Our Summer and Fall

When we returned from our travels early this summer, our yard, once again became a priority.

Ground cover had grown between the steps that our son Brent had placed two years ago, and his plantings began to stabilize the hill, mountain goat-steep, to the west of our house.  There is no way the photo shows this steepness.  Come visit and walk it yourself.  

We did, however, have a few things working against us.  One night this was a beautiful, thick bunch of chrysanthemums.  The next morning, we discovered that we had fed the deer.  Still, if this is what we have to endure to enjoy their wanderings back and forth through our area, it is a small price to pay.

 We had been worried about erosion on the east side of our house, so we decided to put in a series of retaining walls to stabilize the area.  Brent had put the steps the year before.  Here, Ted has completed the lowest wall, and partially completed the second.

 The walls have been completed and the side yard partially planted.  Ted is air-layering cuttings

for use here in 2013.

We see a lot of the surrounding landscape from our decks, but sometimes our view is impaired.  This summer, that happened a lot.  Mount Hood is almost completely obscured by smoke.  While we had our share of fires, this smoke was blown across the Pacific from fires in Mongolia and Siberia.

 It did, however, make for some spectacular sunsets.

 As I said, we do have our share of fires.  This one was in a wildlife preserve below us.

 It burned through the night and well into the next day.

We did have lots of other distractions.  Here, the mighty 4449 Pacific Daylight, steams, a few hundred feet, below our house and into the Gorge as she had so many times has in years past.  This engine, painted Red, White and Blue, pulled the Freedom Train through every state in the lower 48 in 1976.

 We also got to watch our grandson, Tyler, play baseball and football.  Here, he eludes that last tackler before the end zone.  This was one of three touchdowns he scored this day.

 Soon enough, fall set in again and we were privileged to see Mt. Hood once again covered with snow.

 We love our days when we can see forever from our back deck, but those of us who love the Pacific Northwest begin to get a little antsy when summer turns into fall and we still have blue skies.  Winter has its own type of beauty.  Here the sun gleams through a hole in the clouds and glints off the Columbia River at the entry to the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area.

Turning to the west, we see the evening begin to fall.

The lights begin to turn on in Gresham, an eastern suburb of Portland, Oregon announcing the start of our evening city lights display.

As the sun falls below the horizon, the sky seems to be on fire. The steam in the foreground is from Georgia Pacific, the paper mill, that made our little neck of the woods what it is today. The local high school calls itself "The Papermakers".  That is how important this industry is to our economy.

We love the Pacific Northwest, but as the winter begins to set in, our thoughts once again begin to turn south as we prepare for another winter in the desert Southwest.