Neno Award

Terry over at www.ladylibertypatriot.com awarded me this very special award - Neno's Award! I am deeply honored and humbled, Terry. Hugs to you, and Happy Trails.

About the Neno Award ...
The award is given to those who love blogging
and love to encourage friendships through blogging
and to help others seek the reasons
why we all love blogging.

I would like to nominate the following five blogs
to also receive this beautiful award.

The only problem is ... I couldn't stop with five!
I wanted to keep going and going ... saying thank you to
All of the many souls who inspire me, who offer such kind words,
Who grace blogland with their awesome talents.
I can't list them all ... so I will start with:

Jann at 13thornyroses.blogspot.com and foreverjann.blogspot.com.

Jann, You inspire me with your posts ... I don't know how you do it, but you always find the most amazing quotes and pictures! And you are a very talented artist to boot.

Pearmama at Hello World.

Whenever my world is blah, all I have to do is hop on over to your wonderful blog and know that I will laugh until I wet my pants ... and feel better all day long. After I change clothes, of course. Thank you for the honesty you put into your posts, and for sharing the amazing humor you see in your world.

Mekeel McBride at Listening to the River.

I appreciate your beautiful photographs ... your wonderful posts. Except the slug one. Yech, I can't stand those things! Tee hee. Your post on letting go helped me with some letters (and old heartbreak) I am going to burn as well. Thank you.

Nina P. at Nina P's Thoughts and Musings.

Nina P. what can I say? Your beautiful poems and musings have made me cry (a GOOD thing!), made me think, made me re-evaluate who I am. I look forward to reading your posts, because I know I'm going to be touched in some way.

Cheryl at Nostalgia: Today and Yesterday.

I love the way you view the world, Cheryl! It's so fun to know someone who sees things other people don't ... and then points them out for the rest of us to say "Oh, yeah, I see it now"!!!

Deann at The Painted Garden and Grannie Annie's Place.

Deann, you make me smile, you make me laugh, you make me glad that we are sisters-of-different-parents. Your comments humble and inspire me. Thank you for being you.

Beth at Beth Niquette Fine Art

Sissie, I couldn't forget you! You encouraged me to start blogging, and have been my biggest fan. Your talents are amazingly awesome, yet you find the time and grace to comment on each and every post I submit. You make me glad that we are sisters-of-the-same-parents. :}

Peterson Rock Gardens, Redmond, Oregon

I found this old picture in amongst my old papers I was going through. I was in high school when my sister and I, and our very good friend Annette took a "ROAD TRIP" to central Oregon. We had so much fun!

We stopped at a small town in central Oregon, and found a tiny, privately owned rock garden, put together by the Peterson family of Redmond. I remember rock paths, rock fountains, rock bridges over ponds lined with rocks ... and teaming with huge goldfish and beautiful waterlilies.

Now look closely at the picture. Do you see something that is NOT a rock? Did you notice it at first? Quack! Quack!

Garden Guardian

Around our house, you never know what you will find. Here is a whimsical guardian of the garden, happily rooting around looking for treasure. Isn't he adorable?

Just Another Plain Old Rock --- RIGHT!

While visiting sissie, I found this beautiful rock in her garden. Little did she know she was harboring an awesome SEASCAPE in amongst her herbs and flowers. Click on the picture to enlarge and you will see what I mean.

Dear Christian ...

In fit of "what was I thinking???", I was attempting to go through my papers, burning those that needed burning and filing the rest. Yeah right!

I found a poem I wrote many years ago, during a time in my life when I was doing some harsh soul-searching. My decision at that time was to let God help me out, and I have never regretted it.

This poem is a reminder to us all, MYSELF included, that we are watched and judged -- fairly or not -- on our choices, our decisions, and our actions.




Dear Christian,
I saw you today. You were driving that big red truck - you know, the one with the fish and the "I Love Jesus" bumper sticker. I didn't mean to make you angry by going so slow, but you didn't need to cut me off like that. Oh, and was that a one-fingered salute you gave me?

Dear Christian,
I saw you today, driving by the church. You were all over the road. Was that a beer can you flung into the parking lot?

Dear Christian,
I saw you today on the bus. You were so animated - telling your friend about someone elses private problems. It's not gossip, it's a "prayer request", right?

Dear Christian,
I saw you today. You were in the grocery store, screaming at your kids. I'm sure you didn't mean to clip my heel with your cart, but you could have apologized instead of calling me that word.

Dear Christian,
I saw you today. It doesn't matter that yesterday you were walking in the footsteps of Jesus, or that tomorrow will bring repentance and forgiveness. Dear Christian, I saw you TODAY.

A Wild Party

After a night of wild partying, Sparkie didn't have far to look for his missing hat ...

A Critter Kind of Weekend - Wings!

The dragonfly and the moth. Two beautiful creatures I was lucky enough to photograph on the same day! The dragonfly flitted away in an instant. The moth sat on our front window for a day! I have never seen a moth this big here ... his wing span was easily 6". I'm glad he came to visit our house.

A Critter Kind of Weekend - Spiders!

Are they fighting? Or romancing? Either way, when I checked later on, only one was left standing, er, hanging ...

I saw this spider when I was attempting to take some close-up pictures with my new-to-me camera. He looked like he was crouched down waiting for me to get close enough so he could JUMP on me!!!

Of Clouds and Butterflies

A rather eerie cloud face was watching me. But I didn't care, because I was chasing an elusive butterfly up and down the road, until he finally got tired and sat for his portrait.

Early Summer Walk in the Woods

My brother had a very unique sense of humor ... we found this old street sign posted to a fir tree in the middle of the woods one day -- next to the trail that has very nearly grown over with, yes, you guessed it -- poison oak!!!

Splashes of red show up against the summertime green. Red elderberry are ripe. The more common blue ones won't be ready until fall.

So what happens when you wear a white dress to a yellow dress party?
You sure stand out in the crowd!!!

Another Puddle Reflection

Yesterday started out cloudy.
Then the sun started peeking out,
Warming the air.
Soon this puddle will be gone.
Leaving just mud.
And the reflection of the sun behind the trees will have to wait for another rainy day.

Oh Deer!

A simple daisy framed by grass ...
Becomes a beautiful picture.

Look at these grassy jewels!

A dandelion starburst!

Watching a deer watching me watch the deer watching me ...
In the misty morning after the rain.

Yard Sale Adventure

I got to drive down to Independence Friday and yesterday to sissie Beth's house (By the way - today is her birthday!!! - Happy Birthday Sissie!) with a car load of junk ... we were having a yard sale! The weather was perfect, and an air show was even staged in our honor!

It rained a little overnight Friday night and I found this heart on a chair Saturday morning! Some of our customers weren't quite sure what to make of us when we would suddenly stop the sale and run off to take pictures of clouds. Or a chair. Or .....

That fat "raindrop" that landed in my hair, out of a clear blue sky ... a flock of swallows wheeling overhead. Uh sissie, that wasn't a raindrop, was it!?!

Thank you, sissie and family for a wonderful 2 days of fun, adventure, a little pocket change, and loads of laughter! I can't wait to do it again! Next time I'll bring a hat!!!

Orange

I don't often see orange in the forest.
Except late spring.
When the wild roses start budding.
And this beautiful color sometimes appears.
On stems and leaves of the rose bushes.
I believe it is some kind of fungus.
Nasty sounding word, fungus.
Makes me cringe.
And want to wash my hands.
Repeatedly.

But the color is beautiful.

Ghost Owl Meets Broken Camera

My camera is on the fritz, taking some clear pictures and some randomly weird ones. I was walking into the sanctuary of the abandoned church when - Whoosh! I ducked and watched as the resident barn owl swooped just feet from my head! Of all the times to have a broken camera! I snapped a picture, hoping it would turn out. And caught the ghost owl, winging his way toward the broken windows and freedom.

Phoenix Roses

Nestled amidst the overgrown grasses and weeds of a once-beautiful garden, there peeks a splash of red. This rose has survived -- and flourished!

The gazebo once was a scene of beauty. Weddings were performed here. Gandhi sat here and meditated. Music groups performed nearby. Now the gazebo is silent and empty, graced only by a few roses that dare to defy the thorns of the blackberry bushes that are slowly taking over.

Dammasch Dump

Dammasch State Hospital was a psychiatric facility constructed by the state of Oregon in the 1960's, closed down, reportedly haunted, and abandoned in the 1980's, then demolished in the early 2000's to make room for another form of insanity -- high density housing. This modern "urban village" is surrounded by "greenspace" and wetlands.

As a child, we used to watch as truckloads of partially incinerated and other garbage trundled from the hospital, over a back road to the edge of the property, through what is now greenspace, to deposit their loads into what we call "The Dammasch Dump" - down a ravine into the creek below.

Over the years, this area has grown over, but the occasional odd item is washed out of the hillside and down into the creek below.

I walked down to the Dammasch Dump yesterday. Sometime I will go back, maybe with a shovel, to search for more interesting trash (treasure?) to share.

Thursday's Thunderstorm

The calm before the storm - but not for long!

Safe in the crook of the massive oak tree, they watched the storm in all its fury.

Afterward, the jewels came out to play.

Pin Jacket - 30 plus years in the making

I got my first pin as an award when I was 16 ... for taking shorthand at 90 WPM. Ever since, I have been collecting all kinds of pins. Being a military spouse helped, since all of their tags and awards are pins held on with "dang-its" (so named because they fall down and you step on them and yell ...). The only problem is the jacket already weighs around 10 pounds!

Clackamette Park

Oregon's Willamette River, 187 miles in length, runs north through the Willamette Valley. We often stop at this park in Oregon City where the Clackamas and Willamette rivers meet (hence the clever park name of "Clackamette"), drawing fishermen/women from all over in the spring and fall. During the summer, though, the river belongs to picnics, swimming, boaters, rafters, thrill seekers, sun lovers and heat escapers.

On this day, who could resist the draw of the river reflecting the lowering sun, the glorylight spilling from the clouds ... I couldn't!



Bottoms up!

Sidekicked Sidekick

When I saw the side of this car I knew I had to take a photo. A few minutes later the owner came running out of the building, looked at me like I was a stalker, jumped in her car and screeched away. Poor lady, little did she know she made my day with her Sidekick that had been sidekicked!