A Full-time Life

Category: Oregon

Pacific Coast, 2025
It doesn’t really feel as if we are at home in Oregon until we spend a few days on the beautiful Pacific Coast. It is a yearly ritual.

It was a busy summer at home this year, so our trip to check on the Ocean was later than usual. It was Mid-October before we were able to get away for a few days.

So we missed the summery blue-sky cloudless summery beach days but there are no bad days at the Coast. And we were happy to be there for the onset of a huge storm — the ocean was wild! Spume from the wind-driven waves piled up against the rocky shores and looked almost like piles of snow!

We walked well above the sea where it was safe — no wading along the wet sand or exploring tide pools this time.

Our destination was the sweet little seaside village of Yachats, one of our favorite coastal areas. There are nice long perfectly safe walking paths with beautiful sea-views. It was only a bit windy on shore, but it didn’t rain until the morning we were leaving.

We stayed at a funny little historical inn in above a restaurant that has served Yachats since 1929, when it was a speakeasy bar with rooms available for the purposes of its patrons . Now it’s an eclectic family-friendly place. Each of the inn’s rooms is uniquely themed and decorated. I love lodging that isn’t chain-hotel-same and The Travel Planner* is great at finding these unique places. It was a fun place to stay and to eat — walking that crooked staircase to breakfast each morning was well worth it! We had a “stretching-it” sort of ocean view from our room but we didn’t need a better one since the weather let us spend the days outdoors!

On our way home, Autumn color and a few elk spotted at the Dean Creek preserve made a lovely end to our mid-week getaway.

Thank you for finding FullTime-Life at our new location. I am happy to be back in Blogland.. This new page Recovering the Blog explains what happened. We’re getting ready right now our Winter cross-country migration to Florida. I look forward to visiting other photo-bloggers after we settle in for the season.

(To comment, click the post title — the comment form will appear here.)
6 responses to “Pacific Coast, 2025”
1. itsallaboutpurple
  
  December 23, 2025
  
  so wonderful to see you again and read about your adventures. i thought i had lost you and am happy to reconnect. i have printed much of my blog over the years and i am so happy i have. wishing you a warm, wonderful holiday and a very healthy 2026!!
2. Anonymous
  
  December 23, 2025
  
  Dear Sally
  I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to comment but I have not been well and haven’t visited anyone, Your stay at the Oregan coast sounds so delightful and the area around the seaside village of Yachats looks lovey. Your photos show just how wild the sea can get and your accomodation feels like a wonderful experience,, unique and special.. cosy too. Lovely nature images that you took on your way home, and I so enjoyed getting back in touch Sally.
  All the best and a happy and healthy New Year.
  Sonjia.
3. Bill
  
  December 11, 2025
  
  Testing.
4. fulltimereading
  
  December 11, 2025
  
  Test comment. Checking to see if comments are published.
5. fulltimereading
  
  December 11, 2025
  
  testing comments
6. Lisa
  
  December 10, 2025
  
  Looks like a great time at the coast 🙂
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December 9, 2025
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
Thoughts

Our brave, bright, beautiful daughter died unexpectedly last week. She was 65.

Her spirit will live on through her loved and loving husband, three children and their spouses, six grandchildren, her brothers, and her parents.

We are here in Oregon sharing hugs and tears and memories and gratitude with our dear son-in-law and grandchildren.

As the only daughter in a busy family with four children, Cyndi was a force of nature, seemingly born to manage and mother her brothers, cousins, and often half the neighborhood children. She was a water baby who loved swimming, enjoyed hiking and skiing, was an honor roll student, and editor of the school yearbook. She worked several different after-school and summer jobs and her favorite ones somehow always seemed to involve working with small children. Her decision to study Early Childhood Education after graduation was almost a foregone conclusion.

Cyndi met her future husband while working one of those after-school jobs. She and Jeff were partners in life and often in business as well for over 40 years. They took classes, worked in their two businesses, raised three amazing, adventurous and resilient children and, in the course of time, were active and loving grandparents. She was a mother figure to the many toddlers who came to the Day Care that they owned while their own children were young. They were also dedicated foster parents to a number of children and later Cyndi served for several years as a teaching assistant in the public school system, working closely with special needs children.

All of these accomplishments and more took place while she also dealt with the devastating up and down nature of MS, the chronic disease with which she lived for over 30 years. She did not let her illness define her, always bounced back from the down times and lived life with joy. For much of that time she made it possible for us to forget how hard she worked to stay well. Only in the last couple of years did pain and exhaustion begin to overcome her resistance.

She enjoyed the Oregon Coast, walks around the Lake near their home, some travel, even riding a motorcycle in earlier years. Best of all, she loved her family life and raising her children in the country where she drove a wicked tractor over the back acreage! She loved “playing” in their yard, was especially fond of spring flowers and wild birds.

She loved being a grandmother. She delighted in reading to her grands, teaching, playing, and just watching them grow, especially as they played in their grandma and grandpas big backyard out there in the country.

Our broken hearts will eventually heal but with lasting scars. We will keep the good memories and remember that she is now free of pain.

(this photo by Geoff Rainville, Cyndi's brother)

We have always loved her and we have always been proud of her and we always will be. We are blessed to have been her parents.

April 16, 2025
Happy Spring!

Ah Spring! That time of year when it's apparent we aren't in Oregon any more! There's really not a lot to mark the change from winter here in the subtropics. So I'm celebrating the season with golden memories. And adding a few photos I managed to recover from the end of our season in Oregon. Actually that was last December, so I guess every photo in this post is an oldie…. golden or otherwise.

Oregon daffodils, 2021

Farmers grow a lot of grass seed in our part of Oregon. We don't miss the Spring sneezes and wheezes that come with the start of grass season. But I do miss my favorite Spring flowers. We see some beautiful blooms here in Florida of course, but they tend to be more flamboyant and just not quite the same.

In the following photos we were still in Oregon, but not quite so long ago. These photos from last December were still on the camera when we downloaded it here last month. We went on a day-trip to Florence on the Oregon Coast. About 60 miles from our Oregon home, this charming coastal town is a favorite getaway.

Siuslaw River Bridge, Florence December 2024

It was a gorgeous day — actually fairly typical of December in our part of Oregon. We had a few chilly days before we left, but mostly blue skies and mild weather. The icy days came in January after we left (not by coincidence). That actually is typical weather for the region, although it definitely seems like the January ice and winds have gotten more severe in the last few years. We count our blessings when we miss out on those days.

Hooded Merganser, Siuslaw River, Florence Oregon

During this December day trip, we did check to make sure the Pacific Ocean was still there, knowing we wouldn't see it again for a few months. However, the pictures are from the coastal Siuslaw River where we always stop to walk when we go to Florence.

It was exciting to see several Hooded Mergansers enjoying the sunny day. I've never before seen that many of them in one place. They were swimming quite near the shore and were fun to watch.

Oregon family photo, December 2024

These two live with our daughter and son-in-law. It never fails to amaze me the way their pets always get along so well. And here's another golden oldie from the same household:

Literally a 'Golden Oldie' since we always called this tree a Golden Chain and the photo was taken quite a few years ago. Sadly, it's a memorial picture now because our daughter told us that one of those recent winter windstorms completely uprooted it — the golden chain is no more. When I posted this exact picture years ago, I learned from fellow bloggers that the tree's official name is Laburnum. Blogging is an educational experience — I appreciate all the help I can get.

Just a bit more color for my virtual memory scrapbook:

Yellow flowers always seem like little spots of sunshine.

Here's to more golden spring days ahead. Thank you to all who visit and to the hosts of these sharing opportunities:

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SATURDAY CRITTERS;



March 23, 2025
October’s End

Happy Halloween

And Happy November

These are the kind of October decorations I like… not a fan of the scary graveyard stuff at all. Easy to guess the age-range where I fall.

This is the Farmers Market just outside the small town of Peoria (the Oregon one). It's one of the best Farm Markets we've ever seen — but sadly at about 50 miles from home, just a little too far for weekly shopping.

But what a great stop as long as we were in the neighborhood anyway.

Here's some of the bounty after we unloaded it at home.

Last week we made stuffed green peppers, roasted broccoli, and eggplant pasta sauce. But first, the day we got home from the "harvest" we dined on the last of the year corn-on-the-cob. A joy of the season! We still had enough ears of corn (not shown) for an old favorite — Summer Vegetable Chowder. In this home, that recipe becomes Autumn Chowder because it takes until then for us to want to put fresh corn and tomatoes in the soup pot instead of starring as themselves on our dinner table. The chowder recipe we use every Fall is from "Household Searchlight," a good old depression-era cookbook. Interestingly, we (informally) inherited copies of this cookbook from both my mother and Bill's grandmother. (But my mom had given me this recipe in person many years before that time.) Good fresh food and sweet memories — what could be a better combination..

Almost every October day this year has been beautiful. I'm sure we need rain, but it has been lovely to feel the Autumn sunshine.

Shades of orange and amber aren't the only colors associated with Autumn here in Eugene. On nice days, everything seems to be a perfect combination of blue and gold. Those days make me happy! And grateful.

We've been very busy doing non-photo-bloggable stuff lately, so most of the photos above are from the week before. The pictures in the mosaic below are from even earlier than that. I'm including it because I love looking at birds and I think these are photos I didn't use earlier.

But I'm also including it because I'm using a fairly new app for my photo editing and I'm afraid if I don't include a mosaic every week I'll forget what I've learned so far. Honestly, I am grateful (usually) that I can still learn new things.

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts. MOSAIC MONDAY;

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SATURDAY CRITTERS

October 28, 2024
October color and a visit to Mary’s Peak

Mary's Peak in Benton County is the highest peak in the Oregon Coast Range. It's about 70 miles from home — well within our range for an occasional day-trip. But somehow over all the years we've lived in the Eugene/Springfield area we'd never visited. We needed to remedy that, so the travel planner made it our destination last week.

It was a beautiful day for an October drive. We passed what seemed like an ocean of pumpkins almost as soon as we got out into the country. No question about what time of year it is!

Muted Autumn color and some very interesting skies as we headed west.

We found a waterfall! In fact, there were several lovely tiny falls just after we turned off the highway onto the road to the Peak.

And then there was this just before the top of the road. "Layered" hills are my favorite kinds of mountain views. ("Layered" is my own totally unscientific term for this effect.)

We were lucky in our timing, because the skies clouded over rather suddenly while we were still admiring this view. We jumped back into the car but by the time we reached the end of the road, it was raining and growing gray (and cold). At 4,100 feet, Mary's Peak certainly isn't the highest mountain we've ever visited, but it is high enough to make a difference in temperature from the valley floor that we're used to.

Views from then on to the top were somewhat limited, so the Peak itself was a bit of an anti-climax.  This is a view of the Valley from the viewpoint at the top of the road. (This photo is color-enhanced because otherwise it was just uniformly gray beyond the evergreen trees.)

It was a good day for a drive because of the lovely views and Autumn color. And Bill got his mountain-driving fix while we saw hardly any other cars at all. But it would be good to come back during the busier summer, just for a better view from the top and a more comfortable walking temperature,

Here is some more October color from the week:

Pictures 1, 3, and 7 are from our daughter and son-in-laws' garden taken earlier last week. Pictures in the center row are from our day-trip, and the bins of pumpkins and gourds are from a stop at the Peoria (Oregon) Farmers Market, on our way home.

October is such a great month here in western Oregon. We are grateful to have the time to enjoy it.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

October 20, 2024
Ponds of a different color

In past years, I've posted a few pictures taken on walks around Delta Ponds. We are so fortunate to have this lovely natural area within the city limits of Eugene. The Ponds are pretty close to where we live here and we pass at least one of them every time we go anywhere at all. Last month we were surprised — and a little worried — to notice something different about the water.

A few days after we first noticed the red color we were pleased to read an article in our local daily paper explaining the change. It said people have called the City Parks Department asking if it was due to autumn leaves or paint or dye. We didn't think it was any of those, but I had wondered if it was an unhealthy algae growth. It was great to learn that this red growth, called Azolla Fern, is actually beneficial to the Ponds and our local ecosystem.

The plant goes dormant in Winter and needs many sunny days before it blooms again, making it an occasional seasonal bloom here in Eugene.

Lauri Holts, the City employee responsible for the Ponds, said that Azolla actually helps to combat climate change by processing carbon dioxide and providing oxygen and shade for the aquatic life that lives below it. As Eugene's Ecologist (and who knew our City even had such a thing) Ms. Holts is in charge of ensuring that Delta Pond's plants and wildlife thrive along with human use.

Azolla is also known as 'Duck fern' or 'mosquito fern' and is a genus of plants that can be found worldwide. Ducks and geese eat it, so that nickname is obvious. It has potential to reduce mosquito populations, but only if it covers more than 70 percent of the water, reducing the surface area in which mosquitos can lay their eggs. (We didn't measure the percentages, but can only hope.)

Delta ponds is a 150-acre waterway that began as a part of the Willamette River and remained so until the late 1800s. Human use and urbanization changed the area and today's ponds and islands were formed by gravel mining for highway construction that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. The City of Eugene bought the Ponds in the 1970s and has constructed pedestrian trails around the ponds. A new loop trail funded by a city bond is nearly complete.

It's good to live in a City where nature is valued. We are grateful.

On my nature walk last week, I was so busy concentrating on the red water in the ponds that I forgot to look up, so here are some blue skies and fluffy clouds left-over from our summer:

Skies and boats — a few more of my favorite things. These pictures are from the working harbor at Coos Bay.

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

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD Wednesday; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SATURDAY CRITTERS

October 13, 2024
Last of the summer, first of the fall

At home here in Eugene, trees are beginning to turn, skies are blue, leaves are beginning to fall…..

Eugene Oregon, October 5

… and someone has abandoned the rake because there is no foreseeable end to their job anyway. A walk in the neighborhood reminds me to give thanks that these days we can enjoy the beauty of Autumn without any of the yard work!

Finishing up our summer camping trip here in blogland today — we weren't away from home for as long as it has taken me to finish blogging about it. I take a lot of pictures because Oregon is blessed by so much natural beauty.

Brookings Oregon

From Arcata in Northern California we headed back toward home, taking our time along the Pacific Coast Highway. A round-trip is more fun, especially when you can marvel at the redwood forest one way and even more amazing views of the Pacific Ocean the other.

Southern Oregon Coast

The beautiful Harris State Park is not named for our (hoped for) next President, but after an Oregon pioneer who owned the property at one time. ….. We could see the Army Corps of Engineers dredge boat at a distance from our camp spot in Brookings and the next day we drove around to where we could watch it work up closer.

The boat was dredging this channel. If you click to enlarge you can see a very small motor boat between the work boat and the rocky shore. Too close for comfort in my opinion. The crew on the workboat really shouldn't have to keep an eye on little boats that could go elsewhere to play.

We stayed in Coos Bay on the last night of our trip, spending just a little time the next morning at the working harbor. It was time to go home – only a couple of hours away.

People were hard at work pulling up and loading oysters. It is always interesting to see where our food comes from and how much work it entails.

We couldn't resist this sign. Fresh tuna is the best. It is hard to believe it is the same food you get in a can. (Even the best variety.)

We admired this young man's knife skills as he fileted and wrapped the fish we bought. He said he has dock duty on his father's fishing boats right now, but hoped to take his own boat out next season. The last of the tuna packages we brought home are still in the freezer. A taste of summer awaits!

We had fun this summer here in Oregon, but every season has its joys. We look forward to enjoying the rest of Oregon's beautiful Autumn.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; SIGNS SIGNS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

October 6, 2024
The Oregon Summer that was (part one) — Ashland

It feels good to be blogging again. My "digital detox" during July was planned but I really had meant to start again last month. However, when I was ready, my old PC was not. It is so sad when the motherboard dies (and to find out what it costs to repair). So I'm working with a new computer which is lovely, but the program I used to edit my photos (Picassa) is out-dated and unsupported and would not transfer. It feels like I'm starting over, as if I were photo-blogging for the first time, as I really did about 18 years ago. I've been experimenting with editing programs to substitute. None so far are anywhere near as user friendly. Well.., it is said that learning new tricks is good for aging brains. We shall see.

As planned, we arrived at our Oregon home early in July, after mostly uneventful flights (if I remember correctly back that far). And as if Florida wasn't hot enough for us, we made a planned stopover in Arizona on our way home.

Arizona

This stop was to visit Bill's sister who for several years has lived in the Phoenix area near her children and grandchildren. We hadn't seen Marilyn for a long time and it was good to get together again. It really was extremely hot when we were there and we are all getting older so we spent most of our time visiting in their comfortable family home. I never remember to take pictures of the people we love unless we are all visiting some scenic attraction, so sadly the only photo remembrances of our time in Arizona are a few road-shots as we drove our rental car between our hotel, their home and the airport.

Phoenix AZ

From Phoenix we flew to Eugene where we spent the rest of July catching up with most of the three generations of our family who live here. (Now that we're home, it's four generations when we all get together!). We got our Oregon apartment reorganized, pantry and frig restocked and so forth. That's much easier done here in Oregon than at the Florida Canal Cottage.

In early August we took an in-state trip to celebrate both of our birthdays. I'd planned to get back into the blogging routine when we returned from that trip. Better late than never, so here's the start of that trip.

Our first stop was Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Ashland Oregon

One night we saw Macbeth in the indoor theater and on another, a dramatic performance of Jane Eyre in the outdoor theater (below). We enjoyed both. It was still quite hot here in Southern Oregon and there was some smoke in the air from one of the many forest fires around the state. The morning of the day we had tickets for Jane Eyre we got a text notification that the outdoor play would be cancelled if the smoke didn't lift. Fortunately, it did and the evening was actually very pleasant.

Outdoor stage, Ashland

The white on top of this picture of the stage set is the night sky believe it or not! Even in the outdoor theater we were of course asked not to take pictures, so this was taken before the cast of Jane Eyre hit the stage. It was a suitably Gothic setting for this play.

Downtown Ashland

Ashland is quite a charming mountain town, with many of the shops and restaurants taking advantage of the famous drama festival in their themes and names – I took this picture from the Festival Square while we were listening to an outdoor concert before the play began. There are live, free music performances there early on every theater evening. It appeared that many local residents also took advantage of the free concerts.

We enjoyed some exploration during the two full days we spent in Ashland and of course we ate! The pictures in the collage above are from the Winery where we had dinner one night — beautiful place, delicious mostly locally sourced food and good wine.

When we left Ashland, we took the Redwood Highway into Northern California. It's a beautiful drive.

The magnificent and huge trees are hard to photograph though. Its difficult to get the full effect.

It was dusty on a scenic loop off the highway — we think part of that was probably from the smoke. Fortunately, this area itself was not affected by the summer fires.

Trip to be continued. It's good to be back home in real life and in blogland. We are grateful.

Thank you for visiting and thank you to the hosts of the following sharing opportunities.

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY ; MOSAIC MONDAY

September 15, 2024
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.

Sharing this week with the following: Thank you to the hosts.

NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

May 5, 2024