A Full-time Life

Category: Flowers and Gardens

Canby Dahlia Festival

We’ve been back home in Oregon since the first of July. In real life we had an active summer — here in Blogland there’s a lot of missing time between the last full-time-life post and this one. Only partly because I almost lost my whole blog (side-bar). We didn’t learn about the shutdown until August, so the long absence is mostly because I took a digital detox break on purpose when we first got home and it dragged on a little longer than I’d planned. It’s good to be back — in Blogland as well as in real-life Oregon.

I’ m still learning about WordPress, but one way to do that is to just dive in. I couldn’t stop taking pictures on this September outing, so the Dahlia Farm is it’s a good place to start.

Canby is a small town less than two hours north of us, between here and Portland but (blessedly) off the freeway. Though not too far away for a day trip, this beautiful agricultural area is in a part of our home state where we haven’t spent much time. Last month we drove there to visit the family-owned Swan Island Dahlia Farm. It’s open to the public during the flower’s season and it was at its peak of perfection when we visited.

Summer always goes so fast. We spent good, if bittersweet, hours seeing family, many of those at a different farm much closer to where we live. I have blogged often about that acreage just five miles from where we live. Although a huge part of our heart is missing whether we visit or not, our son-in-law continues to make us feel welcome. Of course, it is always a delight to see our Oregon son and daughter-in-law and our great-grandchildren (and their parents!) whether at their Granddad’s farm or at our house or at theirs. I’m never particularly good at taking people pictures which means there are always a lot of blank happy spaces in my blog. It was a good summer.

Our son-in-law (whom I decided needed a break whether he knew it or not) went with us to Canby and I hope he enjoyed our company as much as we did his.

Autumn is a beautiful season in the Willamette Valley and we’re glad to be at home for it as our full-time life continues.

3 comments on Canby Dahlia Festival

October 7, 2025
The lovely month of May

It has always seemed to me that the first of May means Spring is really here — even if the season officially begins in mid-March. When we lived in the Pacific Northwest, March and April were just teasers — leading up to this grand month. Here in Florida, there's not a whole lot of difference, but I still feel like the season really began last week.

At the Canal Cottage morning skies have been beautiful as usual. But May is really all about seasonal flowers .. and nostalgic memories. When I was a child, on the first day of May, kids would fill hand-made paper baskets with garden flowers. We'd hang them on the door knobs of our older neighbors, ring the bell and then run and hide. We just knew people would be delighted with their surprise. I do think people expected and enjoyed the custom back then.

Spring 2020, Oregon

When our own kids were quite small they would make baskets for their grandparents and maybe a few neighbors, but they'd be delivered by properly knocking at the door and visiting for awhile. By that time, the days when door-knock surprises were welcomed was pretty much over. May was a wonderful month for flowers in the Pacific Northwest and we always enjoyed sharing bouquets from our gardens (but not as surprises).

Most years since we retired though we have been away from our home state during the Spring, either traveling or here at the Canal Cottage in Florida, where Spring is different. The daffodils and the beautiful tulips in the collage below are from the most recent entire year we spent in Oregon (2019/2020 — you probably remember why).

The tulips were blooming beautifully in our daughter's and son-in-law's garden when we arrived at the end of April 2019 after our shortened season at the Canal Cottage. It was like a special added welcome in that year, when we were even more thankful than ever to be safely back home and near family.

In ordinary years lately, by the time we arrive in Oregon Spring perennials have finished blooming for the year.

May is a great month for birds too of course — this Stellar Jay is a more recent Florida photo and so are the neighborhood flowers below:

Local Spring flowers –Florida

Colorful tropical (or almost tropical) flowers bloom pretty much all season around here, but it seems to me that they really put on a show this month, before it gets too hot and rainy for them during the summer months .

Another Florida picture — this one from the archives.

This photo shows more than one species of Florida Spring birds enjoying some shallow water similar to the more recent picture in last week's post. This one was taken a few years ago near the same place, but it's a much better view of the Roseate Spoonbill, here showing off an impressive wing-span.

Grateful to enjoy our beautiful Spring here and grateful for Spring memories from the recent and long ago past.

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May 5, 2024
Meanwhile in Oregon …

Here at home in Oregon, the sun is shining, temperatures are still late summer-like and flowers are still blooming.

But my head has been in Florida thinking about the after-effects of Hurricane Ian.

So many people in the Fort Myers area where our winter home is lost everything. We are incredibly fortunate that our winter home is still standing and did not sustain wind or water damage inside.

We know this now because our son, who lives in Colorado, was able to drive to Fort Myers to assess the damage, take pictures, and do the awful job of outside cleanup. We are so grateful.

So Geoff is camping out in our Florida house — there is no electricity but the water has been turned back on (with boil drinking water warnings). No air conditioner either and in Florida this time of year that really is a necessity. I am sure he is not sleeping very well.

The hurricane left all manner of debris around the cottage (and the whole neighborhood). Some of that is from the storage area under the house (basement crawl space) but much of it is from other places — it could have blown in from other houses in the resort or the Canal could have washed it in from who knows where. It's very sad — and a lot of cleanup work.

Nobody who lives in our resort was injured, not even the people who are permanent residents. But there was a lot of damage from the terrible winds and from water surge from the Canal and River. Our next door neighbor's home was just about totaled, They will not be returning and we will miss them. We do still plan to return later — but it won't be the same.

Meanwhile though, as we plan for our return to a changed Florida, we continue to enjoy this beautiful Pacific Northwest Autumn. And we never forget to be grateful.

The Dahlias are from a garden at our Lane County (Oregon) Fairgrounds. When we stopped to take pictures I talked to a garden-club volunteer who was cutting flowers. She told me that September was their prime blooming month and that I should put the Club's annual Dahlia Show on my calendar for next year. I will try to remember.

Blue Sky – Oregon October

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October 9, 2022
IT’S SPRING

Today it is officially Spring!

Here in SW Florida, we don't see the usual flowers that early Spring brings to much of this hemisphere. Our Spring gold is not fields of daffodils but this flowering tree that blossoms beautifully for at least a few days this time of year. (As with the flowering cherry trees elsewhere in the country, even a light wind can strip the beautiful flowers pretty quickly.)

So far, most of the blossoms are still on the branches!

Ibis in Spring breeding colors stroll around the lawn here at the Park. I counted at least 20 on this particular evening walk.

It's called either a yellow Jacaranda tree or a yellow trumpet tree , depending on which Google Image site you believe.

This guy stopped to stare at me on his way up the tree trunk.

As the World Turns!

Thursday evening I took pictures of the almost full moon from our back porch looking East across the Canal – the next day, early morning moonlight shining right through the window blind woke us up. (Our bedroom is on the West side of the house.) We never know what will await us in the morning here. Mocking birds, fish-crows, mourning doves, woodpeckers, or (now) morning moonlight have all served as our alarm clock. All of them start the day off with a smile. So much better than the kind of alarm you have to set the night before.

Here's a golden memory from last March, when we were in Oregon:

Thankful for Spring, wherever we are.

Linking this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

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March 20, 2022
EXTRAS from the archives

We stayed at home all week mostly working on our home improvement project (or watching others work). The room conversion is progressing well. On Saturday we waited through a storm warning that happily didn't amount to much at all. The wind blew all morning and it rained hard for a couple of hours. Wouldn't have wanted to be out in a boat or walking in the swamp, but not a problem snuggled in the house. Temperatures dropped last night to the mid-30s, the coldest it's been here all season. What a strange day — we had the A/C on in the morning and heat in the evening. All that in addition to the time change this morning and I am no longer even sure what day, what time, or what season it is.

The pictures are from the archives. Mostly last week's walk at the Bird Rookery. I found a picture that definitely identified the Egrets we saw in the trees:



I overlooked this picture when I put last week's post together. The yellow feet and yellow around the eye both show up well here. Both are definite ID markers for the Snowy Egret.

We spent some time trying to imagine which bird could have built this odd looking nest. Then we walked just a few yards further and found a sign explaining it was something else entirely:

Click to enlarge for the fuller explanation, but it is called a "Witches Broom" and is a tree mutation usually carried by sap-sucking insects.

This grove had good examples of pink and white lichen. I used to worry when I saw these spots on tree trunks, since they look like patches of paint on the trunks. But they are lichens — a combination of an algae which produces food and a fungus which provides physical support. Mostly we see white, but they can also be green, gray or pink. They do not harm their tree and are actually an indication of a healthy forest.

Another Tri-Colored Heron at the foot of some nice old cypress trees and newer cypress knees. Since we mostly stayed home this past week, I'm especially grateful for all the picture opportunities from our hike the week before. You've gotta' love a walk like this one that gives you enough nature to last at least a couple of weeks for blog photos (and even longer in memories).

Sunflowers have been much in the news lately. Here is a bouquet from our archives:

HOPE

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March 13, 2022
Last of the Summer Color

These pictures are from yesterday afternoon's get-together at the home of our grandson and granddaughter-in-law. Even now, at the end of the season, their backyard is colorful and comfortable.

Somehow, when each of our children bought their first home and made it their own, it didn't surprise me. I was (and am) proud of them, but buying a house and settling in was just the normal progression in life. But it utterly amazes me that our grandchildren could have, somehow, reached that stage of life. How on earth could we be old enough for that to happen? (Rhetorical question — I do know the answer!)

There were familiar plants in their garden and a couple that were new to me. Top left is an elderberry (our granddaughter-in-law made jelly from it earlier). The one at the lower right corner is a ground cherry which I don't remember ever seeing before. We ate a handful and they are quite interesting . I thought they had a nut-like taste, but nobody else came up with the same description. Our 18 month old great-grandson loved them! (More familiar ones are scarlet runner beans and a tomato — and the non-food-item hen and chicks in the center.

As usual, I didn't take people pictures this time, but I did find a few from family gathering earlier this summer .

The great-grandson whose home we visited yesterday is on the left and that's his older cousin on the right. Both of them have grown a lot in the last couple of months, as people do at those ages!

It was really sweet watching the cousins playing together as the two-year old showed the "baby" how his firetruck worked.

Lesson learned.

Fun for them, built-in-entertainment for the rest of us.

Thankful that the smoke cleared out yesterday and it wasn't too hot outside. And especially grateful that family older than these two are vaccinated so that we can happily and safely enjoy time together.

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September 5, 2021
Archival Wandering

It was a good week — life is slowly coming back to normal. But not many pictures, so it's archive-mining again — from earlier this month, a year ago, and a few years (too many) ago.

'To see we must forget the name of the thing

we are looking at." Claude Monet

Wonder if it counts if you never knew the name in the first place. I am fond of yellow flowers, even when I don't know what they are.

Make that usually fond. Not of this one. This eye-catching bush is Scotch Broom, an invasive plant here in this part of Oregon. And one that is highly allergenic. (Eye-catching in the case of this plant means that our eyes will water as we sneeze. It is nobody's favorite around here.) Both the above pictures are from this month, this year. The collage below is really mining the archives — it is from 2014.

We spent that whole summer (May through September 2014) in Alaska. Wonderful memories. These are some of my favorite critter pictures from that beautiful State. Sea Otters, Puffin, Mother Moose with very new and wobbly baby, Eagle and gulls, and one bird I'm not sure of. I'm trying to label old pictures but it is slow work. However, that project was the impetus for this trip down memory lane, so it is always worth the time even if I never complete it.

This is from a couple of weeks ago, but I blogged a different picture of the same tree last year and from bloggers who know things I learned that it is a Laburnum Tree. We have always called it by it's nickname: Golden Chain.

I always appreciate learning.

And here is my picture from May a year ago. We saw this ring around the sun while social distancing in our daughter and son-in-law's yard last year. It's called a sun halo and is caused by sunlight passing through ice crystals within the Earth's atmosphere. That information was shared by blogger friend Mary Beth who recently saw a similar halo from her yard in Stanwood Washington. Her post reminded me of this one! Thank you Mary Beth. (Her blog is here.)

Thank you to all the bloggers who share the beauties of nature and of just plain living life from so many places all over the world. I am grateful. Thank you all for wandering through these memories today. And special thanks to the hosts of these sharing opportunities:

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May 16, 2021
UPPER FALL CREEK

The mini-roadtrip of the week was to Upper Fall Creek, SE of home about 40 miles.    This particular loop wasn't as familiar to us as some of the other areas up the McKenzie or Willamette Rivers.

Upper Fall Creek

It was a perfect Spring Day. We did a little light exploring of the area, including checking out several camping spots for possible longer getaways later in the season.

And we found this little bit of magic . This pretty almost hidden gem didn't even have a name. I love waterfalls.

The wildflower color scheme was definitely green and white, with the tiniest touches of pink. Wild Dogwood was in full and beautiful bloom, but my favorite find was patches of the one below:

I think I'm going to have to become a wildflower watcher instead of a birdwatcher — they are certainly easier to photograph. But I'm not much better at knowing their names. I have been reading about plant identification apps and I think I'll try one, although I didn't find the bird ID one worked too well for me. Anyone have suggestions for either plant or bird ID apps? (You never know, one of these times a bird may again sit still long enough for me to photograph.)

Meanwhile, back closer to home, the color scheme for tame flowers was strongly on the lavender/purple spectrum:

This perfect iris is from our daughter and son-in-laws' acreage.

So is this iris and the wisteria. I don't know what the big leafed plant in the lower panel is, and I'm not sure about the flowering tree below.

But I won't need an app to identify these — I'll just ask the gardeners when I see them next!

Closing with just one more virtual photo album page from the Fall Creek trip:

Grateful to live here in Eugene where we can choose to go to the mountains or to the ocean, to the rivers or to lakes — and still be back home in time for dinner! (Still, as the weather warms up and now that we are vaccinated, we are looking forward to some longer roadtrips.)

LINKING this week to the following: Thank you to the hosts.

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May 9, 2021
THE COLORS OF APRIL

It's a real feast for the eyes around home this month.

From the flamboyant …

to the delicate.

From the brightest colors,

To the softest pastels

All arrayed under clear blue April skies.

It's Springtime in Oregon.

We are grateful to have received our second dose of the Covid vaccine last week. It feels like we are on our way to almost normal. I am looking forward to a little travel, but a walk along the river reminds me to be patient. Good things come to those who wait.

Sometimes it is best just to relax and drift along.

One more smile for the week — this picture texted to us from our son who is in Florida right now. That is their big beautiful dog Max (whom we haven't yet met) meeting a feral parakeet of some kind. Geoff said the bird flew down and almost landed on the dog's nose. I am sure the bird is an escapee, but it will probably do just fine in that sub-tropical climate. (I am reminded of the movie and book "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.)

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April 18, 2021
PANDEMIC, SEASON 2

A year ago this week I wrote about the first day of Spring and how it was different in Florida.

This is a mixed bouquet of Florida and Oregon Spring flowers. Mostly Oregon. I really do miss seeing the usual Spring beauties when we're in subtropical Florida and so this was much the same thing I've mentioned every year since we've spent the season away from the Pacific Northwest. I’m grateful to get to see them again. In that first-of-Spring post last year, I mentioned worry about Covid but the news still didn't seem quite real.

But just a week later, my post talked about how we were going to head home to Oregon immediately, much earlier than we'd planned. We had begun to understand how serious the threat was and we felt we'd be safer there. Things moved fast.

It was a long way back to Oregon, but we were fortunate to be able to travel in the safest way possible.

We both enjoy road-trips so even under less than ideal conditions the first couple of weeks of "Pandemic: Season One" were interesting and actually kind of fun. We made the 3100+ mile trip faster than we have ever driven cross-country.

We were grateful to be home and safe and we still feel we made the right decision.

But it's been a year now and Pandemic is getting just a little tiresome. We hope it gets cancelled for good before this season is over.

Meanwhile, we are looking forward to enjoying more of our first Oregon Spring in many years. And to a beautiful Oregon summer — a season we have always spent in Oregon. I hope this one is more like normal summers here (before last year).

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March 21, 2021