Don't trust the Groundhog....

This daffodil bloomed in front of my neighbors house several days ago...in January!!There are crocuses sprouting up everywhere. Portland is officially giving the Groundhog the bird.

Making friends....

Nalah and I got out for a bit on Friday morning and went to visit our duck friends at the Rhododendron Garden. It was a nice little Valentine's day date with my smallest buddy.

We are kindred spirits in our love for animals so we both enjoy getting out in nature to visit our animal friends. Duck, goose, squirrel, any animal will do.

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...

 

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!

rainbow!

WE spotted a beauty yesterday evening. I consider April to be the best month for rainbows here in Oregon. A few years back we saw 4 in one day, it was awesome. Here is the view from our living room window.

Dinnielynies

This is what my buddy calls his favorite flower or "fowry".......... dinnielynie.
I love being a mama.

Celebrating Spring!

It was a glorious first day of spring! We hiked up to the park as a family and brought a picnic lunch. We spent a good part of the day lazing about under this beautiful tree, watching the bees and butterflies do their thing. I think they were celebrating too....

I squeezed a little knitting in too....

Wrote secret codes....

received precious gifts...

watched them explore...

and loved them....

so very much.

On this beautiful day.

Happy First Day of Spring!

Small Beauties

Today was so beautiful (weather-wise) that I though I would bring my camera along on our daily hike. There are signs of spring everywhere.(Did you notice the flower in my banner has an aura?) We found our first dandelion and I was thrilled to see that bee happily at work, and in February! Where I grew up February has a very bad reputation, my birthday is in February, so I think I took the criticism a little too personally as a kid.
It was sunny and so warm, the birds were happily singing and jumping in puddles. Everything was so hopeful, I really needed today.