doug and I went fishing on the Columbia River. I caught a wild chinook salmon. The fish was about 30" long and put up a great fight. The downside is that hatchery fish make to the dinner table and native or wild fish are released.

Tuesday 3-31

Katie returned from her trip. Matt, Katie and Nora are now spending some time with Katie's parents so everybody gets some time with the Klamath Falls Lanes.

We really enjoyed babysitting Nora and Ginger the Pug.