Arg... Winter.

Well, it appears winter is determined to arrive.... I've gotten a bit of reproof for not posting a little more frequently but have been completely worn out as of late. I've got more changes at work coming this week, a ton of projects I want to get done, and a test next weekend for work.

In the midst of all this, I got the camera out after work today and decided to take a few shots. There hasn't been much to take pictures of as of late but today on the way home I stopped at the local boy scout Christmas tree stand to see if they had any limbs for making wreaths or some such thing.

They were getting ready to get rid of them and gave me a whole pile. The one little guy was so excited to find "good limbs" for me that he sort of went overboard. I tried to explain that I didn't have a saw at home just clippers so I needed the branches to be small around. That didn't quiet go through but I made do with the entire backseat full of branches. Hence, now I have several wreath like things created to help decorate the office.

I also picked up poinsettas on the way home and a few little things to make it feel like Christmas in the office. I took a quick glance in my storage today and realized that I have not even the energy to pull out all my Christmas stuff. I am hoping next year I will be more rested. There is so much to do and so much I am struggling with right now. I need a time of rest badly. That will come.

The silliness comes when I know I need rest and do things like spend two hours taking pictures of the first snow. Yep... that was tonight. I got a few pictures but it was so cold! So, now I am posting instead of sleeping. Sleep too will come. Right now I am spending a lot of time waiting and working. Hopefully those too shall pass and winter right along with it!

Going on a leaf hunt

I looked forward all week to going leaf hunting today. Then today got here and I was completely worn out. It was just a really hard week at work and I should have stayed home to rest but instead decided to go leaf hunting anyway.

I stopped at a wayside park on the way up towards Leaburg and found a number of really beautiful leaves.

I started by driving up to the Waterboard park and Leaburg Dam. As you can see the bright yellow leaves look very pretty against the water.

I took a quick walk out onto the road over the middle of the dam. The humorous part was the little old lady who stopped in the middle of the one lane road over the dam to take the same pictures I walked to take. They didn't run me over but you can see why one would want to stop to take a picture.

I found a spot part way between the Leaburg Dam and the golf course turn off that had big rocks out in the river just off the boat ramp. So, I climbed out onto them with my camera. It was fine until I realized there was a guy fishin on the rocks I wanted to climb out to. I did settle for some lesser rocks and enjoyed a rest near the river (these are my feet resting near the river).

I decided to take a left on a road I normally take a right on when I headed back to Eugene and ended up on highway 58 south of Eugene near Dexter Lake. As you can see it was a beautiful sunset over the lake today. A beautiful way to end the day.

A "Short" Hike...

The first lesson of fall: don't believe everything you read in the hiking books :o) While I am enjoying being in the pacific northwest during fall, I have found myself a little lacking in the usual hiking trails and places with colorful leaves. So, today, I set out in search of pretty leaves and decided that Mt Pisgah in the hills near Eugene would be the place of adventure today.


As you can see, I found some very pretty leaves... Berries or poison ivy? I think they were actually mixed together but you be the judge.


I started up the trail in the arboretum area which the book said was three miles to the summit. Now, yes, I am old enough to know one should not believe everything one reads but I was hoping for a nice little day hike. Once I cleared the bottom of the arboretum area I ran into a fork in the gravel trail - 8 miles on the nice gravel path or 3 miles straight up the sheer mud cliff to the summit.

Today, I opted for part of the 8 mile stretch (about four miles I think). The views were spectacular and there was a little top of a hill half way between the super summit and the small summit that seemed about my height. So, up I went.

How cool are these views? It really was a glorious day to go hiking. A little dreary but beautiful.

You can see here that even the wide gravel path which was longer was fairly steep. It was a lot of fun going up but not as much fun coming down. I didn't get too many leaf pictures - maybe tomorrow I will go find trees in a park, but today I got to go enjoy the side of a small hill hike and felt like I really had climbed a mountain.

Escape to the beach...

It was a fabulous day on the coast for a short hike.... unfortunately I got a late start and only went about half way. As you can see it was a nice hike, none the less.

This is the trail above the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

The shadow it mine and there are several cool cove/cave like things down on the beach below the head.

The big rocks are very cool. Unfortunately they don't let people climb on the big ones (just the smaller ones at the base, which of course I diligently climbed. I had accidentally come down the trail from the lighthouse on the rocks just to the north of the big rocks and the scenery was beautiful)!

This is the sweeping view of the beach below the assistant light keeper's house and the lighthouse. There are many very beautiful parts of this beach and all I really wanted to do was sit on a rock and read. Too bad I forgot my book!

Well, with snow promised in the mountains, I decided today that it would be safer to go to the beach (I may go to the mountains tomorrow if it hasn't snowed though). Its been an insane week between the markets and the people I see daily reacting to them.

I wanted to take some time to go exploring and get outside. It was so beautiful and much warmer at the beach than in Eugene. So, off I went and enjoyed both taking pictures and also sitting enjoying the sights and sounds of the beach.

Its taken me nearly 30 years to stop at this beach. I've driven by it a million times and thought often I would like to stop. Isn't it funny how easy it is to miss things that are right in our path? All and all it was a gloriously restful day; one of which I was very much in need.

Some perspective...

These are pictures that I've thought about posting and didn't for one reason or another but here's some perspective on my recent world.


Its been really good to have my camera around to develop my perspective and to get outside my own limited vision and communication medium. I've seen lately the difference between the lens and my perspective and I continue to be fascinated with how to communicate what I think with what I see through the lens.

I find that the background is often more interesting to me than the beautiful things that are up close. Even though I thought this flower was really pretty, I was more excited about the contrast between the flower and my little car in the background. Very fun.

This is one of many pictures of flowers and hoses. I have no idea why I like pictures with hoses in them but I do. It just seems so very normal and picturesque.

I love this perspective on my grandpa's workshop. There is something about being part of my family and wanting to be able to fix things. Is it any wonder than there are so many tools in my grandfather's favorite place?

This perspective is through the window known as my bird house. I built it from wood and nails and a piece of sheet aluminum when I was seven or eight. It has been a window in the backyard for birds and little girls alike since sometime near 1987 (though it has required several ropes, screws and other pieces to keep the view and perspective).

re: Another day in.... well?

Its been a crazy week what with stepping one year closer to the big 3-0 and the financial markets doing their best to turn me gray before that year passes, I spent most of this weekend hiding from the world and resting.

I did pick enough flowers for both work and home at my grandfathers today. This is my dining table with its new flowers and below are the batch left for work tomorrow.

This afternoon, I went out to grandpa's. Along with the obligatory game(s) of cribbage and pictures of the yard, I also came home with grapes, plums, cucumbers, potatoes and a bucket of flowers.

I was very thankful to have gracious friends who had mercy on me this week. Birthdays always seem to bring a bit of angst and now that I'm done with that, its on to the next piece of the adventure.

This sunset was on the way home tonight. I often think about stopping to take pictures but rarely do. I suppose if I don't stop now, I never will. It was nice to stop and the picture well worth the pause.

No. I do not live at the beach....

I was shipped down to Coos Bay on Monday and Tuesday for another exciting work adventure. Leading me to realize that yes, I only post pictures of the coast. (For those of you who know me best, this is somewhat shocking since I am a mountain girl who doesn't like the beach but... apparently mountainous beaches are interesting to me. How beautiful is this?!)

After I climbed over the fence by the bench on the trail to stand on the edge of the cliff, the other manager/friend who was with me took my camera away and made me have my picture taken. So, here it is... there is a little tiny light house in the background but this is on the way to Cape Arago outside of town.

Before she took my camera, I took a few pictures! Here is the view looking out over the cliff. Not sure when I lost my fear of heights but it was a lot of fun to be there! We played for quiet a while visiting each beach on this stretch of road before heading back to the hotel. It was quiet beautiful. I was a little tired though. The fog rolled in as we headed back but the view from our hotel was still beautiful!

Work went well, except when I couldn't log on and do what I needed to do there. Either way, it was a lovely trip with great company. I was a little worn out when we got back and feel like life is super turbulent but at least its still moving. Some days I wonder!

Returning to Post

I've finally figured out how to keep my igoogle settings on one program and post on the other which should increase my incentive to post. (Before I had to log out of igoogle which always left me lost reading news headlines when I went to post). Good thing we got that clarified! :o)

I've taken a bit of an unintentional break from blogging lately partly because I forget that people are out there and partly because I've just been having too many adventures. One recent one involved my car deciding Starbucks would be its semi-permaent stopping place for the journey and having to be towed to the middle-of-no-where Washington to catch a train after the depot/ticket counter was closed and where the car rental places dont actually like to rent to you unless you live there. However, thanks to good adventures with Jen and some local friends, the car is now home and trying its best to behave. It has certainly been an adventure!


This was the best place to have my car worked on. If you are ever near Centralia, WA and needing car repair, I highly recommend them. It was a great group of people who did an awesome job at a time when I was highly stressed.



While I didn't have to ride a freight train to get back to Eugene (Amtrak passenger service dropped me off around midnight), I did have to wait for a few trains to pass while I was stranded in Centralia.

On the way to pickup my car, some friends from Eugene dropped me off and Jen took the train down to meet me at the Olympic Club -a McMenamins hotel which was very quaint and the cafe had good breakfast!

Inside the hall of the Olympic Club there are lots of murals and cool things. It had a very 1890's feel but was a lot of fun.

We drove home by way of a very foggy coast and then went to the fair the next day (no idea why I picked this random picture... we had lots but apparently I liked this one to post).

In the rest of life... I'm currently working on studying for a work test and also getting more details sorted out in my regular life. Its been good to be here and have time away to rest but it really does just feel like a prolonged vacation from Seattle at this point. I keep expecting to "go home" any day.

It does look like I am getting sent to Coos Bay for a few days in September for work, however. Some of the people in my office keep telling me I'm never there which makes me laugh because I have really only taken "vacation" for two friend visits (four days total) and three orthodontist appts. Its a great office though and I find myself somewhere between content and confused most of the time. The confusion generally comes when I find out something has been done "forever" and I can't figure out why. Keeps me entertained (although I'm not sure that they all like explaining "why" things happen the way they do) :o)

The Beautiful PNW

Well, things are finally settling in (thanks to motivation from Margot who recently came to visit - its amazing how having company encourages one to clean up and put things away before they arrive). I hope to have some apartment pictures posted shortly and in the meantime here are some pictures from our adventures at the coast and up at Sahalie Falls.

It was a perfect day at the coast! Although a bit brisk.
Somehow I remember it being warmer as a kid :o)

We had a good walk the length of Washburne beach and stopped to play on the rocks at the end of it.

The day before we had fled the misty, overcast valley for the mountains and Sahalie Falls. This is one of the lower falls but it was all incredibly beautiful! We hiked at the beginning of the day, finished the drive to Sisters, OR and then came back.


This also is a view from the top of one of the lower falls. I forget how beautiful it is to be up there. We learned this time that there is a trail on the backside of the river and next time, the hope is to trek over there.


The lower part of the trail has changed much in recent years including nice stairs to prevent erosion and such. All and all it was a beautiful couple of days outside and away from all the buzz of every day life.

Long days...

It seems like this month started off with a bang and hasn't quit. Someone once said "Life is hard and then you die" but really? That's it? I'm glad I believe there is more than just hard things and then death and nothing else or months like this one would be beyond intolerable. I continue to marvel at the people around me who are able to survive amazing hardship without hope that there is a purpose or something beautiful that will come from it.

This month, I've been back and forth to Seattle almost every weekend: orthodontist, friend's wedding stuff, moving, working in Portland on a crazy deal - oh and the wedding itself. So, it feels good to just come back and rest. Summer Ultimate starts on Tuesday and I'm excited to be playing again and other than that? Plans are at a minimum on purpose.



This is the road on the way home from my grandfather's but it looks like many of the roads I've driven early in the morning lately. It really is beautiful here.



It is fun to spend a fair amount of time with the flowers at my grandfathers. Although he would tell you I never visit, I'm having fun doing photography and playing cribbage out there every 8-10 days or so.


There are lots of beautiful flowers to photograph.

Even my grandfather had his camera out today. So fun! Family photography outtings :o)

Signs of spring and family time...

It looks like the snow is finally gone (again) and this weekend I went out to my grandfathers to spend some family time and take pictures of the beautiful flowers.

Bluebells caught on both sides of the fence in my grandpa's yard.

I stopped out at the lake and walked around before heading the rest of the way out to grandpa's. Above is one of the cool scenes looking back towards the hill before the water.

The leaves are all out and even some of the little flowers that have wandered are beginning to bloom. We aren't sure where this little blue bell by the steps came from... there aren't any even on that side of the house.

The blueberry bush is full of flowers (those white things are the blueberry flowers)

After a full day of taking pictures and wandering, finally we settled in to watch a couple movies after dinner and cribbage.