May 9

Nancy and I walked along Portland's waterfront this morning. It was beautiful and the walk was great too. We encountered several thousand Doggie Dash people and dogs on their big walk for the Oregon Humane Society. (The white line on the bridge is a portion of the people and dogs). We decided to avoid the walkers and went the other direction past the Blue Fin submarine and watched Dragon Boat teams (12 people in a big canoe) practicing their rowing.

More planting (carrots, beets, onions and basil) and rototilling.

May 7

The last few days have been busy. Thank goodness, I do not have any pictures of rototilling, planting and cleaning the shop. The weather is sunny, cloudy, windy and rainy and rotates through the cycle about every 30 minutes.



Here are some pictures from the beach.

Uno de Mayo ~~ Track Day

I ventured out to Portland International Raceway today. David was getting his motorcycle tuned up for the race season. He is #177 and the other two riders are his teammates.



I took about 300 hundred pictures, of which about 150 turned out okay. I tried some new things with shutter speed that did not turn out well. Just more to learn.

April 30 Three run homer

Today was the last day we could fish for Chinook salmon. Doug, Roger and I went fishing on the Willamette River, near the mouth of the Columbia. We started fishing a little after 6:00 AM and were on our first pass through the fishing area at 6:30 when we caught fish #1. It was a nice bright salmon - about 8 pounds measuring 26 inches. We feel very fortunate when we are able to get at least one salmon on a fishing trip!

Now consider fishing with 80 to a 100 or more boats all trolling around in a half mile stretch of the river. They are all fishing about the same way you are and have two or more fishermen in each boat. The chances of catching a fish are pretty low.

At 7:00 we hook and land #2 - 12 pounds and 29 inches of fresh salmon.

It is phenomenal to get two in the boat on the same trip when we had only seen 8 caught by this time. We are really feeling good and the chances of getting number three are about the same as winning Powerball. A few more fish were caught by the armada of boats and "the bite" slacked off about 8:00. We continued to put-put around the fishing area snacking, telling fishing stories and dodging boats going hither and yon in a pattern based on the chaos theory.

10:00 "Holy Cat Woman!!" We hook another one. A nice 13 pounder that was 30 inches long.

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.