Musings

I found this collection of mementoes pacifying, although the figure has a rather serious mien. We had great fun visiting the legendary Al and Jill, and their younger generation, and a sample of one from the grandchild generation…so homey.

We saw the last night of Xmas lights, and these outlined the trees in an interesting distortion of the natural arrangement of the large and small branches.

Hmm. Wintery mix is pretty and contrastive in the spectrum of colors chosen to represent segments of the continuum from not freezing to freezing…. Stay warm, everyone.

Not mentioned, another world was the small-town breakfast buffet we hit (coffee and juice extra) that included pig in these forms: ham slabs, sausage patty, sausage links, bacon, sausage gravy, fried pork chops, hash, and a mixture of chopped canned tomatoes, onions, and ham. [UPDATE: also another sausage, perhaps Italian and something like andouille?] No one had a heart attack while we were there, but I worried that a regular might….

Posted at 8:27 PM | Comments Off on Peeks into several worlds

I left the house and I was happy that it was misting. I didn’t intend to adventure for long, but I thought I was safe from rain. No such luck.

I did wear my raincoat, and my down puffy-coat, so I was toasty and dry for the length of time I was outside.

I experimented with the new macro lens that clips on over my iPhone…. I will have to work on steadying my hands….

Posted at 5:28 PM | Comments Off on Close-up experimentation

We rolled away from our hipster hotel on wet roads in light rain, headed for the ocean and points north.

As we climbed the West Hills, we found the clouds, and more moisture, still with temps well above freezing.

All the info we had suggested that the higher elevations of the coast range would still be above freezing. Fortunately, the predictions held, although we could see plenty of snow on the trees and along the road.

We stopped for a nosh in sunshine, and the mixed weather yielded a rainbow!

As we continued north, we crossed the mighty Columbia. Two sections have arched bridges, and the colors are slightly different shades of green. I have no idea why…

The next section of road crossed and skirted many rivers and creeks headed for the ocean. The tide was out and we saw many waterfowl and a few herons. And mud.

I cannot explain why, but I wanted to see Washington’s capitol. Rain had returned, but we risked melting to roll down the window and take a couple of shots. Almost no traffic on this Saturday evening. We saw a few bits of snow along the curbs, indicating that the weather has been colder. We are happy it has tempered; we are happier to tolerate rain than ice.

Posted at 9:34 PM | Comments Off on A wander ending at a seat of government

In this luxe (for us) boutique hotel, the coffee is made by the cup—from the grinding forward—in a bath of pink light. The perfect consumer must be tech-oriented and younger than we are…no?

We headed out in the cold wind, with complementary trolley tickets from our hotel to get us out of the weather as we moved via electricity toward downtown.

Our goal was to wander the many aisles of Powell’s Bookstore. The rooms are color-coded. We spent considerable time in Purple, Red, and Pearl. I can’t remember the color of the room where I found this title. I don’t know why I photoed this. Something to ponder, I guess.

We took the street-car the long loop to return (using same tix), and even crossed the Willamette twice. I chose this for my first afternoon drink. Hands-down, the best mint tea I’ve ever had. I couldn’t say that I perceived that I was smelling a fine Oregon mint farm as I smelled the tea.

Our hotel has a complementary cocktail hour. Yesterday it was wine, a choice between two whites. Today, it was Ten Barrel products. I had Honey Bear Rye Barley Wine (I think that was it). Never heard of this or similar. Tasty. So, that was my second afternoon beverage.

As we were on the trolley returning toward our hotel the precip shifted from little flakes to huge flakes, and we knew we were in for it (as predicted by the weather-oologists). We ate a half block away (both icy and slushy underfoot) at a Moroccan restaurant—a cultural learning experience and very tasty. We chose lamb and fish entrees. I’m still full. The dessert, baklava of course, came with a different mint tea that neither of us fancied—I think because it had a touch of rose water in it.

Posted at 9:23 PM | Comments Off on Beverages and more

View out motel window, well after dawn. Ruh-roh. We did online chores and let the snow taper off before heading out.

When we got out of town and on the open road, we even found sunshine melting the bits on the road, even though the temps remained below freezing. Good sign: trains are still getting through.

Hmm. In the next valley, snow on the next ridge, but only wet road here. Great LTE, so quick check of DOT website on road conditions…bits of red ahead on the pass, but no closings. Crossed most of the valley, and whoops, orange cones across the road, and all traffic must exit. We crowd into a handy truckstop along with many other travelers, and get a bit to eat and listen to the chatter. Word is that they’re clearing highway-type flotsam/jetsam off the road. We have hope that we’ll get through before the temps begin to drop.

I finish my meal and head to the restroom. Sign over cash register says it all. Traffic cams show lines of semis on the highway along our route over the pass. We figure they’re trying to get the accumulated vehicles out and don’t want more arriving. We will not get through tonight.

Fortunately, this town seems prepared for just this situation, and there are several mom-and-pop motels. We are in one, very handy next to the Burger Something drive though. Walls are thin and the TV is not a flat panel, but heat, electricity, and wifi are working fine. We are recharging and hopeful. Movie time?

Posted at 10:35 PM | Comments Off on Uh-oh

So, the agriculture in the high plains revolves around cattle farming, seems to me…usually black angus or these herefords—both mostly polled (a genetic mutation that renders them hornless).

Along with the natural grazing, there’s plenty of hay growing and baling, and a demand for grain, mostly grown where there’s irrigation. Some irrigation is from creeks/rivers, but mostly the water seems to be pumped up from the aquifer below (essentially non-renewable). Here’s a cattle loading chute and an elevator (grain storage).

To make the plants grow, these tanks supply fertilizer or herbicides…I’m guessing mostly fertilizer. Go ammonium nitrate!

We continued to climb westward toward the Rockies, crossing the North Platte again and again before we diverged from it above Casper. Yes, ice—not thick, but it’s pretty cold and the sun, which seems strong in the car, is rather weak out in the wind.

We’ve been looking for these four-foots, and finally found some, often gathered in fairly larger herds, some browsing and some resting. We also saw what we are pretty sure were mule deer; these were loners or up to a trio—not the large groups that the antelope have formed.

I read about a canyon in a Craig Johnson/Longmire book, and we checked it out…just an up-and-back side trip. The railroad was on the other side, and we saw a few fisherman. A sign indicated we should watch out for mountain sheep, but we saw zero. Here’s a side canyon opposite us.

It was cold enough that the tunnels had interior icicles (that word is difficult to spell if you don’t do it very often). The train’s tunnels were only as large as they needed to be. I suppose that’s true for the highway (engineers are parsimonious in design, no?), but they didn’t seem so rigidly rectangular as the railroad ones.

Now, we’re up against the Winds, and it is windy, and as we approached town we could see that it was snowing in the higher altitudes…that’s snow making that grey-blue obscurity above the sign. (Is that our motel?) We hear we may get a bit of S tonight, but not much accumulation. We bought new -30°F windshield wiper fluid and topped off our reservoir, so hopefully it’ll tolerate the low temps—ATL fluid is limited to +32°F (save the environment!).

I noticed these photos tend to be very horizontal—that’s the way it is out on the plains. Now that we’re approaching the mountains, the vertical has rejoined us.

Posted at 9:08 PM | Comments Off on Plains to mountains

The morning’s big news: rain rain rain! Since about midnight. Slow enough maybe it’ll seep in a bit. Other places not far away got more rainfall than we did; let’s hope for more.

This evening’s milestone: the last of the turkey dinner became soup, and we consumed it with gusto!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Done and done (kinda)

WF@WF. Yes, whole fishies at WhoolFoods (in the newly revealed remodeled WF in ATL Midtown…). Something like that.

That, and after eight out of the last nine days have had record-breaking highs. Sigh. Let’s move on. (I could have cranked the contrast, etc., but this is more similar to my eyes’ take on this ray of sunshine….)

Posted at 10:13 PM | Comments Off on Eyeballing…

Tonight we dined on fresh applesauce, delivered still warm by chef Cousin M.

While she was here, we chatted for a bit on the front porch, nicely sun-warmed to the low 70s after a low this morning in the upper 30s (brr). I thought at first there had been no frost, but I did spot some on the roofs—but the field seemed untouched.

Posted at 7:11 PM | 1 Comment »

I made a grocery run, very local. Bread and milk. I know that’s a standard joke, but true today. Over off the northeast side of the lake, the leaves are well within the golden orange/brown bronze continuum, with considerable green remaining, and bits of red. This is our road, same latitude, but far more green—and many of these are maples. A Ma-Nachur mystery.

This maple, right next to the cottage, has far more colorful leaves, and many are already falling. This tree runs ahead of its neighbors every autumn, in my observation.

Down at the beach, the water was quiet, revealing a narrow sand strip. I think these are raccoon tracks.

And this rowboat…it showed up early in my childhood, making it about a half-century old. If I remember correctly. The moss and lichen are creatively obscuring the STAGECRAFT logo….

Here’s another “track” (broadly defined)…about a half-mile north of us is a swamp, maybe a quarter-mile along the road. The road bumps along only about a foot above typical water level. Sometimes, there’s a weather change at the swamp; this may sound unlikely, but I’ve noted it over and over. It happened today. As I passed north, headed for my shopping, the asphalt was wet, just damp, in the swamp, and beyond. At our end of the road, nope, dry—the air was humid, but no rain. It is expected broadly across the area before dark, however.

Posted at 5:21 PM | Comments Off on Tracks