Project 365 Day 59

Unusual Beach Weather

It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes the weather at the Oregon coast is unbelievable. Take this day....okay, not today, but the day early in February when I went to Cannon Beach and the skies were blue, the winds were almost non-existent, and it was warmer than usual. I had an opportunity to have a wonderful lunch at Pizza a Fetta followed by a great mocha at Bella Espresso.

Square Deal Wine

Recently while on a search for my Photo Of The Day my friend Bev and I went to the Pearl District. Among the charming places we found was the Square Deal Wine Company. They were nice enough to let us photograph there for a little while, and I got some fabulous images I thought I would share.

Project 365 Day 58

Project 365 Day 57

Primroses

I have a long history with primroses...going way back to my 8th birthday when I got a book named Polly of Primrose Hill from my friend Steven (it even says From Steven XXX on the dedication page). For a very long time it was my favorite book, and I didn’t even know what a primrose was. I recently looked it up on Amazon, by the way, and you can still order a copy...they have a used copy for $96.07 -HOLY COW! Didn’t know Steven thought so much of me. Oh yeah...anyway...primroses...I grew up in the military. We very often lived in base housing. One of the things about base housing was you couldn’t really personalize it. If you put in a nice garden, and then left a year later and the family that moved in next didn’t know how to garden (or didn’t want to), it just looked horrible...and that wasn’tallowed. So I didn’t learn anything about how to put in flowers and landscaping until I had my own home. Actually my second home (the first one I was way too busy with work and then 3 in diapers to think about any flowers other than the ones that would be blooming over my head if I didn’t survive twins and the terrible twos...another story). But when we moved the two blocks to our new home (didn’t want my kids to have to change schools like I did in the military, so we didn’t go far), I figured it was going to be my time to bloom, so to speak. Some things got planted right away (early Summer) and I had a little list of plants that would get planted later. Primroses were on that list, and when I went to the grocery store one day, there they were. Calling my name. Little colorful flowers came home with me, and I was so excited. Planted them...and within two days they were buried under six inches of snow with a layer of ice on top of that. The next year it snowed again, and the following year it hailed on my head as I planted them. So I stopped planting them, for years. Got brave this year. Note the snow on their beautiful petals. I now know I can affect the weather. Next year? If you see primroses at my house, know that I bought silk ones this year at the craft store when they were 50% off.

Project 365 Day 56

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Project 365 Day 54

Nothing says Spring like Peeps...

The Color Purple

I wanted to have nice bright colors for my photos this week, but I’ve lived in Oregon long enough to know that I’m not always going to have a dry enough day to get out and find the color I want, so I planned ahead. Peeps. You know. The totally nothing natural food that comes out around Easter and is known for their equally unnatural color. Neon yellow and pink. And this nice purple. Well, I bought double boxes of all colors and figured I would use them when the day was rainy and I needed an infusion of color. I didn’t have to wait long. Had my antique silver plate ready to go, but couldn’t make the little birdies fit right. Square hole in a round peg, because they come attached in a row when you pull them out of their little box. So I pulled a couple off the ends of some of the rows of Peeps so I could crowd them around into a circular shape. Didn’t work. They just wouldn’t lay right, and now they didn’t look right either because you could see the marshmallowey goodness where I had separated them. So, I ate the little orphans that I had created and thought about it a little longer. Cram them together and just shoot from above. Sounded good, but the light was horrible that way, so I propped up the plate and tried to hold the little Peeps in place, because with all that sugary coating on them, they slide pretty good. Hard to do when one hand is holding a camera and I can’t get my fingers out of the way. So, here’s my shot. I sent it to a girlfriend and asked what she thought. She said I was expecting yellow and pink. What happened? Well, I just don’t know. Those little Peeps just kept popping into my mouth until all I had left was this little row of pastel purple ones. I don’t know what happened. All I know is that now I have one incredible belly ache. I’m thinking I should go to bed, when I realize I’ve got a pretty good sugar buzz going. Not wanting to waste the buzz on such a cold rainy day, I decide to just lay on the couch and enjoy it. Remembering of course to put one foot on the floor to stop the world from spinning.

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Project 365 Day 49

And Exhale

Fortunately, most of our lives the automatic systems our body has in place run without our having to think about them. Take breathing. We breathe without notice, without conscious thought or effort (unless we are exercising...not in itself something I would personally consider natural anyway...). It is truly an automatic reflex. I do not, however, believe that the flame inside me that is my spirit, my soul, is fed by automatic breathing. I think that sometimes it is reduced to a small ember, and blowing on it gently is the only way to keep it alive. A dear friend is right now, at this moment, sitting in a coutroom at her daughter’s murder trial. There is nothing I can do to help her. There is nothing I can do to protect her from the things she is going to see and hear. There is nothing I can do to take any of this away. There is nothing I can do to bring back her daughter. I can only hug her and remind her that she must inhale...and exhale. I cannot cup my hands around her flickering ember and blow gently so it does not go out. I can only try to convince her that it is important that it does not go out. And then, because I feel I am dying with her, I have to remind myself...To breathe...

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This is NOT Mexico

And I say that more as a reminder to myself than anything else. You know when you fall asleep on the couch when you’re watching soap operas or the Sci-Fi channel (pretty much the same thing) and you wake up startled and you don’t know what day or time it is and you’re afraid you may have been abducted by aliens and now you are suffering from the lost time syndrome that they talk about? Well, that’s kind of how I feel right now. You see it’s my 31st anniversary, and we’ve been going to Mexico for years now around the time of our anniversary. Works out great - it’s cold and rainy here and hot and sunny there. The only problem being that I’ve developed an allergy to UV rays. You know...The Sun. Now some people would say it’s because I don’t see enough sun here in Oregon. And other people would say it’s payback for all the extra rays I stole by using baby oil for tanning in the 70’s, which I probably didn’t really need to do. I have my mother’s olive complexion. We’re not real sure where that came from. Her heritage is mostly English and Dutch. It would appear there was a Neopolitan fisherman swimming in the dna pool somewhere. (I first heard that - Neopolitan fisherman - on an episode of Perry Mason and thought they were talking about a fisherman that sold ice cream out of his boat. Did I mention I was young at the time?) Anyway, this year we are just going to crank the heat up in the house to 85, put on shorts and salsa music, sip margaritas and watch the rain. Or snow.

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Project 365 Day 38

Majestic Mount Hood

Cannon Beach

This was one of those days that you dream about in Oregon. When you go to the beach here, you are almost guaranteed cool if not cold temperatures and a wind. That's in the summer. In the winter people go to the beach to watch the storms. To go there in February and be given a warm day with no wind is truly a gift.

Went with my friend Bev to see if I couldn't grab an interesting photo for my Project 365. It was so much fun! And we had a great lunch at Pizza a fetta, grabbed a decadent mocha at Bella Espresso , enough fresh salt water taffy at Bruce's Candy Kitchen to get home on - and then, to top it off - I was treated to an incredible photo op - a seagull that provided me with an Abbey Road image for my photo of the day.

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Project 365 Day 35

Not Quite Abbey Road...Cannon Beach, Oregon

Little Darlin’...

I first heard The Beatles when I moved to England in late 1963. The first record I ever had that was not made for children (you know...I’m a Little Teapot and the like) was She Loves You. Yeah...I was hooked early. Paul McCartney was my first crush, if you don’t count the boy who dressed up as Zorro for Halloween when I was in pre-school (I don’t remember his name - how serious could it have been), or Curtis in 2nd grade (and I DO remember his last name, but will keep it to myself, because it’s a really small world). When we left England a couple of years later, my best friend’s name was, you guessed it, Michelle. Drove me nuts to hear Paul sing her name. Sigh. That was a really long time ago. Cut to 2009 -- an unusually dry, warm and windless day on the northern Oregon coast. The absolute trifecta of impossibilities this time of year. A girlfriend and I had made a quick trip there in my pursuit of my photo of the day #35. Lots of photos, a nice lunch, we’re ready to leave and I’m still not sure if I have the shot - and lo and behold - there is a seagull channeling The Beatles - crossing back and forth on the crosswalk long enough for me to go to Abbey Road. Thank you, George Harrison, wherever you are. Because it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter. Here comes the sun...

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Project 365 Day 33

Superbowl 2009

Since we aren't what you would consider big pro football fans, we look at the Superbowl as a time to throw a party in order to sit and watch very expensive commercials. Some - really funny. And then some others - not so.

And some in 3D! Everything old is new again.