A Full-time Life

Category: Oregon homes

  • LAST LEAVES FROM OREGON

     

    Because who could get tired of Autumn's vibrant reds, here is a look back to our last week at Fern Ridge Shores while pictures and posting catch up to where we are now. Shared with RUBY TUESDAY. Thank you Mary for hosting.

     

    Red tree jeans road

    Three views of the same tree on Jeans Road.

    Red tree branch sky

    Red tree leaves ground

    Beautiful —

    Especially since we don't have to worry about raking them up!

     

     

     

  • GOLDEN DAY

    For Nature's Footsteps – Waters. Bill and I are on the road again, but these are pictures from our last week at the Lake.
    Golden colors kirk pond-1

    Freya chase with cyndi and pondHere's our daughter Cyndi at Kirk Ponds. She and I went walking in this natural area along with the dogs (Freya and Chase) who live at her house. This was one of our last days at the Lake.
    It was crisp and clear — a day of pure gold in a part of Oregon where Autumn days aren't always this dry and sunny!

    And a day of pure gold because Cyndi and I got to go outside and play — one of my favorite ways to spend the day, and, luckily, one of hers as well.
    Cyndi rickety bridge qt pond

  • LEAVING THE LAKE

    FOR SKYWATCH FRIDAY. It is time for us to hit the road. It's always hard to leave the people we love. And the beautiful Fall weather we've enjoyed this week sure isn't making it easier.

    084-1

    It seems like it never fails — as soon as we are really ready to leave (anyplace where we've been for longer than a day or two), the weather turns beautiful and we think of all the things we meant to do and all the people we meant to spend more time with.

    Sky refl-1

    But the chilly rains will come and it is time for us to flee south, with a few detours along the way.

    FullTime-Life will be on a short blogging break and then I'll try to post at least a little bit of our roadtrip as we amble our way back to our Florida home (slowly if we have good weather along the way, quicker if we don't).

  • OH NO, NOT ANOTHER DAM WALK

    CORNER ORCHARD RD

    LONG WALKIt's fun to walk the causeway between Fern Ridge Dam and Orchard Park, a Lane County Park. The dam is on the other side of the Lake from where we stay, too far to walk to it from our RV.
    But that side of the Lake is close to where where Cyndi and Jeff live, making the walk even more inviting. (The top picture is the corner of their street, looking down from the causeway.)

    DAM SPILLWAY
    So on this lovely October day Bill let me off at the dam on his way to Eugene to do errands.
    Dam walk
    I kept scaring this poor great blue heron as I walked (not on purpose — I think he was just alert to the crunch of the gravel up above him). He'd fly a few yards and stop and watch and as soon as I got close, he'd fly again. Finally he got smart and flew off, but it took the poor thing about four stops to figure out that I wasn't going to go away.

    067
    When I got to Cyndi and Jeff's I did what I usually do there, which is absolutely nothing, accompanied by a healthy dose of watching other people work.

  • HUNT FOR RED, OCTOBER

    For RUBY TUESDAY

    Until this week, there hasn't been a lot of red in this area.  I looked for something to post for Ruby Tuesday a week ago and the reddest thing I could find was these bright crabapples growing wild in Orchard Park. 

    Crabapples

     It hasn't been very cold yet (which is good for RVers) but that means that there hasn't been a lot of fall color yet.    A few trees around town have turned red and Saturday I finally got a real Autumn red picture.

    Red trees one
    I'm glad we got to see some red trees before we leave.   

      

     

      

     

     

     

  • SCENES FROM THE RECEDING LAKE

    FOR NATURE'S FOOTSTEPS – WATERS

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    The grass in the foreground is the same spot where earlier in the summer I took many pictures of grebes swimming.  Much of the water is gone now as the reservoir is being drained for flood control.   The wading birds enjoy easy pickings.  Their prey is being "herded" into the remaining water as the lake recedes. 

    Egrets and herons receding lake oct

     

  • OUR SUMMER ON THE WATER

    FOR NATURE'S FOOTSTEPS — WATERS. This new meme for water-related posts is tailor-made for our full-time life, because we spend a lot of time on the water or looking at the water… Whether we're home in Florida or visiting in the Northwest and much of the time when we're on the road in between. Thank you to Nature's Footsteps for providing this sharing opportunity.

    SUNRISE TH WINDOW This was our early morning water view this weekend.
    The Lake is receding (soon it will be Fern Ridge (no)Lake ). And the weather is signalling that it's about time for snowbirds like us to head south!

    Yep, winter's on the way and, in this part of Oregon, Winter is damp, chilly, and gray.
    But in the summer, there's no better place to hang your hat — or park your RV. And no better place to look through the RV window.
    (Although when the weather is nice I don't take pictures through the window — instead we go outside every time there's an excuse!)

    Here's a sampler of our daily views of the lake this past summer — through the window or outside of it.

    SUMMER ON THE WATER

    We know how lucky we are to be here only during the best time of the year!

  • THE SMALLEST FULL MOON

     

    FOR SKYWATCH FRIDAY, where bloggers all over the world are looking up!

    Last March we watched the "super moon" from the backyard of our home in Florida. It was lovely to look at, but I didn't get good pictures. This week, from the RV's backyard here at Fern Ridge Shores, the smallest full moon of the year was more photo-friendly.

    MOON THR TREES

    This month's full moon (on Tuesday) was nearly at its maximum distance from the Earth making it appear much smaller than full moons usually look. (The March moon was nearly as close as it could be.)

    Here's a link to an article at Space.com that explains all this much better.

  • EAT WITH YOUR EYES!

    This post is linked to OUR WORLD.  Click on the links to see what's happening out there!

     TOMATOES LOTS-1

    It's a perfect time to visit the Farmer's Market in downtown Eugene.  Summer tomatoes and peppers are still bountiful (for a little while longer) and the colorful and delicious Fall crops are coming on strong. 

    FARMERS MKT 2011 

    It's hard to pick and choose – but easy to eat locally and healthfully.   

     

  • FLEETING BEAUTY

    Linking to MELLOW YELLOW MONDAY and RUBY TUESDAY

    Daydreaming on a dreary morning

    (or what I took pictures of when there was nothing else to take a picture of).

    Kaleidoscope2 
     One turn of the teleidoscope and these jewels are gone forever, never to return in exactly the same configuration….

    Kaleidoscope 

    …. or at least that's the way it was before I learned I could capture them with  a camera.  

     

    Here is a link to the Wiki article on the teleidoscope.