McMenamins Edgefield Manor - heaven.

WHY is Edgefield Manor in Troutdale, Oregon, heaven? Part of it is the artwork in the building and the ambiance. Thank the McMenamin Brothers for that. Another part: the gardens. Native plants like flowering currant and Oregon grape, dogwood and lilac in bloom, herbs popping up in the garden - rosemary in bloom - and all sorts of other delights. Birds are twittering and swooping past windows on their way to small bird condos scattered here and there.
Today was the Oregon Press Women's 2008 Spring Conference at Edgefield (and a beautiful warm day it was!) and I got invited along as a guest. There were delightful speakers and wonderful women to chat with about writing and lots of other life issues that didn't involve working for a living. (Just living.)
A colleague and I walked the grounds and these photos are just a few of the things we found.
It made me want to start planting things. Maybe not the huge hairy plant, though. It looked as if it delighted in the bog near the Little Red Shed where concerts are held on the lawn. The new red leaves on the established ivy vines will cover this wall before long.





Spring flowers in Oregon are lasting a little longer than usual with our cooler temperatures. That's one of the good things. And if these wooden lounge chairs in front of the ivy-covered building don't make you think you're in the South of France, nothing will! Check the upper left hand corner for an updated number of visitors. No. 2000 will will my art prize. Cheers - femminismo

Walk In The Woods.

ANOTHER great day in the Northwest so the Mister and I decided to check out a little piece of woodland property we have and see what's going on in the springtime forest and which path the creek has taken over the winter.
I made the dumb mistake of wearing capri pants. I know better. I grew up in the woods. It seemed my ankles caught every blackberry vine along the deer trails. And one shin is still tingling from a brush with nettles. Ow, ow, ow!
But we saw so much beauty. Here are some photos of our visit to the woods so you can be a second-hand traveler.
There were yellow johnny jump-ups throughout the woods, pushing their way through the decayed leaves on the forest floor. A flash out of the corner of my eye turned out to be a frog fleeing for its life. It nestled down into a depression in the soft loamy soil and I guess it thought it was "blending." I'll have to look it up to find out what kind of frog it is.

We came to the narrowest part of the stream and jumped over. The Mister jumped first and then found some large rocks to put in the stream to make the leap a little shorter for me. After that we had to walk along this log laden with fungi. (I think that's what it is.) My balance is very poor, due to an inner ear condition, but I had to stop and take this photo to show "I did it."
Then, on any walk in the woods, no matter how carefully you tread, there will always be casualties. This fern frond caught my eye. Either the Mister or I knocked it off and ended its journey toward the sun - and maturity.
We checked the spring at the top of the hill and found these lovely skunk cabbage just beginning to bloom.
It was a great day for walking in the woods. Most of the trees are just beginning to "green" at the very tips - oh, and we found trilliums, too. I almost forgot about that. No ladyslippers - my mother used to ask us to look for those flowers and bring one back so she could plant it - but lots of wild bleeding hearts. I picked just one, and the flowers smell like freshly made flour tortillas! Surprising odor.
I have to include the photo of the trilliums, since I was looking so hard for them. Suddenly we found ourselves on what I now call "Trillium Hill." They were all around us. And I didn't pick one of them. They are much too fragile - few and far between.
I hope you connect with nature soon, too, and that it's finally spring wherever you are. La Nina is expected to give Oregon a cooler spring and warmer, drier summer. We'll see about that.
Next week - art, I promise! - femminismo