Monthly Archives: April 2013

Before They Disappear

I see these trees every morning on the drive to school. They’re in the distance, on the downtown side of the Willamette River, and I catch them for a few seconds as I drive 50 miles an hour on the freeway. I’m often running late and a little bit frazzled and sometimes (more often than I’d like to admit) I’m yelling at the kids to stop yelling at each other in the backseat of the minivan. But I always take a moment to look across the river and see if the trees are still in bloom.

When I lived in Japan (many, many years ago) I was surprised to discover that Cherry Blossoms only bloom for two, maybe three, weeks. I suspect that why I love them so much. They appear only fleetingly as a promise of Summer to give those of us in the NW a little hop that the rain will eventually stop and we’ll remember why we live here.

This morning, I could see flecks of green in the trees across the river. If it rains this weekend then I suspect the blossoms will be gone by Monday. Still, despite the anticipated rain and cold, I know that Summer is on the way.

Now With Bigger Photos

A change of season brings a change to the blog. I’ve been longing to post bigger photos on here for a long time so, on a whim, I decided to update the blog template. No more header image, just a clean and simple design that will show my photos the way I want them to be seen (ok, I also want them to be displayed in a gallery somewhere one day but I’m taking baby steps).

I also plan to update the about me and contact pages but they require me to spend a little time finding the right words. Writing doesn’t come easy to me and writing about myself... well, let’s just say it could take a while.

Oh, and I also need to update my portfolio.

I’d better start a list…

In the meantime, I’ll procrastinate by posting a couple of new photos. I took these at Powells last week, otherwise known in our family as the best place to waste a few hours in Portland.

Sunshine, Singalongs and Fog

This past weekend was beautiful in so many ways.

  • The sun came out and made us feel like we’d skipped forward a couple of months and moved straight into Summer.
  • I enjoyed a couple of hours with the girls, singing along with Pink Martini and Storm Large in Downtown Portland. It was a little like one big Karaoke party (for the record, Storm Large would be a fun addition to any Karaoke night)
  • We had a low key Easter morning with a small egg hunt in the house and some banana/Easter Egg Chocolate pancakes for breakfast (Kei is a bit of a pancake savant).
  • We managed to get a LOT of work done in the yard, including the veggie garden (yay!).

The only down side to all of this outdoor activity was the inevitable side effect of spring allergies. Kei looked at me last night and told me I looked all puffy. Nice.

So, while I would love to sit here and write a beautiful long essay about the weekend and all the fun we had, I’m afraid I am finding it difficult to pull my head out of this fog long enough to string more than a couple of sentences together.

Oh, and I took about 3 photos over the entire weekend. I was too busy up to my elbows in fertilizer to risk pulling out the camera. So, instead, I’ll share a couple more photos from my downtown adventure with the boys last week.

Photographs taken in the Pearl Room at Powell’s City of Books.