Posted in camping, personal, pets, Photos, travel, Uncategorized on May 13, 2019| Leave a Comment »
This was a week ago; I wanted to get it up right after I got home, but of course didn’t, and then it felt like it was history so not worth blogging, but I’ve been enjoying reading posts from years ago, so for the sake of my future self, I’m going to do this anyway.
Got out last week for two nights in a row, and it was very successful. I’m now not only hopeful, but confident, that somehow this camping with Scamp and cats is going to work out.
Posted in camping, personal, pets, Photos, retirement, travel on August 22, 2016| 2 Comments »
Day 5: Most of this day was spent driving through the mountains, stopping often just to look and take pictures. It was soothing to my soul–moountains do something for me that no other landscape–or seascape–does, however beautiful it may be. Especially the high Rockies. (more…)
Posted in camping, personal, Photos, retirement, travel on August 18, 2016| 4 Comments »
Four days on the road so far. This trip will be about ten weeks, if it goes according to my rather vague plans. Which are subject to change–indeed, have changed already.
Posted in camping, personal, pets, Photos on July 30, 2016| 1 Comment »
This is a bit of a trial run to see how my new technology (new iPad, Logitech external keyboard) is going to work for blogging. In two weeks I’m headed out into my longest roadtrip since the spring of 2014, and I’m hoping the combination will work for posting from the road.
But–the content is actually from a couple of weeks ago, when I met one of my sisters and her husband for three nights of camping. I was frankly mildly nervous, because I had recommended the campground and I wasn’t sure if it would meet their standards, but as it turned out they loved it, so that was OK.
(Just ran into an irritation, but it has to do with the WordPress app, I think–it’s not letting me select anything between the whole post and a single word. It will select one or the other, but if I try to modify the selection to include less, or more, it just pops back to a single word. Annoying, but not catastrophic.)
The first day, we drove down to Gold Beach–they had some things they needed to buy, and we wanted some beach time. (more…)
Posted in personal, pets, Photos on May 11, 2016| 2 Comments »
A few months ago, Shadow figured out how to climb up on the sunroom and thence to my bedroom window. He was very sure I should open the window for him, but it’s screened, so he was out of luck. He’s been persistent enough that I’ve contemplated putting a cat door in the window, but haven’t had the initiative to get it done.
Then this morning he took it a step further: (more…)
Posted in personal, pets, Photos on May 11, 2016| 2 Comments »
Lovely time of year. That it’s a month early and that should concern us all I shall say no more about. Here are a few pics from my back yard.
First, what a difference a little sun makes. This rose. . .
. . has never put out more than a couple blossoms before. Several times I’ve considered taking it out. But it now has several blossoms and a bunch more buds, thanks to the neighbors removing a couple of trees. The rose gets to stay, and I’m thrilled. It even smells like a rose, which is hard to find these days. So much for Shakespeare.
This is not so happy a story.
It’s a peony planted last summer, one of two. Neither bloomed last year. One is doing pretty well, several buds on it. This poor thing has put up shoots a couple of times now, only to be eaten by . . . something or other. Could be rodents, could be deer, heck it could be CJ or the cats. Why this one is getting eaten and the other not I have no idea.
The other rhodies are mostly done, but this red beauty . . .
. . . comes on later than the others and is only now starting to fade. Cameras all seem to have a hard time doing justice to red, but the above may give some idea of what it’s like. Seems to me it’s much more lush this year than it was last year.
Finally, here’s a shot of Phantom on the freshly mowed lawn, exemplifying the truism that any scene is made more picturesque with a cat in it.
Posted in misc, personal, Photos, retirement, Uncategorized on December 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Not as wet as further north, or as I gather parts of England are, but wetter than the past couple of years.
This is the entry to the little county park where I often walk CJ. It always floods in wet years, but this is the highest I’ve ever seen the water there. 
Here’s a little different perspective that shows how high the water is on the sign. (more…)
Posted in Photos on December 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »
It was Saturday, but I want to post these pics anyway. I have excuses for the delay–Sunday I drove all day, mostly in the rain, to get home; Monday I took the day off to recover; and yesterday I tried to post but WordPress was not cooperating in the uploading of pictures. Anyway. Sound and flash were off for all pictures so I was minimally intrusive during the ceremony.
It was lovely. (more…)
Posted in Photos, retirement, travel on December 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »
A couple of old friends (in both senses of the phrase) are getting married Saturday. I am one of the few privileged non-family-members to be invited, so I left Monday afternoon to head to California. I am, frankly, getting a little bored with the I-5 corridor, so on Tuesday I left I-5 at Yreka and headed up to Trinity Lake on Highway 3, and did a loop that ultimately came out at Red Bluff. (more…)
Posted in Photos on April 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Decided to stop using numbers on these; I’m losing track.
Took this a bit over a year ago. Reminds me of a face.
Posted in pets, Photos on April 29, 2015| 1 Comment »
Both cats actually like having their tummy petted. This one purred while I combed and petted. Calmest cats I’ve ever had.
Posted in photography, Photos on April 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »
First the photo of the day:
Who could resist that face: “See what I have? See? See?” I couldn’t. I threw it for her.
Now more rhodies. (more…)
Posted in Photos on April 27, 2015| 1 Comment »
Every camera I’ve owned has a terrible time taking close-ups of flowers, including the one in the new phone. Either they won’t focus on the bloom, insisting on focusing on whatever dark color is available (leaves, ground), or don’t capture anything close to the true color (especially red), or both.
Anyway, after many attempts and some editing, here are a couple of decent ones of my rhodies that are currently blooming their hearts out.
Sunny day today and expected to be hot later, so time to go do some yard work.
Posted in blogging, Photos on April 26, 2015| 1 Comment »
There are half a dozen or more blog posts I’d really like to do, but they will each take an hour or more of work, so I end up doing none of them. So I’ve decided that for a time, I’ll post a picture a day (inspired in part by retireediary, a real photographer, whose pictures I’ve been enjoying very much).
Here’s yesterday’s picture (heh–cheating already):
And here’s todays:
Took that one out at the coast (duh) while on the latest camping-with-cats expedition, one of the posts I’m not writing.
We’ll see how long I keep this up.
Posted in camping, personal, pets, Photos, retirement, travel on March 19, 2015| 2 Comments »
(Note: Two requests for identification are at the end of the post, one flower and one bird, so ID gurus–you know who you are– may want to skip to the end to check them out and give me your best guesses.)
People call Silver Falls the “crown jewel” of the Oregon State Parks system, at least according to its website, and you couldn’t disprove it by me. I just got back from a couple of most excellent days/nights there and took lots of pictures, so this is a long post.
The first day, my brother and his wife took a day trip down from Portland and we got to discover things together. First, a couple of pictures of my first view of the South Falls (there will be more later. You have been warned.) (more…)
Posted in house, personal, Photos, projects on January 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »
About a week ago the miniblind in my bedroom fell–for the third or fourth time. I was going to replace it, even bought a new one, but was in the middle of several other projects at the time, so just stuck a length of blackout material (I have tons left from my aborted experiment with a cat skirt for the van) over the window to shut out the very bright streetlight and left it at that.
Thereby discovering how nice it was to have more of the light blocked out of the room at night. And also how much I missed the view out the window, and the natural light coming in, during the day.
Solution: curtains, backed by blackout cloth.
Done. View:
And light blockage:
The curtains are nicer than I thought they would be–they’re just cheapies from Freddie’s. I think they’ll be more effective at keeping out heat from the afternoon summer sun, too. Win all round.
If I can keep the cats off them . . . .
Posted in camping, personal, Photos, projects, travel, video clips on January 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I am now the proud (?) possessor of a new etrike–an adult tricycle that I can pedal as usual, but is also powered by an electric motor and battery. I’ve owned it (in all its component parts) for a few weeks, but I finally got up to Portland to the Ebike Store, who put it all together for me, to pick it up.
It’s been a process. First, choosing all the component parts, which had to be bought via the internet, which means no see-touch-feel, which I hate–you don’t really know what you’re getting or if you’ll like it. The battery is a whole thing unto itself–I went for more power and longevity, which means it’s big, which means finding a container for it and deciding where to mount it on the trike were both issues (and I may change it around yet). And how to transport it with the van?
Anyway, here it is, just after unloading it at home. (more…)
Posted in Photos on December 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »
One of the benefits of winter is that I occasionally get to watch a nice sunrise.
Happy New Year’s Eve, all!
Posted in personal, pets, Photos on December 18, 2014| 1 Comment »
Somehow, the cats have turned out different from how I expected. In appearance, I mean. See what you think. (more…)
Posted in personal, Photos, video clips, walks on December 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »
You all heard all about the Pineapple Express in California last week–if you have TV or radio, anyway. But it made it up into the Northwest too, so I headed over to the coast to experience it up close and personal. I’ve been wanting to be at the beach in a good storm, and figured this was my opportunity.
It was pretty cool, too, though I suspect other storms in the past few years have been better. (more…)
Addofio 