Spring at Home

Spring is always a good time to take photos. The sky is so variable, with puffy white clouds and blue sky over here and dark blue, stormy clouds over there. It all works together to make spring pictures the most vibrant ones of the year. Here are some of our spring flowers in the back yard.

Below is a new hellebore that I found and had to have because it was so different. I'm starting to have quiet a collection of hellebores. They are so versatile in that they are happy in shade, bloom early and long, and don't require much attention. This one didn't have any identifying variety, other than "pink and white".




Look at the coloring on that new growth, isn't that crazy! The leaves are a very pale yellow with pink highlights. I can't wait to see this specimen when it has established itself. Stay tuned...

April means: Spring and Birthdays!

Yesterday we celebrated Granny's 90th birthday with a party at the Hilton Garden Inn in Corvallis. Family and friends traveled to Corvallis from California, as well as Stayton, Albany and Monroe, to spend time with Granny and enjoy and nice meal. While it wasn't a surprise to Granny that she was having dinner out with relatives, she didn't know the details of "who and where". I think she was pleasantly surprised, especially to see her cutie pie great granddaughter Cameron. I'll post group pictures when I have access to them.

See pictures posted on May 5th, 2009

Randy gave me one of my best birthday presents ever. After shift I walked into the house to smell chocolate chip cookies baking! Yummy, my favorite food of all time. I wish I had thought to ask for warm chocolate chips cookies many, many years ago. Perhaps this can become a tradition?!

A new family member will join Granny and I with an April birthday on Monday or Tuesday. Dustin and Brianna are expecting their first child, a boy, to be born during that period of time. We are following his life journey closely at The Motes blog.

This past week I traveled to Florence to deliver my stamps, over a 100 of them, for the used stamp sale at Inkspirations! It was good to be back in town. The Rhododendrons are starting to bloom and should be in full bloom for the Rhodie Festival on May 16-17th. It was beautiful day in Florence, windy but sunny and clear. I am looking forward to my first river kayaking trip this spring.

Fur vs Feathers; Witches and Worms....

Fur vs Feathers: This past weekend Randy and I followed the OSU Beaver baseball team to Eugene Friday, and then Portland on Saturday and Sunday , as the Civil War baseball rivalary between the Beavers and the U of O Ducks was rekindled after a 28 year hiatus. Everyone knows the Ducks restarted their baseball program due to the success of OSU's program and recent trips to the College World Series, so the rivalary was as hot as ever. Fridays game was at the newly constructed PK Park in Eugene. You'd think PK stands for "Phil Knight", 'cause what at U of O isn't of his making? In actuality, it's another guys' intials and his name escapes me now (sorry guy). Unfortunately for the "other guy", most people will associate "PK" with the Nike guru. The park is not done yet, but it comes ready with plenty of annoying Duck fans. I know the stadium will develop into the icon of U of O sports and be obnoxious is some way. I can't wait to see how they do that. We had to buy "standing room only" tickets to that game and stood along the "fowl"line in left field. Probably better that way, as we weren't 360 with Ducks. The Beavers won the game easily, so we left as happy campers. The days was warm and sunny, neither of which we expected.

Saturday we headed to Portland where Randy and I checked into our hotel, the "Hotel de Luxe", just 3 blocks from center field at PGE Park. Being in Portland is such a culture shock for us... one way streets, "No Turns", credit card parking meters, light rail, etc. Luckily, I still remember some of the tricks for getting around town and once we got parked we didn't move the car until it was time to head out on Sunday afternoon. The hotel was an older Portland building that had been renovated to feel like old time movies stars frequented the place. There was a doorman and the staff was exceedingly pleasant. Our room was small, but nice. I noticed later that all the pictures I took in the room were in portrait mode, because the area was so narrow. From this hotel we walked 1 block to the Commodore Grill for lunch and breakfast the next day. I'd say this hotel was a perfect location for the weekend. On Saturday the weather was what you'd expect in Oregon in the spring, cool and wet with rain squalls. The 6pm start time was delayed an hour and a half due to rain. That was a hint of what was to come as the Beavers didn't play well and lost the game in extra innings, 2-3. Many, many obnoxious Duck fans were very happy. We did get our happy ending on Sunday as the weather was beautiful for the 1pm game and the Beavers won easily.
After the game Randy took me to my parents house, where I changed into nice clothes and picked up Mom for our night on the town.

Witches: I drove Mom ( we weren't the witches!) downtown Portland to the waterfront district and we had a nice dinner at Stanfords before going to the Broadway play "Wicked" at Keller Auditorium. We had pretty good seats and enjoyed the play and our time together. Want to know what Wicked is about? Try this YouTube video.



I look forward to seeing it on DVD some day so I can see the details up close.
I stayed overnight in Beaverton with Mom and Dad before heading home on Monday morning.
Worms: As I'm writing this blog, our cat Lucy is bring worms inside to play with. Yuck, they are slimy and she gets that slime all over her face and chin. I wish she wouldn't do that, the great worm hunter! I've had to return two of them to wild this evening. It could be worse, she hasn't found mice or voles yet. I guess I'll be satisfied with worms.