Tulip Festing...

(Photo by Solomon)

                                        This is what I get when I ask Sollie to take a picture with me.

Photo by Ben

We took a trip out to the Tulip Festival in Woodburn,Oregon. It was our first time going, but since I am a sucker for road trips and taking pictures I couldn't believe we haven't gone before. I told Ben, "Can you believe we haven't been here before? This seems like the kind of thing I would make us do every year." I have avoided it in the past because of stories from other families that it was one giant mud pit. Well to be honest, we do go the the Dahlia Festival in Canby almost every year..kinda the same thing. The one thing that kind of irritated me from a photographers perspective was that they let people walk in between the rows so it was impossible to get a photo of just the flowers without crowds of people walking through. But I love watching people so it was fun. I don't think I have ever seen so many different cultures of people all in one place, there were people .....and tulips of every color and shape so much diversity so many different languages!
I am glad we waited for a dry weekend, it was crowded, but no mud!
I think we will just have to go back again next year. I might have to make this for Nalah to wear to it.  Like I need an excuse to knit that.

Another Spring Weekend in Portland...

We have been walking around a lot lately. Through the neighborhood on into other less familiar neighborhoods. That is one really fun thing about the city of Portland, each neighborhood is like a smaller town of it's own. I don't own a home, so I like to walk around and look at houses and yards and get ideas for the future, for the someday when hopefully we can have a home of our own, where we can sink roots and feel grounded. 

We have several really hard years financially with several lay offs and lack of work, I wonder if we will ever catch up enough to make a comfortable living here, yet I don't want to have to start over again either. Here is to hoping for good things in the future and for a rainbow after the storm.

We were able to do a little hiking this weekend. Too little for my taste, anyone need a hiking buddy out there?

We also got out to the park. The kids have been kind of sick the past few weeks and it was nice to see them get their energy back. Funny how as parents we get annoyed with our kids when they are hyper and bouncing off the walls,but as soon as they are ill an are lacking in energy we want nothing more than for them to be able to run around like wild animals again.

 

And we did some urban fishing too...

 

Small beauties...

Memories in Lilacs.....

When I was a a young child growing up in Wisconsin and elderly woman named Esther lived next door to my family. Esther had a sister named Stella . I can't remember anymore if they lived together or not, but they were always together in my memory. They would often invite me inside their home and we would play my favorite game, hide and seek. I always hid in the same spot under Esther's bed and they would always pretend they couldn't find me although they knew very well where I was. They would let me try on their perfume and gave me tiny lipstick samples to take home with me. They always had cookies and Popsicles to share with me before I would return home. It didn't matter to me then that they were several decades older then me, they were my dear friends, honorary grandmothers.
They lived alongside and alley way that was separated from the house by a small white fence and an amazing row of lilac bushes.They were enormous to me then, more like trees than bushes, with gnarly trunks that were irresistible to climb. I climbed them all the time, although I don't remember if Esther or Stella minded. The lilac bushes were spectacular there must have been five or six all in a row all with different personalities. Each bush had lilacs of a different color ranging from dark purple to lavender to white and and all the colors of purple you can image in between. They smelled so sweet it almost made your eyes water.
Esther and Stella were only our neighbors for a short time of my childhood. Ester got sick and passed away and Stella moved into a nursing home. I was too young to know the details and it is all a blur in my mind which is for the best because all the memories I have of them are good. My sweet friends.
Lilacs are the flower of my childhood.
Now whenever I walk past a Lilac bush and smell their wild perfume, I am eight years old again in my private grove,perched on a knobby branch picking lilacs for my mama. Without a care in the world.
Someday when my family settles down in a home of our own, I am going to plant two lilac bushes in our yard, and I will name then affectionately and with love, Esther and Stella.

Colors....

One of the things I love the most about Oregon is that it is green year round... almost overwhelmingly so in the wet winter months. I can handle the gray skies when the earth is so vibrantly green and alive...green is, after all, my favorite color...


But it is still so lovely and refreshing in the spring when we can welcome some other colors back into natures palate....














(Daffodil photo by Sophie)



Here is to new beginnings, rebirth, and life!