A Full-time Life

Category: The Whole USA

FLOR-ORADO – two favorite places

Here's the nature walk of the week here in Florida. These pictures are from Ann Olesky Park on Lake Trafford, in the Northeast corner of Collier County. We had some rain last week, but on this day, the sky was blue and it was shirt-sleeve weather.

Lake Trafford

Lake Trafford is about a 45 minute drive from home and we had to drive about half that distance in order to return a couple of packages. When we got to the UPS facility, we found that the Internet in that part of Fort Myers was down and we were unable to make our returns that day. So we did some accidental birding — something that's not at all hard to do around here. Little Blue Herons and Ibis are both fairly ordinary birds here, but these are the first ones of the season. Actually of two seasons, since we weren't here last year and neither of these guys hang out in the Pacific Northwest.

Like its title, this post is a mashup of two of our favorite scenic states. The following pictures are from last month's visit to Colorado.

Aspen trees make wonderful photo ops, whether a picture is a golden stand in the distance or a close-up showing the thin white outer bark, so different from other deciduous trees. And they are a fascinating tree. "One aspen tree is actually only a small part of a larger organism.   A stand or group of aspen trees is considered a singular organism with the main life force underground in the extensive root system." This Source article is well worth reading : National Forest Service Tree Profile.

Debbie's Meadow and Chimney Rock

We went along for Max's walk at Debbie's Meadow one day. We had a good view of Chimney Rock. Scenes from the original "True Grit'" movie were filmed here. And although I'm not much of a John Wayne fan, of course now I want to watch the movie again because I don't remember any of this.



On another day Geoff drove us over a Jeep trail to the ski resort city of Telluride. It was a beautiful drive and not anywhere near as scary as the sign makes it sound. We trusted our driver! It was on this drive where I took many of the scenic pictures from the past couple of posts. We enjoyed a good lunch and a walk around Telluride, which wasn't too busy during this off-season time of the year. (I don't imagine we would have been driving that back road if it had been ski season.)

It was almost impossible to stop taking pictures of Colorado gold! We were so lucky to be there at just the right time. But November is a pretty nice time to be in Florida and we're glad to be home. The picture below was taken a couple nights ago from our back porch. It's not the best moon shot ever, not even the best one I've ever taken. But like the birds in the top photo, it's the first one of the season. And we don't have good moon views from our porch in Oregon.



We are grateful.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; WANDERING CAMERA ; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

November 21, 2021
WE ARE STILL HERE!

In Blogland, we've been away for awhile …

but in real life we're still here on earth.

Happily, we're now at home, getting re-acquainted with our little corner of the world here on the Caloosahatchie River in Florida. But that's not where I took the above photo. I did the familiar "stop, gotta get a picture" yell as we passed through Earth, Texas — really just a rather run-down wide spot in the road — on the second leg of our cross-country trip. (The sign was the only photo-worthy part of the town.)

All of the rest of the pictures in today's post are from Colorado — our favorite stop on our trip.

The Autumn color was a feast for the eyes and the company was wonderful as always in beautiful Colorado. We visited our son and daughter-in-law in a part of the state that was new to us — Lisa and Geoff had moved into a brand-new home, on the Western side of the Rockies, just a couple of months earlier. We really enjoyed our stay — we always have such a good visit and it was fun to explore new territory. The gorgeous scenery was a huge bonus — the State really lives up to the motto "colorful Colorado" this time of year.

I'm not ready to post about the whole trip in any kind of chronological order yet (pictures to label and sort and real-life getting organized still going on here). Above are some more Colorado pictures featuring blue skies and more golden Aspens. (And our youngest son getting very close to the edge of a cliff.) By this time in my life, he didn't even scare me too much.

Gunnison Sage Grouse

An "accidental sighting " on one of our exploring days. I wasn't even looking for birds, but this one practically asked me to take its picture.

Ouray County, Colorado

More to come from Oregon, Colorado, Florida and points in between.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS;

November 7, 2021
OLD FAVORITES

It's kind of in-between seasons here in the Eugene area. Too late for summer and too early for Fall color. And no wildlife sightings. I took not a single outdoor picture last week. In fact, I took no pictures at all anywhere. That really doesn't happen too often in our world! But thankfully there are memories to share as we get ready to make some new ones.

Autumn Flyover – Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes – New Mexico, 2006

This was our second visit to the amazing Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge.

Last week, I didn't have any pictures to link to Skywatch Friday nor anything to link to Saturday Critters, so this post is definitely trying to make up for those omissions. As always I appreciate the hosts of all the sharing opportunities.

Immature Little Blue Heron and Roseate Spoonbill

Corkscrew Audubon Wildlife Refuge, Florida

Corkscrew is just enough out-of-the-way from our Florida Canal Cottage that we don't go there regularly, but it is always a joy when we do. It's definitely on the list for next time.

Colorado

Feeding Moose, Mountain Goat, and Elk in or near Rocky Mountain National Park

Pictures are from three different visits. Our Colorado family has moved to another area of that beautiful state and we are excited to see them and learn more about the new area. I'm sure the camera will come out of hiding there if not before!

So yes, we are planning to hitch up soon and head off for a (still) socially-distanced and masked road-trip. We always enjoy the journey but also look forward to visits with other people we know are vaccinated. I'll be taking a break from posting for a little while. But I will be reading and catching up with other blogger's adventures as we travel. When the tiny trailer is parked for the night and it's too early to go to bed, our IPads are the source of the evening's entertainment. Your posts are far more entertaining than the TV set that we took out of the trailer so that we'd have more storage space. I haven't missed it at all.

Grateful for everyone who visits and comments here at Full-Time Life. Thanks for your interesting posts and a special thank you to those who host the sharing opportunities where I link. This week, these:

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

September 12, 2021
WILD MEMORIES

Sticking close to home this week doing some fun stuff that I don't document well with photographs. You know, like cooking, eating, reading, walking, visiting with local family. Of course I do take pictures sometimes when I do the latter two things, but photo-worthy nature subjects are hard to find around here on hot, dry August days. I might have to teach myself to take decent pictures of food and people at least during the height of summer.

We are also hopefully planning some not-too-distant travel (and I think everyone knows by now what I mean by "we" in this context.) I am grateful to the Travel Planner. I am also glad our weather here in Oregon seems to be cooling down some and I look forward to a few more good photo walks here. Meanwhile, while the other half of us is planning for the future, I'm collecting memories from the past. Obviously, I've also been trying to sort through a million or so digital photos.

I do better making family portraits of birds and animals than I do of human ones. Here are a few:

Top row: hungry baby Great Blue Heron and mom – Wakodahatchee Nature Center Florida; Pie-Billed Grebe family, Fern Ridge Lake Oregon; Swan Family, Germany River Cruise

Middle: Sandhill crane family, Upriver RV Resort Florida; Wood stork with baby in nest, Wakodahatchee; Whistling Ducks, Florida.

Bottom row: Burrowing Owl family, Cape Coral Florida; Stork Family, Wakodahatchee; Ospreys, Florida Keys

Pronghorn Antelope, Hart Mountain Refuge Oregon

The above is not my best or favorite animal picture by far but it is from the one and only place I didn't post about after our July trip to Eastern Oregon so it gets a separate picture. Below are some pictures that really are candidates for favorite animals — and favorite places visited.

Elk, Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado; Bison, British Columbia; Brown Bears, Alaska;

Moose, Rocky Mountain NP; Mountain Sheep, Colorado; Musk Ox, Prudhoe Bay Alaska

Mother and Baby Moose, Cook Inlet Alaska; Stone Sheep, British Columbia; Caribou, Alaska

Virtual nature viewing is almost as much fun as the real thing! I love the way digital cameras make it possible to capture all these memories. Here's a fly-in memory shot from another trip:

Happy September everyone.

Don't forget to say Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit on Wednesday.

Addendum from Wikipedia: "Rabbit rabbit rabbit" is a superstition found in Britain and North America wherein a person says or repeats the words "rabbit", "rabbits" and/or "white rabbits" aloud upon waking on the first day of a month, to ensure good luck for the rest of it. The origin of the superstition is unknown.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; WANDERING CAMERA; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS;

August 29, 2021
New Pine Creek memories

This is a mostly a repeat memory post with some added thoughts and all new pictures. On our summer camping trip in June we drove through New Pine Creek, the tiny (not-quite-a) town that straddles the Oregon-California border. We lived in that out-of-the-way place for two years very early in our life together.

Goose Lake State Park, Oregon

That was in the early 1960s. Back then, Goose Lake wasn't yet a State Park but it was a 20+ mile long shallow Lake. Now it is a large field of grass. Not a drop of water.

We'd last driven through this area twelve years ago during a cross-country RV trip. I posted then about the memories the town evoked, but because even that visit was so long ago, I thought the post was worth a repeat. (Thoughts I added this time are in bold.)

MEMORIES IN A TUMBLE-DOWN TOWN

We've been married just about forever (I wrote that twelve years ago and we're still here!) and sometime back at the dawning of civilization*, we lived for a couple of years in New Pine Creek. We went to see it last week when we were in Southeast Oregon. It's a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of place that straddles the Oregon-California border on Highway 395.

(Definitely not the prettiest entry-way into California)

This little farm community is twenty miles south of Lakeview Oregon and 50 miles north of Alturas California, with nothing much else in between. It's the outback of the outback. Back then (*it really was 1959 through 1961), we thought we were so lucky to get to move there. Bill had just graduated from a two-year program at a Teacher's College in Lewiston Idaho (across the Snake River from our home town of Clarkston Washington). He got a position as teacher/principal (and janitor) at New Pine Creek Elementary, a one-room school on the California side of the border. California! It paid more than Idaho, where most of his fellow graduates went. I think he made about $4,500 that year.

We had a one-year old son and a baby on the way. (Our daughter was born in Lakeview in February 1960. The Dr. and hospital were 20 miles away from home.) This is the house where we lived — as you can see, it is about a foot from the highway. The house actually looks better now than it did then; we didn't have siding or a fence. (Ugh, it's a junk shop now — so this time, it looked even worse than it did in 1960.) It snowed a lot in the Winters we were there. The snowplow would come past several times a day and plow the snow into drifts that blocked the house in. Those winter days were long!

This is the old school building where Bill taught. Someone was living in it last time we were here, but It looked completely abandoned now — the school closed years ago. It was about the length of two blocks straight up the highway from our house. It is funny to realize that the eighth-graders Bill taught were actually only six or seven years younger than he was then.

It was a very small village even when we lived there. But there were a couple of grocery stores, a good butcher, a barbershop, a service station right next door owned by the sweet couple who were our landlords, and a Grange Hall that had an active social schedule. Now the buildings all look like something straight out of a ghost story. (Even worse this time.) Junk shops are the last dying gasps of a small town.

After our two years there, we moved back to Eastern Washington. Living there again, we had two more sons, bought our first house, worked a bunch of various jobs between us, and, eventually, Bill went back to college and completed his degrees. It remains my fond hope that someday I will get around to scanning some old pictures and writing some memory posts about those years! In 1971, we moved to Lane County, Oregon — the opposite side of the State of Oregon from NPC, in every possible definition.

Random Roadside pictures as we drove around Oregon's outback in 2021

(altered with Picasa to look like a 1960s scrapbook page.)

We've long since lost track of the people we knew during the short time we lived in New Pine Creek. But we'll always remember our two years there — we did a lot of growing up and had a lot of fun too. (Looking back from over half a century later my mind is boggled thinking about how young we were then .) I wonder if there will be anything left of the town if we ever drive through again. (So obviously we did drive through again and found the town in even worse condition. I don't think we'll do that again! But we treasure our memories and are thankful that we've survived all the ensuing years in slightly better shape ourselves.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TUESDAY TREASURES; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

August 15, 2021
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL 2021

To celebrate Independence Day, July 4 2021.

Pike's Peak, Colorado

I wish "America the Beautiful" were our National Anthem. With all respect to Francis Scott Key, the words of Katherine Lee Bates better express what we celebrate about our country. Here are a few of her words and a few of our archived pictures from places we have been fortunate to visit in our travels:

Oh Beautiful for spacious skies

Colorado Front Range

For Amber Waves of Grain

Palouse Country, Washington State

For Purple Mountain Majesty

Mt. Rainier, Washington

Above the Fruited Plain

(why have I never taken a picture of a fruited plain?)

…

And Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood,

Oregon – Central Pacific Coast

From Sea to Shining Sea

Atlantic Ocean – from Acadia National Park, Maine

We are grateful. Happy Fourth of July!

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY BLISS;

July 4, 2021
SMILES — REARRANGED

Nothing much new under the sun this week. Or actually under the rain and gray clouds. Rain is definitely needed, so I'm not feeling sad about it at all. And besides there are photo-worthy skies in the archives. Here are a few I re-arranged:

These six pictures are from four of our favorite states. Can you guess which? There's a hint (and an answer) at the end of this post.

No hint at the end about the above plant, but information from any experts is always welcome. It's fascinating that it has green flowers! There's a whole bed of them in a neighborhood garden I walked past last week.

Random soft color from a neighborhood walk before it started to rain.

When I said nothing much new happened last week, I meant in a blog-worthy way — the camera didn't get much of a workout. But things happened. We read, we walked, we ordered groceries, we cooked, "we" worked on getting our tiny trailer ready for some future trips …

And, as usual these days, we got a delivery or two. Now honestly, does every photo-blogger have a mental list of things they wish they'd snapped a picture of? My long list now includes the new mattress FedEx delivered last week. It arrived vacuum packed and rolled in a box light enough for the two of us to carry from the porch. Then we watched it magically inflate to a lovely 14"- thick queen-size as soon as the tight wrapping was removed. I wish I'd taken a picture of that! It's kind of amazing — sure beats the old way when a mattress purchase took two furniture store delivery persons . (Of course this time we had to move the old one ourselves — that was the harder part.)

One of these "wildflowers" is not like the other. Can you find it? Oh wow it's another puzzle. Every open space along the walking path is covered with these little jewels, in about the same proportion seen here. All so spring-like and pretty. I refuse to call them weeds.

This collection may help with the sky photo locations. These animals and birds are from the same four states as in the sky photo — re-arranged in the same order. (* see below link ups)

Thankful this week for the rain (but also kind of glad the sun has peeked through occasionally); for the new mattress that feels almost like it was custom-made for us; and for travel — both memories and future trips now in the early planning stages.

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

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

Top row L-R: Colorado, Florida, Oregon. Bottom row: Oregon, Colorado, Washington.

April 25, 2021
FALL

We had rain off and on and wind last week – the first official week of Fall in the USA. One windy afternoon we were reading quietly when there was a strange and loud noise outside our window. Here's what we saw:

FALL (two definitions) 2020

My first thought was that this poor old tree just gave up on 2020 (because why not? — It really feels as if we're all just waiting for the other shoe to drop.) In reality, saturated ground and sudden wind may have had something to do with the tree's demise. No buildings or people were hurt and we were happy that it was "not our problem." That is the head of maintenance for our complex surveying the damage. I grow fond of trees and it was sad to see whenever I looked out our windows. This weekend a crew came in and chain-sawed it all away.

Below are some more conventional (and happier) pictures of Fall around our neighborhood:

Weekday walks, Eugene — first week of Fall 2020

September is such a nostalgic month — I think because it brings back memories of starting school. My archives don't go back quite as far as those boxes of crayons and new workbooks, but because I didn't have many new pictures for the week I did comb through them.

Fern Ridge Lake Oregon 2012

I looked for September pictures that would work for the sharing sites that I like to join. We spent part of the summer/fall season at the Lake for several years when we were full-time RVers. (We traveled the rest of the year.)

Mergansers, Bald Eagles, and a Bear — Haines Alaska 2014

We spent almost four months in Alaska in 2014 — the trip actually ended in mid-September, so these pictures would have been taken earlier in the summer. But I was still blogging about that trip for weeks after it ended. There was so much to see and do there!

Vermont 2001

I used the above picture in the first FullTime-Life blog post I ever made in September 2007 (and have repeated it every few years to mark the start of the season.) But it was taken several years before that on our first RV trip out of the western states. We loved this trip, loved that part of the country, and loved being leaf-peepers.

And here we are back home in the neighborhood in September 2020 – one of the paths we walk along the Willamette River. A lovely place for dreaming of the past and planning for the future! We are grateful for time to do both.

Thank you to the hosts of the following — for the sharing opportunities they provide and also this week for the impetus to do a search through "the olden days" of the blog so that I'd have pictures that would fit all of the themes!

  MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; SIGNS SIGNS;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS;

September 27, 2020
SERVING LEFT-OVERS THIS WEEK

We stayed at home last week. But thankfully our photo archives have some fairly decent leftovers to fill up a post. Or maybe I could call them planned-overs. (That always sounds better when I'm talking about filling up with what remains in the refrigerator.)

Hendricks Park, earlier this month

Although City Parks are open, the Parks Department has asked families to forgo the Eugene tradition of visiting Hendricks Park on Mother's Day. They have a virtual tour on line. We didn't even know it was a Mother's Day tradition and were glad we visited during an earlier and quieter week. Since it is the height of the season, in normal times it would certainly be a perfect spot for the day however. So this turned out to be a pretty good week to serve up the rest of our rhody tour. Happy Mother's Day!

Below are some leftovers from last month — still good to go I think:

Along a Missouri highway, April 2020 Road-trip

This Road Sign seemed appropriate not only for our April road-trip, but also for the times in general.

There's actually more than just a street — Peculiar is a City in Missouri. The town motto is "Peculiar, where the 'odds' are with you." I like it — and its too bad that our peculiar circumstances didn't allow us to explore the area a little more!

Burns RV Park, Eastern Oregon

A large covey of quail kept us entertained at one of our overnight stops on our April trip. It's always nice when there are natural areas right near an RV Park. We didn't even have to walk out of the Park to visit this brambly area, where we saw (and heard) quail and songbirds. A relaxing way to end a day of driving.

Now back to earlier this month:

I thought that all the "not-rhododendron" pictures I took at Hendricks were from the Native Plant Garden, but I wonder now about the top left picture! Those look like Japanese Iris to me. They do grow wild around here though — there are some in the Pond area near our daughter's and also in their yard.

I did take a lot of pictures of yellow rhody shrubs — because I had never seen them in that color before. And because yellow flowers are always favorites for me. Like spots of sunshine!!

But who could ever grow tired of rhododendrons in their more traditional color palette:

The glory of Spring in Eugene!

A paler shade of yellow

A little blue sky peeking through behind this home in our daughter and son-in-law's neighborhood (really their backyard). These neighbors were social-distancing last time I was there because they didn't even poke their heads out. I'll try again next time!

LINKING THIS WEEK to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.

MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS

May 10, 2020
ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN A PANDEMIC

Last morning walk of the season in Florida

We traveled 3,359 miles pulling a 13-foot travel trailer to get home to Oregon this month. We did it in 12 nights — the fastest we've ever driven across country. It could have been a risky thing to do, but we thought it was our safest bet during this pandemic (and ultimately our decision turned out well.)

Getting from one place to another as quickly as possible is really not our thing — we'd rather take time to smell the roses. But taking our time was not an option this year. Fortunately we both like road trips, even just the 'on-the-road' part of them. And this time, the trip itself at least gave us some challenges and new things to talk about during this time of isolation.

(click to enlarge)

We drove from North Fort Myers Florida with these overnight stops:

Ocala Florida, Elko Georgia, Jasper Alabama, Jonesboro Arkansas, Harrisonville Missouri, York Nebraska, Sidney Nebraska, Rawlins Wyoming, Declo Idaho, Burns Oregon, Blue River Oregon, and then HOME!

"We" didn't drive long days (Bill did all the driving) — The longest driving day was 426 miles (going from Wyoming to Idaho). The shortest was the last — 54 miles just because we didn't want to arrive home tired after a long day, (The trailer had food in it! And dirty clothes! We had to unload it as soon as we got home.)

Here are some of the places where we stayed overnight: .

I don't usually take pictures of the RV Parks where we stay, but some days, especially toward the beginning of the trip, we didn't really see anything else that was picture-worthy. We had almost no problem finding open RV Parks and mostly saw nobody else while we were parked. (This is unusual for RVers who are a friendly bunch as a rule. We were glad it was different this time.) Most of the parks handled registration completely over the telephone.

We didn't do any sightseeing, other than what we saw from the car window. And we were on major highways all the time on this trip. (In a normal travel year, we like to go off freeway as much as possible – the trip might take longer, but you see more.) Some of the time it was just us and the truckers on the road! Lots of trucks. We are grateful that they are out doing their job — it is certainly an essential one now as always.

We did see interesting things through the windows sometimes though — and occasionally I was even able to get a quick picture.

Car window picture somewhere in Wyoming.

Wyoming was hard on both of us because we usually drive through it on our way to or from visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Colorado. That was not to be this year, since at that time none of us knew for sure if we were virus-free. We did appreciate the blue skies — and that the roads were clear of ice and snow (we were lucky in our weather) — and were glad that we were getting closer to home.

We were back in Oregon before I was able to get my 'first-mountain-of-the-season' picture. Taking that picture is an annual tradition when we return to the West from the flatlands of Florida. (In most years, that picture has been taken in Colorado.) On this trip, we began to see nice elevation on the horizon well before we hit the Oregon border, but this lonely road between Burns and Bend Oregon was the first good opportunity for a decent picture. I don't think about missing mountains while we're in Florida — but as soon as I see them when we come back I realize that I did!

The Mountains are always there whenever we return, but Spring flowers are usually gone by the time we get here. So seeing them is one good thing about this year:

All these lovely flowering trees and bushes were in the little RV Park where we stayed on the last night of the trip — Blue River Oregon.

And here's the first picture I took after we got home:

One of the gardens in Cyndi and Jeff's yard

We'd already unloaded everything out of the trailer at home and then driven it out to the country to stash it on our gracious kids' property. We talked to them at the prescribed safe distance and of course haven't yet been back as we're just ending our first week of self-isolating at home. So we're communicating electronically just as if we were over 3,000 miles away instead of 20! But at least we can do that.

It's good to be home.

Linking this week to the following — thank you to the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY BLISS;

April 19, 2020