What's Blooming at Dahlia Man's?

Quince

Rhododendron

Apple Tree

Forest Hyacinth


Buttercup

Elsa

Are you sick of flowers yet? I'm not.

rc

Don't Like Church- dream journal

I attended some sort of church function with the family. I think it was a fundraiser, oddly enough, since they're not big on overt church fundraising. As we were leaving, I commented to Father that at least it was worth going.

"You don't like church anymore." he replied.

I thought, "Here's the big confrontation I've been dreading." Then I swallowed my spit and told him, "Most of the preachers I've heard lately have given sermons that I could have given myself with verses that I have memorized. It doesn't seem to be worth my time and its boring."

"Maybe someday you'll change your mind." he offered.

Later we went to the hotel room or maybe dorm room that we had rented. There was only one bed for Mother, Father, Baptist Nun and I. Someone came and offered to bring us a sleeper sofa, but Baptist Nun and I decided we would sleep on the floor instead. They came back and said that Landlady wanted it there and we had no choice.

In another segment, I was out with friends at a nice, little, informal restaurant. We were seated with mutual friends. I dread these scenarios, but wound up liking the people. They gave us a complimentary plaid cloth hat that noone else liked, but I loved.

Sronnoc Esor

Forest Wildflower Walk

I went walking today in search of wildflowers and found them. I'm not really sure what some of these are, but here are my guesses, some substantiated. 1) daisy fleabane 2) spring beauty 3) wood sorrel and may lilies 4) hooker's fairybell 5) trillium 6) pacific bleeding heart 7) mixed mints 8) lawn daisy 9) gigantic skunk cabbage 10) tiny mushroom 11) fiddleheads 12) spotted slug; the tip of my shoe is shown for context of size.

Rose

Classic American Fare

After recovering from a two-day bout with my worse-than-usual monthly infirmity, jc and I headed out for that greatest of American fast food, local Chinese.

Oolong tea

Hot and Sour Soup

I ordered Kung Pao chicken.
(with Crab puffs- my favorite)
I didn't like it and traded it for...

Broccoli Chicken
All for only $9.90

My fortune cookie advised me to make use of my active imagination.


Rose

The Tunnel- movie review

link

Triumph of the Human Spirit is the overwhelming message of this movie. I wept and bit my fingernails and sat breathless on the edge of my seat as the powerful true story played out. It is the story of East Germans who escape to West Berlin and dig a tunnel to get friends and family out. There is escape and capture, loyalty and betrayal, birth and violent death, lowest tragedy and highest heroism, selfishness and sacrifice. In a time when current events have made us all but forget the Cold War and the Iron Curtain, it is a poignant reminder of those times. jc points out that it isn't very entertaining, but I contend that it more than makes up for it in other virtues.

rc

Spring Sights

An early evening walk in the golden light before sunset
Giant horsetail- an invasive species

May lilies

A fruit will grow here later

An unknown lichen

The changing sky make silhouttes of trees

The sun glimmers from behind the clouds as it dips toward the horizon

Rose

Breaking News

Older brother Big M's wife (we'll call her Little M) is going to have a boy in November. Welcome to the family, Baby M.

(addendum: this will be my fifth auntdom. Mr. Clean has three boys and Robin has a girl.)

Meantime, here's my baby again.




rc

Guilty as Charged

I had my hearing in traffic court today. The officer showed up in a Hawaiian shirt. He read the date of the infraction wrong, but when I pointed it out, he denied his mistake. Despite my excellent moving-radar-doesn't-work/roads-weren't-icy-at-all defense, delivered through my sweaty, shaky, palpitational anxiety; the judge agreed with the cop.

The good news is, he offered me online traffic school to keep the citation off my record. So the ticket is paid, I'll do the driving school, and it will all be over. As a native pointed out to me, don't expect to get a ticket overturned in a poor town like this. Cops are just fundraisers.

Now I'm ready to have a drink and watch DVD's all night.

Rose

I'd Rather be Fishing

We're back in town, and here's some local color.

The fishing fleet should be going out soon.

Crab pots stored in stacks.

Glacous-Winged Gull
One of many local gull species.

Looking up the river, the piling is a channel marker.

Looking out the mouth of the river to the Pacific Ocean.

"The Bar"

Rose

Kitties Make a House a Home

Ailleanach is my nearly constant companion. She has gotten friendlier lately, cuddling up with me in bed or on the sofa.

r.

Leftover Images from the Trip

Pintail- flocks of these were everywhere

Got the car stuck in soft sand at the roadside in the middle of nowhere. Here are the ruts from spinning my back wheels. Below is the desolate roadside scene.

Lake Abert and Abert Rim

a fault scarp mountain and companion lake

jc requests a city destination for our next vacation. We're thinking of San Francisco.

Rose

Lava Beds National Monument

Approaching the lava beds from the high desert, with snow-covered peaks in the distance.

lava tube caves

"aa" rocks from cooled lava flow

miles of aa from a distance

petroglyphs

(right) petroglyph cliffs

(left) fault-block mountain

Rose