It's been awhile. Nearly a whole month. But there's really been nothing to blog about...well, nothing to create one blog for. It's been some incredibly wet weather, a trip to California for Carol and, of course, Christmas. And a couple other small things thrown in the mix just to keep life interesting. The small things that make up a life retired.
Oh, and the photography. One of my constants is photography. But it hasn't been much of a month for picture taking. I don't know exactly why but, well, there it is. Haha, even with the ennui I still managed to get a number of pictures. I didn't feel I'd really done much but, looking back, I can see where I still managed to get some. And, Boy Howdy, was I Artsy Fartsy.
So in the early part of this month of December, the weather was reasonably pleasant. Which meant, for me, some great opportunities to get out and....walk!! Haha, yeah, it's all part of my clever plan to live to at least 80. It's not working, yet. I am still conveniently lazy and horribly inconsistent. A walk here, another there...a couple days later.
Still, any walk is better than none at all, right? Right!!
And so I walked. Through the neighborhood. And I brought along my trusty Canon PowerShot SX 170. This camera is still my fall-back camera whenever I need to travel light. Plus, it's my favorite for the close-ups of flowers, etc. Seriously, if you're wanting to notch up your act from the cell phone camera then consider getting one of these versatile beauties. You can get a new one for less than $150 and a used one for less than $90. Honest, it is money well spent.
There was some great light earlier in the month. Not so lately. Gray has been the dominant color the past couple weeks. Gray, gray, gray, gray, gray, graaaaay! It's been dull, drab, wet and gray. But not on this particular day. Somehow, in some miraculous way, I was up early enough to get some great light. This is Jetty Avenue...heading south.
Haha, I like it, that's enough reason.
And, as I wander aimlessly around and about the neighborhood, I am constantly reminded that I live in the People's Republic of Oregon.
OK, don't groan, that's a fair assessment. Oregon has more than its fair share of liberals, but, fortunately, they're mostly concentrated in the big cities, Portland, Salem, Eugene and so on along the I-5 corridor. Out in the sticks, they aren't as thick, but, they are everywhere and not shy one bit about extolling their liberalism. Not one bit.
If this guy is an alumnus of the University of Hawaii, well, that's a lick on Hawaii (license plate holder). Are any of these a surprise? Hahaha, I thought not.
Which reminds me that I have an NRA sticker that I won't be putting on the Mini. Haha, I don't want the Faithful Steed getting keyed.
Still more amblin' along...I passed by the Surftides Motel where they have this flag in their courtyard. Haha, it's not easy zooming in while standing in the street and holding the camera steady. Try as I may to get a picture with the stripes set against the field of blue with the stars on it...it just didn't happen.
I failed. Hmmmmmm, I wonder what I could use to help me?
Relax, I bought a tripod for my birthday present. Plus another camera but that's a different story.
OK, realize there are a lot of walks. I've been seeing themes in my mind and trying to get them through the camera. Mailboxes. I don't know, for some reason they've caught my attention lately.
Especially rural mailboxes...well, maybe I should say Small-Town America mailboxes. You'll see these again. Promise. It will be a continuing theme, much like these...
...flowers. Haha, yep!! There they are again. Even in the late, late stages of autumn, you can still find flowers. These are back at the Surftides...you know, the one with the American flag.
And these are hardy little suckers, too. Still around even as the days get shorter and colder. Oh, and wetter. Way wetter.
And there are so many different, unusual things to see as I traipse merrily through the neighborhood. I mean, how many times have you seen something like this madcap skier as you've wandered through BigCityopolis, eh?
Not many, I bet.
And the funny thing is, this guy isn't the oddest thing in their yard. Oh, they've got some other nifty decorations scattered around. Do you think he's wearing a bra under that jacket? Could be the reason he's smiling so wickedly.
Haha, could be.
Woo, woo!! Mailboxes. But, y'know, I'm getting there. I like the pattern. Now I just have to get some better color, light and make it sharper. EZ, PZ, y'all.
I particularly like this picture. For whatever reason, it suggests to me the old movie, Gone With the Wind. I've tried it with a number of different quotes, y'know, putzing around, but they don't seem to work.
I don't care, haha, I still like this one.
Another walk, another day and, BAZINGA!! (Haha, OK, I admit, I'm watching The Big Bang Theory right now), I finally got near to what I was reaching for. And I did it handheld, too.
It's coming along.
You've seen my highway pictures. Here's a detail. And, believe it or not, this was exactly what I wanted to shoot. I actually shot the centerline markings down Jetty Avenue.
Whadya think? Should I get it printed and mounted? Haha, I just might.
And, just because I could, I reached up high on a roof and caught this fine fellow. A feathered rat.
Oh, OK, maybe not exactly a rat. They can be beautiful...like this guy whom Carol has named Cinnamon. He's a regular at our feeder. He and his buddies come back everyday to peck and scratch around the feeder where the song sparrows have dropped a bunch of seed while they're feeding. Lately, they've taken to flying up to the feeder and hanging on while beating their wings because there isn't enough room for them to actually perch on the ledge, and peck at the food scattering the seed down to their buddies.
We're still looking for the all-white pigeon and then Carol will name her Angel.
Running an errand, I stopped by D River and hauled out my newest toy, a Nikon P900.
About this new camera, I can't explain why I bought it but, hey, I did. It's got a more powerful zoom than the Canon I have. It really reaches out there, y'all. Haha, talk about an impulse purchase!!
And it lets you get up close and personal without getting up close...or personal.
And here's the Missus.
More often than not, you'll see an egret or two where the D River narrows to cross under The 101 and onto the ocean. And I wasn't disappointed. Because he was far, far away. I had to go into Digital Zoom to reach him and you can see the loss of clarity.
Still, it's fun to get out and see wildlife. You don't see these guys around downtown L.A. or Seattle.
I likes me some dramatic sky. And there is always an ample supply of them around here. Let me qualify that statement, it's been cloudy, dramatic skies except for the last couple of weeks. Lately, it's just been gray. I think I mentioned that earlier.
I like the texture, the drama of these clouds. I think I got my bug about clouds when I first began this hobby of photography. I started learning about early photographers to see their style, their eye. One of my favorites was Alfred Stieglitz.
Fun Facts: Alfred was an original American photographer and modern art promoter. He was instrumental in making photography an accepted art form during his fifty-year career. Photography owes him a lot.
In addition to his photography, Stieglitz is also known for the New York art galleries that he ran in the early part of the 20th century, where he introduced many avant-garde European artists to the U.S. He was married to the painter, Georgia O'Keeffe.
He was 52 and she 28 when they first met. What followed was a collaborative love affair that allowed the two of them to grow in their art and their lives.
From 1915 until 1946, some 25,000 pieces of paper were exchanged between these two major 20th-century artists. Painter Georgia O'Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz wrote each other letters - sometimes two and three a day, some of them 40 pages long. The correspondence tracks their relationship from acquaintances to admirers to lovers to man and wife to exasperated - but still together - long-marrieds. An American Love Story in the arts.
Stieglitz first photographed clouds in 1922 when he was 58 years old. It began easily enough with a simple thought, "I wanted to photograph clouds to find out what I had learned in forty years about photography." What a challenge, eh!?!
After a successful career, he chose something he considered commonplace in order to gauge his progress as an artist. He wanted to prove his photographs, his art was, "not due to subject matter- not to special dress or faces, or interiors, to special privileges - clouds were there for everyone..." That struck me then and still challenges me today.
His clouds were generally recognized as the first intentionally abstract photographs and they remain some of his most powerful photographs. He referred to these photographs as Equivalents.
He was inspired in this by the work of his wife, O'Keeffe, "whose paintings were deeply expressive of her visual, emotional and psychological experiences." He was able, unlike me, to articulately state his reasons for pursuing his art. Hahaha, I get about as deep as, "I like it" and falter.
I was taken by his clouds way back then and it is still affecting me today. He developed a theory of clouds as being the equivalent of his life experience. Me? I can't get that deep, but I can continue to try and scratch that itch. And hope for the best.
Here's one of his clouds.
"The clouds...are a picture of the chaos in the world, and of my relationship to that chaos."
-- Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 - July 13, 1946)
Haha, I can relate to chaos.
Here's a picture of Mr. Stieglitz from 1902. The man cut a dashing figure. If you want an interesting read, check out his life story and the love he shared with O'Keeffe.
Playing around. It's amazing what the cameras of today can do. And you don't even have to think about it. Oh, you gotta remember to change the light source...which I usually forget, but that's about it.
I was just reclining in my easy chair and leaned over and got this picture of the candle on the coffee table. Oh, I know, it's not great but, for me, it's pretty doggone nice.
I've said it before but, with these modern cameras, I am simply the mechanism that points, frames, decides and shoots. The cameras do all the grunt work of figuring out the ISO, shutter speed, f-stop and focusing. I realize I'm at least half the equation in this process of getting the picture but I can't help but think I'm the least of it in this whole process.
Two years ago we lost Baby Harvey James. It was crushing. To remember him and to celebrate his life, the family releases floating lanterns on his birthday. Wherever we are, on that evening we all stop to think of him. We send love notes up into the sky to him.
Here I am waiting for the hot air to fill the lantern and then letting it go...
Floating out over the Pacific.
Hey, I just realized, the dominant feature in this picture are the clouds!! Hahaha, evidently I've been working off a repressed, unconscious memory for quite a while now.
Thanks, Alfred!!
And in Artsy-Fartsy B&W, too!!
Our view of the Pacific from the bluff.
OK, another day, another dollar...it was pouring down rain and I had to run to the...whatever, not important.
But I started out with the wipers set on their slowest speed. I saw where the speed of the vehicle and the heavy downpour combined to give off an interesting effect when I shot through the windshield.
I particularly like this one...it has a dreamy, evanescent sense to it. Like an oil painting.
Haha, OK. I realize driving like this and taking pictures isn't a good idea. In my defense, I was driving very slow.
OK, since we've gotten to the 'rain' part, it has been very rainy here. Actually, it's been very rainy in all of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). In fact, Washington State has, because of all the recent rainfall, decided it no longer needs to retain its 'drought' warnings. They've decided to let their drought emergency order expire at the end of the year.
They've had, we've had, enough rain in the past few weeks to end the freakin' drought!!
Which brings me to this picture...it was raining so hard, they closed the small parking area for the beach access next to us. And, they closed it because of....
...the huge amount of rainfall that was swelling the stream that runs down between the house and the access. Seems they were worried the rushing water would erode the bank that the parking lot borders on. You can get an idea of how swiftly the water was flowing. That little stream has risen a couple feet in the past few weeks.
On a drive up to Portland so Carol could catch a plane to see her sister in El Monte, we stopped at the Audubon Center. Just about everyday, they have volunteers come in and display some of the birds they have in their care...like this Horned Owl and the American Raven.
We had a good conversation with the guy sitting down. We also learned a lot about the Turkey Vulture that he's holding. Here Carol's taking a break while he talks to another couple.
After I dropped Carol off at the airport, I drove back to LCO. On the way I stopped at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). I just missed an eagle catching his lunch. I did get to see him fly away with the Day's Special, though.
I did get to see some other waterfowl.
It is a well-presented NWR. They have a small store and an inside area where you can sit and look out over the water.
Looking out our windows towards the stream and the ocean. There's that huge swatch of grass that I get to mow now. Believe me, it's a lot larger than it appears here. When I'm mowing it, it's like an acre at least.
OK, quick jump now. On December 15th, the ASLC conducted the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) for our area.
The CBC is a census of birds in the Western Hemisphere. It is performed annually in the early Northern-Hemisphere winter by volunteer birdwatchers and administered by the National Audubon Society. This year, the CBC is being held across the nation from December 14 through January 5. Our local chapter has an area that stretches out in a 15-mile arc from the center of LCO. Folks are broken down into teams with a team leader and an assigned sector and they go out on this one day and count as many different birds as they can.
The teams are at it all day. Then, and here's where I come in, at 1500, they gathered to collate their count and report the number of birds their team spotted, and have a little fun. Eventually, all this information is put together and forwarded to National. It helps to track birds in different areas and assess the health of bird populations, guide conservation efforts and helps in understanding migration patterns.
At the end of the day, they get together to compile their sightings and have a potluck. While I didn't go on the CBC, I was able to get involved a bit by helping set up the meeting area for the dinner.
Originally, the Potluck was suppose to be at the River House over by the Salmon River but...things happen and it was changed at the last moment to the Connie Hansen Garden. Which, for me, was super convenient since I live about a quarter mile from the Garden.
Here's Laura, heating up the chili for the Potluck. Really, I've been to the Garden maybe 6-7 times and I never fully appreciated how large Connie Hansen's former house was. It was huge.
I'm in the large meeting room looking back towards the kitchen.
They've got quite a large library there...on gardening.
Here's my contribution. I made a salad...cut up the lettuce, sliced the tomatoes, cuked the cucumbers, diced the onions and forgot the cheese. Well, I tried.
Oh, and this being the Audubon, it was vegetarian chili. Haha, I know...kinda like kissing your sister. They were suppose to have one meat chili dish there but somehow it got sidetracked.
Mmmmmm, meatless chili!!
Folks are starting to come in. The first order of business was to tally up all the birds each team had spotted.
Once the food had been eaten and the numbers reported, they tallied their findings.
They do this CBC across the nation and in Canada, too. The folks involved, besides being grateful it didn't rain that day (that was unexpected), had a lot of fun getting out and counting all the different bird species.
This CBC was considered a resounding success.
OK, let's skip from birds to Scouts. I was able to sit on a Board of Review for three Scouts. Haha, it was easy to get back into the routine again just like old times, really. Afterwards I got this picture with the happy and relieved Scouts.
I went out into the yard one night and got this picture of the waxing quarter moon. It's on its way to being the first full moon on Christmas Day since 1977. Unfortunately, I couldn't even see the moon Christmas Day...doggone gray skies.
The big fund raiser for this Scout Troop is the Christmas Tree Sale. They've been doing this for a number of years and have, really, gotten it down to a science. We met the Friday after Thanksgiving to set up the trestles and the tent and then, a week later, they were selling Christmas Trees, making money and making people happy.
See the reindeer? The day we were sitting up, this fellow stops by and offers to give us a buck for every reindeer sold. He said he'd put them out and, at the end of the day, he'd pick them up. EZ, PZ. The best thing is this man's name...Rich Dollar.
He's a great guy, retired. He makes the reindeer to get a little extra cash. He also volunteered to be the Merit Badge Counselor for both the Woodwork and Wood Carving Merit Badges.
I worked the lot a couple times. It was wet, cold and windy. Thank goodness for the tent and the wood stove inside. It took the edge off the cold.
Then another entrepreneur showed up with his 'Sporty' Crab Trap. A design he invented. Again, we sold them and then he gave us some money from the sale.
Some of our enthusiastic sales crew.
Some of the scout leaders. The fellow on the left is an Eagle Scout back home for vacation from college. The second from the left is his Dad and also the Assistant Scoutmaster. The man on the right is the outgoing Scoutmaster and current Cubmaster. The guy in the green sweater is our District Executive. I think.
We were suppose to conduct a Board of Review but the Scout didn't show up. This is Sally, she's the Advancement Chair. Here she is with a couple of Scouts.
Who wouldn't buy a tree from this crew, right!?!
I came to be very fond of this tent and its wood burning stove. Kept the inside toasty, and dry.
My shift was Saturday afternoon. When I got there on the 19th, we had six trees left to sell. Within two hours we were loading the last tree into the car.
Here it is, our very last tree. I was very happy to see it go!!
Adios, árbol!!
The storms have really roiled up the ocean. We woke up and it looked like it was snowing...it was sea foam being blown across the lawn.
Fun Facts: What is sea foam? Well, if you scoop up some water from the ocean in a clear glass and look at it closely, you'll see that it's chock full of tiny particles. Seawater contains dissolved salts, proteins, fats, dead algae and a bunch other bits and pieces of organic matter. If you shake this glass of ocean water vigorously, small bubbles will form on the surface of the liquid.
Sea foam forms in this way, but on a much grander scale, when the ocean is agitated by wind and waves. Each coastal region has differing conditions governing the formation of sea foams.
Algal blooms are one common source of thick sea foams. When large blooms of algae decay offshore, great amounts of decaying algal matter often wash ashore. Foam forms as this organic matter is churned up by the surf and you get sea foam like this...
Remember that picture earlier showing the running water in the stream by the access parking lot? Here it is completely filled with sea foam.
There should be a path there to a bench overlooking the beach. It's still there but the foam has covered it up.
Again with the clouds...but the point of this picture is to show you where the beach access used to be. Before the foam.
It was, honestly, quite an unusual sight.
The winds have been pretty strong lately. This window on the Hardy Boys Mystery House had a large window on the sun porch blown out by the wind. You can see the shards of glass strewn about the grass in front of the missing window.
In fact, when it drys up, I'll have to go out and pick up pieces of glass in the yard before I mow it. That's some strong wind, there, Bubba.
We've got this one gull who has figured out that if he waits around the back door long enough squawking, he'll get a piece of bread. He's a regular visitor now.
I went to the Dollar Tree and got a couple bags of popcorn, for a dollar, to feed to the gulls on Christmas. We had quite a crowd come by. I had gone out and spread the popcorn around and stood there for a moment watching all the gulls and crows swooping in. By the time I had gotten back in the house and looked out the window, all the popcorn was gone and most of the birds were gone.
Random bits...we had a little party to fold the Bi-Annual ASLC Newsletter, put stamps on them and address them. Of course we took the opportunity to enjoy some adult beverages, too.
Haha, we had fun.
I'm gonna miss getting a piece of chocolate to start my day with. I do like Advent Calendars. And it was fun counting down the days until Christmas.
The day before Christmas, I got the bright idea (from Facebook) of making candles from vegetable shortening. Haha, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Anyway, it was off the to the store for us to get the necessary materials for our candles.
But first, we had to get this picture of snow on the Knoll. I hadn't realized it but it had snowed up on the Knoll. This small hill sits to the north of LCO. In fact, we had hiked up to the top of it a couple months back with the ASLC. And there it was, with snow.
It didn't last long, the snow was gone the next day, but it was there. For a while. Chilly, Willy.
First stop was to the Dollar Tree where we got the crayons for coloring the shortening, the glass jars to hold the shortening, the scent to make the shortening smell good and the string to light it up with.
Plus a couple other things.
Next we ran over to Ace Hardware to get some nuts to weigh down the wick. We saw the statue of Abe across the street and saw that they'd given Abe a new shirt...advertising the 50th year of Lincoln City which was incorporated in 1965.
Lookin' good, Abraham.
Then into the store for our nuts. Gots to get the just right ones.
And then we went merrily on our way.
Still marveling over the snow on the Knoll.
OK, we had everything. Crayons to melt for the color, shortening, the bolts, the string and the scents. Now to melt it all down and put it all together.
Haha, it looks like it just might work!!
Might. They burned for a while and then, poof, gone.
I'm thinking the string we used wasn't thick enough to burn hot enough to melt the shortening. I'm hoping that's it. I'm going to get some thicker string and give it a try. Haha, it's worth it. We had fun making them and only burned ourselves once or twice.
On Christmas Eve, Tom and Caren invited us over to their place for dinner. They've got the neatest house on the east side of Devils Lake.
Caren is like my daughter, Michelle...she decorates everything for Christmas. She collects all kinds of things, too. You can see some of them in this picture.
There's Tom, supervising. We had a very enjoyable and tasty meal plus a lot of good conversation. We really enjoyed ourselves.
Then it was Christmas morning.
"...you'll shoot your eye out, kid."
Haha, I saw this and couldn't resist. I mean, it's Christmas after all, and every little boy should get a Genuine Daisy Red Ryder Air Rifle, Model 1938 for Christmas.
Fun Facts: The Red Ryder BB Gun was introduced in the spring of 1940 and resembles the Winchester rifle of Western movies. Named for the comic strip cowboy character Red Ryder (created in 1938 and who appeared in numerous films between 1940 and 1950 and on television in 1956), the BB gun is, obviously, still in production though the comic strip was cancelled in 1963.
Actually, I got this so I could pepper that little sneak thief squirrel that keeps raiding my bird feeders. I had an air pistol but it lost its oompf. The doggone squirrel barely notices it. Haha, not anymore!!
We went to see Star Wars, The Force Awakens on Christmas Day. I thought there'd be some lines and a lot of waiting so we got there a bit early. Nope. Small Town America came through again. There were maybe 80 people at the early show and most of those came in just before the movie started.
Once I had the tickets, we had a chance to take a walk so we went up behind the college and got to see this Stellar's Jay plus...
...a bunch of Flickers and a load of these European Starlings.
A pesky bird that is roundly reviled by many, the starling nonetheless cuts a pretty dashing figure in its winter coat.
Woo, woo! Taking care of business...getting the buttered popcorn. This movie house is a step up from the Bijou and a step, or two, down from the theaters we used to go to in Seattle.
And, to almost spoil the whole experience, they serve Pepsi products. The horror...
Some days, at high tide, the waves come all the way up to the bluff. It's been a wild winter so far. Not so bad that property has been lost but bad in that it's been pretty miserable the past few weeks because of the blustery winds, heavy downpours and the overall chilliness.
I got this shot the day after Christmas.
I always have to be reminded of just how powerful the ocean is. And how dangerous. There's been a lot of new driftwood rolled up onto the beach. Wading in the water, you don't always see these coming in. They can hurt.
Ahh, my Artsy-Fartsy side again. And in B&W again. A song sparrow on the beach grass.
The other place I get to see flowers is at the shopping center where the Safeway is. They do a good job of keeping the planters busy and looking good.
I used my camera of preference here for these flowers; the Canon PowerShot SX 170 IS.
It does the job and, when I put my mind to it, I can get some primo pictures out of it.
Like these. The things is, with most of my flowers, its taken with no manipulation. In fact, the only thing I really do is maybe remove some stems or other stuff that might get in the picture. Mother Nature does a great job of presenting me with plenty of photo ops.
My job is to see the shot. Really, the camera does most everything else.
And that leads to today. It wasn't raining, at the moment, and so we took off down south to see if we could spot any whales.
Today is the first day of the Winter Whale Watching Season. The gray whales are migrating again. So, what the heck, we thought we'd motor on down and take a gander to see what we could see.
It wasn't all that great a day here on the Central Coast of Oregon.
And it was cold, too!! But it'd take a bit more than some cold to dampen this girl's enthusiasm.
We stopped at Boiler Bay where we've seen a number of whales. No luck today, but we did meet this family from Washington. That's their daughter in the blue coat. She's a Biology Major at ASU and is visiting Mom and Dad for her Christmas Vacation.
Carol's pulling up some pictures of starfish and By-the-Wind-Sailors for her to see.
The waves were really pounding the coast today. I haven't figured out how to catch the right moment when the wave is at its highest. But you get the idea of how rough it was this afternoon.
The gulls were catching a break on the rock in the bay. It wasn't a friendly sea today. In fact, we learned that a young man, swimming with his friends up north near Tillamuck, had been swept out to sea by a strong current. He was able to catch onto some rocks but couldn't swim back because he'd injured his leg. His friends called the Coast Guard and they rescued him with the USCG Helicopter. Just isn't a friendly ocean these days.
And, doggone it, it got downright chilly out there in the wind. You can see how windy it is from the spray being blown back from the top of the waves.
These things were crashing up to thirty feet high.
And this little guy was sorta trailing us hoping for a little tidbit to eat.
And so, with one last look back, we'll bring this rambling saga to an end. It's a loosely stitched together narrative of a life easily led.
Not much but, really, just enough.
I don't see many grand adventures coming up soon. Cold, wet and windy are not really suited to my idea of Adventure Weather. So, it's the Library on Mondays, Scouts whenever, a bird walk coming up on the 9th of January and, maybe, a Camera Club Meet-Up later on that afternoon.
Life is good. Just ain't too busy is all.
Hooah!!
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