I need a walk that's completely different, for all the garden work I've done these last couple of weeks! I have done 13½ hours of volunteer time, and I'm heading over to Hidden Trail today!

The fawn lilies are coming up!

I keep walking past the end of the trail to visit the Acorn Woodpeckers territory. It's the first time I've been all the way up here, this year and ugh. There's new houses being built up here.

I can hear the Acorn Woodpeckers, but I can't see any at all. Hidden in the trees. So I take a little diversion and visit the bioswales.

The frogs aren't singing today, but when I reach the top one, I do hear a single ribbit! and I go down to the edge.

I see movement in the water. Oh My Gosh! A Newt!!!

She disappears before I can get the camera, but oh wow! I'm so impressed that this bioswale has that kind of wildlife! I got to see a Newt!!

*laughs* I study the water carefully, but she's not coming out, and I don't see anyone else.

Foo. But now I have a new reason to walk all the way up here!

and heading back to the trail, I do see a single Acorn Woodpecker! Not that we are very cooperative, but that's okay.

And heading back down. Oh sure. This is the photo I get! *laughs*

I take a different turn on the way home, and whoa! Look at these bicolour Camellias!!!

They just delight me!

What an absolutely lovely hike!

Tag: march 2026

Ah Spring!

As I come round to the garden... #1 the porta-potty is back. So that was perfect timing that I dug up those Lesser Celandines there yesterday!

#2 there's a couple of guys here with a big white dog. They are looking at the garden fence and have set up some barriers in the parking lot. The work to replace our fence around the Community Garden begins on Monday!

#3 these are the trees that were murdered yesterday.

I think these were all Hawthorn trees. I don't know why they were murdered, and I'm sad about it.

I walk past the guy's work truck and into the garden. I wave Hi at them, and then do my usual work on plot 15.

I had forked a bit more than I could dig out today. But I'm really happy that I can almost see the end of this clump of Lesser Celandine!!

The lettuces that I transplanted into my garden plot are still looking good.

I'm not even thinking about a yummy salad yet. I'd like them to get their roots established before I start picking leaves off them. And it'll be a while before they really start growing, with the chilly nights.

The one remaining Columbine.

At one point, I had three different colours of Columbines. But they've gotten smaller and smaller every year, and last year I didn't even have a single bloom.

I should get some more, I really like the flowers! And the leaves are lovely as well.

I go wandering thru the Community Garden.

*screams* in horror!

That yellow is Lesser Celandine, and this plot is just east of Kevin's plot. Ack! I will be sure to dig that out soon!

Wandering on the Internets this evening, I happened upon this YouTube video...

∞ I Put Rain Puddle Mud in a Jar, Weeks Later THIS Appeared!

Oh my gosh! What Fun!!

I do love stuff like this!! Mud in a jar!! *Laughs*

He never says who the predator is... It looks like a dragonfly nymph?

The comments wondered about that as well, and someone else says: they are the larvae of the great diving beetle.

Tag: march 2026

Oh, those spring colours over there!

The second Vulture sighting of the spring!

I'm at the garden, and there's a truck and a wood chipper and some guys working on the bike path exit I need to take to get into the garden. I don't know why we always have to murder trees. Instead of trying to walk past them, I walk thru the grass and carefully slide past the leaf pile at the other side of the Community Garden.

And hey, hey! There's no guys here today, trying to figure out how the lawn mower works! *laughs*

I dig out the pathetic Lesser Celandine that was at the edge of the porta-potty area. and then I put my little dent into the invasives at plot 15.

And then I go back to my plot to see how the transplants are doing. The Crocuses are sadly quite done.

The transplanted lettuces are good... a couple of wilted leaves at the bottom, but their cores are happy!

And then I go to the back, where I put the Artichokes down. But I don't see them for a second? ... oh.

well, crud. All three of them have wilted to death.

I guess that experiment was not to be.

And then my usual walk around the block.

Tag: march 2026

OH NO! My sweet! Why aren't you in your den??!

Poor Baby. She must have gotten treed this morning, and now there are too many humans around and she can't come down!

oh my gosh, look at her hands! Haha, they look like AI hands!!!

Well. I don't want to distress her by staring at her for too long, so I move on. But I suppose she'll be stuck in her tree until dark, and that's an exhausting day for her.

Princess Buttercup is back with her friend again!

And I almost get a photo of a Steller Jay.

*Laughs* Steller Jays are more shy than our other blue-coloured jay, Scrub Jays, and I don't get to see them very often.

I want to get some work done in the garden, but there's a guy working behind the shed again. SIGHS. But I have a little bit of social energy today, so I went in anyway.

The lawn mower is out again and he's got a wheelbarrow full of pulled grass. I peek around the shed and said hello and he asked, in the same plaintive tone as the guy yesterday, Have you ever used the mower?

Haha!! I showed him the trick with the button and the lever that you have to hold.

And then I grab a fork from the shed and head to plot 15.

He goes back to his wheelbarrow of grass, while I get down to my own work. But soon, he's putting his stuff away. He comes over to tell me that he's heading out, goodbye.

I have to wonder, did the fact that he had to ASK A GIRL about the lawn mower, put him off??

But maybe he had done enough work already, pulling out grass from where ever he was working, and didn't want to start a new, extensive project.

I guess it's none of my business, and I'm happy to have the gardem to myself!

And I've put another dent into the huge clump of Lesser Celandine.

Before I go, I double check a couple spots where I had dug up Lesser Celandine last year... This is where they put the porta-potty, and I had removed plants from all around the edges of it...

I am very pleased to see, there's just a couple pathetic looking plants that have returned in one corner!!

I'll have to dig that up soon. I'm not sure when they'll be returning the porta-potty, maybe any day now with the work on the fence pending!

And then I had dug up some plants in front of the picnic table and at the side of the shed. And those have not returned at all! Probably the new wood chip paths, helped there. But I'm going to take the credit anyway!! *laughs*

I walk around the block before going home. The colours of early spring delight me.

Back at the bike path. And here's Zig...

And Zag!

And, as I suspected, poor Opossum is still in her tree.

Poor girl. It's a long day, she's got. But maybe she'll be able to look back on it as an adventure.

Tag: march 2026

I've decided I'm going to dig up some volunteer Artichokes today and move them to my plot!

But when I get to the garden... arg, there's a guy there in front of the shed. Ordinarily, I would just keep walking. But I've got kitchen scraps to dump on the compost pile...

And I really, really want those Artichokes.

I go in and say Hi to the guy. He's pulled the lawn mower out of the shed...

He looks at me and says, Do you know how to run the mower? Nope, sorry. He explained that he could get the motor running, but it wasn't cutting the grass.

I couldn't help him, but grabbed a fork from the shed and wished him luck in solving the problem.

I dump my compost and pick out a couple of Artichokes to dig up.

That was easy. The dirt just fell away. Tho I'm kind of worried that they lost a lot of their tiny roots, too.

I dig up some Lettuce as well! But this, I just leave a big root ball to transfer over. It's really heavy, but I know Lettuce doesn't like to be transplanted, and maybe this way, they won't feel a thing!

I get everyone situated in the ground. It's been a week since the last rain we got, but the dirt is still pretty wet. I do wish I could pour some water on them, anyway, to help the roots connect with their new place. But the water at the Garden won't be turned on until April.

They look happy, but now I'm wondering if this is going to work!

Well. Nothing for it. I clean the fork as best I can and take it back to the shed.

The guy is still there... and he says he has figured out the lawn mower!

He shows me the trick. Once you get the motor going, you have to push this button on the handle and then pull this lever and grip it with your hands. That engages the blade and you're good to go to cut the grass!

Yay! And now he has to figure out how to open up the gas can to give the mower some fuel. Haha, I wish him luck again and head out!

I get buzzed by a Hummingbird... do you see her?

Scrub Jay at the bottom, Anna Hummingbird at the top!

She's looking for bugs, and probably finding some, too!

It's a blurry bird day, I guess!

The Goldfinches don't want to show their face, either.

Back at home, I do a bit more research on Artichokes. and hmm, this is concerning...

∞ Artichokes vs. Cardoons (5min video)

What if those are not Artichokes after all?! Ha.

Artichokes are descendants of Cardoons. And you should not keep the seeds of Artichokes because they tend to revert back to Cardoons!

Cardoons are very popular in Italian cooking, where they are native.

But it's not something I'm interested in... you have to keep the stalks covered in dirt so they stay blanched. and then you have to cook the heck out of them, boiling them maybe several times over.

So. *laughs* All that, and I probably don't have Artichokes anyway!

Tag: march 2026

Mr Short Tail!

Okay! Garden work. I'm working at the corner of plot 15 again.

I've made another little dent in the Lesser Celandine.

And then I go to the back of the Garden to look at the Artichokes growing in front of the compost heap again.

I've looked up basic transplant information. Artichokes have a tap root but you're supposed to dig these at the end of the summer.

So they might not do well, to move them at this time of year.

But I think I'm going to try it! Instead of working on the invasives tomorrow, I'll dig up a couple of these free Artichokes!

I go around to study this mature Artichoke...

It's such a big plant. But that shade of green is so delightful.

Cooking Artichokes is kind of a pain... I think you just have to steam the whole flower and then strip it to get at the heart. And really, it's not much food, for such a big plant, just a few mouthfuls.

A few delectable mouthfuls! *laughs*

I go home a different way... and find a new Little Free Library. And isn't it a lovely scene!

Tag: march 2026

Oh my gosh!! So much fun!! So glad I went!

The bus rides were CRAZY. *laughs* Everyone had the same good idea to ride over to Springfield and the buses were just Packed!!

And then we got there and YAY! There's thousands of people! And we are all happy and joyful.

It will take me a little bit to get the photos organized. So stay tuned.

Meantime, here are a couple of local news articles about our protest!

The photo gallery at the local newspaper...
∞ Register Guard: No Kings Protest Photo Gallery

And a great writeup from our local NPR station...
∞ KLCC: Third round of 'No Kings' protests held in Oregon and across the nation

Ha... The KEZI reporter actually found a counter protester...
∞ Families join No Kings march in Springfield

One man at the rally showed his support for Trump among all of the No Kings participants. Both sides stayed peaceful.

*giggles* Yep. A Single counter protester!

And here's the photos from LookOut Eugene-Springfield...
∞ Photos: Scenes from the third 'No Kings' rally

And the photos around the world at The Guardian...
∞ No Kings protests across the world: in pictures

More photos from across America at Wonkette...
∞ NO KINGS: Pictures From Wonkette Readers All Across This Land ... We are ready for the fight!

And a video of scenes from Indivisible!
∞ Indivisible: No Kings 3

Over 3,300 protests. All 50 states, plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico and American Samoa!! 8million people!!

Not to mention all the protests across the world!! There was even a NoKings protest in Antarctica!! We've got all the continents.

Dear World, Thank you for standing with us! It means so so much that you see us!

Tag: march 2026

Oh ugh. It's the Spring Forward time change. The worst. I wish we didn't have to go thru this foolishness!

I'm a little bit grumpy about 'sleeping in' without any actual extra sleep. But, let's get the day on...

*laughs* Mr Short Tail, not sticking around for the photography!

I'm in the garden, just looking at everyone's flowers!

Oh, wow. Someone has Peas coming up already!

It has been quite a bit warmer than normal. Probably a good idea to get a jump on the season!

In my plot, I check on the little patch of Leek seedlings, that had sprang up from a fallen flower.

The Strawberry patch is the biggest I've ever had!!

And there will be loads of Elephant Garlic to pick before too long!!

And there's still some Beets leftover from last year, currently making new leaves.

There's a few Crocuses left.

But look over here! Someone else has Crocuses too!

At the back of the Community Garden, in front of the compost pile...

Are these all Artichoke plants? Hmmm...

I'm thinking about digging up one or two, and transferring them to my garden plot. Artichokes are very big plants, but wouldn't it be fun to grow them for a season or two!

Some pretty Lettuces are growing here too.

On the other side of the compost heap... you see all those yellow flowers?

That's all Lesser Celandine. It's way too much for me to deal with. I'm gonna pretend I didn't see it! *snort*

A bird way over on the other side of the garden catches my eye with an unusual flying pattern...

Oh! Black Phoebe!! How cool is that!

And heading home.

Ha, that was a lot of photos today. Maybe I should calm down a little with the photography! But how can I do that? It's Spring!!

Tag: march 2026

I've worked at the garden every day this week. I'm up to 11½ hours of volunteer time! And today... I think I'm just going to walk. I'm taking the backpack, just in case the Garden is empty. I might change my mind.

But the blue sky is starting to work on me!

At the bike path, a little dot of pink catches my eye, and I walk over to investigate.

Hmm.

A few potted plants have been abandoned here.

I just glance over them and see there's one healthy and green plant with a pink flower. All the others are just sticks.

I make note of the location, and if I remember when I'm coming home, I'll look at them again and maybe rescue one.

I continue on. But I'm thinking hard about that single pink flower that caught my attention!

Oh! First Vulture of the year! Welcome back! It must be spring!

ha, not that you can tell it's spring from the trees, who are still winter bare!

The Crocuses are starting to look a little bit rough.

The Camellia bush that I love is just starting to bloom.

I'm such a sucker for this bush! It's not that shade of pink, particularly. It's more the shape of the petals and the way they overlap and all.

I've come back around to the plants which have been dumped, and yep, I'm still thinking about them.

I assume a homeless person dumped the plants here. But who knows what they were thinking when they picked them up, in the first place?! Did they steal them? Or the plants could have been out, in front of someone's house with a 'Free to a Good Home' sign.

I'm studying the plants now, and OH! The pink flower that caught my attention...

It's a Fuchsia!!

I pull out that plant... it doesn't have a pot, but it looks like it's come straight from a hot house. There are a couple more Fuchsia plants behind it that are in a dorment state... just sticks with a couple leaves.

There's also some Roses? I think that's what they are. Dorment as well. They've been properly pruned down, tho, and it makes me think that all this has been stolen rather than just picked up for free.

Well. I'm not interested in the Roses, but I want all three of the Fuchsia bushes! The first big empty pot I find to carry them, does not have a bottom. foo. But then, oh good, there's a plasic tub here. It's broken around the edges but a perfect fit.

The three plants are a bit heavier than is comfortable. And I've got a ¼ mile to walk home!

ooof! So heavy! The muscles in my arms are shaking and my hand is painful holding the edge of the tub!

But I finally get home, and set the things in the porch room.

And the dormant sticks of the other plants behind...

I dump some water on them, and in a couple of hours they have visibly perked up!

So that's awesome! I will have to find some pots for them. And they will look great at the front door, I think.

Tag: march 2026

I take the mail out to the box, first thing every morning. And this morning there were a couple of Crows yelling in the trees over the parking lot...

I looked and looked, and finally I saw a flash of red between the winter bare branches. hmm. When I came around for a different angle, ah! Cooper Hawk!!

So that's way cool! I've been hearing hawks talking, close by lately and I wonder if there's some nesting happening!

Out for my walk, and as soon as I jump on the bike path, this...

Oh, Unseen Beaver. I LIKE this tree! Are you really sure you want to bring THIS tree down??

*laughs* a Beaver has to chew!

At the Community Garden there's a sign next to the gate. Yay! New fence! Planned Start Date: 16 March. Expected Completion Date: 1 April.

Fabulous! Some of the fence posts are leaning in a uncomfortable way. And they'll be using a heavier gauge wire to make it a little more difficult for the homeless people to break in.

At the moment, the wire can be cut with just a pliers. And we have so many patched holes.

I continue my work in plot 15.

And then I head out and walk around the block again. And as I'm coming back to the garden on the bike path...

It's Mr Short Tail!!

Someone has left some sunflower seeds here for the wildlife. That's nice!

Good Video...

∞ When men say 'not all men'

I've been watching this YouTube channel, danasinspired for a while, and this is a very excellent explaination of why this phrase is an attempt to derail the conversation.

It's the same deal when people respond with All lives matter when they see a Black Lives Matter sign.

We are trying to talk about systemic harms, and these phrases try to turn the conversation to their own individual discomfort.

Anyway. A good thing to think about, go watch the video!

Tag: march 2026

Oh yeah! Going to the protest tomorrow!!

I wasn't sure. I had signed up for the protest a while ago. But this one is in Springfield, instead of here in town like it usually is. And I wasn't sure I could get there easily. I've never been over that way!

But last night I looked at the bus maps, and it's an easy, straight shot. Just a longer trip, is all. It'll take half an hour or a bit more to get there.

But that's okay. I do wonder how little Springfield will accommodate thousands of people walking around their downtown. ha!

And since it's someplace new to me, there's going to be a zillion photos as I look at interesting things besides the protest!

The weather is forecast to be nice... sunny, no rain.

It will be a great time, I think!!

∞ Why Saturday's No Kings Rally Is More Important Than The Last One

I hope you'll be going to a protest tomorrow as well!! You can find the closest one here: No Kings

Tag: march 2026

ha. Oh well. To Work! Let's murder some Lesser Celandine!

I'm going to move around today. I'll start with this clump next to the shed, that's been annoying me all week.

Those white things are the ribs to support a tunnel of row covers. Someone must have abandoned them.

That little clump was easy to dig out, so now I'm going for a challenge... Here's some Lesser Celandine in the main path going to the back of the garden.

Yeah, I get frustrated with that mess, and decide to move on before I've dug out all the Lesser Celandine.

There's hardly anything in the trash bag, so I decide to work on the bonanza in the back corner of plot 15.

It's a damn swamp here! And I needed the fork, too, because the roots of these go down way deep. But the mud was so watery, it was easier to pull out whole roots. I made a dent!

There's some Red Dead Nettle growing here too, and the whole thing is pretty.

I'm out, and walking around the block.

I really like this striped kind of Crocuses.

∞ Sesame Street: Ian McKellen Teaches Cookie Monster to Resist

*laughs* This just made me feel happy and nostaligic. Who doesn't love Cookie Monster?!

Tag: march 2026

It was pouring when I woke up this morning. Rained itself out and the sun shines. But the clouds are rolling in for the next rain storm!

Princess Buttercup! You still haven't found that male yet? Where could he be??

*laughs* but of course, the Leucism Sparrow isn't hanging around for photography!

oh... Bumblebee... maybe wondering about her life decisions this morning.

Okay. Here I am at Plot 38, and the clouds that have rolled in are starting to send some sprinkles down.

I HATE working in the rain. But I'm so very close to finishing up the edges of this plot. I get to work!

I finish the grass in the front as best I can, and then went up the west side again since there were some baby Lesser Celandines coming up. Unfortunately, they were too small to mess with. A lot of the roots just broke off! Which made me even more frustrated than the sprinkles.

It's raining now, but my little trash bag is not even close to full. I head over to plot 58 and hope the rain will quit in a minute.

Instead it starts pouring. You know what? Maybe it's time to quit!

Packing up in the pouring rain and having to deal with cleaning off the mud from the fork and my hand spade... almost sends me over the edge! I think about screaming out my frustration!!

But once everything is put away... and I'm in the shed looking out at the rain... I remember...

I LOVE THE RAIN!

*laughs* Yes. It's annoying to do garden work in the rain. That's a good reminder. Let's not do that again.

But now I get to walk home in the glorious rain! The bike path will be cleared of humans. And I'll get some real nature time! It is good.

Tag: march 2026

On my way to the Community Garden again, and I run into a happy group of Nutrias. These two over here...

And that's the little runt on the right, there. I guess she's not going to get any bigger. But it makes her identifiable! I should think about giving her a name!

But look at her foot! I rarely get to see how their feet are webbed!! So cute!

And then there's these two, over here. Butt to butt. How sweetly gregarious!!!

And then our little runt comes over to join them.

Aww!

And you can see how little she is, compared to the others.

So cute. I'm glad I got to meet them all today!

Okay. Plot 38 is getting so close to finished. But these last few Lesser Celandines buried in the grass are going to be tough to get out.

While I'm at it, I pull up the edge of the tarp to give myself a bit of working room. Oh jeez! So tenacious!

well. There's still a bit left to do. Maybe I'll be done tomorrow.

I stop at my plot before I go.

oh! Haha! A Spotted Cucumber Beetle!

These are the nice bugs, it's the Striped Cucumber Beetles that cause so much havoc and destruction.

As I'm leaving, some Hyacinths catch my eye.

Princess Buttercup! Where's your friend? Did you know there was a male here?? Yesterday! You JUST missed him!!

She just paddles away, questions unanswered! *laughs*

Tag: march 2026

Mr Short Tail was bounding away from me, and I just noticed the white furs at the end of his poor tail.

I waited a second, and yep, he popped up to look at me!

It's surprising to me... he's roaming an area that's a bit over ½ a mile! It seems like a lot for someone so small.

And the male Common Merganser is here for a second day, still hasn't met up with Princess Buttercup.

And his little cousins, Zig and Zag the Hooded Mergansers.

Okay, let's get to work!

Prepare to Die, My Pretties!

Another frustrating time, trying to dig the Lesser Celandine out of the grass. The bag isn't very full when I quit.

The clouds were breaking up as I worked and the sun has come out.

Oh, and these fruit trees on the other side of the creek!

I call all the tree flowers Cherry Blossoms, even tho we have plums, pears and other fruits. I don't really make a distinction unless I know the tree.

For instance, there's an Apple Tree outside the Community Garden that I know well. It will bloom later in the spring.

So, all that to say: I don't know what kind of fruit tree this is! *laughs*

The sun has warmed up the world enough to bring out some bees!

And maybe it's just as well that the tree is on the other side of the creek! I would be here all day, just taking pictures! :)

Tag: march 2026

Red Shoulder Hawk, just outside the Community Garden!!

I'm moving around to see if I can get a better angle. Nope. ha. Oh well.

I decide to go into the Community Garden, just to look around. The little clump of Crocuses in my plot.

They're so pretty in the rain!

There's Loads of Robins here today, grabbing worms who have come up from the rain... but can I get anyone's photo???

This Rosemary is pretty pretty!

Oh, the Bluebird couple is here again!

As I'm leaving, I finally get a less blurry Robin.

And on the way home... Oh my gosh!

A male Common Merganser!

He's by himself. He hasn't found Princess Buttercup or her new friend yet.

And is this the male who was hanging out with the female mallard with the bum wing? Or is this someone new?

I don't know. He's not talking! :)

Tag: march 2026

*Wails* Did Trump just start World War 3???

What the hell? Just, what the hell?

And this is another CLEARLY ILLEGAL action, and the military has completely abdicated it's duty to uphold the constitution. Again.

Right? Because the president doesn't get to declare war, randomly!

I am so sorry, World. Starting a war just to distract from the Epstein files. Will somebody please just arrest him, already?

I'm upset when I leave the house, and I'm not thinking about where I want to walk or anything. I just do exactly what I did yesterday, grabbing my small backpack and walking toward the garden.

Oh! Princess Buttercup has a companion! That's good!

I'm at the garden and no one else is here, so I may as well go in and work.

I don't usually like to visit the garden on the weekends. But at some point, there will be gardeners coming in to work in their plots, and I'll have to quit murdering invasives in everyone else's plots. So I suppose it's just as well that I'm getting more done today.

It's such hard work, digging in the grass, and trying to separate the Lesser Celandine from the grass roots. My little hand spade is almost useless here, the grass roots are too thick and the edges of the spade need to be sharpened. But the fork is useless as well, bringing up solid blocks of mud and grass. frustrating.

And I'm out and back on the bike path. Here's Zig and Zag.

*laughs* still trying to get a squirrel in a Cherry Tree...

I guess it's pretty impossible. ha, oh well!

Yep, I'm such a sucker for the Cherry Blossoms!

Oh no.

∞ The most bitter news: Iran reels as more than 100 children reportedly killed in school bombing
The building appears to be among many devastated in Trump's 'major combat operations' as long expected attacks arrive

We murdered elementary school children.

Who will punish us for our war crimes?

Tag: february 2026

Overcast this morning but the clouds are clearing out as I start my walk.

And I'm at the garden again to murder Lesser Celandine in the pathway again.

It's muddy and it's not long before I'm frustrated, but I get another small section mostly dug out.

I have been working a little over half an hour at a time, generally. And with today's time, I'm almost at 8 hours of volunteer time. Twice the requirement!

*laughs* but I can't quit! I'm so close to getting all the way around plot 38! And there's the back of plot 15 that really needs help. And more Lesser Celandine popping up all over the stupid place.

Tag: february 2026

I've enjoyed this guy's funny medical YouTube channel for a while. I don't know where he lives, but this is the second post he's made about the local hospital, here in Eugene.

∞ Corporate Healthcare Strikes Again

So here's the deal.

December 2023... Peace Health CLOSED the hospital in Eugene. It was downtown and got a lot of traffic from homeless people. And you don't make money treating homeless people right? So it's closed. Please note, that was Eugene's ONLY Emergency Department.

Wait times at Peace Health in Springfield jumped up, and for a while they were treating patients in the hallways because they didn't have room for everyone! Fucking Ridiculous.

And now, it's just over two years later and hospital administration has decided to fire our ER Doctors and staff the ER with an out of state, corporate group. Apparently the ER doctors are not employed directly by the hospitals, which seems weird.

But of course, everyone freaked out that they were firing our ER docs. And the administrators were all, we don't need to consult you about the choices we make! (ha! Srsly! They said that out loud!!) And they tried to justify this change because the corporate group is good about reducing Emergency Department wait times. And they go round and round with their words, but you know... YOU KNOW! This corporate group is cheaper and it's all about money, and not actual patient outcomes!

And the administration were also saying: But No Worries! This out of state corporate group is SO AWESOME and it usually hires the local ER doctors! So, everyones happy, right?!

And 100% of our fired ER docs (Eugene Emergency Physicians = 41 doctors) were all: Oh Hell No! They've all refused to be a part of the corporate group. And good for them, corporate is evil. There's a reason why the corporate group is cheaper... They limit the time the doctors spend with patients, and they don't pay the doctors what they are worth!

So earlier this week, ALL the doctors at the hospital -- there's 367 of them -- held a vote and 93% said No Confidence in the administrators. Next week, the nurses will hold a vote as well, and I'm sure it will be about the same.

But what does a vote of no confidence mean? Probably nothing in the real world. But it does get us some national attention!

Tag: february 2026

Cloudy and chilly this morning. And I'm heading to the Community Garden to work in the mud.

And as I walk behind Gudu-kut Park... a whole chorus of tree frogs is singing!! I'm so glad they have puddles for their babies now!

I listen to them for a while before moving on.

Okay! I'm at the Garden and looking at the pathway in front of plot #38.

In some places, the Lesser Celandine is pretty thick.

But other places, it's just a few leaves sticking up here and there. Ugh. This is going to be difficult.

Difficult and muddy. It's really annoying. But I fill up the trash bag.

And then I have to spend some time cleaning the muddy tools. Arg, annoying!

But look who's coming over!

He requests pets and I am happy to oblige.

I didn't get very much done today, maybe two feet. And look at how much is growing on this side too.

It's going to take forever.

I walk around the block before going home.

A squirrel was looking down at me from a cherry tree and I was all oh my gosh you are beautiful up there! But when I got the camera out, this is what I get...

Bahaha!

Oh, dang it. That Sparrow with leucism is being uncooperative as well. But that's normal.

And back at home, the Monstera is unfurling it's new leaf!

Tag: february 2026

The wonderful rain of the last two days kept sprinkling off and on thru the night. But now the clouds have broken up and we've got more of our new abnormal weather: blue sky, chilly nights, all thru the forseeable.

Sighs. Stupid climate change.

Princess Buttercup!

And the pair of Canada Geese are still here!

The Mallards mostly stay out of the creek when the water is high. But the Mergansers are braving the current!

The Mallards are enjoying the calmer waters of the wet prairie puddles.

I was coming back thru the Events Center parking lot, and a black thing way up in a tree on the other side kept drawing my attention. I thought I saw it moving, but it could have just been a black plastic bag catching the breeze.

I took a photo and zoomed in to look...

I saw the tail... definitely a woodpecker. And then they flew away and all I could see is black... And they sang their song...

Oh My Gosh! Pileated Woodpecker!!

These birds are SO COOL! And I wished I had been on the other side of the parking lot so I could have a chance at photography. Oh well.

Pileateds are Huge! And they are a sign of a healthy ecosystem.

Well. Not here, specifically, in the parking lot of the Events Center in the middle of the city! *laughs* He's just passing thru! But when you see Pileateds out in their home territory in the forest? That would be the healthy ecosystem!

And they remind me of the recently extinct Ivory Billed Woodpeckers down in Florida. I have an interest in the recently extinct, and I will definitely go down a rabbit hole while I'm thinking about them. Ivory Billed and Passenger Pigeons and Thylacines and Quaggas!

Okay. Back to my flowers!

The perfectly placed red graffiti on the fence behind amuses me greatly!!

Tag: february 2026

The rain continued, and it sprinkled all night. So nice!

And the sprinklings are still coming down as I head out.

The bike path is still flooded under the bridges.

And still too chilly for the Crocuses to open.

The Lenten Roses don't mind the chill, tho.

Or the Camellias.

There's these three Killdeers out in the field again. A bit too far away for photography, but I'm kind of curious about them.

Oh sure. The ONE photo I get that's actually in focus...

And who are you, anyway?

Oh right... Female House Sparrow. It always surprises me, how different they look from the males!

House Sparrows are invasive from Europe, and common across most of North America and much of South America as well. They aren't terribly common here, tho I do admit, when I notice them I usually just keep walking instead of stopping for photography.

But... Today hasn't been a great day for the picture taking, anyway. *laughs*

At the back of Gudu-Kut Park, ah, some happy frogs singing!

Pacific Chorus Frogs. I would listen to them all day!

Tag: february 2026

It was sprinkling off and on all day yesterday but at 3:20 this morning it started pouring! It woke me up and I was happy!

And it kept pouring! All thru the morning and still, as I'm walking!

The sprinkles of yesterday added up to 0.42 inches. But there must be inches of rain today! (Yep! 2.35inches total for Feb23!)

Of course that's not really putting a dent in the 8½ inches we are behind. BUT! We've gone well over the normal for February...
Normal = 3.84 and Rainfall as of today = 5.98 inches!

Awesome! and the creek is full!

And good to see our wet prairie puddles filling up!

And, of course, the path is flooded under the bridges.

And the wet prairie where I was down taking photos of the wild Daffodils and Snowdrops? Yay!

Mud-luscious and Puddle-Wonderful!! (e.e. cummings)

I stop in at the garden, but just to drop off kitchen scraps at the compost pile. The Garden is on wet prairie land as well, and there are puddles forming here too. No ponds yet, tho!

Tag: february 2026

On Sundays I like to check my PO Box. That's the address I'm using for LetterMo, and I was a little bit excited to see what was there.

I've gotten a few friend requests, and the normal etiquette is for the member making the request to send mail first.

But I got there and my box is empty. *Sighs*

Oh well. It's maybe much too early to be expecting mail. I've sent a postcard to all my new friends, this past week. And this week I will continue on and send a postcard to all my old friends from previous years.

Zig and Zag are here at the creek... haha, the rain today has messed up Zag's feathers and he has two horns on his head!!

It's raining pretty good, and except for happy ducks, I'm probably not going to see much wildlife today. So I decide to walk up to the neighborhood to the south. I never see wildlife there, but the flowers in people's yards are pretty!

There's Tulips coming up...

And I check the Little Free Library.

Oh! Haha! I was not expecting Turkeys!!

Wow, I wasn't expecting any wildlife and here I've had a pretty lucky day!

And check out these Amazing Camellias with varigated petals!!

Tag: february 2026

I've got my backpack, to do work at the garden, but I'm gonna assume there will be people there again. I'll probably walk on by.

Happy to see these two, still enjoying our wet prairie puddles!

And even happier to see my new friend Princess Buttercup, the Common Merganser.

Sure enough, at the garden there's a couple people, tho not the same four guys who have been working the last two days.

An older guy is walking at the back of the garden and he recognizes me and waves. I grin and wave back, and yeah, I'm going to walk on by again today! *laughs* at my own shyness. :)

A little bit further up the bike path, a murder of crows!

I thought it was pretty sus that they were all facing the same direction. But I couldn't see what they were looking at.

I walk on, but happened to look back. Ah ha! Now I can see who they are yelling about!

A Red Tail Hawk, I think.

Poor girl being mobbed for no reason. heh. But she's taking the attention of dozens and dozens of crows calmly.

Some wild Daffodils...

But it's crazy that I can walk down here. Normally, this time of year, this would be a wet prairie puddle and I would be up to my leg in mud and water!

Some Snowdrops here as well.

I'm walking back the same way and ha, the hawk is still here. Not as many crows, now.

The Red Tail is still calm. Probably just waiting for the Crows it get bored and wander off. :)

I decide to walk a different way home and... Oh Wow!

Cooper Hawk.

And I'm so close, I can really tell how small he is. About the size of a Jay.

So little and cute!

With all that is terrible in the US, I'm trying to distance myself from the news a bit. But this caught my eye.

∞ Oregon's measles surge: why wastewater tracking matters

With RFK jr, anti-vax and conspiracy theorist, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, diseases are going to go rampent. I suppose he'll be satisfied when polio comes back, but in the meantime, he's fine to kill some kids or make them deaf with measles.

It's despicable and I am so ashamed.

But. I calm myself with Nature. Scroll to look at more pics! Maybe sit with one for a little while, stare and imagine a better world!

Tag: february 2026

Oh, the sparrow with leucism, who is shy about getting their picture taken.

And there's some House Finches hanging out with the sparrows today!

New graffiti... Birds who speak Love! Yay!

The pair of Bluebirds are at the garden again...

Female still thinking about using one of our nesting boxes!!

As I swing around to the exit off the path, to go up to the gate of the Community Garden, arg, a pickup truck pulls into the parking lot. And then a second truck.

I guess the guys yesterday didn't hit their required four hours of volunteer time yesterday.

And, again, I don't want to talk to people. And I kinda don't want to be locked up in an area with four guys, either. I guess I'll keep walking.

Ah, Princess Buttercup!

Oh, look! Blazey's Throne got painted a new colour!

Back when Blazey was alive, they always kept that thing painted lavender, they'd give it a fresh coat of paint every year. But they hadn't repainted it since he died, and this is a rather surprising colour! *laughs*

Someone has Witch Hazel in their yard!

Wow, those Dwarf Irises are blooming already. That's crazy, it's February!!

These are a new colour.

Tag: february 2026

Chilly again today, but just 30% chance of rain, so I'm going to see about some work at the Garden.

Zig and Zag, the Hooded Merganser pair.

I get to the Community Garden, and there's a bunch of pickup truck in the parking lot. On the other side of the garden, I see four guys working in a half plot, at the end of the aisle, just down from my own plot.

Ugh. I'd have to walk by them to get to the plot that I'm working on. And I don't feel like talking to people today!

It looks like they are putting in their volunteer time, as well. They are getting this plot ready for a new owner! They're digging out weeds, filling up their wheelbarrow. And they've got a tiller as well.

Well. That's nice. But I walk on past.

And it's just as well... a few minutes later, it starts sprinkling. I love to walk in the rain!

Wow. This Turkey Tail fungus is such a bright orange!

I am happy to see this pair of Canada Geese. Maybe I should pick out names for them as well!

Tag: february 2026

It's chilly and sprinkling off and on thru the morning. The sun is trying to break thru when I head out, but with the wind, I'm happy I put on extra layers! I decide to skip the work at the Community Garden.

Oh, hey. The female Common Merganser again!

Since she seems to be hanging around, I've decided to name her.

Princess Buttercup, the Common Merganser.

But perhaps you will not find her Common, now!

Bahaha!

At the Events Center, they are holding their Logging Conference. It's a big deal around here, but imagining that big machinery, destroying everything in the forest makes me sad.

Tag: february 2026

We got some good rain yesterday afternoon, 0.71inch, and there's a couple rain showers first thing this morning, too. The kind where the clouds roll in, rain themselves out to a blue sky, and then the next rain clouds roll in!

When I head out the door, there's blue sky. But the clouds are building up again and I assume I'll get rained upon soon.

But I've got my small backpack and my goal is the garden. If it's not raining when I get there, I will see about some work! If it is raining, I will walk on by.

Not interested in the photography, I guess...

A non Zig and Zag pair of Hooded Mergansers are here, this guy holding his hood up.

His mate is nearby, but I can't get her pic before they both hide behind the bushes. Shy.

Here I am at the garden, and oh dangit! I didn't notice I had no focus! *laughs*

oh well. I go in and get set up. It's very muddy, but that raised bed I saw the other day shouldn't be as bad!

I thought this would be relatively easy. But as I tossed the leaf cover, ugh, I found a ton of TINY Lesser Celandines starting to grow underneath.

The seedlings were a major pain, trying to dig down to find the very small bulblets they are growing from.

This is what the bulblets of an established plant looks like...

The bulblet of a seedling just getting started is about the size of a lentil. Stupidly small. and the stem of the seedlings is just more delicate, half the time it would break. sighs.

But I do what I can, and the bed looks clear, anyway...

and I've still got plenty of room in the trash bag, so I have a go at the front corner as well.

That white thing is not nailed down, thank goodness, and I move it out of the way. But ugh. The mud is too annoying right here! I get fed up with it right away.

I'm walking further up the bike path before I go home, and across from Dragonfly Land, oh! There's a group of Robins!

You know what? I am really enjoying the presence of Robins!

Every once in a while, when I wake up, there's a Robin singing nearby. I love to lay there in bed, warm and comfortable, and listen to their cheerful song!

Cheery! Cheerily! Cheery!

Oh!

Haha, this Robin is a juvenile... she still has some spotting on her orange, and a bit of streaking on her head.

She's going about her business...

But she keeps looking back at her parents!

The parents, who are a lot more cautious about the human standing a little bit too close! haha.

Tag: february 2026

It started raining in the night... and oh! I sleep so well when it rains at night! Blissful!

It's chilly when I leave the house, and a bit of a breeze, so I've got my layers on.

But the rain has stopped so I'm heading for the garden to dig in the mud! I'm going to start working to pry out the Lesser Celandine that's growing in the path in front of the plot in remediation...

Ugh! It's a pain! The mud is annoying, of course. But the grass roots are frustrating to hack thru. I know I'm not getting all the evil bulblets, and eventually I give up in despair.

I didn't get very far, and my little trash bag is not even close to full.

oh well. I do what I can. And every little bit helps.

I've been sending mail out every day so far, this month! Today is a postal holiday, Presidents Day.

I've got a couple letters to go out with tomorrow's mail... But I've finally got all my mailings organzied, and I can start thinking about sending postcards to my new LetterMo friends!

I've got the first four printed out and I will write them tomorrow!

I'm excited for the destinations... New Zealand, Wales, Italy and Washington D.C.!! How fun is that!!

Tag: february 2026

A dreary day, tho there's no rain.

A new stray cat...

the orange markings on his body almost look like letters...
A YEPA

*laughs*

Tag: february 2026

Happily sprinkling this morning. Which means I'm walking on past the garden.

But as I do, I see something in the sky. It's moving weirdly, and I wonder if it's a drone, tho I can't hear anything...

I zoom in. Oh, it's a party balloon. You know, one of those things that fucking ICE wants to shoot down and close airports over!! So hilarious that those people are such idiots!!

At the other end of the Garden, we get back to happy wildlife in nature. Flicker!

Oh, there's two of them! Both female.

Both a little bit scruffy and muddy from the rain.

As I'm walking behind the Events Center, I see some cars in the parking lot. Wondering what's going on, I walk around to the driveway to look at the sign...

Model Railroad Show. Well that's really fun! Unfortunately, it costs 6$ admission.

That's a bummer. I don't usually carry money with me. It would have been interesting to walk thru, but maybe not $6 worth of interesting!

In the neighborhood beyond... oh, the first cherry blossoms!!

And a couple more over here!

Yay Spring!

Oh hey. It's that female Common Merganser again. Been a while since I've seen her.

And a little bit downstream, I see the Hooded Merganser pair as well.

That's the female, of course. I couldn't get a good pic of the male today...

And you know what? With him always not holding his hood up, I'm just going to assume this is the same pair from last year that I named Zig and Zag. :)

Tag: february 2026

Another dry day. But there's rain in the forecast, starting tonight, and it looks like it'll go all thru to next week!

I'm heading to the garden to work more at plot 15. Before...

And after. I've put a good dent in the clump of Lesser Celandine!

Before I go, I decide to do a walk about to see where else I need to put in work. Walking down the main pathway to the back of the garden... Yikes!

And this is the same plot. Where did they get the dirt to fill this stupid raised bed??? Major Mistake!

Sheesh. And of course, there's some Lesser Celandine growing into the grass all along that path. A plant here, a plant there, and I've not finished the path in front of plot 38, and suddenly I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed.

I'll never be able to get all of this! Especially in the path, it takes so long to dig them out of the grass! ARG. Do I need to think about asking Kevin to send help?? UGH! I don't want to deal with people!

Sighs. And Sheesh. I go to my plot to calm down. The pretty Crocuses, they already look better!

And the single surviving Columbine is trying to grow with some dandelions.

And then I'm heading home.

I'm on the bike path curve and there's a homeless couple ahead of me, talking loudly. And then plainly arguing. I start thinking about walking a different way so I don't have to go past them.

They are still about 3 light poles away and the guy grabs the girl! OH HELL NO!

I yell, HEY! STOP! And of course they ignore me. They fall down, he's shoved her too hard and I start running!! My brain is just: NO, this is NOT going to happen right in front of me!

And it's far enough away, while I'm running towards them, that I have time to think what am I gonna do when I get there????? I DON'T KNOW!

They are back up when I get there, still yelling at each other. I put myself between them, standing in front of the woman. I tell the guy to get out of here and he's all She punched me!

OMG what is this, the playground? She replies, I swiped you with the paper! she holds up the Weekly she's got.

Yeah, it doesn't matter who started it. It doesn't matter if she did hit him. He's a lot bigger than she is and he needs to go.

Get out of here! He has backed down and is now being conciliatory, and soon, he leaves.

And she walks the other direction, not looking at me or anything.

I walk a little distance behind her. And I make sure the guy keeps walking the other way.

At the road, she's getting off the path and she looks back and says, Thank you. Sorry.

I just give her a nod and a wave.

Tag: february 2026

This morning I came down to water the house plants in the porch room... and Look!!

The Monstera is making a new leaf!

Okay. It's been a week since I've worked on the invasive Lesser Celandine at the Community Garden... and actually, I don't have to do any more. I've added up my volunteer time and I've got 4h17m!! The requirement is for four hours.

But I can't stand the thought of Lesser Celandine growing and blooming and getting worse and worse. So I will continue!

Instead of finishing up in the grassy pathway of plot 38 -- which is going to be a serious pain getting thru the grass -- I've decided to start on plot 15.

I work a bit over a half hour.

Yay! I've made a dent!

I pause before I go, to admire the flowers of the evil plant I'm trying to murder!

And then I walk around the block, thru the neighborhood. And isn't this lovely!!

It's warm enough for a honey bee to be flying around!

But by the time the camera gets around to some focusing, we've only got a bee's butt! haha!

Back at home this afternoon, I've been thinking hard about this article...

∞ Maybe Cutting Off MAGA Relatives Is Wise: Dad Shot Daughter After Trump Row

Horrifying.

But the reason this one hits me... my whole family is varying degrees of Maga. And, yeah, I have thought about 'cutting them off.' Instead, I studiously avoid conversations that will upset me.

And thus far, I've not been shot in the chest. So that's nice.

But the fact that Magas are okay with murder, with the ethnic cleansing that's going on thru ICE, with the child rapist we've got for a president ... with a hundred other evil things...

well? They should be cut off. Because there's something wrong with humans who don't do empathy. Very wrong.

Tag: february 2026

***Huge Grin***

∞ Firefly Crew Teaser / Once We Were Spacemen / Nathan Fillion Alan Tudyk

NEED more information!

Tag: march 2026

The sun is shining but it got down to freezing last night. I'd much prefer a layer of insulating clouds, as is normal for this time of year. But climate change.

I've brought the kitchen scraps to dump on the compost pile at the garden. There's a couple other humans here, but I have a quick look around.

It's been a week since I've done any volunteer work, and I check on Plot 38. I still need to get the Lesser Celandine out of the grassy pathway in front of the plot...

But all the other borders around the plot are remaining clear! Yay!

And then I walk down to my plot... Look!

I uncover the leaves so they can get some light.

Grow! Bloom! Very Happy!

And then I'm out, to keep walking.

Oh! The Cedar Waxwing flock is here again!

But I'm looking into the sun, and I can't see anything on the camera screen. Point and Shoot and Hope!

And then I find some Lesser Goldfinches being beautiful up in a Alder tree, which is catkinning like crazy!

On my way home, I'm thinking about writing an introductory post over at the LetterMo forum!

When I'm out in the sun, and thinking about my words, I am happy and excited!

But when I get in front of the computer, and start typing? Ugh! Everything I say sounds so stupid!

Sheesh! The Month of Letters is practically half over! I have been sending mail every day... Letters the first week, and now I'm sending postcards.

But it would be nice to get over my shyness, and maybe participate a little! Sighs.

*rolls eyes at self*

Tag: february 2026

It's dreary today, and the morning is chilly. The wind is blowing, too, and even tho I've got a heavy shirt on under the rain jacket, I am wishing for one more layer!

The loudest ones here are European Starlings. But there's a couple crows watching over the bunch.

And the rest are Brewer Blackbirds!

Oh Hey! My Leucistic friend lets me take a photo!!

But we are not sticking around. BOING!

And here's a regular looking Golden Crown Sparrow.

One of Blazey's Squirrels.

Oh! She dove and came up with someone. I think that's a small crawdad.

La de da, da, da, dah...

*hack, hack*

Oh gross.

Well. That was weird. Maybe you shouldn't eat plastic? ... or ... whatever that was. ick.

Tag: february 2026

Well. We got 1.6inches of rain over the last two days, which seems like a good bit, but doesn't even put a dent in the 8½inches we're behind. And now the sun is back to put us even further behind. sighs.

I'm walking thru the neighborhood, on the way to Hidden Trail and meet up with some Turkeys. And they're all headless! *laughs*

Preening!

Oh, crud! So much for having dry socks!

The Red Flowering Currants have their first blooms!

The waterfall is spring fed, but the rain has provided a bit more volume.

It's lovely to listen to!

I never have much luck with the little birds in this patch of forest, for whatever reason.

Osoberry is starting to come alive as well!

Pretty pretty!

Tag: february 2026

The rain started in earnest yesterday afternoon, and it rained all thru the night and still it rains!

It is so good to see the wet prairie puddles filling up!

I walk around a different way to go by Gudu-kut Park...

I think there must be frogs singing at the back of the park... but I can't hear them for the distance and the traffic. But they will be happy with the rain and the puddles!

Back at home... I have been slowly but surely eating the bit of food that I had frozen from last years garden abundance.

I think I've finished off all the bags of Wax Beans. There was one bag that the beans were really fibery and tough, bleh. Not sure how that happened. But the rest of them were good!

Plus, I couldn't tell the difference between these that I had just cut up, dried off and froze, and last years beans that I blanched before freezing! So that's great. Blanching is completely unnecessary, and the less kitchen work I have to do, the better!

And now I've gotten into some of the Sungolds and other tomatoes that I froze.

Oh. My. Goodness!!!

Store tomatoes taste like water. These from the garden, taste like heaven! So! So! Good!

So I will be making more of an effort this year to freeze tomatoes!

They were easy to do as well. I just cut the Sungolds in half, the bigger tomatoes into about bite size bits. Put them in a ziplock, including the juices from the big toms, and then make sure it laid flat while it was freezing...

The Sungolds froze separately, and that makes it easy to pull the bag from the freezer, take what I need and put the rest back. But for the juicy bags, the liquid needs to be thin enough in the ziplock that I can break frozen chuncks off.

Ha. I can't wait to garden!! :)

Tag: february 2026

Last night YouTube served me up some AI videos, without informing me. And I was thinking about them ALL night long!

The first one was a little bit longer and I had to stop it when the shouting began, it was stressing me out!

The second one was shorter, and I happened to watch all of it, but it was giving me the same vibes... with the outrage and the shouting.

And that's the thing that tipped me off... there was a lot of oddness in the story, but this was the thing that finally got thru and made me realize it was an AI video.

Shouting Directly at the camera.

Yeah, I don't like people shouting at me! heh. and I had closed the tab in disgust when I ws done.

But I kept thinking about it and I went back to look for more information. And this was in the blurb...

How this was made: Altered or synthetic content
Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated. Learn more.

... So I'm pretty annoyed.

I pulled up the first one to look at it again, and there's no Synthetic Content warning on it. So that's even more annoying.

Ya know... AI art has it's place, I suppose. But this? Ugh.

Today is cloudy and warmer and Yay, some sprinkles of rain!

I've really missed the clouds. And I'm so happy with the off and on sprinkles.

We need a lot more than sprinkles, of course. But today is nice!

I walk thru the Solidarity Garden.

And then I wander thru the neighborhood.

Oh! Too fast for me! *laughs*

But really odd for a Western Grey Squirrel to be this far into the city. They normally prefer fewer humans.

I'm loving all the Robins today! They are enjoying the bit of rain as well... brings up the worms!

And Mr Short Tail!

I wonder if he's starting to recognize me... he kind of paused in this awkward position for a few seconds, before carrying on with his day!

Tag: february 2026

Ha! That unseen Beaver!

There's so little water in the creek, it looks like summer. I stop to admire the sun playing on the rocks.

We've got rain in the forecast for the weekend... but that's it. By Tuesday and Wednesday we are back to sunny skies. So that's not going to help very much.

*laughs* Couldn't be bothered to take down the Halloween decorations...

... and now we can't be bothered to take down the Holiday decorations!!

Hmm. This is the tree with a woodpecker hole in it. It got taken over by Starlings last year, but this pair of Flickers seem to be checking it out.

That's the male, the female is further up and doesn't come around for photography.

But the Starlings are here as well... hanging back in the next tree, watching. Flickers are bigger than Starlings, but I can't imagine them fighting over an old nesting hole.

And the littlest Nutria. She must be a runt, she hasn't grown like the others.

Tag: february 2026

The heavy fog of this morning is clearing as I'm heading out to the garden. It's another sunny day and the Air Stagnation Advisory goes thru tomorrow night. And then we'll have warmer nights and possible rain. Desperately needed.

At the Community Garden, I've done my half hour of volunteer work, murdering Lesser Celandines!

And I'm done with the west border of Plot 38!

There's quite a bit of Lesser Celendine growing in the grass of the pathway. Ugh. That's going to be a serious pain to get out. But that's for another day.

I'm walking around the block, and this weird happening catches my eye...

House Finches... Zoned out while sunning!

A couple facing the fence, and the rest in weird positions.

But it's perfectly normal, they're just catching some rays!

They are pretty far from the bike path, and I don't want to disturb them by getting closer. Sunning is important for feather maintenance and I want everyone to have the best feathers! :)

The Poison Hemlock is starting to grow and take over a section between the bike path and the creek.

It's very poisonous, but the leaves are so pretty!

So this is amusing to me...

∞ Eugene riots cause $200k damage; federal building remains closed

uh huh. $200,000. You think that's correct for a couple broken windows?

Where is DOGE when you need them??! Because this is some Actual government fraud happening right in front of us!!

And let's talk about this other flat-out, blatant lie...

On Friday night, 400 rioters stormed the ICE Eugene building destroying windows and did over $200,000 worth of damage to the facility, said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

400 stormed the ICE building. That's fucking hilarious!!

Four hundred people were there, peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights. There were just a handful of people banging on the windows. In fact, the FBI is looking for exactly THREE people.

So. Three people get bumped up to 400 rioters... you think the $200,000 got inflated in the same way?

Yeah. Stupid assholes.

Tag: february 2026

Newspaper today said we are at 30% snowpack, only slightly better than 2015, the worst on record.

It's been a fairly warm winter, even melting the bit of snow we've gotten in the hills. And the lack of rain is pretty terrible.

Let's do some math... Our water year starts in October...

Normal Oct rain = 3.17inches. We got 2.62inches.
      That's 0.55 inches behind.
Normal Nov rain = 5.98in. We got 3.47in.
      Total behind is 3.06 inches.
Normal Dec rain = 7.21in. We got 5.51in.
      Total behind is 4.76 inches.
Normal Jan rain = 6.05in. We got 2.29in.
      Total behind is 8.52 inches.

Eight and a half inches behind on rain! That is a LOT of water we didn't get!

There is snow in the forecast for the mountains this weekend. Maybe a lot.

But we've still got our Air Stagnation Advisory, and there's no way that a 30% chance of rain on Saturday is going to help much of anything.

Bah, climate change. And even more unfortunate is the regime who wants to make things worse. *shakes fist at the sky*

Murdering Lesser Celandine at plot 38 again.

oh yeah!

And then a quick check on Plot 15, which I had started on last year. yeah...

The Lesser Celandine is pretty thick here.

It really is pretty tho. Too bad it's evil!

I'm out and walking a different neighborhood street for my loop around the block before going home. And here's another yard with Crocuses!

I wasn't sure how the shadows from the nearby trees would work out in the pics... but I really like the stage lighting here and there!

Okay. Stop obsessing over the Crocuses. Because Look, there's some Daffodils to obsess over as well!

That's a Hoverfly, a Bee look-alike. And I'm all, Yes, you are very cute, but could I get a photo without a bug, please?

I snapped exactly one shot, and then the Hoverfly buzzes over. HAHA!

Tag: february 2026

It's been a week since I've been at the garden for my volunteer work, and I'm happy to get back to it.

I've had some time to think about this big clump of Lesser Celandine...

And I've decided to get a fork from the tool shed to dig them out.

It works great! But only because it's been so dry.

Normally, I'm digging thru watery mud. Picking out individual plants and brushing off soil and worms is more time consuming... But it also feels like I'm making a real difference! I Know I'm getting all the evil root nodes, here.

When I'm done with this clump, it is NOT going to come back!

I worked for a half hour today. Ordinarily, I would fill the trash bag with mud in about ten minutes, and would have to quit because I can only carry so much.

This is great for the required four hours... I've done 3 hours already!

But I'm on a mission, now. I don't know how much time it will take to finish going all the way around this plot, but I'm going to do it. And then the back of that Plot 15 that I started last year, I def want to dig that out.

If this dry weather holds, I need to make the most of it!

I clean off the fork I used and return it to the shed. And then I do my little walk around the block before heading home.

Oh the Crocuses popping up in this yard!

Getting home, I'm about to go up the steps... but look who's sprawled at the top.

hahah!

Tag: february 2026

oh ugh! There's another stupid Air Stagnation Advisory on the weather page. Starting tonight and going thru the week.

Bleh. It's troubling because we are way behind on the rain, and it's guaranteed not to rain with the Air Stagnation thing.

Normal rain for January is 6.05 inches and we only got 2.29 inches. That's bad, and we were behind for December and November as well.

Sighs. But Look!

The Wood Ducks are back! Yay!

oh, haha!

Just tryin' to get a drink of water? okay!

I just love the colours on this stray kitty. Tuxedo Siamese? Colourpoint Tuxedo?

Yellow Rump Warbler. Or, more affectionately: Butter Butt. :)

That's the eastern race, Myrtle. Our western race, Audubon, has a yellow throat. I think they get all mixed up about where they want to spend the winter! So I see a bunch of the eastern Myrtles here.

Ha! With the Spider web!

I'm on my way back, and Nice! The Wood Ducks are still here!

WooHoo! Today I have finally finished sorting my December photos!

I've been working on them, slowly but surely, since I got back. Sometimes just 20 or 30 photos at a time. Just whenever I had an extra 10 minutes or so.

I was down to the last 160 photos, and I just JAMMED thru all of them! Finally done!

and good timing too. Now when I've got a bit of extra time, I can spend it on organizing for the Month of Letters!!

I've got letters to write, all this week. Today's letter is going down to California.

Tag: february 2026

Some lovely rain last night, tho the clouds were breaking up when I woke up this morning. But it was just the next rain clouds moving in, and it gets dark and dreary again soon!

But the sun was shining by the time I got out the door. And at 53°, heading towards 61°, it's really too warm for the rain jacket. It quickly turns into a sauna as I walk.

Ha, this is cute... tho I've never considered Opossums fluffy like this!

Oh you Bewick Wrens. Such trouble makers! *laughs*

Across the street is a park with a Frisbee Golf course. I rarely visit, but it's good to walk a different way!

And, yep. I've decided to participate in LetterMo this year, to send mail every day.

I do send mail most days, thru the year. I'll just have to be a little more organized to send something every day!

And I hope to meet some people there to send mail to, as well!

The letter I'm working on today is my usual for Sunday afternoons... the weekly TGIF Notecard swap that I host at Swap-Bot. I really enjoy writing these Sunday letters, and I've been hosting that swap for ages!

Tag: february 2026

I finally looked up this bush that's just starting to flower....

Laurustinus. Native to the Mediterranean, introduced to Oregon and California as a landscaping plant for it's winter blooms. Info says it has metallic blue berries... It's weird that I've never noticed that before!! ha.

I'm at the creek, and there's a Bewick Wren. Bouncing around as they do, but really close to the path!

I whip out the camera, heard something hit the path near my foot, but was focused on the wren... who just flew away before I could get a single photo. sighs.

I look down to see what fell...

oh.

So that's the damn lens cap on the ground! The tether had broken! My own stupid fault. I saw it was getting frayed a week ago.

But now, without the tether? The next bird I see is a cute little Chickadee, just sitting there! I grab the camera, lens cap hits the sidewalk, the sound spooks the bird, who flies away. And then I cuss as I pick up the lens cap.

This happens 5 or 6 times over! I forget to HOLD the lens cap EVERY SINGLE TIME!! So now I'm mad at myself.

Finally I knot what's left of the tether and wind it around my fingers, and then I walk with my hand resting on the top of the camera. It's awkward, but I don't drop the lens cap again!

I'm halfway home, and I suddenly get my mojo back with a flock of Cedar Waxwings!

They are so cute!

Looking at my photos... I don't see a single "wax wing" on them! ha. They've all got the waxed bright yellow on their tail feathers, but no one has the waxed red sticks poking out from their wings.

They must grow those specifically for the mating season?

Yes, you're cute too!

Tag: january 2026

Oh no!

∞ Riot declared at old federal building, police direct public to leave the area

∞ Eugene police declares 'riot' at federal building, orders protesters to leave

∞ Live Updates from ICE Out

∞ EPD declares activity at Federal Building a riot

Protesters were banging on the windows of the Federal Building, and a window broke. ICE started throwing tear gas and flashbangs.

Eugene Police didn't want ICE to go overboard with their freakout and possibly murder people, like they do. So they declared a riot and stood between the protesters and the building.

Tag: january 2026

Another lovely day... dreary but warmer, about 48° when I leave the house.

Good Morning!

A spot of colour catches my eye.

Flowering Quince!

At the creek, a tiny flash of green...

Anna Hummingbird and it's just Point and Shoot and Hope, here. *laughs*

Female!

Thank You Dear!

This power pole is an occasional dove hang out, and I head over when I see movement up there. But it's not Pigeons, like I thought.

Eurasian Collared Dove. Invasive, but they are beautiful. Those suble colours in their grey feathers!

Another Anna Hummingbird, this one a male. He's up there singing in an Alder tree.

A pair of Hooded Mergansers.

you know. There was a pair last year, where the male always kept his hood down. I named the Zig and Zag.

I wonder if this is them. Or maybe males keeping their hoods down is more common than I thought.

Further downstream, there's a Green Wing Teal, too.

Happy with all the birds I've found today!

Tag: january 2026

It's a grey day, warmer again. And I grab my backpack and head to the Community Garden to get my work done, removing invasives.

But I get there, and there's loads of humans.

There's four people in the back, at the new Master Composters area. They are busy moving the different compost bins!

And then there's a few more people at the front of the Community Garden, chatting.

So, I walk on by. I don't feel chatty today. Which is to say, I never want to talk with the humans! Asocial. :)

And it's just as well. It starts sprinkling, and I am happy to walk in the rain.

Oh hey.

Some wild Miners Lettuce!

I had gotten some seeds to plant last year, but we had some flooding last spring and I never got around to putting them in the ground.

I should get them out and see if they can grow past the slugs!

They are interesting little plants!

I walk out to the downtown neighborhoods, but I don't get the camera out with the bit of rain.

Coming back, the humans have left the Community Garden and it looks like the new compost area is all set up and ready to go!

It looks good, there next to our little native pollinator bed!

Foo. I get home, and I can't find the packet of Miners Lettuce seeds. humph. I wonder what I did with them.

February is the Month of Letters. You write and send mail every day of the month.

And I'm seriously thinking about participating.

I'm a long time member there, from the very beginning. But the website lost functionality, and over time that really diminished my interest.

I don't think I even logged in last year, and in 2024 I only sent a couple postcards.

But I'm trying to revive my postcarding. So I feel I should give LetterMo another go.

Tag: january 2026

There have been frequent protests out at the Federal Building, which holds the ICE offices.

And yesterday, ICE escalated with unprovoked tear gas...

∞ Agents pepper-spray protesters during altercation at federal building

Several people detained, at least two protesters pepper sprayed, and the tear gas affects all in the area.

*Shakes head*

OH HEY... Eugene got a mention from Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist!!

∞ In Oregon, a local official's 'State of the County' address turned into a Christian revival... Comments made by Lane County chair David Loveall and others show why religious proselytizing has no place in a government address

Yeah, this thing by Loveall was so gross! There have been multiple letters to the editor complaining about what happened at that meeting.

The thing is... when people signal this particular brand of Christianity, they are bringing so much baggage to the conversation.

These jerks are willing and enthusiastic to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people. They don't want The Gays to get married, and they really don't want trans people to exist. They love censorship and are always trying to take books away from kids.

Not to mention the misogyny that oozes from guys like Loveall. Yep. That guy needs to go.

And now, shake it off. We've got a song to listen to!

∞ Lizzy & the Triggermen... When that Man is Dead and Gone (1941) - Protest song against Hitler (Live Take)

In 1941, Irving Berlin wrote a powerful protest song about Hitler. It's only been recorded a few times - most memorably by the incredible Al Bowlly (who, tragically, was killed in a Nazi airstrike only 2 weeks after recording it). Our Lizzy & the Triggermen arrangement is by the amazing Dan Barrett (with lots of loving homage to the Bowlly version). We did this in a live take.

Fabulous!!!

Tag: january 2026

We've finally got some actual, real cloud cover today. And the temperature when I come out is a wonderful, wonderful, blissfull 50°!!!

Ah! So nice!

Ha! When you don't know what to say, but NEED to say...

hm.

um?

Is this going to be one of those days when the birds have no cooperation for the camera?

Well! That's good to know. I'll go looking for some flowers today, instead!

Pretty, pretty.

There are several homes here where people have left their protest signs out on their porch!! That's great to see!

Okay! Blurry, but at least we get to see someone's face!

Tag: january 2026

Good Morning Dear Starling. Hello Sweet Scrub Jay.

What is it that you have, Mx Scrub Jay?

A kernal of corn! Well, that's a nice treat!

Just outside the garden, I hear this little guy singing.

He's a little too far up for good photography, and I wonder why he's not singing in the Community Garden.

I'm at the garden and I start my murdering work with this bit of Lesser Celandine in the back pathway.

Whoa, I found a ton of bulblets under that plant. Like way, way more than normal. I take out a good bit of dirt, to try to get most of it.

And now there's a stupid hole in the middle of the pathway. Dangerous, since the grass hides it. crud. I fill the hole with sticks and stuff from the compost heap, but it's awkward.

Then I head to plot #38.

I work around the edges of that big clump. I feel like those plants might go deeper than my little hand spade can reach.

I've set some plants aside to study some more. This little one was right at the surface.

But these plants are more typical... with the white stem reaching way down into the dirt and just a couple inches of stem and leaf above the ground.

And yeah, I realize now that I should have taken the photos with the plants laying on the black tarp rather than the white thing. Live and learn! *laughs*

Heading out, and I make the loop around the block. And again catch a glimpse of my friend the Nutria.

And oh, look. That never-seen Beaver has been here recently.

Coming home, I'm crossing the little alley next to the apartment complex, and there's a utility worker walking out to fold up his traffic sign. They've been working on the water or sewer lines at the back for a few days now.

I smile and say hi, as I pass him and he sees the camera.

Get any good pictures today?

I remember the Nutria, who was trotting away. And the birds, too far up in the trees. Not really, I said. The birds didn't really show up.

Guy nods. I'm the same way, sometimes. I'm a rock hound, and sometimes I go out and find nothing. Yep.

He adds, You can't go out just for the destination... you gotta enjoy the journey!

Totally! So very true!

Tag: january 2026

The overnight low was 23° but it's warmed up several degrees above freezing by the time I get out.

Brewer Blackbirds! It's nice to see someone different!

The work of our local Beaver...

And the partially chewed one, top left. A Beaver's gotta chew!

New graffiti!

Yep.

And then I stop at the Solidarity Garden.

They should paint more of their bricks!

Oh! Ruby Crown Kinglet!

Winter visitors here, and usually way too bouncy for the camera focus time! *laughs*

And some House Finches!

I am so delighted with all the different birds I've seen today!!

So. My Wired Magazine subscription. I'd been going back and forth with ... a bot, I guess. And then it sent me over to the humans.

Who never responded. It's been a couple weeks now. Nothing.

So, my subscription ends tomorrow. And there's nothing else to be done, since the people refuse to talk to me.

I cancel the subscription. And then to make doubly sure, I also cancel the recurring payment on my credit card.

I am so bummed! I want to pay for good journalism! The reporters at Wired are brilliant. They do such good work. Sighs.

And now it's time for some good news!

In the paper today...

∞ Dept. of Education withdraws appeal in Eugene 4J lawsuit

Yay!

DOE had sent out a threatening letter last February, which ordered schools to cease DEI efforts or risk losing federal funding.

Our school district was the only public K-12 school district to join the lawsuit.

We've been told that the suit would not have been successful without our district, Jonak said. By lending our voice, we helped protect smaller districts that could not step forward themselves. This is something our entire community should be proud of.

YES! I am very proud!

The only trouble is, the wheels of justice turn slowly.

This thing was won. But it's been almost a year, and how much money wasted? And how much damage was done in the interim?

Tag: january 2026

18° last night. Gah.

Right outside the door is a native Western Grey Squirrel.

But he's got business elsewhere!

Down at the bike path... Oh! Wait!

Aren't you cute!

Even with your funny very orange teeth!

More Nutrias!

This is a family, I don't get a count on the kids, they all disappear behind the brush pretty quickly. But I do notice there's one kid who is a lot smaller than the others. An adoptee maybe?

Oh my gosh! It's my friend, the Belted Kingfisher! She's playing tag... but she doesn't fly quite far enough! I can still see her from where I'm standing!

That's really blurry, but that's okay. Proof of her existance!

An Island of Teals!!

I'm heading back home, but notice another Nutria across the creek...

And then yet another...

Ha. This is crazy. I've never seen so many Nutrias in a single day! I guess this is Nutria Out-And-About Day! *laughs*

And there was a news article yesterday about our over-night warming shelters.

∞ Record cold in Eugene tests shelters; community help crucial

Our Egan Warming Centers open over-night to homeless people when the forecasted low hits 30°... They have been open for eight consecutive nights, and that's nine nights, now. Hard on the volunteers.

Not to mention they've lost a bunch of funding, I assume due to the evil regime, and they've had to drop a couple sites. To compensate, the other sites are taking in more people. And when one site gets full, they offer a free shuttle to get people to a non-full site.

Keepin' people alive. When the current federal government is actively killing people. Hundreds of Thousands of people, and counting, just from the loss of USAID, most of them kids.

Sighs. The blog is turning into a daily dose of doom... America is a terrible place.

Tag: january 2026

∞ Man killed in Minneapolis by federal agents identified as VA nurse Alex Pretti: 'He wanted to help people' ... Pretti, 37, worked in the ICU at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and had assisted on scientific research

∞ 'How many more Americans need to die?': Minneapolis mayor condemns Trump ... Jacob Frey's full response after federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old US citizen Alex Pretti on 24 January

So that's on my mind as I'm heading out... It takes a while for Nature to calm me down. Outside the Community Garden, I see the Squirrel with the short tail. But he's not very cooperative.

I walk on by the Garden and decide to go to the Solidarity Garden. They've still got some Calendulas blooming.

And when I get home, I need to do something with my frustration.

Translation:
How many people will be murdered on the street before you do something about ICE?? Not to mention 32 people dead in concentration camps in 2025. The USA is on the front page of Amnesty International for Human Rights Violations! You are useless. Step aside, let someone with some morals be the House/Senate Minority Leader.
Liberty and Justice for ALL!

These are to Chuck Schumer (Senate Minority Leader) and Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader)... neither of whom are my representatives, but they are the ones I want to talk to, being the leaders of their people.

I thought about writing to the Republican Leaders... but what would I say, besides cussing? They are the ones abdicating their duties to the Constitution.

The Dems as well, of course.

The Amnesty International thing I'm referencing is this report that came out at the beginning of December:

∞ USA: New Findings Reveal Human Rights Violations at Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Krome Detention Center

Amnesty International always has a case or two from the USA about human rights violations. And I am always ashamed to see them.

But this report about these concentration camps and the torture... There are thousands of people there. Thousands.

Tag: january 2026

Cold blue sky today, and the Air Stagnation Advisory, happening since Jan10, is finally gone from the weather page.

But it's been replaced by a Cold Weather Advisory now. And still no rain. Sheesh.

I'm heading to the garden to dig up more invasive Lesser Celandine.

And on the way I run into that Sparrow with leucism again, in the usual place!

Little dude or dudette is so Uncooperative with the photography! But at least I got them today! *laughs*

They have reason to be bouncier than their friends. Those white patches make them stand out, for sure.

And at the garden I'm digging at Plot 38, again, the plot down from mine that's in remediation.

As I'm going at it, I realize the soil is dry enough here that I can actually see the root nodes! This is interesting!!

So these things are technically called Bulblets (above) and Tubers (below).

I'm taking photos of some short Lesser Celandines, so that I can include the leaves in the pics.

But the significant thing here is that the white part of the stems? Those can actually be a lot longer... meaning those Bulblets and Tubers might be buried a foot deep!

So, my little hand spade must be shoved down into the dirt, all the way to the hilt, in order to maybe get down to the evil root nodes!!

This is great information to have! Know your enemy, right?!

So, I am very pleased with myself and my new knowledge! And on top of that, with today's time, I've hit 2 hours for my required 4 hours of volunteer time at the Community Garden!

Heading home, with a happy bounce in my steps!

A cute pair of Green Wing Teals.

The male wanders off, and the female goes back to preening. ha! Her cute lil foot!! Stretch!

Today I am working on a resistance swap at Swap-Bot.

Yep.

The discussion thread under the Swap description, has been ... interesting.

∞ Swap-Bot... F*CK ICE!

One of the people disagreeing with the swap, is my friend.

It upsets me to be reminded again that there are people in the world who are okay with the evils of ICE.

And... honestly, I'm not sure how to process this about my friend. I am okay to sit with ambiguity about people. But, again. It's good to have information.

Tag: january 2026

Cloudy and ridiculously cold again today... the low last night was 19°! Nineteen! Completely unacceptable!

I'm ready for it, with all my extra layers to keep warm. I also went to pull out some new garden gloves, since I'd apparently lost my last set...

When I told my Mom how much I like these gloves, she got me a pack of them! I got the next pair out, separated them from their plastic fastener. I'm looking at them as I go to put them in the backpack... and it slowly occurs to me... they are both Left Hand gloves.

Huh! So I go back, and get the pack out again, looking for the pair of two Right Hand gloves. But nope, the other pairs are normal. With a left and a right.

So foo. *laughs* They may have been useful, if they were two Right Hand gloves. Since I'm right handed, maybe the right glove gets holes in it before the left glove, and I could just replace that one. But what the heck am I going to do with two left gloves? ha!

It's been dark and dreary this morning, but the clouds are moving around now, so maybe the sun will make an appearance. Meantime, there's ice in the wet prairie puddles again.

The triangles are kind of fascinating! Look at those perfect equilaterals!!

In the Community Garden, I do a little walk about. I make note of a couple Lesser Celandines growing in the path that I will need to dig up.

And I look at Plot 15... I had started working on it last year, but I ran out of time before I could dig out all the invasives there. And sure enough, the same corner is getting covered with Lesser Celandine.

Well. I have my work cut out for me. And I want to focus on the remediation plot first!

The sun has come out, and I'm able to take off the jacket. But it's still cold enough to need the new gloves... a Left AND a Right! *laughs*

Digging up this border is going to take a while!

But I'm full up today! As I leave, a little pop of colour catches my eye... I think these are Japanese Anemones.

I go around the block again, and again see my new friend, the Nutria. But this time, he's down in the water.

And the things that piss me off today...

∞ ICE Now Demanding Papers From Off-Duty Cops Caught Driving While Brown. Well of course that's happening.

He added that this was anything but an isolated incident, noting that other officers in his and other area law enforcement agencies had experienced similar profiling, and that all of them were people of color. 'If it's happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day,' Bruley said. 'It has to stop.'

*Screaming* Then YOU NEED TO STOP IT!

Goddamnit! That guy is the authority there, and he just says a few words and can't be bothered to DO anything about this fucking serious problem.

WHEN will people stand up and DO SOMETHING???

And Also...

∞ Say hello to Liam Ramos ... Violent terrorist, age 5, detained by ICEstapo in Minnesota

The Ramos family is here legally; they have an active asylum case.

Just more proof of the ethnic cleansing that ICE is carrying out. I am so utterly ashamed of what America has become.

Tag: january 2026

Another very cold night, and again it's still below freezing when I head out. But today the sun is shining and that makes the world warmer!

The ongoing Air Stagnation Advisory goes thru Friday... but they keep pushing back any chances of rain. The possible rainy days keep hovering at the end of the forecast and don't move up to the present. The lack of rain is going to be a problem at some point.

But today's sunshine has brought a bit of joy...

There's a group of Starlings playing in the bath!

The same Great Blue Heron of the other day is hanging out with the Mallards!

And back at the garden to continue my work with Lesser Celandine removal. The east side of the remediation plot has a few clumps invading the neighboring plot.

And my bag is full.

I take the same route as yesterday, around the block. And I see the same Nutria, just up from the garden!

She or he walks over to the tall grass for cover when I get too close.

Ha. I've never named a Nutria before. I hope they continue hanging out here!

Made me cry...

∞ Support for Renee Good's Widow and Family

Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn't wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.

Tag: january 2026

It got down to 23° again last night. And I'm horrified to see it's still well below freezing when I head out at 11am!

Gah! Look! Ice! UGH!

*laughs* I've got extra layers on, and after a half mile of walking, I'm warmed up enough to live. but, gah.

There's a pair of Hooded Mergansers.

I'm looking over at the female, and almost miss what's happened here...

oh. Poor little Crawdad.

Okay. I'm at the Community Garden to do my volunteer work. Here's the plot that's just down the aisle from mine. It's been in remediation for years, after the guy gardening there let Lesser Celandine get totally out of control.

I get started on this back corner, there's just a few clumps here.

But digging past the roots of the grass and whatever that other weed is... was actually kind of tough!

It took me longer than I thought it should to fill up the bag!

And plus, my hands were so cold while I was working. I went to get the garden gloves out of the backpack, just for warmth... but foo, they aren't there. That's annoying.

But the clouds start to break up and the sun makes a showing. That warms things up a little.

I stuff the trash bag of Lesser Celandine into the backpack and on the way out, I glance at my garden plot.

The freezing nights haven't bothered the clump of Leek seedlings! Good!

I decide to walk around the block before I go home. As I'm coming back on the bike path... haha...

A Nutria. And that makes me glad we have a decent fence around the Community Garden... tall enough to keep the deers out, tho I've never seen a deer in this area. And buried enough to keep these guys out!

American Robin in a Blue Elderberry tree.

Tag: january 2026

The Air Stagnation Advisory that started ten days ago continues. The nights get SO cold! Last night was 23°, which is the coldest it's been this winter!

But when the sun shines at least the afternoons warm up to about normal, which is 48/35 this time of year. Of course, the normal temps are due to cloud cover acting as insulation... which we don't have with this high pressure system hanging over us.

I miss the rain.

I saw this guy come in for a landing...

And then he flutters to a different perch.

If someone so big could be said to 'flutter'!!! haha!

Oh yes. This is a much nicer place!

Well...

No one likes a fascist I'd like to believe that but the regime sure is held up by a shit ton of evil people, who apparently like fascists just fine. Sighs.

Also. No one likes to run out of room when they are writing important words! haha!

I'm stopping by the garden to harvest a beet.

And the strawberry patch is looking good.

And then I have a look around to determine my plan of attack for my required volunteer time.

Just down the aisle from my plot is a plot that got taken over by Lesser Celandine. It's been covered with black tarps for a couple years now. It hardly slows them down, tho... I can feel them growing in places under the tarps! Even with no sun!

And they are coming out the edges...

So maybe I should work on this! I feel like I'm starting early enough, I could probably dig up a good bit of this. Maybe all of it!

As I'm walking away, I hear a hummingbird singing! Here he is!

He lets me walk right up to him!

What a handsome fellow!

And then he goes back to his singing!

This video of a protest amuses me greatly!

∞ You need to know what's going down RIGHT NOW at Target stores in Minnesota

Ha! Buy Salt and then return it. It's brilliant.

Just punishing the workers is a corporate talking point which is meaningless. The Workers get paid the same crappy slave-wage, regardless of what happens during the day. And the Protesters are of course being respectful. The Workers are undoubtedly enjoying this effort as much as anyone else!!

And as Parkrose Perma says, Yes, it is performative. So many non-violent, direct actions and acts of civil disobedience, those are a performance. And the sooner we undersand that we are doing these actions, not because it's something that makes us feel righteous and good but because we are trying to create mass public opposition.

I've had fun reading the comments as well! Good Stuff there!

Tag: january 2026

Oh oh oh!! I saw that one sparrow with leucism again!! But she flew away too quickly for me, and here's what the camera had to say...

A Blur of Sticks. Great. Just Great.

Bahaha! oh well. Next time, my dear!

Here's someone who stuck around long enough for photography!

A Point and Click and Hope...

But my Song Sparrow friend decides to wait for me to find her on the mess of sticks on the camera screen!

So sweet! Thank you!

There's a protest tomorrow for Martin Luther King Jr Day... But I'm just not feeling it.

It starts in a different place than usual, and the bus ride out there would be longer and I'd have a longer walk to get to the place. And then I would have to walk the entire march, to get to the nearest bus stop to come back home. And I've never had the social energy to walk the entire march.

I know. It sounds like a bunch of excuses, doesn't it. Espcially since there's a more dire reason to protest now that ICE has murdered Renee Nicole Good.

sighs.

Tag: january 2026

It's chilly, it got down to 25° last night. But the sun shines and that is promising some warmth.

I'm heading towards Hidden Trail, and I meet up with the wild Turkeys in the neighborhood!

There's a couple in the trees above.

and several on the roof of the houses!

I love to see them!

Moving on, and up on the trail.

The camera has trouble with forest lighting conditions, but this photo of a Steller Jay is making me laugh... Her Eye!! haha!

Tag: january 2026

Another day of cold and dense fog.

And I've packed up the small backpack. I am definitely going to start the volunteer work at the garden this time!

Okay! At the garden, and I've decided to start at the back pathway. There's several clumps of Lesser Celandine growing in the grass back here near the Compost pile...

Well, and some other Wildflowers there too... Borage, Dead Nettle, and a couple other things that I don't need to concern myself about.

The target for my murdering spade is the round leaves!

And ten minutes later, the little trash bag is full.

Unfortunately, you can't put this invasive in the Compost pile. It will just keep growing!

It has to be bagged up and thrown away at the landfill. And since there's no trash service at the Community Garden, I have to haul this home. And that's why I use the tiny trash bags and the small backpack. There's only so much I can carry, as I walk home!

Especially since I'm carrying a lot of mud... the evil part of Lesser Celandine are the small root nodes. So I dig up quite a bit of dirt under the plants to try to catch most of the root nodes.

Right outside the Community Garden... hey hey! It's that squirrel with the short tail again!

He's come about a half mile, up the bike path from where I orignally found him. Looking for a place to call home? Or maybe that's just what some squirrels do!

And a little bit further... oh my gosh! There's a whole passel of squirrels playing!

There's five there, and at least one more at the base of the tree. Maybe two more. Siblings, and Mama is probably happy to see them out in the world! *laughs* That many babies is a lot of responsibility!!

What a delight to watch them! Chasing each other, bouncing thru the tree branches. And then across the bike path and down to the creek. Good Luck, Little Ones!

The clouds are starting to break up and when the sun shines, the warmth is very welcome.

And when I get home... oh thank goodness.

This is Riley, the neighbor's outside cat. He's been missing. She was out calling for him yesterday afternoon, and night and this morning.

I'm glad he's back, but ugh, I wish outside cats did not exist.

Tag: january 2026

I saw somebody on the near bank and I stopped to look. They scatter and suddenly there are Nutria youngsters Everywhere!!

I caught six in this photo (there's two behind the trees on the left)...

But I'm pretty sure there were more and I never got a count of all of them! They were coming and going, every which way!

So cute!

So very cute!!

This Nutria is a little bit bigger than everyone else, but I don't think she's full grown... the teenager babysitting the neighbors kids, probably!

And by now, everyone else is swimming downstream. But how many?? Eight? Nine? Ha! Who knows? (Well! The Mamas know!)

Moving on.

It looks like they are finished upgrading this corner of the Community Garden for the new Master Composters area!

ha, look at how camoflagued this one is!

Fox Sparrow! They are winter visitors here, and I am happy to come across one every once in a while!

Not very fox coloured, are we? ha. The colouration of our local subspecies is called Sooty, and is the darkest of the variations across North America.

Well! That was a pretty good day of photography!

Tag: january 2026

It is So cold!

I left for my walk around 11am, and there's still a heavy fog and it's a couple degrees below freezing.

And there are occasional big, white raindrops that fall around me. Just a couple spatterings. I suppose the rain is a bit slushy?

The fog lends some atmosphere, I suppose.

Yay! The Turkeys!!

And, as usual, I try to capture the beauty of the little waterfall I'm walking next to!

But really, you need the full ambiance with the sound of the water and the cold, wet air.

I don't go all the way up the hill, even tho I would love to visit the Acorn Woodpeckers territory.

The shin splint pain started healing about a month ago, since I wasn't walking as much when I was in Colorado. But I'm overly cautious, maybe, about pushing it. The pain is gone but it's just always on my mind when I walk. I suppose it will take a little while for my body to forget it.

Coming back down the hill, the sun is finally starts to burn thru the fog. This new planting catches my eye. Cute baby tree with tethers!

And there's a Rhododendron bush blooming in someone's yard!

I've got a little extra time, so I loop around on one of the side trails.

Back at home, I am trying to teach myself to drink tea.

*laughs* I've got this fruity herbal tea. It's good, I like it. I just don't have a habit of drinking tea.

And I just thought it would be nice to have some tea while I work on my postcards. Ya know? Especially on a cold and grey day like today!

Tag: january 2026

Ha. This morning I am being pissed off about my subscription to Wired Magazine.

This is a great magazine! In the past I've subscribed to the delivered paper mag for years and years. But at some point I had to quit... it was too much to read!

But with the Trump regime and last January's disgusting DOGE disasters, I knew I wanted to keep up with that news. And Wired's political reporting kept showing up in my feed.

So, I signed up for one of the super cheap deals, 6$ for a year, with digital access, to renew at 30$ after that.

Well. My subscription is coming to an end, and the renewal is 80$ a year!!! Holy!

And when I looked around, it seemed that a normal subscription was 60$/year!!!

The 60$ seems reasonable. (Tho going up from 30$/year in just the single year of my orignal subscription seems kind of ... sus.) The 80$ they now want me to pay... feels like I have to pay them back for the 6$/year, for the rest of my life!!

And that does not make me happy. The cover price of the magazine, to buy a regular 2-month copy at the newsstand is 8.99$... times six per year is only 54$/year!! I get that digital access is extra. (Except, why should it be?) But don't you want to give subscribers a break, since that is dependable money?? Instead they over charge by a significant amount?

It doesn't make sense!

So, I've emailed them to see what they are willing to do for a long time subscriber. A Subscriber who really does want to pay for good journalism.

It's chilly... the overnight low was 26°!

But the sun shines, and it will warm up eventually. Except it's still just 34° when I head out and the Zero wind reported on the weather page is not accurate at all. BRR!

And the guys are still working on the new Compost corner at the Community Garden. So I walk on by again.

Tag: january 2026

I had loaded up the small backpack, thinking I would start my volunteer time at the Community Garden... but as I arrived...

Oh crum! I forgot that they were working on the new Master Compost area this week.

The Extension Service Compost Specialists have an area where they work, at one of the Community Gardens over at the river. But they are shutting that Garden down. I don't know why.

And our Community Garden will be inheriting the Master Composters area!

Today they've got a little front end loader scraping up the grass to make a flat area behind our regular compost pile.

So that's exciting. And altho I do wave at the guys working, I don't want to go in. So I walk on by. I will start my volunteer work another day!

At the back of the Events Center, there's a crow standing in the parking lot. All by herself. Something is wrong.

She just looks at me and I ask, Are you okay? and she coughs a couple times in response.

oh no. Definitely not okay. It's been a while since I've seen anyone dying of H5N1, but it's still going around of course. It usually kills the ducks and geese, but any bird can get it, I think. (Yep, there's a Bluebird in that list and then a couple Crows.)

sighs.

I sent postcards to Chuck Schumer (Senate Minority Leader) and Hakeem Jeffries (House Minority Leader)

Translation:
You are completely Useless. You'll do nothing while ICE murders people in the street? What is wrong with you? Step aside and let someone with courage and some morals be the Senate / House Minority Leader. Abolish ICE Now!

Honestly. Democrats doing absolutely nothing while that damn child rapist destroys our coutry and ICE goes about it's ethnic cleansing? It pisses me off to no end!

Tag: january 2026

I stop in at the garden to have a look around. I'm thinking about the volunteer time I have to do... Digging out the invasive Lesser Celandines.

I had worked on this plot, near the sandbox, last year. This back corner had been an absolute puddle, and I fished out the Lesser Celandine and hauled home backpacks full of mud!

It's great that they've got some winter gardening happening!! But yeah, all along the border, there's Lesser Celandine coming back.

There's some cute little Speedwells blooming here as well.

And you know what else I've been thinking about? The Sunchokes.

I never got around to digging these out, and that needs to happen at some point.

But today I'm taking some of these roots home to eat.

I don't really like Sunchoke roots. But I've got them, I may as well see if I can eat a few. heh.

The second, little volunteer Cosmos is still alive.

With the stupid Pot People's pot.

I should probably just move that thing back to their plot. It annoys me every time I look at it!

Will you ever get to bloom?

And all the Elephant Garlics are happy.

And heading home.

In the paper today...

∞ PDF News Article: DOJ says it will investigate Eugene swim class

This disgusts me almost as much as it cracks me up.

The city of Eugene is offering a class at our YMCA: BIPOC Water Safety & Lifeguard Cohort which lets BIPOC youth aged 12 to 18 increase their water safety and water competency skills in preparation for the lifeguarding classes.

Yeah, sounds awesome to me! Because, yikes! Read this:

Campbell cited CDC data that shows Black youth ages 10-14 are more than seven times as likely to drown as their white peers, and Black teens aged 15-19 more than five times as likely to drown. These differences are not about interest or ability, but are instead linked to access, Campbell said. Many youth from historically underrepresented communities face barriers to swimming lessons and aquatics programs, including cost, limited access and environments where they may not feel welcome or supported. Campbell said the class is designed to address those barriers and the department views the program as both a drowning-prevention strategy and a youth workforce development opportunity that strengthens overall community safety.

And of course, while the program is designed to support BIPOC youth, no one is turned away based on race.

That the DOJ feels the need to investigate (flamboyant air quotes there!) this class, disgusts me to no end. They just hate Black people and that pisses me off.

But I'm amused as well. Because JFC, the DOJ of the United States doesn't have anything better to do than investigate small town YMCA classes for kids??! It's just ridiculous on so many levels.

I hate this regime.

Tag: january 2026

We've got an Air Stagnation Advisory that started yesterday and goes thru the week.

Bleh. It means chilly nights and no rain. These high pressure systems tend to just sit over us for a while. and it kind of sucks when we actually need some weather... the kind of weather that brings rain!

Spotted Towhee.

The Nootka Roses are looking lovely with their hips.

um. Who's this?

Little bird is bouncing, boucing. And I'm looking into the sun which is just starting to come out from the clouds. And I just can't tell who it is!

but some zoom, and oh okay! That splash of yellow there...

Yellow Rump Warbler.

Recently the star of the Sept-Oct edition of BWD Magazine...

Where I discovered that Yellow Rump Warblers are affectionately called Butter-butts! *laughs* Cute!

Tag: january 2026

Oh! There's a family of Bluebirds at the Community Garden!!

Oh my gosh, the cuteness!

*laughs*

Oh! You're checking out the nesting box!

Hm. I'm not sure... there's a lot of squirrels around here. Not to mention the humans. But lots of bugs to feed growing children, too!

You'll think about it? Okay!

I continue my walk.

And at the dog park, there's Another group of Bluebirds!

Ha! A Bluebird Day!

Tag: january 2026

I've got to stop by the credit union today, and so I think I'll go across to the park and walk it backwards.

Good Morning My Sweet!

The path the humans have created, walking thru the fallen Oak Tree trunks -- one laying southeast, the other laying northwest.

There was a guy walking his dog thru here, so the little patch of forest doesn't hold any bird songs right now.

Out at the prairie, there's some Canada Geese.

And, oh glorious! The pond on the other side of the street has filled up!!

We've gotten 2.25inches of rain in the past week or so! A good bit, but it's not enough to catch us up... The rainy season starts in October but it's just been drier than usual.

The big ponds, across from the bike path, have filled up a little. But def not as big as it should be... most of this entire field should be a pond.

But I'm happy to see what little pond we have, is supporting some customers!

They are Northern Shovelers, and they are not very cooperative with the photography! *laughs*

There's a big flock of Starlings behind me, they are holding a very important meeting and wow, they are loud!

I've come around and heading back on the bike path... Some Robins are enjoying the Hawthorn fruits!

oh wait. That's not a Robin!

Cedar Waxwing.

And then a flock of Bushtits, but they are nothing but a cute blur!

Yes, you can.

Well, maybe I can... another day. :)

Tag: january 2026

The clouds are moving around this morning and the sun was peeking thru. And it's not cold, it's 45° when I head out...

But the sunshine tricked me. The wind is blowing and I immediately wish for more layers to keep warm!

I get on the bike path and soon it started sprinkling. And then it started raining.

Well. That's okay. I usually walk to see the wildlife. But days like today, I'm walking for the exercise instead.

But I do find someone to take photos of... and he's looking as bedraggled with the rain as I'm feeling!

*laughs* He's a Downy Woodpecker.

And then I see the female Common Merganser is still here.

I would wish better things for her... She's not going to find companionship here at the creek. I hope she flies out to a lake soon, to look for her people and find a new mate.

And coincidentally, with my exercise walk, I happen across this article at Wired...

∞ Here's How Long You Should Walk Every Day to Prevent Back Pain

This was a study done in Norway... and WOW! Those people walk a LOT!!

The results showed that walking time is more important than walking speed in preventing back pain. While brisk walking also has some effect, it is the total amount of time walked per day that has the greatest impact on preventive effects. Those who walked 78 to 100 minutes per day had a 13% lower risk of back pain; those who walked 101 to 124 minutes a day had a 23% lower risk; and those who walked 125 minutes or more had a 24% lower risk.

125 Minutes! Over two hours of walking. PER DAY!

*Laughs* That's a lot of walking, right. But what I'm really really wondering... These people are all out in nature for 78 to 125 minutes a day...

That's quite a bit of Nature time!

I bet that's giving people good vibes as well!

...

∞ ICE Murders US Citizen In Minneapolis, Murders Her Right In The Face

...

You know what? I just can't. There's not enough Nature time in the world.

My heart is with the family of Renee Nicole Good.

And with all of Minneapolis.

...

Later, in the comments, something important...

∞ Avoiding traumatizing images/video on social media (and dealing with them when you have to see them)

Tag: january 2026

A dreary day. There's a slight chance of rain during the day, and 100% rain tonight!

Oh hey! Here's someone different.

Female Common Merganser.

But where is her mate? I look up and down stream, but there isn't anyone with her.

sighs. That devastates me. The first time I saw her mate, a couple years ago? He was hanging out with a female Mallard with a bum wing. And then the last time I saw him, he had TWO girlfriends!

and this must be one of them. And I'm so sad she's alone.

She paddles away and I continue on my walk.

Someone bright yellow catches my eye.

Um? Any chance you could calm down for a second?

Not really?

*laughs* Well, they are Townsend Warblers and I am delighted to see their cheerful colours today!

Heading back and this little patch of wild Miners Lettuce catches my eye.

It's edible and last year I had bought some seeds. I never got around to planting them tho because we had flooding early last year and I don't like to play in the mud at the garden. *laughs*

Tag: january 2026

Good Morning My Dear!

I'm stopping at the Garden today to drop off kitchen scraps for the compost. As I walk to the back, I notice this leafy thing.

I'm not sure what it is but wow, that shade of green certainly Pops!

On the way back... *Gasps* It's my friend the Kingfisher!!!

And she lets me get her photo!!

That's so sweet. And then she flies away, laughing. Declaring her territory!

She reminds me that I haven't seen the Barred Owl since I got back... Hopefully she's found a nice forest to hang out in.

And I've not seen the Wood Ducks, either. And that's kind of a bummer... they had invited so many of their friends to check out the creek, I really thought at least the original couple would stick around.

Tag: january 2026

It sprinkled thru most of the night and this morning the clouds are moving around, bringing more rain clouds!

Thank goodness. And there's some puddles getting started at the wet prairie!

The overnight low was 40° which makes the morning walk much nicer than the other day with my cold and wet foot! And the birds are out, also enjoying the warmer weather.

I decide to walk thru the Community Garden again.

In the front, is this plot with the pink insulation that annoys me so much.

They are getting trees started in them, and Trees and Woody Perennials are banned... but because these are real gardeners they are allowed to do whatever they want. *grumbles* at the unfairness.

But that big potted Rosemary bush is pretty impressive!

And *Deep Breath*... letting go of my annoyance.

But this is the next thing I notice...

foo. Lesser Celandine. Very, very invasive.

And I usually spend my volunteer time digging it up. So, I guess I need to start thinking about that. bleh.

In my plot, the couple of volunteer Leeks that came up are doing well.

And the clump of Leek seedlings that came up from a fallen bloom are very happy as well.

And the Beets and the volunteer Elephant Garlics! These things make Me happy!

I think this is Dusty Miller, in a neighbor's plot.

Oh! It's so warm, a caterpillar has woken up!

She's just a couple inches from the edge, so I don't have to move her off the path. But I've caught her attention...

:)

Back at home, I finished reading The Bean Trees yesterday afternoon...

And I am so far behind on my Scientific American magazine subscription, I decide to read magazines for the rest of January in order to catch up!

I'm currently in the middle of the July-August edition. So I've got some reading to do!!

Tag: january 2026

I'm starting to get more organized with the projects and all that have piled up while I've been away.

I've got three separate lists: House Chores, Mail, and Website Work. And stuff is getting done!

Today I've worked on the house plants. ha. Partner took care of the plants while I was gone, and they are all over watered, of course!

*Laughs* Fortunately, there wasn't enough time for him to kill any of them!

But I need to empty the trays of overflowing water, and set each plant into the sink to drip for a while.

Surprisingly, the African Violet is blooming! That pot doesn't have drainage holes, but the plants aren't sitting in water. It's dirt is wet, and I decide to leave it alone. I probably won't have to water it for another month or so!

Heading out for a walk, it's cloudy with a good chance of rain in the afternoon.

I enjoy the Calendulas at the Solidarity Garden.

*laughs* When I was in Colorado, I really tried to get photos of their local pigeons. That was basically a fail, from circumstances beyond my control.

So I am happy to see a little group of Rock Doves today, and I don't even mind that I have to photograph past a chain link fence.

They are beautiful and I love all their different decorations on their feathers!

And Look! There's a red one in this group as well!

Well. Maybe we will call that one brown. :)

I wish they would stick around so I can get to know them. But that is not their way!

And all their individual colourings have been named! Audubon says they come in 7 colour morphs...

∞ Pigeon Watch: Get to Know (and Love) Our Amazing City Birds

If you scroll down that page, there's a list of the seven colour morphs and then pictures of them all: We've got Blue Bar, Red Bar, Red, Spread (which is black!), White, Checkered and Pied (the ones with random leucism)!

So most of the Rock Doves here today are Checkered, you can call them Dark Checkered and Light Checkered. And there's a couple Blue Bars.

The brown Rock Dove has white feathers in her wings so she gets a combination morph, Red Pied!
... or Brown Pied, actually! :)

Fun! It is good to learn new things!!

Tag: january 2026

It's just cloudy today with a 50% chance of rain. But the quarter inch of rain we got yesterday helped with the dryness tremendously.

And more rain in the forecast. Good, this is looking more like normal weather for this time of year!

Ha, Artsy! That's a Steller Jay, but look at the glorious tree...

It's an Alder tree with brand new catkins, but there's a lot of old cones as well!

Aw, Look! A family of Nutrias!!

So adorable!!

And, foo. I've made them nervous by staring at them, and when a biker slows down to look, it's too much. They all scatter into the water.

The babies go back into their den. But one of the adults stays out to keep an eye on the situation.

In the evening, YouTube served me up some more Nutrias in a short...

∞ She chose kindness

Well, it's a pretty long video, to be called a short *laughs* But super cute story.

And later in the evening, I'm printing up a big batch of postcards.

Ahh! It makes me happy to be getting back to my projects!

And while we are on the topic of cute videos... Here's Alastor.

∞ Stick Your Toe Beans Straight Out!

I've been watching this creator for a long time, starting with Billi. Their new crew, Alastor and Coda, are simply adorable. I love watching them!!

Tag: january 2026

Yay! It's been raining this morning and it's a good bit warmer than yesterday. Thank goodness.

I need to get back into my blog posts. I didn't work on that at all while I was gone, and now I'm behind by five and a half weeks. meh.

I'm a little overwhelmed, and I ease into it, with some archiving and back end stuff.

It's still sprinkling by the time I'm getting out for my walk. And that's nice, I love walking in the rain!

But I barely even get across the street when I realize my right sock is wet. what the? I didn't even step in a puddle!

I stop on the sidewalk to look at the bottom of my shoe. Sure enough, there's a hole in the sole. Crud! These shoes are just over a year old, I remember wearing them for the first time when I went to Colorado last year.

But, annoying as it is, that's about right. I do so much walking, the shoes just wear out.

Drizzle and sprinkles for the entire walk. And even tho it's warmer than yesterday, it's still chilly... and my one wet foot was painfully cold!

I walk by the Community Garden... oh!

A Red Shoulder Hawk!

Tag: january 2026

Okay! Slowly but surely, I am getting all the December projects organized!

I've started sorting photos. There's a bit over 900 to work thru, which is a lot but could easily have been twice that! *Laughs*

I've got the pile of mail organized. Pulled out the swaps I need to deal with right away, and I'll go thru the lovely Holiday cards one by one, as I get time.

The house is getting tidier. I am getting thru Swap-Bot stuff.

And today I'm walking across the street to the postal stop to return my brother's broken gift. Another chore, checked off the list! AND they've already sent the replacement, so that's great!

But it's so cold today! It got down to 27° last night and it's still only 30° when I head out the door at 11am! ... I think about how it was 75° in Colorado on the day before Christmas. uh huh... that was nice. Climate change is terrible, but that was nice.

Well. There's some rain in the forecast so hopefully that will warm things up... Normal for this time of year is 47/34. None of this 30° at midday business!

And here's something that IS normal... bad bird photography!

*laughs*

Oh, here's that blond Mallard again!

Not that I can get decent pictures of her, either! sheesh.

A little bit further downstream... oh no. A Cackling Goose. And she's alone. :(

Her mate must have died. sighs. I'm so sad for her.

But here's something interesting. Cackling Geese look a lot like Canada Geese, but they are much smaller. And here she is demonstrating her size next to a Mallard. She's just barely bigger than him!

I'm looping around the neighborhood. Glad to see xmas decorations still up.

And amused that this neighbor has strung xmas lights over their Camellia bushes!

Tag: december 2025

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

Much to do today. Need to get the files moved from the Emily Laptop, back over to the computer. And I can probably backup files while I'm at it. Do an organizational sweep thru the photos. I need to start a list. But also the house is a little bit trashed, and I need to take care of that.

It's clear and cold this morning. But the sun warms stuff up and it's 37° by the time I get moving.

The wet prairie doesn't have a single puddle. Has it not been raining?

hm. Yeah, we are almost 2inches behind on our normal rain for December. And November was dry too, 2.5inches behind.

It makes the frogs sad when they don't have puddles.

I'm noting some other unfortunate changes around here... Aw, they cut this branch?

The police have left a Surveillance Trailer out here... and the homeless people have been swept. I wonder if something happened.

And the bench outside the Community Garden has been removed. *grumble*

jeez. I was excited to be home, but now I'm as sad as the puddle-less frogs.

Plus the bird flew away.

And the squirrel moved before I got his photo.

Well. I go into the Garden to see what my plot has been doing. The Borage has all died finally, and that's fine and normal. This second volunteer Cosmos is still green and alive...

And that stupid pot is still on my side of the border.

The Leek seedlings that I had separated are all dead. I figured they would die. But this clump that I left alone is still happily growing!

There's some cute little mushrooms in the pathway.

And someone has some Calendulas that are still happily blooming!!

The little splash of bright colours lifts my spirits.

Tag: december 2025

Last day in Colorado, I've got my flight home this evening.

But the morning starts as it has. I come down to the kitchen table with everyone, and surf the internets and work on puzzles!

A couple of birds have finally found the filled up bird feeder!

A Flicker? That's weird. I don't think she'd be interested in sunflower seeds. Have some bugs gathered under the bird feeder?

And a Meadowlark!

I'm excited to see a bird I wouldn't see at home! I haven't had much luck with that on this trip! Just that blurry and too far away Blue Jay the other day.

I wonder if the Flicker and the Meadowlark are friends. Where you hang out, I shall hang out. :)

And I think there was a Goldfinch as well, but they flew away too quickly. Perhaps they will report the full bird feeders at the evening gathering.

Dad comes up from his exercises in the basement and Mom asks how the Tylenol is going. He's a day or so off the oxi, and you can tell he feels a lot better! He's brighter and he says the Tylenol is working.

I wander off to pack my bags. I had pulled the sheets off my bed, and asked Mom if I could re-make the bed, but she said she's hung them up to dry in the basement!

I also get a couple bags of cookies to take home! I grab all of the bad Molasses Cookies... the chopped apple hasn't helped much, but I'm betting the 100% humidity in Oregon will do the trick!

With the Xmas presents, there's more than will fit into my bags. So I find a box and put the rest in it. Mom will ship it to me, when she gets back into town.

Mom's birthday is in a few days, and she opens her presents. She gets books!

And then we play one last game of 65... and Mom wins!

After lunch, we're just killing time. I fiddle with my luggage some more and Mom and Brother play a game of cribbage.

Brother drives Mom and I to the airport. Since we are coming in a different way than usual, we have trouble finding the ticket counters. They are doing construction and there's a serious lack of signs and the whole place is just a mess, a huge mess!

We finally get my luggage checked in... and then there's no place to just sit and hang out. We wander around in circles, but the only place we find with chairs is completely filled up and crowded with humans. sheesh. This airport is Terrible!

But then it's time for me to go, hugs all around and I wish them luck trying to find the car again! *laughs*

I get thru security, which is all new and different but I don't see how it's better than the old security... all this construction for nothing, really!

And then I walk a million miles to my gate, which says Omaha. Oh Crap! I back track to look at the departure screens. Okay, just have to walk a little bit further down!

I like it when the plane ride has no turbulence. And then, somehow the plane arrived a full half hour early! ha! Of course partner isn't there to greet me when I come down, but that's okay, when is your plane EVER a half hour early?? He shows up before too long, and we still have to wait for the luggage carousel.

At home, a Long hot shower makes me feel better.

It's good to be home.

Tag: december 2025

It did snow last night! Well. Technically.

*laughs* Just a dusting. and it's soon to melt.

But on the drive to church, we saw the snow had actually piled up a little in places. It's very patchy.

The sermon today was a visting pastor and he's got a surprise sermon which is anti-evolution. I'm really quite annoyed, and I wonder what the resident pastors think.

*shakes head* The Theory of Evolution has stood for well over 150 years. The science is used extensively in the medical field and without it, we would be left behind in the dark ages.

Also. Please do not use the word evolutionist. It makes you look ignorant. Do we call people Gravitationalists just because they believe in Gravity?!? Do we call people Germ Theoryists? or General Relativitists?

Anyway. That occupied my brain for a little while. And my opinion of my parents church fell quite a bit.

After lunch, Mom helps me make cookies. Sure, it's after xmas, but we're still eating cookies! I'm making Molasses Cookies... but I made them bigger than they are supposed to be and we had to cook them longer.

The first batch is done and Mom says I should try one. I'm all, What if they are terrible? *laughs* I put one in my mouth, They're TERRIBLE!

Hard as a rock. gah, I hate cooking.

Mom reduces the cooking time for the next batch, we pull them out when they still look undone. That does actually help, but jeez, stupid cookies.

When I finish, I'm out for a walk, and Mom joins me, going a little bit further than the ½ mile turn around. And then I go by the Alpacas.

And then some horses.

And then I get to the Prairie Dog colony!

Out in the distance, I can occasionally see movement.

Actually, they're all over the place! There's five in this photo.

Well. Looping back home.

*laughs* I was hoping to see a Blue Jay, since we don't have any in Oregon... But this is apparently all I get.

That's a bummer.

Back, and I'm looking over the stupid cookies. Not all of them are terrible, the last ones are actually pretty good!

But I say we should dedicate a whole apple to the rehabilitation of the first batch that was so hard. I find a wrinkled apple in the fridge, a little too far gone and I cut it up and put it in with the crappy cookies. Hopefully that will help.

After dinner, I lose spectacularly in a game of Phase 10. I guess my luck is back to normal! *laughs*

Tag: december 2025

It's gotten cold, here finally. Tho it's still above freezing, and it will warm up in the afternoon. But there might be some snow tonight!

The weather here, besides the terrible wind storm, has been warm. Overly warm. The days have been mid- and upper-60s. The day before Xmas Eve the high was 75°!! Crazy! I've enjoyed it, but it's def not normal.

I'm just surfing the internets again this morning, but it's making me feel lazy. So I work a little bit on the backend of my website. There. Accomplished something! *laughs*

Dad's got physical therapy and I go with them. Mom runs some errands, and I sit and read The Bean Trees on the kindle.

There's just one therapist today. He's their substitute, while they are all on vacation! He's got interesting stories and I'm listening to him, more than reading.

Afterwards, we go to the next town over to check out the CBD store we had found online... But, bummer! It's closed for the holiday.

Back at home, I wanted to go for a walk... But Dad reminded us of the phone call!

Dad's brother in Iowa had called while he was at physical therapy. A bunch of family, probably sitting around the kitchen table there!

We rescheduled the call, and we've got half an hour before they call back! Plenty of time, to walk out to the half mile mark and back!

Mom and I go out. I'm happy to get some exercise, but I don't get any photos.

We all take the call when Mom and I get back. We are talking to at least 6 people there in Iowa - my aunts and uncles and a cousin - plus my little second cousin who is, what? like 10yo or so.

After dinner we play Can't Stop. I get the first column...

I'm green. Everyone captures a column, but ultimately Brother wins when he gets his third column.

Mom has gotten me an extra quilt... The snow is still in the forecast and it's to get down to 20° tonight!

But that's nothing! The forecast says the next night will be 8°!! EIGHT!

Tag: december 2025

I've slept in again today, and that's nice.

It's another warm day out there, the high today is 58° and Mom suggests we go to the Reservoir for a walk this afternoon. _IF_ the wind keeps down. Sounds great to me, but Brother says his ankle hurts. Bummer!

I'm just surfing the internets again this morning. And eating Amber's wonderful Cinnamon Sourdough bread. Mmmm!

I come across this article at The Guardian, and I love it!

∞ 'Weapons of mass construction': the US 'craftivists' using yarn to fight back against Trump

And from there...

∞ PDX Knitterati... Portland Frog Hat

Oh my gosh! That is the cutest, most awesomest! But Dangit, it's a knit pattern and I only do crochet.

And I've never crocheted a hat before, so there's no way I can improvise. I will have to go looking for something I can work with!

Dad wants to fill up the bird feeders with his Xmas present black oil sunflower seeds and I go help him. I'm surprised he can do it, walking in the grass with his double knee replacements. But he goes slowly and has Mom's walking stick. And we get the job done, no problem!

I hope the birds saw us out there, so they know to come down and eat!!

After lunch, Mom and I go out to the reservoir!

It's a beautiful day and the colours coming off the water are amazing!

The round thing out there is part of an ultrasonic water treatment machine...

They've named it David Buoy! haha.

In the summer, they set him up with some solar panels for power and the thing kills toxic algae blooms! Awesome!

The ducks here are mostly Wigeons.

And more Canada Geese are flying in to join the party!

There's some other ducks at this end of the reservoir. Buffleheads!

Back at home we play a game of Hand and Foot... Dad and I have lost spectacularly even tho I've had more luck than I usually get. But it's so bad, we don't even have to count the last hand. ha.

Dad went off for some stretches and exercises and the rest of us played Natalia's Four Square... I kept getting dealt an ace in the bottom right spot. For FIVE rounds in a row! So that was weird, but I used it to my advantage and I won!!

After dinner we played Junk. This is a relatively new card game for us. And strangely? We all ended up with a tied score, except Mom was three points behind.

Then Mom, Brother and I played Up and Down the River. I really enjoy this card game but I lost by about a million! Mom won!

Tag: december 2025

Christmas Day is a day of rest. We play with our new toys, we eat leftovers, we generally do nothing!

I slept in, and that was wonderful!

Everyone is just hanging out. I'm surfing the internets and I work on some of the sudokus that are on my newspaper subscription page.

I also discover a free Ken-Ken website... I really like how they have set up their number choices as a little circle around the space! It's much faster and more efficient. In fact, I can see myself continuing to play at this site, even at home!

After lunch we decide to look at Mom and Dad's photos from the trips they took this year: New York City for their anniversary and Egypt.

It was absolutely fascinating!

The Grand Egyptian Museum had _just_ opened! Like literally a week ago! and wow. Amazing stuff there.

Mom had mentioned that the poverty in Egypt made her sad. There's boys begging all over the place.

What made me sad was the human rights violations. It took a while for me to notice... but there were no Egyptian women. anywhere. They aren't allowed to work.

We got the games out later in the afternoon.

Brother brought up Kimbo. This is a board game that is nothing but strategy, so I'm pretty indifferent to it. I don't have a brain for strategy.

But... Somehow... I won! That has never happened before!

To get even with me, we played Scattergories next.

*laughs* This is a game I WISH I could play. You'd think I would be good at it... but my brain freezes up with word games every time. I'm lucky to get even one or two answers! We did three rounds and I only got 6 words! That's how bad I am! :)

And then I found Chinese Checkers, and brought it up.

I couldn't remember how to play, and I was all, So if you land on someones marble, you kill them, right? Nope. Um. Send them home? Nope. So you have to jump over someone marble to send them home? Nope. What? The Chinese are nice in this game! *laughs* You just jump over marbles to get to the other side. That's all. No removing marbles, no sending marbles back to the beginning, you just move yourself forward. Ha!

One of Mom's presents to Dad, a tee-shirt...

:)

Tag: december 2025

Since Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were murdered...
I have rage.

And my words just felt inadequate for the situation.

I did write a couple postcards.

But they keep piling on the evil...

∞ ICE Leaving Ace Of Spades Death Cards Just Like In Vietnam, Which Worked Out Great

So, yeah. I totally stole that image of the Ace of Spade Death Card! Why? Because, folks! That's an address! It's postcard time!!

The other postcard is blank... I will probably write some vitriol on it and send it in a day or two.

Tag: january 2026

My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. We always have, both my Mom's side and my Dad's side! I don't know why!

We'd go to church in the evening for the children's play, come back and eat and open presents. Or maybe it was open presents first and then eat dinner later? *laughs* we must have done it both ways over the years.

Mom and Dad's current church doesn't do a childrens play, but they've got regular services thru the afternoon and evening. We'll be going to the 3 o'clock one...

Which means I've got time to wrap the last of my presents! Haha! Yeah, I forgot to do it yesterday!

But that project starts with disappointment. When I open the amz envelope that contains my brother's present... It's broken. Very broken. No fixing it.

Arg. And I don't have time to deal with that problem right now! So I wrap it up with a SORRY, and I'll take care of it later.

Brother is cutting off a chunk of Amber's Cinnamon Sourdough bread, and I request a piece as well... oh my goodness! SO GOOD!

It makes me think about making my own Sourdough! I think it's pretty easy to get a starter going. Yeast floats in the air, everywhere, after all. It's just the growing and maintenance are a bit time consuming.

But how wonderful if I could make bread like Amber's!!

We go to church and the sermon is done by one of the regular pastors and it's much better than Sunday's sermon.

When we get back there's a present out on the front porch! It's from the neighbors and look! It's something I can partake in too!

That's so nice!

We settle in and open presents the rest of the evening!

We eat dinner at some point in there as well.

I should have taken an "After" photo, with all the wrapping paper ripped up in the middle of the floor. ha. oh well.

When we were done, we chatted for a while and then Dad went to bed. Mom and Bro and I played a game of Group and Run, a rummy type card game. But the rules and the rounds came to us slowly! It's been a few years since we've played, I think!

Mom went to bed and I started washing dishes, as a xmas surprise for her. I imagined her delight, coming down the stairs on Christmas Day and finding much of the work done!

But just as I was getting into it, she came back down to the kitchen! Bahaha! Surprise Ruined! *laughs*

But maybe this is better... she can sleep in and not have to even think about getting up to do the dishes! :)

Tag: december 2025

The house cleaner is coming today, and Mom has moved things around in preparation.

*laughs* Yes, you have to tidy up before the house cleaner comes! :) It's a big house, and Mom wants to make the job as easy as possible.

One of the things that Mom does is move the house plants out of the way. Mom's plants have been dying, and these are the only two left.

A new Hibiscus, two little six inch starts she got this summer, which have grown beautifully!

And a Christmas Cactus that I got her in 2021. It hasn't grown much in that time, but she says she's watering it more often now and it seems to like that. There's little buds popping up all over it!

I talk a little bit about my house plants and Brother says he might like to have a Spider plant. Mine at home is blooming and has spiderlings hanging, I will have to send him a couple!

Mom's Spider plant is quite dead, and she's tried to plant the spiderlings but they just die. My Spider plant is actually a clone of hers from about a million years ago. Maybe if I plant one of mine, and get it established, and then send it to her.

Amber the house cleaner arrives at 11am. And she's brought a present! Oh my gosh! Cinnamon Sour Dough Bread! She baked it this morning! It's vegan and I'm thrilled to bits!

I go upstairs to keep out of the way, and I write a letter. And then I see if anyone wants to go for a walk.

Both Mom and Brother join me. Mom turns around at her new spot, a little bit down from the half mile mark.

And Brother doesn't want to do my 3.3mile loop to see the Prairie Dogs. So we do the 2mile loop instead. And hey, there is a single Pigeon back on the power line.

Well. He's not really back. He sees none of his friends. When he flies away, off to the northeast, I watch him fly and keep flying some more!

Amber is still working, so we go down to the basement when we get back. Everyone is there, kind of doing our own thing. Dad is watching tv and Mom has a book and I've got the kindle with The Bean Trees.

Dad decides to go upstairs to do his torturous stretching, and suggests we play billards.

Brother and I start with a regular game of pool. I clear out my solids, and Bro still has two striped balls out! I'm winning like crazy! But I can't sink the 8 ball, darn it! And Brother wins.

Then Mom joins us for some Peaball. This game took a while, we kept putting the white ball in the worst places! ha. But Bro had gotten the 3 pea, and then he got to put the 3 ball in, and won. Thank goodness, that game was definitely getting tedious!

3:30pm Amber is done and heads out, with many thanks for the Sourdough! And we decide to get Papa Murphy's Ten Dollar Tuesdays again! We put in an order online.

Dad has been thinking about getting some CBD in order to get off the narcotic oxi painkillers. We all look up information online, but it looks like you should def start out with a lower dose to see how it goes. And the 'medium' pain relief dosage is quite a a bit more than where you should start.

But we find a good store in town, that looks like they can talk knowledgeably to newbies.

Brother drives to get the pizzas, tho he doesn't know where he's going so Mom gives directions. And then I run in to get them. They are paid for, so you just have to find them on the rack and grab them.

It takes me a minute, the pizzas have been split instead of being three stacked together. And I double check the toppings before I leave... ARG! They've put gross cheese on my vegan pizza! Yuck!

I guess it's an easy mistake to make, and I do try to be polite. The manager fixes it right away, and it only takes a couple minutes to make a new pizza. But Sheesh.

After dinner we all play Cribbage! Mom and Dad play this regularly, but we have to look up the rules for partners. I was slow to catch on, and the math really distracted me. So I didn't really get into the strategy of putting down specific cards to make runs or whatever.

So Mom and Brother won, for sure. But I continue reading the rules of Cribbage even after we've finished our game! Ha! Maybe it will sink in?!

Dad went to bed and we play Phase 10, a rummy type card game. It's fun... Mom zips thru the first few phases, then Brother starts catching up. But, somehow, in the end, I won! ha!

Yeah, it's even more fun when you win! :)

Tag: december 2025

I came down to the kitchen table and first thing, I'm working on an email to Partner. I had been typing at him right before I go to bed, but last night I just went to bed!

And I had screwed up something in my batch of postcards... Somehow I had printed someone's address twice. I don't know how that happened, or why I didn't notice it when I was cutting them up. But I was rather rushed, making those at home, right before travel!

And then I realized the count was correct, which means I had skipped someone! Arg. Fortunately, I'd brought a couple blank postcards. And after going thru my list carefully, I found the missing address. Glad to get that fixed!

After I took the mail out to the mailbox, I was surfing the internets and found this story of a rescue!

∞ Man describes narrow escape after boats pulled into giant hole on Shropshire canal Major incident declared as 50-metre-long breach opens up in waterway previously flagged as 'amber risk'

Whoa, this is crazy! And a 75yo man saved everyone!! He woke up in the middle of the night because he had to go to the bathroom. Ha!

He noticed what was going on, the loud rushing water and then his houseboat was starting to tilt! And he woke his neighbors by banging on their hull. Everyone got off their boats in the nick of time! Yay! Zero casualties!

And this is amazing.

∞ The best nature photography of 2025

Noon... Mom and Dad are back from Physical Therapy. Dad has been working so hard with his exercises and stretches at home, and the therapist is pleased with his progress!

Dad has almost full range: 127 with the bending, where 130 is 100%! and Zero with straightening, which is 100%! The extra pain he's been dealing with is probably from Dad's bowed legs... The new knees have fixed that and the muscles have to re-shape from a lifetime of bowed-ness!

After lunch, I start wrapping presents. I'm not sure if they've all arrived, so I stop when I'm about half way thru.

And then those of us with natural knees go for a walk. Brother turns around at the half mile mark, and Mom walks with me a bit further.

As I approach the Prairie Dog colony, they are chirping their alarm calls, but there's one who has stopped to watch me before diving into the tunnels!!

When I zoom in... ha! There's two!!

And in the distance, the other colony is watching as well!

There's at least 2 colonies here... they have slightly different tones of alarm chirps!

So Cute!

There's stir fry for supper tonight, and I help cut vegetables. Mom and I are the only ones who like cabbage tho, so we both munch on the raw chunks while we're getting other things ready! A litle bit of cabbage still makes it to the stove! :)

After dinner we play the board game Camel. It takes a bit to set up, and then it takes a bit to remember how to play. I always lose because I can never be bothered to bet on the end results. You make good money on those bets. Brother won, of course. But Mom wasn't too far behind him.

Dad was up for another game so we got Mille Bornes out. Another one we had to re-learn how to play. We played partners, and Dad and I won. But meh.

Dad went to bed and we tried a three player Mille Bornes, but that was even less fun! ha.

Tag: december 2025

I get to work on my Swap-Bot letter first thing! I've got the envelope addressed and the first paragraph or so.

We've got church, some other guy with the sermon and he's kinda boring.

After lunch, I finish the letter and write a couple postcards as well. I'm feeling accomplished!

I want to go out for a walk... and everyone else is parked in the living room. Dad has his feet up, Mom is napping under a blanket and brother looks overly comfortable as well.

*laughs* So I'm on my own again for a walk, and I decide to go across the street for something different.

Yep! Here's the pathway I was looking for.

A horse walks over to look at me.

But gets bored of me quickly!

These are some weird looking turkeys.

The lot of them are all the same colour.

It looks like they are all girls. Probably used for their eggs. bleh. and how sad.

The wide open prairie is amazing... but I'm glad I live in a place with trees!

There's a little draw to walk over.

And on the other side, a bird has bought the farm...

These feathers are pretty big. And that colour... I wonder if this is one of those Turkeys.

There's a bit of a seep here, and I was trying to get down to these trees.

But the path I'm on takes a u-turn. So I'll have to back track and take the fork that looked like it was heading in the other direction!

The path I find takes me past the trees but not under them. Oh well.

Some Prickly Pears? They are VERY prickly!

And the Cattails, down in the wet spot.

Tag: december 2025

Came down to the kitchen this morning and it's 31° outside and Light Snow... and sure enough! There is actually some dots of tiny balls of snow on the deck!

Haha!

I've got Swap-Bot stuff to do again and I assign partners for the last TGIF letter of the year. I'll be writing that tomorrow. But right now I've got more postcards.

I get eight postcards written and I put all my writing stuff away... And then decide to write a postcard to Partner at home. I want him to get it before I get home. ((( But, ridiculously, it shows up the very day I get back! ARG! Ten days travel time isn't terrible for the holiday season, I guess. But I really wanted Partner to have some mail of his own while I was gone! sighs. )))

I work on some puzzles in the newspaper. The ken-ken is an easy one, now that I have learned all the tricks of the 6x6 square. And then I work on a crossword. And then I waste the rest of the morning surfing the internets.

After lunch, I'm out for a walk. On my own again, and Dad has suggested a route that makes a loop, after I visit with the Prairie Dogs! That's going to be much nicer and I look it up on google maps to find it's 3.3miles! A little bit over an hour walking time... Perfect!

Besides the Pigeons, who have been scared away, and the endless supply of European Starlings, and the Robin's here and there... We've also got Eurasian Collared Doves.

But wait! Upper left? That isn't the beak of a dove! Ha! He's a Flicker! When I zoom in, I see his red moustache. This is the same race - Red Shafted Northern Flickers - that we've got at home in Oregon!

I go by the Alpacas.

And the little Escapee Goat is now on the front porch of the house with a black and white friend goat! Haha! They must get out regularly!

Going down the street to the Prairie Dog colony, there's a dog out as well. I'm a bit concerned, at first... like maybe I shouldn't walk by this loose dog.

The house is completely fenced in and the dog is at the driveway gate, and she's studiously staring at the house. I don't think she's going to move from there, so I keep walking.

Did you get locked out? I ask her. She barely glances at me.

The garage door opens, out races her friend Border Collie who is all excited and running circles! And when the garage door opens enough, the human comes out. Oh, so you're escaping now too?

*Laughs*

The end of the street and then it's Prairie Dog country!

But on the ground there... Ha. The wind has blown away someones window screen. That's a bummer, I bet they will be surprised and annoyed when they go to open their windows in the summer!

Mom mentioned that it's unusual for the wind to keep blowing day after day. And up in Boulder, they had wind speeds over 110mph!!! Whoa! Insanity!

The wind even got a page on Wikipedia!

∞ December 17-20, 2025 North American storm complex

At the end of the street... There's a Prairie Dog! I can see a little face and a little tail!

Cute!

And out in the distance.

Little sand coloured creatures in a sand coloured landscape!

They are impossible to see, even close up. But when they move, I get a lock on their location! Tho mostly they are just running into their holes!

Walking back thru the neighborhood, and up the street for my new loop... I notice wind damage here and there.

But honestly, it's not that bad. They have to deal with wind all the time here. It's not usually 60 or 70 miles per hour, of course, but they've got most things battened down.

huh. I wonder what this tree is with all the little round balls.

When I get back, Brother and Mom are just finishing up some SnickerDoodles. They are excellent and Brother says I have to make the rest of the cookies. *laughs* Yeah, definitely my turn, but dangit I hate cooking!

After dinner we sit in the living room to watch the videos of Dad and Mom's trip to Egypt. This was their cruise down the Nile. They were traveling with a big group, and they named people who were sitting on the deck of the boat.

The views of the river and river bank were interesting. Lots of other cruise ships, boys down in the water begging from surf boards.

I had to look up one of the birds from the video... African Swamphen the colours are crazy! Mom said she also saw Hoopoes but couldn't get photos of them.

And then Mom realized that she had lost her phone. *laughs* Problem is that she had it set to vibrate because the wind was tripping the porch webcam constantly. Ha, so calling the phone did no good.

We found it eventually... She normally sets it on the wall between the kitchen and living room and it had fallen behind the couch.

Tag: december 2025

I've brought down my writing supplies, to the kitchen table this morning. And I start working on the batch of postcards, that I had printed up, just before I left home. Finally! But I'm glad to get a bit done on my projects... Usually I completely abandon that stuff when I'm away!

After I put the postcards in the mailbox, I'm surfing the internets. And I come across an interesting article in Wired. Don't bother clicking, there's a paywall...

∞ Americans Are Increasingly Convinced That Aliens Have Visited Earth Polling shows that nearly half of Americans now believe aliens have visited this planet - and that the number who aren't sure has dropped by two-thirds. The reasons why, experts say, are complicated.

Almost half - 47% - of Americans say they think aliens have definitely or probably visited Earth at some point in time. and Just 16% of Americans said they were unsure if aliens had visited Earth in the new poll, down from 48% who were unsure in 2012.

Hm. I absolutely think there's life on other planets out there... Even civilizations more advanced than us! But I'm not sure ordinary people understand how big the universe is. It's impossible to go faster than light, so the aliens aren't going to be going anywhere, and they are definitely not visiting us. We are all stuck in our own solar system.

Brother says we could develop warp drive. Dad says there's no aliens anywhere and no visits.

Today we are driving to Brother's house. The crazy wind has knocked down the solar panel for the webcam on his porch. It's funny, because he can see the solar panel on the web cam! It's lying on the ground but still connected and it's power side up, since the web cam continues to work!

We drive out and he fixes that and he also wants to check the back yard and all to see if the wind has brought any branches down. There's just twigs and small branches, and the fences are all good.

The wind is crazier today, I think, but it's not so bad in town.

Brother's neighborhood is filled with trees. And the trees are filled with squirrels and robins!

Eastern Fox Squirrel, the same species we have at home in Oregon. I suppose they are invasive here as well? Or maybe the old split that kept them in the east was the Rocky Mountains, rather than the Mississippi River?

On the way back, I try to take a photo of the Rocky Mountains, out the car window. haha.

Mount Meeker and Longs Peak.

After lunch, Brother gets started on another batch of treats: Peppermint Meltaways.

And I've decided to not go for a walk today. The wind is just insane. It blows me around and it's just hard to fight it! And also the left shin splints have been bothering me again. bah.

The dough for the Peppermint Meltaways needs to chill in the fridge, so we play a partner game of Hand and Foot. Mom and Brother win, but it's a close game. They had 9595 to Dad and my's 9150.

Brother makes and bakes the Peppermint Meltaways. Mom makes the frosting, and I have pounded the candy canes into bits. And when the cookies have cooled enough, Brother and I frost them and top them with candy!

These are definitely everyone's favorite!

After dinner we all play a game of 65... And Dad is on a roll! He gets EIGHT STARS! Brother only had 4 stars, Mom 1 and me with zero. normal.

Dad goes to bed and we play a bit of Fun Trivia after I revive our account from last year!

It's a fun site, tho the quizes tend to be either way too easy or way too difficult! *laughs*

Tag: december 2025

I got some laundry done this morning. And Mom has an appointment in town.

Dad suggested Rack-o and we played a few rounds. But Brother was thrashing us... he got 350 points, Dad just got 180, and never mind my pathetic 135! haha.

After lunch - still leftover pizza! - Dad had to go to physical therapy, and I joined them.

Mom dropped us off at the place, then left to run errands. I sat in the front with my kindle, and Dad petaled on the stationary bike for a while. He does that every day at home, as well, but I suppose they make everyone do that, since there's probably a few people who don't do their slated exercises after knee replacement surgery!

Evenutally they move him to a platform where he lies down and does stretches with a resistance band.

And then eventually they do this crazy electric thing, on his legs, stimulating specific muscles or whatever.

And then eventually they ice him down for a while.

Yeah, I was surprised at how long it took! The whole appointment took an hour and a half. I got a good chunk of reading done... The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.

Back at home, I'm completely antsy after sitting for so long! I need a walk!

Mom and Brother join me, but only to the half mile mark. The wind is kind of cold today, and I wish I had my coat. I decide to do the shorter 2mile loop.

Coming around on the gravel road, the Goats are at the back fence!!

Ha!

Hello!

And then this one comes around the corner...

Can't you just hear them saying WHAT is going on here, people??!

*laughs* and that's a Muscovy Duck.

As I'm coming back up to the house, I'm looking west. Mom and Dad's house is so close to the foothills, you can't actually see the Rocky Mountains behind them.

But from this place, out on the road, I realized I could see a mountain top! Just barely!

After dinner, we all played a game of 65, the rummy game. Brother won, but the stars were fairly evenly distributed. He had 5, Mom had 4, Dad had 3, and never mind the one star I got. *laughs*

Dad went to bed and we got the Qwixx dice out. Mom won a game and then I won a game. Brother's usual luck with winning everything seems to have left the building! But I'm glad to win something every now and then!

Tag: december 2025

It starts out overcast and chilly this morning, around 35° but the sun peeks thru now and then and it warms up nicely.

But the wind is blowing like mad. 30 to 50mph with gusts 65 to 85mph. What the heck!

A little flock of birds comes to the back porch to check out the empty bird feeder.

The empty bird feeder problem will be solved... we got Dad 40pounds of sunflower seeds as a xmas present!

We finally got organized to make some xmas treats. Bro's vegan Rice Krispy Treats are wonderful, but it would be nice to have some variety!

Brother works on the coloured peanuts. And I work on Cranberry Cookies. Well. Mostly I just help Mom!

After lunch, Brother, Mom and I try a game of Rook. I don't remember ever playing this game, and I like it, even tho Bro wins by quite a lot!

I was on my own for a walk today, and I made my way over to the Prairie Dog colony. This way is just an out and back, not a loop. And is just over 3miles.

The sun has warmed up the earth, and the walk is comfortable, temperature wise. But the crazy wind is pretty annoying!

I go past the Alpacas.

And on the other side of the street... Um, this little Goat is on the outside of their pen!!

Ha! Her friends are all eating dinner on the inside! The little escapee!

I arrive at the Prairie Dog colony... They were chirping alarms at my presence, but I only saw a single, little fat one running to their hole, no photos.

oh well. Maybe I'll have time for them to get to know me better, so I can take more pictures of their cuteness!

When I get back, the garage door is opening and the car is backing out. What's going on?

Dad has been calling for days about his pain killers, and it turns out they renewed the prescription, but no one said it was ready to pick up! He was down to one pill, and if they hurry they can get to the pharmacy before it closes!

Dad is taking a shower, and with everyone else gone, I decide to sweep the kitchen floor. Mom's mentioned it a couple times, and really, it's the least I can do.

After dinner, we include Dad in our new Rook obsession...

Partners, Dad and I against Mom and Brother! Dad and I started out strong but then at the last hand Mom and Brother wiped us out: Me&Dad = 265, Mom&Bro = 335.

ha.

Brother was drinking a lemonade mixed drink, and I got a Kissing Caramel Coke. Yum! I was happy to discover the Kissing Caramel was vegan! Mom had an Uncle's Sipper with Baileys and Kahlúa. The homemade Kahlúa is vegan but the Baileys is not, of course, it's made of cow milk, yuck. But this drink was invented by her brother and is one of Mom's favorites.

Dad went to bed and we tried out the different three player variation of Rook.

I won wth 310, Mom 290, Brother 230.

And then we modified the original rules and Brother won that one with 180, Me 110 and poor Mom at 35. Haha.

Tag: december 2025

It's cloudy and warm today.

In the morning I fiddle with some of my mailing projects and then I work on some newspaper puzzles. I'm getting pretty good at the ken-kens, which I enjoy doing. and the crossword puzzles are on the easy side. So that makes them fun, even tho I can't quite finish one on my own!

Mom has a bunch of errands lined up for the afternoon, and Dad suggests we get Papa Murphy's for supper because it's Ten Dollar Tuesday.

*laughs* I check, and Papa Murphy's crust is vegan, they have lots of vegan choices, and some locations even have vegan cheese. So that's awesome!

It takes us a long time to get the order sorted out. And then we're not sure about the pickup time because we've already got five stops for errands, and the pizza joint location will be in the middle.

But we finally get it done, and then Bro and I go with Mom to help with errands.

At Walmart, we've each got our own mission... But we end up having to wait for Mom because she ran into a friend and had to stop and chat.

We arrive at Papa Murphys 7mins early, but they've already got our pizzas out on the rack!

A couple more stops and then back home.

Dad is looking at the tv schedule and I see he's got a couple Castles recorded. I used to watch that show, and enjoyed it. Nathan Fillion, he's a good guy.

So we watched a couple of those and I got a Margarita, because we had gotten the stuff for it during our errands today!

The pizza was Great! Pre-cooked...

Mom and Dad got a veggie with cheese, Brother's is the pepperoni. And mine is Artichoke Hearts, Mushrooms and Olives, extra everything, no cheese. (They didn't offer vegan cheese at this location, but I prob wouldn't have gotten it anyway. Vegan cheese is terrible!) (ha.)

I LOVED the artichoke hearts, Yum!!

After dinner we passed Catch Phrase around. It's a little device that shows a phrase and you have to get your partner to say the phrase by describing it. It's old, so some of the phrases don't make sense anymore. And also it doesn't have a lot of memory, so eventually the phrases start repeating.

I'm not a fan of word games. My poor brain usually freezes up! But we have fun.

Bro had also brought up Aggravation, that game where you move marbles around the board. That's usally Mom's game. But I won!! Dad was losing badly, because everyone was picking on him! Sending him back to square one over and over!

And then we tried Flinch, which is a Skipbo type game where you try to get rid of your pile. And the directions are Very Precise about *exposing your cards* haha.

I was getting tired of games, even tho Brother had also brought up Mille Bornes.

Instead we talked about the book Brother is reading.

Ha! The good parts version of the Princess Bride, written in 1973.

It's a fake re-telling of a book that never existed! *laughs* S. Morgenstern isn't real, he's a fictional character in the book by William Goldman!

It took a while to wrap our heads around that!

The movie, The Princess Bride, is based on this book, of course. And Bro says it's fun to read because many of the quotes in the movie are lifted straight from the book!

Tag: december 2025

Dad has physical therapy first thing this morning. I want to go with them at some point, to see what happens... but not today. To early! Mom and Dad have already left by the time I make it down to the kitchen table!

I've got another Swap-Bot thing to take care of, an email swap.

And then Brother wants to take my trackball apart.

I've brought it because I don't like using the track pad on the Emily LapTop. But the buttons on the trackball are failing, and it's really frustrating.

After lunch Brother and I go out for a walk... a different loop this time, since the only exciting thing on the 2mile loop was the Pigeons and they won't be coming back.

This loop is 2.7miles and there's Alpacas!

The way their legs fold up under them is so cute!

And the floof of hair on their head!

We play this 10 Card Golf game... and it takes a minute to remember how to play. Oh, yeah: everyone gets their own discard pile! And then Mom beat us with -43 points! Dad had a respectable -25 but Brother and I were positive 14 and 15! haha, terrible. That's normal for me, but weird that Bro would lose that bad!

Dad has been watching a news channel that sprinkles bible verses into the news. *shakes head* And I'm thinking about this...

∞ Sadly, America may be permanently broken by MAGA

After dinner, Brother has dug out a Bowling Dice game. *laughs* It's pretty lame!

And then we decide to play a game of Hand and Foot. Brother definitely has his mojo back, he's beaten us by over a thousand points! haha!

Mom and Dad have gone to bed, and Brother and I discuss theme songs of the shows we watched as kids.

Do you remember the theme of Macgyver? Heck yeah!

Knight Rider, yes. AutoMan? um, nope. Street Hawk, vaguely. What was the helicopter one? oh yeah, Air Wolf.

And can you name the characters of The A-Team? Do you remember who Mr T was? haha!

Tag: december 2025

Morning at the kitchen table, Mom asks What was that movie you said we should watch?

Yeah, last night when we were going thru all our favorites by genre, we all agreed some movie would be great to watch again. But no one can remember what it was! ha!

I'm drinking coffee and I pull out my letter writing stuff. I start with the envelope and realize I don't have any return labels. It's been forever since I've had to write my own return address, and it amused me a little!

There's church and then there's lunch.

Brother says he has a craving for Rice Krispy Treats. Marshmallows are not vegan, but Mom says she has a recipe from Grandma M that is vegan, using peanut butter instead of marshmallows! Yay!

Mom gets all the ingredients out for Bro, then she and I go for a walk.

Mom turns around at her half mile mark, and I continue on the two mile loop.

The wildlife here is not very cooperative. Probably I just need to get used to everyone... and get everyone used to me!

Mostly there's the ubiquitous European Starlings.

And then the next common is Robins.

When I come around to the gravel road, there are some Starlings on the power line...

But I don't see the Pigeons. That's a bummer, I really wanted to study that red one.

But then, at the end of the road... oh. A pile of feathers.

That was probably a Pigeon. Maybe eaten by a hawk.

I can't begrudge the hawk. Everybody's gotta eat.

But the Pigeons aren't going to hang out here anymore, and I'll never get to see that red one. bummer.

I come back thru the yard. ooh, big ... canine!

Yeah, it's probably a dog. They might have coyotes here, but they wouldn't get this big. That paw print is a good 4inches.

And then, heh, the results of a deer.

In this part of Colorado, they probably have both Mule Deers and White Tail Deers.

I happened across this web page... and I LOVE the author's drawing!!! And it made me laugh.

∞ Colorado Wildlife, 107: Deer - the Mule Deer and the White-Tailed Deer

(What a fun site, the drawings are fabulous! I'm sad that blog ended in 2023. Sighs.)

Back to my walk. Someone's nest.

And the one and only bunny I saw during my entire stay.

Brother had finished the vegan Rice Krispy Treats by the time I got back into the house, and they were cooling.

They were... surprisingly good. I mean, really good!

I asked if Bro did any baking at home. He said no, and I told him he should. I mean, he could sell these, they're so good!

*laughs*

I finish up my TGIF letter for Swap-Bot and then after dinner we play an old board game called Fun City. Dad won, but Brother was just a couple points behind him. Mom and I were the big losers: she had 18points and I just had 13points.

Yep, that's my usual luck.

Dad went to bed and the rest of us played Tri-Ominos.

Brother won.

Tag: december 2025

A good nights sleep! Then I come downstairs to join everyone at the kitchen table.

I've got some work to do at Swap-Bot, for the TGIF swap that I host every week. I thought it would be fun to continue the weekend letters while at my Parents' house! So I'll be writing a letter tomorrow, and I set up a swap for next weekend as well.

Dad has gathered some puzzles from the newspaper, and I try my hand at a ken-ken. But the 6x6 square defeats me! *laughs* Brother finds my mistake, of course. He's a lot smarter than I am. :)

After lunch, Dad and Bro get the lights out to put on the xmas tree we set up yesterday.

And then Brother, Mom and I go for a walk. Bro and I are doing the 2mile loop, but Mom turns back at the half mile mark.

Many neighbors here have farm animals... lots of goats and alpacas! A few horses!

Coming around the loop, there's often birds standing up on these power lines. European Starlings, and then the Pigeons flew away before I could get close enough for photos. There was an unusual red Pigeon in their midst, and I'm looking forward to walking out here again to get their portrait!

But this one did stick around for photography!

Western Meadowlark! That's exciting. A bird I wouldn't get to see in Oregon!

Back at home, we play Natalia's Four Square, a golf type card game. I win!

Mom hasn't started her Xmas shopping, and I haven't either. Bro goes up to help her, and I get some shopping done as well.

I get distracted tho... I rediscoverd this story and couldn't stop laughing!

∞ He's living his best life: drunk raccoon hit DMV for snacks before liquor store

Brother has a topics list of all time favorite movies. He's a movie guy, has seen all the most obscure movies out there.

He would state a genre, and I would pick my favorite movie. And then he would say his favorite... sometimes I'd agree and want to change my favorite, sometimes I'd not seen or even heard of the movie!

We continued this thru the whole evening!

In the afternoon, today, Brother and I had been at the kitchen table. There was a crash from upstairs and then Dad cussing. A lot.

It terrified me! Do you think he fell? If Dad went down with his new knees and his recent surgery, that would be very very bad.

When Mom came down later, I asked what had happened.

Dad had dropped his water.

Phew. All that cussing for spilled water? Yep.

heh. *shakes head*

Tag: december 2025

These ornaments are decorating a tree at the Eugene Airport, and how cute!

And now I'm in Colorado!

My Dad got double knee replacements, not even three weeks ago. So this is going to be a low key visit at my parent's house.

Once they got me settled, Mom and Dad had to leave again for Dad's physical therapy. He calls it torture.

In the afternoon, Brother and I got the xmas tree out of the barn and got it set up.

Mom's been so busy -- taking care of Dad plus doing all of Dad's chores, plus all the regular every day stuff -- she's not been able to do much Xmas stuff.

So hopefully Bro and I will be able to help a little!

We played a couple games. 65 is a rummy type card game and Brother got most of the stars and won. And then the dice game Qwixx that Mom won.

Tag: december 2025

I've got about a million things on my mind.

So today's walk is just a calming activity. *laughs*

Lots of gardeners have Calendulas still blooming!

Making the pollinators happy! This is a Hoverfly!

And even some California Poppies!

um. jeez. this is... yuck.

If this was my neighbor, I would complain bitterly.

We aren't allowed to have trees, or woody perennials. Those things are supposed to be in pots. And this looks like a tree to me.

jerks. The thing is, they are obviously Real Gardeners so nothing will be said and they will continue to break the rules, year after year.

Whereas gardeners like me, who enjoy a little chaos and wildflowers, will be threatened with expulsion, year after year.

The unfairness is so damn annoying!

And so much for my Calming Activity!

I try to get back to it.

Napping Ducks. Very Calm.

Tag: december 2025

And then a bit further on, this one gave me a terrible angle as well. *laughs* oh nature.

I'm at the garden plot, mostly just making sure everything is kosher since I'll be leaving in a few days.

Behind the fallen Cosmos, I've not moved the pot that I 'inherited' from The Pot People. It was an accident that they left it on my side of the border. But they've done that before and it just annoys me!

To the left of the pot is another little volunteer Cosmos.

Cute little thing! I wonder if it will live thru the winter.

And the Pet Nasturtium in the Strawberry patch is still hanging on to life. I hope the seeds are able to mature, so I can have more next year!

And I'm so Very Very happy that they changed the rules about Borage. Being able to keep this beautiful companion plant is good!

It's not native, but it's not a plant that causes any trouble. They come up in bunches in disturbed soil, but they are easy to identify and they are easy to pull up, if you don't want them.

The mature plants are easy to pull up as well. And their leaves prevent a lot of other weeds from coming up.

And, of course, they evolved with European Honey Bees... And making the Bees happy is the most important thing of all!

And here's the state of the Lettuces...

The Slugs have finally munched them to death.

Good. I'm tired of worrying about it!

I've decided to get the last huge beet...

Partner has finally taken a liking to beets, so he can eat this one while I'm gone.

I admire the little Elephant Garlics on the way out.

But then the Red Amaranth catches my eye as well.

The Crows are having a conference!

Tag: december 2025

Well Hello Henrietta!

It's nice to see him every once in a while!

I get out to Stewart Pond Park... and there's no ponds yet.

Not even a puddle. It feels like we've gotten a good bit of rain, and the rains even started early, in September.

But when I look it up, we we were actually a good bit short of rain in November. We got 3.47inches for the month and normal is 5.98inches.

So, the Wet Prairie is still in Prairie Mode!

As I'm taking pictures, I happen to notice one little tree in the distance which is still green.

Oh my gosh! It's a Pacific Madrone tree!

There aren't any Madrones in the little bit of forest here in the park. So it's interesting to see one here.

As I get into the little patch of forest, ha, there are a couple of Pacific Chorus Frogs singing here, despite the lack of ponds!

Winter and the rainy season is their breeding season. But there's no place for their little tadpoles to swim, right now!

But there has been enough wet to make some mushrooms grow!

Okay. I'm a sucker for mushrooms and ferns and moss!

I come around to the back. Looks like someone started cleaning up at the fallen Oak tree.

Oh. The other half of the tree has fallen too.

It's crazy how the roots have just sheared off. It doesn't seem normal.

Coming back thru the forest, I've found a bird after all!

Male Flicker. He's looking for bugs.

Their favorite meal is ants, but I suppose ants are impossible to find in the cold and the wet.

Tag: december 2025

A grey day, and the temperature is nice at 55°, tho the wind is annoying.

I thought they said Atmospheric River but it's not rained much at all, barely spinkles. 0.04 and 0.02inches doesn't really constitute an Atmospheric River! Another weather service failure.

And hardly any shin splint pain today. I can feel it, and I'm walking slowly still, but so much better than the last couple of days. I feel like there's no rhyme or reason for it!

That new Heron again!

Ha. A duck steers around her.

Oh hey! A Common Merganser!

Where is your partner, my dear??

A few years ago, a male Common Merganser was hanging out with a female Mallard who had a messed up wing. Last year, he showed up with a couple females. Or, actually, three females?

I suppose this is one of his partners, and I'm sad that she's not with him. He must have died, and she'll need to find a new lover. sighs.

I stop by the garden to grab the hand fork to take home. It doesn't quite fit in the back pack!

The Leek spouts that I broke up and transplanted the other day, seem to be mostly still alive.

But I have more confidence that this flower of sprouts will live thru the winter!

I stop to look at the diagonal neighbor's Strawflowers.

I still haven't figured out what this thing is. Maybe some kind of Mustard?

It makes the Honey Bees so happy!

Walking home, the Kingfisher flies by me with a laugh!

ha. She flies ahead, and lands in a tree and waits for me to catch up with her. But as soon as I find her, she flies ahead again!

Six or seven times in a row... She's just messing with me! :)

Tag: december 2025

Grey morning, and it's misting when I head out. And soon it's drizzling.

And the 'not' shin splints hurt a good bit again, so I'm walking slow.

I'm hoping that when I'm at my parents house, that stupid thing will heal up. I will definitely be walking there, for exercise, but I won't be going as far as I do here at home.

Ha! The Barred Owl! Sitting in the same tree!

In fact... this is the same branch that she was standing on yesterday. That's weird. I hope she's okay.

Maybe she just likes this branch because no one is mobbing her here.

I've come to the garden to do one last check. I've finished with plenty of time before my travels next week, and that makes me happy.

I drag the big trellis to the middle of the plot and I set up the nested tomato cages under it...

Those wire supports are just so hard to see in the leaves, and I don't want anyone tripping over them if they walk thru my plot.

The little plant at the bottom of that pic is one of the Avocado Trees. :)

And here's a couple more Avocado Trees in front of the Strawberry patch!

The big volunteer Cosmos has partially fallen over without the support of the big trellis.

And the Elephant Garlics.

mmm! Next spring! Roasted Elephant Garlics, just out of the oven! Maybe I will eat them on rice with a little bit of vegan butter? oh yeah. I can't wait!

And the Barred Owl, still here.

And then I remembered the hand fork.

I keep the hand fork at the garden plot all summer, it's hidden under that orange bucket at the back of the plot.

So I guess I'm not quite done at the garden plot!

ha. I will pick it up tomorrow, I guess!

Tag: december 2025

We got good rain yesterday and today the clouds seem to be breaking up a bit.

I'm heading to the garden, and hope to finish hauling leaves today.

I meet up with this guy with the short tail. I've seen him a few times, tho haven't been very successful getting his picture...

I've never noticed he has a tuft of white fur at the end of his poor tail!

Oh, wow! It's the Barred Owl again!!

So cool. I hope she decides to stick around!

I arrive at the Community Garden... and there's someone splashing in a puddle in the parking lot!!

Oh my GOSH! Cooper Hawk! Taking a bath!!

She notices me, but I keep my distance and she continues with her bath!

As I watch, it looks like she's putting on the dance moves!

Dip...

And Shake!

And Dip!

And Shake!

And Shake!

OLE!

*laughs*

So that's fun! She flies to some nearby trees, and I lose her in the branches. But she'll be up there preening and putting her feathers back into place.

And I have my own work to do. Hauling the last of the leaves.

I did four wheelbarrow loads today, and I'm done!

This is the back corner of the plot, where the water faucet is, and you can see the surprising amount of green growing things all around!

I also remembered to grab the sprayer from the hose.

A couple trees catch my eye on the way home.

The Barred Owl is still in her tree. Still not being mobbed!

And it's just the one pair of Wood Ducks today.

The female is over here... But there's no talking to birds when they are preening!

*laughs*

Tag: december 2025

The rain started yesterday evening. Did it rain all night? Maybe! And it hasn't let up since I got up this morning.

Which means I am definitely not going to the garden today. I hate working in the rain and mud! So I'll just walk, instead.

But, with the shin splints hurting so much, maybe walking extensively isn't the best idea.

I've asked Dr Google about the pain, and it's not actually shin splints. That pain is in a different place than mine. Mine is coming straight up from the foot, at the bottom of the shin. And a little bit across the ankles as well.

But whatever. It sounds like another one of those things that either gets better or it doesn't, no matter what you do.

And I can't not walk. So I'm walking in the rain today.

I can walk slowly. At least when I remember, I can walk slowly! ha! My mind wanders and then I notice I'm walking at my normal pace and things hurt again. Slow Down!

I'm glad I came out here... because Look!

Those pink ties? They are marking TREES! They've planted some saplings here! Yay!

Some of the baby trees still have leaves attached, and I go down to see what they are.

And then I remember I'm terrible at identifying trees! Haha!

Okay! Here's an oak tree sapling! It's probably an Oregon White Oak!

And there's some pine trees planted as well.

So that's nice. Planting native trees is always good!

Partner took the new PT Cruiser to the shop yesterday so they could work on the rods.

This will be a couple thousand dollars, probably, but if the rods go, the car will be done and we will have wasted the money we've already put in. The new tires and the new brakes.

But when they open up the engine, they discover a lot more wrong with it, besides the failing rods. They say about 6,000$ will turn it into a regular car.

Yikes. Partner says that's too much.

So that's a bummer. I was actually envisioning being able to drive to some other hikes here in town... I'd head down to the Cascade Raptor Center, and hike out to Spencer Butte, and go across the interstate to Mount Pisgah, and, and and.

And that is not to be. Partner will drive the PT Cruiser just like the Buick. Slow. and only around town. and we'll hope the rods last a year.

Sighs.

Tag: december 2025

Hmm. This sparrow is too dark to be a Song Sparrow, but I wasn't sure who she was until I got home to look closely at the photos.

Fox Sparrow!

The map at AllAboutBirds says Fox Sparrows are winter visitors here, but the western birds only migrate a short disance. Maybe even just coming down from the hills.

Always happy to see someone new!

I get to the garden, and what the heck... I had leaned the trellises up against the dividing post, in the back. And someone has moved the tomato cages and laid the trellises down.

And that patch of Horseradish in the right neighbor's plot -- the Pot People -- has been dug up! They must have gotten the Non-Compliance email from the Community Garden Director! ha!

Well. The trellises weren't technically in their way, but I'm glad they put in some effort. The Horseradish will regrow, it doesn't look like they dug very deep for the roots. And I guess we will see how they handle that in the future.

Also, it looks like I have inherited one of their pots! *laughs* Okay!

Meantime... I'm going to haul some more leaves!

My plot passed the Compliance Check, I got the email yesterday! But I still need to finish the work of winterizing the plot!

The left shin splints still hurt... tho maybe not quite as bad as yesterday. I still have to walk weirdly on the uneven ground, with the heel out.

And I do take it easier today, just five wheelbarrow loads of leaves. And I walk slower and more carefully. Being successful on the Compliance Check makes me feel more confident about getting everything done before I travel next week!

Plus, Look! The plot passed the Check, even with that Red Amaranth still standing in the front!!

*laughs* I feel like I've gamed the system now!

Maybe I'm IN with the Garden Director, now. Maybe she considers me a Real Gardener now!

Yeah, right. But I can dream!

*snort*

I've left an open space in the leaves for the Beets. They will live thru our mild winter, and the small ones will hopefully grow some more on warmer days.

And it's stupid, but I put a tomato cage over the thrice munched Lettuce seedlings.

*cringe* I really need to stop thinking about the damn Lettuces. Especially since the leaves I'm hauling in will certainly contain more slugs. I can't imagine the Lettuces will survive for much longer.

Heading home, I find another little bird who I have to look up!

Ruby Crowned Kinglet.

Another one I only see during the winter. And it's easy to forget their name when you can't see their Ruby Crown!

Tag: december 2025

As I walked to the Community Garden, the shin splints above my left foot are hurting again.

Arg! I thought it was healing! The other day, when I hauled nine wheelbarrow loads of leaves? And that didn't even bother me hardly at all. But now it's hurting again, and what did I even do yesterday to hurt it? Nothing!

So that's frustrating.

And I need to haul leaves today.

But the shin splints hurt so bad, I have to walk weirdly! Especially when I'm bringing the full wheelbarrow back to the plot... I walk with the heel out. Every time I walk on uneven ground, the pain starts shooting. Heel out seems to hurt less. But pretty much every step with the heavy wheelbarrow, is annoying.

Sighs! I get six loads of leaves done today, but I'm really questioning my life choices here!

I've still got that back left quarter left to cover. But so much is still green and alive. Ususally by now the Borage is looking a lot more pathetic. Even the Nasturtiums, which normally wilt away at the first chilly night! Still alive!

I clean up my tools, I've used two forks and the wheelbarrow, and I take them back to the shed.

Heh, this one thinks he wants to check out the inside of the shed, but I explain that I don't want to trap him in there!

I give him some pets and he forgives me for twarting his curiousity!

These pink beets are in the front of someone's plot, and I walked by them every time I got a new load of leaves. What a cheerful colour!!

Heading home. Oh! Is this someone new?!

I thought that was a stick, but nope... a little minnow.

She swallows poor little fishy down.

And goes looking for the next snack.

At home, I've gotten an email from the Community Garden Director!

The Garden plot has passed the Compliance Check!

Yay! But that's different. Usually we only get an email if we've failed the Compliance Check.

But it's really good to know!

Tag: december 2025

It's cold but the sun is warming things up!

As I walk up to the garden plot... oh my gosh! I think the Elephant Garlics have grown about an inch since I uncovered them from the Borage the other day!!

Ha. How wonderful!

Okay! I am going to weed out the Quack Grass from this corner today...

When I get down to work... Well, sheesh...

These baby Leeks are just lying here? What the heck! How did they get on top of the dirt?? I don't even know what's going on! *laughs*

And then, this is one of the Leek flowers that fell over into the dirt and is now turned into hundreds of Leek sprouts!

I decide to break up the spouts a little and replant them. And of course I put the baby Leeks into the dirt as well.

And You know what? I bet these Leek Sprouts taste AWESOME! I wonder why they don't sell them?!

I mean, alfalfa sprouts are okay... But Leek Spouts would be Next Level!

Anyway, after I moved the sprouts, I got the feeling they weren't going to survive the move. hmm. But I didn't know what else to do to give them life... it would be nice to give them some water to make their roots connect with the soil. But the water has been turned off.

Well. There's another fallen Leek flower over here, with it's own sprouts. I will leave that one alone, and hope it lives thru the winter with it's hundreds!

Okay! I got distracted from my orignal mission. But I did get this corner weeded!

The sun has warmed up the Earth and there's some Honey Bees buzzing the Borage blossoms!

On the way home, the Barred Owl again!!!

There's no one mobbing her, and she's relaxed enough that she's preening!

And again, I don't want to bring attention to her, so I don't stay long. As I walk away, I take one more photo... but haha...

:) oh well.

Tag: december 2025

I'm here at the Garden and the Compliance Checks start today, but the Garden Director isn't here yet. So I'm going to continue clearing this front bit...

I had weeded the Beets a couple days ago, and pulled up the rest of the tall Borage yesterday. I am tiding up the smaller Borages today. There's some Quack Grass to weed out, and I'm going to pull up the Tomatillo.

Here's the After pic...

That patch of green going up the middle is baby Dead Nettles. I love these wildflowers! I just hope they keep going thru the winter.

Here's the Tomatillos I pulled off the plant. And some of the Sunchoke roots... I really need to figure out what I'm going to do with that.

I've left this Avocado Tree, along with the Clover on the left and the Nasturtium which hasn't died yet.

Trees and woody plants are definitely against the rules at the Community Garden. But there's plenty of people breaking that rule. My plan is to dig it up a couple and see if they'll live in a pot.

Here's another Avocado Tree in front of the Strawberry patch.

I'm not sure how many Avo trees I've got, I haven't specifically counted them. But enough to experiment with!

I'm done with work today, and I'm looking around. The left side neighbor, of the crazy family, has done work over the weekend and has covered some of their beds with leaves. It looks good, with their winter crops over on the other side, and some cover crop too.

The right side neighbor, on the other hand, remains a disaster. There's lots of random flowers, but there's various species of grass taking over.

Not to mention the stupid Horse Radish that they've let grow in the back... I regularly dig that up for them, when it starts invading my side. Annoying. I hope they get kicked out but I doubt that will happen.

The diagonal neighbor on the northwest side has these Strawflowers and they are a welcome spot of colour!

It was chilly while I was working at the garden, I kept the rain jacket on for warmth. Maybe it will warm up a little bit this afternoon, if the sun comes out.

Tag: december 2025

Oh no. Your poor feet. I am so so sorry.

I'm coming up to the Community Garden, and I see a Red Shoulder Hawk fly up to one of the trees across the way... Except there's someone already in this tree...

um? My Dear? You are going to get eaten!

Red Shoulder's favorite food is snakes, but they will also eat mice and chipmunks. A squirrel would be a big, but doable, meal.

But they just look at each other for a few moments.

And then the Hawk flies away.

And I go into the Garden.

It's Sunday, and I don't usually like to do work on Sunday. But I've decided to pull out the rest of the Borage in the front of the plot. Just to make it a little more obvious that I'm making the effort, since Compliance Checks start tomorrow.

Looking under the Borage...

More Elephant Garlic!!!

There's a patch here, and a patch there, and another! Yay!

Haha, that one clove above is confused to be upside down!

So that's lovely! It'll be a bumper crop of Elephant Garlic in the spring!

And the front of the plot looks better still.

And I'm totally leaving that Red Amaranth!!

Last year they dinged me on the Amaranths I left in the plot. I wanted to leave the seeds and the perches for the birds, but the Compliance Check said Weeds! and I had to remove them.

I'm hoping I can be bold this time because the right side neighbor has abandoned their plot. It's a weedy mess, and my plot in comparison is pristine! *laughs*

Tag: november 2025

There are quite a few people at the garden today, doing their own winterizing. I really don't feel like talking to anyone, and because I hauled leaves yesterday, today I can just hang out in my plot. Do more clearing and ignore the humans.

I gathered tomato cages and nested them neatly. And I started clearing weeds from the Fallow Area.

I got a decent start...

Plus I had to bury a few volunteer Fava babies... There's quite a few fava beans that had fallen from the plants growing here. Many are several inches tall and well established. But there are a couple sprouting beans just laying on the top of the dirt. I thought they would be more comfortable under the dirt!

But then I realize... with the compliance checks starting on Monday, I REALLY need to clean up the front of the plot!

So I change my focus! There's Borage all along the front of the plot. Borage is allowed by the rules, now, but you can't have any within 1 foot of the border of your plot.

So I pull that. And then weed the beets! And that actually makes the whole plot look a lot better!

Still much to do, but I don't think they can give me any marks down at this point!! I am clearly getting things done, and I am down with most of the important rules.

I feel good about what I've accomplished here today!

This is the solo girl...

I've seen her a few times. It's unusual that she doesn't have a partner. She just hangs out at the edge of Mallard groups.

Closer to home, I had just crossed a street and my brain was complaining bitterly about drivers who don't slow down for pedistrians at the crossing.

And then I saw the Kingfisher!

I was so shocked to see her, I stopped in my tracks!

Ha! Newbie mistake! Her head whipped around and she stared hard at me for a second. And then she flew away.

Foo.

*laughs* Girl needs to warn me she's around, by declaring her territory! Just suddenly showing up isn't working for me.

And, not to depress myself... but...

∞ United States Military Clearly Commits A Crime

And.

∞ Breaking News: If Hegseth Gave an Order to 'Kill Everybody,' He Must Be Removed and Prosecuted

No quarter given.

Military in the Caribean are just damn pirates.

Tag: november 2025

I put these postcards in the mail this morning.

I wrote these to the six Dems who made a video to remind military personell that they swore an oath to the Constitution, and they should refuse to follow illegal orders.

∞ Dems Telling Troops To Disobey Illegal Orders, And Trump's Nazis Are Flipping Their Sh*t

Hell Yeah!

The postcards just say Thank You. Translation:

Dear Senator Mark Kelly and etc.
Than you for reminding our military (and us!) that they took an oath to uphold the constitution and must not obey illegal orders.
It is good to see some democrats fighting against fascism!
Sincerely,
rift v.
Eugene, Oregon, USA

Back to hauling leaves to the garden plot!

The shin splints are getting better... but I may have over done it today. I hauled nine wheelbarrow loads of leaves to the plot!

But look what I found!

A little patch of Elephant Garlic!

I didn't dig any up this year, for whatever reason. I thought about grabbing a couple of these to eat, but they are just so cute with their little green leaf growing!

They will grow thru the winter and I'll get them in the spring!

Tag: november 2025

Today is technically Thanksgiving, but I don't celebrate. So, moving on...

The other day, when I was looking up to see if the red rash around the covid vax injection site was normal, I saw the other side effects and thought to myself, Well, at least it's not itchy.

And today it started itching! haha!

Thru the morning, I could ignore it. But when I jumped in the shower, the water tickled enough that I had to scratch.

And oh my gosh... if I just ignored the minorest pain of the bruise from the shot, if I could just scratch hard? It felt SOOOOO GOOOD!!

*laughs* I mean, really good! And then, about an hour later, it would get itchy again, and I could scratch again.

So this is really not a big deal. But I was thinking about the covid vax... The pharmacy gave me a choice about which vax I wanted. I got Moderna this time, and I'm pretty sure I got Moderna last year as well. Maybe next year I should switch to Pfizer!

I thought the clouds were breaking up this morning, I did see the sun for a bit. But it was misting when I headed out for the garden.

You see this row of pale dots? Those are tree stumps. Some guys have been cutting down the trees, the past week or so!

It makes me sad and mad and I wish I could scream "WHY???!"

The trees were planted, obviously from the measured space between them. Why destroy your ancestors work?

And even stupider? The trees behind them, that they've left? They are all Douglas Firs. The Firs are going to die soon due to climate change. So there's going to be no trees left on that side of the creek. Why would you want that??

humans are so stupid. I just can't stand it.

Still misting when I get to the garden.

But it stops in a few minutes and I'm back to work!

I'm going to move the big trellis out of the way...

And I'm gathering seeds from the Basil!

In my hand, it feels like it's all chaff. But when I look closely, there are a couple seeds in there.

I was careful about the Mystery Plant when I moved the big trellis.

I've asked Google, but it says this is a grape plant! haha! I know that's not right, and I kept looking at a bunch of photos of plants whose leaves look vaguely the same.

And then I gave up, because that's a dumb waste of time!

And then I weeded out the grass along the right border.

That neighbor has basically abandoned their plot and that's Bermuda Grass at the bottom there and it's taking over their plot. Which is a major problem because Bermuda Grass is REALLY tough!

Heading out, and a plot down the aisle from mine has this patch of... Whatever this is, flowering. And there's a bunch of bees being happy about it!

If I can figure out what this one is, I will def plant it next year. Happy Bees, this late in the season is a wonderful thing!

Going home and Oh My Gosh! It's the Barred Owl again!!!!

*laughs* Sleepy!

And for once, she's not being mobbed by anyone today!

That's a nice change! But it makes me want to move on quickly, so I don't bring attention to her.

But she's so cute!

See ya later!

Tag: november 2025

I've still got the red rash around the covid vax on my arm. Still a circle about two inches across.

I've never had this before, for any of the vaxes I've gotten and I wonder if now I will get it for every covid vax I get in the future.

It was sprinkling this morning and I wondered if I should bother going to the garden. I hate to work in the rain!

But the forecast said it was only 50% rain today, and I hoped it would stop before I got there. I packed up the small backpack and headed out. And sure enough, it did stop sprinkling!

I need to clear some space before I haul more leaves, and I get to work around the big trellis.

The Borage I pull up and then throw down. But the Smartweed and bit of Crab Grass I haul to the compost pile.

The Cosmos is still alive, just barely, and I leave that. And I want to see if I can gather some seeds from the Basil and the Goldenrod, so I've left them for now as well.

As I was clearing out the Wax Bean Vines and the Tomatillo from under the trellis, I found some food!

Some of the Tomatillos have been laying in the dirt, but most of them are fine. They keep well, and in general no wildlife likes to munch on them.

The Wax Beans I will put under the fan and see if I can save the seeds for next year. There's just a couple beans there, but that's a couple I won't have to buy!

And I rediscovered the other mystery plant that was growing under the trellis... It's a couple feet tall now!

It was shaded by the Wax Bean vines, so never got to flower or do whatever it was supposed to do. But pretty leaves!

Well. I will need to continue clearing tomorrow. But I'm done for today.

On the way home, I find a little flock of Juncos and Finches bathing in a puddle!

I don't want to disturb them, so I'm a little bit too far away. But they are so cute!

Splish Splash!

And that's a Lesser Goldfinch with the Juncos.

Tag: november 2025

Yay New Year!

I am back from my travelings, where I went to my parents' house and got to be really lazy! *laughs*

So now I'm all fired up about returning to my projects and maybe taking on some new ones!!

Looking over the New Year post of last year, oh yeah... that was the beginning of my Tiny Cleans! This new habit, breaking huge cleaning jobs into tiny, daily tasks which take five minutes or less, has been hugely successful!

I cleaned the plant area in the porch room, and went thru the living room and cleaned up there as well!

I also started organizing the walk-in closet, but that has fizzled... That project was more about decluttering, rather than cleaning, and that takes too much brain power and I eventually just quit.

But I'm really proud of the cleaning that I accomplished!

Moving forward... hmmm. I'm just not sure how to convert the Tiny Clean into decluttering. And decluttering desperately needs to happen. I will have to experiment, to see if anything works!

2025 was also another year of postcard failure. I technically kept up with my GR postcard project, but I was perpetually about a month or more behind. And I have not returned to my Family and Friends postcard lists. And that bums me out.

So I want to organize the GR project differently. And hopefully that will get me going with the Fam and Friends list as well.

Tag: january 2026

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2026

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

The Amnesty International report on Alligator Alcatraz... Yes, it's still open and ...

∞ PoliticsGirl: This is SICK and DISTRESSING
Video is 5m33s, and it's important. Watch it!

The United States with our concentration camps and torture.

We knew it was happening, and now we've got proof.

disgusting.

Liberty and Justice for all?

Tag: december 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

∞ Breaking News: If Hegseth Gave an Order to 'Kill Everybody,' He Must Be Removed and Prosecuted

I have been vaguely following the war crimes the military have been performing in the Caribbean. 80 people murdered by the US Navy so far in 21 incidents.

And now we have proof of war crimes...

Instead of telling Congress that the second strike was designed to finish off wounded survivors, Pentagon officials claimed it was to remove a navigation hazard.

That isn't just spin: it's an attempt to rewrite reality.

The [Washington] Post quotes Todd Huntley, a former Special Operations military lawyer now at Georgetown Law, saying exactly what any first-year law student would immediately recognize: because the United States is not legally at war with drug traffickers, killing the people on that boat amounts to murder.

Even if a war did exist, Huntley notes, the order to kill wounded, unarmed survivors would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which is defined under the Geneva Conventions as a war crime.

This isn't an obscure legal debate. This is basic civilization. Armed states do not execute helpless people in the water.

And yet this is now U.S. policy. The boat strike on September 2 was not a one-off. It was the beginning of a campaign.

It's so horrifying, I just really don't have words. I hate what America has become. I hate that we voted in that rapist bastard. And I hate that no one is standing up for the right thing.

And that's the thing that gets me. Throwing missiles at little random boats, just to kill people? How did the military guys think that was okay?? HOW? And then they doubled down with a second missile to make sure they were all dead. This is literally the TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE of an illegal order!

What is wrong with these people?

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

Tag: november 2025

January 2025

February 2025

March 2025

April 2025

May 2025

June 2025

July 2025

August 2025

September 2025

October 2025

January 2024 (partial)

February 2024

March 2024

April 2024

May 2024

June 2024

July 2024

August 2024

September 2024

October 2024

November 2024

December 2024

February 2023 (partial)

March 2023

April 2023

May 2023 (partial)

June 2023 (partial)

July 2023

August 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

December 2023

So I've looked at a map, and I hope I get around the new Downtown Riverfront Park without getting lost this time. It's closed because they are using it for the World Athletics Championships, which started yesterday and runs until the 25th.

This amazing mural just outside the Rose Garden was finished just in time for the Championships.

And, of course, you can't go by the Rose Garden without obsessively taking photos of the roses.

And then we gotta check the Osprey nest on the other side of the river. There's one child there today, and she takes off ... only to make a loop and come back to the nest.

XXX... Goal: Finish this post!

Tag: xxx 2022

I'm archiving the 2022 posts...

∞ January 2022

∞ February 2022

∞ March 2022
Story of nesting Anna Hummingbird begins here!

∞ April 2022
... And the nesting Hummer story continues here, until the babies fly away in mid-April!

∞ May 2022

∞ June 2022

∞ July 2022

(completed 28 May 2023...)

January thru July 2021 Archive

August 2021 Archive

September 2021 Archive

October 2021 Archive

(No entries for November 2021)

December 2021 Archive

Goal: revisit August 2021... Road Trip to Utah!

And then keep filling in posts from there thru the end of 2021.

Tag: 2021

(completed 27 Dec 2020 thru 5 Jan 2021...)

2020 Archive... January thru July

(posted 21 Apr 2023...)

2020 Archive... Aug thru Dec

GOAL...

Revisit the Aug thru Dec archive page and add photos and clear out the xxx!

Tag: 2020

(Posted 22 Dec 2020...)

The new archive is HTML5, and completely validated!

2019 journal entries

Tag: 2019

(Posted 18 Dec 2020...)

I have managed to move all of the 2018 journal entries into an archive page. I did not write very much in 2018, so I decided not to divide them up into months, like I usually do.

The new archive is HTML5, and completely validated!

2018 journal entries

Tag: 2018

(Posted 19 Dec 2020...)

I have managed to move all of the 2017 journal entries into an archive page. And again, I didn't write very much, so the posts for the entire year are on one page.

The new archive is HTML5, and completely validated!

2017 journal entries

Tag: 2017

Sat, 08 Jul 2023
Partner's Mom passed away
early this morning.