A few months following Green Valley

Time flies when having fun! Also when one is just too (seemingly) lazy to get this website updated. Well, I'm at it.

First a couple of leftover shots from Green Valley (so these don't really follow Green Valley, as advertised. Oh well. Here is the palm tree in our front year where the Golden Eagle perched for a while. Then we had one last outing with Sandy and stopped to enjoy some gelato at Kokopelli's.

On the way home we stopped by Timber Cove to see Tanna and Stephen. It was my birthday and Tanna prepared a wonderful meal and entertainment for us. Here's Amelia with her dessert plate, and likewise Stephen and Tanna and me.

Back home we quickly got in the routine of enjoying our yard (when we weren't working on it, at least). In early May we had blossums on the Big Leaf Maple, the best lilacs we've ever had (perhaps because of the deer fence I put around it), purple iris, another picture I took of the lilacs, something that looks nice and smells good , bountiful Oregon grape, some kind of yellow flowers, and a yellow iris.

For Amelia's birthday we took a little trip to the coast, mainly Bandon although we book shopped in Coquille and North Bend. The beach was a riot of textures, which I just list: one, two, three, four, and five. Meanwhile, the view toward the ocean was spectacular, too. Several pictures of rocks, surf, and other things follow: I, II, III (that blue item is not a rock), IV, V, VI, VII (a water scoured cave), and VIII.

We came home to find a strange thing in our little pond. Turns out it is (was, at this point) a horsehair worm, see the OSU FactSheet about such guys. First one I had ever seen, or even heard of.

The following Sunday was Mother's Day, and here is the bountiful Brunch about to be enjoyed by the subject of the title and her daughter. Oh, and me, too. After brunch we took a drive to Jacksonville, and went for a walk behind the Britt Festival grounds. There were lots of wildflowers out, some of which I will identify: wild iris, a columbine, columbines, lamb's ear, and more columbines, flower A, another columbine, flower B, flower C, flower D, flower E, and lilacs. It was a very nice afternoon for a Mother's Day (I thought, but what do I know?).

A couple of weeks later, I demonstrated my prowess at making a Dutch baby. This picture is included so certain skeptics can see it. Then, just to celebrate, Tate and I took it a bit easy on the back deck.

A few days after that, Tanna, Stephen, and Stephen's mother, Nancy, came up for a weekend. Here's Wicket, Tanna, Hailey, and Tate taking it easy on the garden swing. A little later, I caught Amelia and Nancy taking the air on the 10 foot swings in the shed. On Sunday we went out to the Oregon State University extension farm. There we found many cherries, lots of flowers to look at (when not having picture taken). Obviously, the sun was bright, but everyone still smiled a lot. And some of us found some shade. These fox gloves seem to like the sun, though. Tanna and Stephen get the prize for best picture of the day, I guess.

This doesn't catch me up, but I'm tired, so I think I'll just post what is here, and take up the long next topic later.