It’s rainy and cool these days, with nighttime temperatures in the low thirties and highs in the forties.
Tuesday, April 18
E went to her monthly book club meeting. They talked about The Fox and I: an uncommon friendship by Catherine Raven. E liked the book because of the fox, of course, but also because of the author’s knowledge of nature. For next month they’re reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles.
Wednesday, April 19
Today we went into the Cascades for some snowshoeing. It seems late in the year for it, but it’s been cold this year. We went to a place called Lava Lakes, which is just two hours from home and sometimes has hardly any snow at all. But there was plenty today, with quite a bit more falling as we went along. It was nice: fresh snow on the trail and no one else around.
We wandered off the main trail and sat down for lunch…
…which included dessert. Note the crack in one of our cups. They’re from Taco Time but TT doesn’t have them any more. Will we never be able to replace this one?
It was only snowing lightly during lunch; on the way back to the trailhead there was a lot more.
Just before the end, E made an angel.
Thursday, April 20
Back down in the real world, E went walking with N from her book club. They started at the fairgrounds, walked around the base of Bald Hill (which has not been bald for at least 50 years), and then headed east. They did a little of the trail toward Fitton Green before turning back. E says that she got 12,000 steps. Yo.
Friday, April 21
Rain in the morning, easing off at around 10:30. That was about when we started a walk in the OSU forest, our goal being to check on the progress of the fawn lilies. It turns out that progress is slow.
We saw lots that were just getting ready to open…
…but only one that was starting to unfold.
Saturday, April 22
Much warmer weather today, with partly sunny skies and a high near seventy. In our yard, bed #1 is putting on something of a show: the flowering currants are in full bloom, and the dwarf irises have just popped out. The raggedy purple tulips have been out for a while; other tulips are still unfolding.
Sunday, April 23
The warm weather pulls us out into the yard. M is replacing a dying blueberry and rehabbing the area around it. E is dealing with grass incursions in her succulent bed in the back yard just outside our window. In the front she is expanding the range of her thyme. She has also been stocking the squirrel feeder with peanuts, mostly because she wants to keep the squirrels away from the bird feeder.
The feeder works pretty well. When the squirrel steps down onto the lower board, it pushes the roof board up, allowing access to the cupboard. Birds don’t weigh enough to make it work. It drives the bluejays crazy. They can see the nuts through the glass, but it’s really hard for them to get the top to open.
Also this week, some very sad news from Spain. E’s dear friend Margie passed away on Thursday. She took a big chunk of E’s heart with her, but we are grateful to have had a last visit with her this winter.
We’re thinking of going to stay overnight on the coast. We’d go over in the afternoon, stay the night, and then hike on the following day before heading home. For some reason, it seemed best to do it on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was supposed to be very rainy, but Tuesday was supposed to be only moderately rainy. That should work.
Monday, April 10
As predicted, it’s really rainy today. And…the forecast has changed. It now calls for lots of rain tomorrow also. Oh well, we’re committed now.
We stayed at the Adobe resort in Yachats. We ate dinner in their dining room, which sits on a low cliff just a few yards from where the waves are crashing against the nearest rocks. Lots of big windows give a panoramic view of the ocean, up and down the coast. Will those few yards of rock and earth eventually wear away and the Adobe dining room fall into the sea? Maybe. But maybe not for a while. The food was very good, but expensive. We paid more for dinner than for our room.
Tuesday, April 11
Woke up at 7:00 and it was pouring down rain. By the time we got breakfast the sun was out. Huh? It stayed mostly sunny all day. So much for forecasts.
Our hike was in the Sutton Recreation Area, about 40 minutes south of Yachats, almost to Florence. To get there we drove south down Highway 101. For most of the way the highway runs very near the rugged coast and the views are spectacular. But then, about ten miles north of the town of Florence the highway drifts southeast away from the shore and runs inland. On the satellite image below, Highways 101 is the prominent blue line that goes up and down through the right half of the picture. Our hike began at the end of Sutton Beach Road, the smaller road that runs up closer to the beach.
The land between the beach and the highway consists of ancient sand dunes that have been mostly–but not entirely–colonized by what is now a forest ecosystem.
The size of some of the trees shows that plants have been growing out of these dunes for a long time.
The hiking trail was a four and a half mile loop. The first part of the trail passed through dense vegetation along the banks of Sutton Creek. Then, at about the two and a half mile mark, the trail crossed into the mostly empty Sutton Creek Campground. We found ourselves a table and had a leisurely lunch. On the return leg the trail moved up to higher ground and crossed a large sandy area where the plant kingdom has not got much of a foothold. At least not yet. We were lucky with the weather and the whole length of the route was soft underfoot. A lovely hike.
Wednesday, April 12
E had a HEPAJ meeting today. They had lunch at a restaurant that everyone calls the Australian meat pie place. That name annoys E and before she went she called them to see if they had anything in the way of pies that weren’t meat filled. As it turned out, they did, and E enjoyed a nice vegetable korma pie.
Meanwhile, M took his truck in to the Nissan dealer to deal with a recall. At issue was a possibly malfunctioning parking pawl. A parking pawl is what prevents an automatic transmission vehicle from moving when you put it in Park. If the pawl does not engage properly, the car can just roll, roll, roll away, gently down the street. In the photo below the pawl is engaged. The driveshaft cannot rotate and thus the car’s wheels are not able to turn. As soon as a car is shifted out of Park, the pawl is pulled back and the shaft is free to turn. The part in the lower right corner is called the hand. Although not many people know this, there is actually a person inside your automatic transmission who uses a finger to move the pawl in and out. The work is stressful and it is not surprising that occasionally an intervention is required.
Thursay, April 13
Tertulia today with J and R, who have just returned from a tour around the Rhône region of France. They had a few days in Lyon, just a week or two after we did. They too had some troubles with disruptions due to protests over the issue of raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64. Harumph.
E had two classes today–Laughter Yoga and Better Bones. M had no classes at all.
Friday, April 14
E needs a new wallet and wants it to be exactly like the old one. So off she went down to Eugene Leatherworks and ordered herself one. She’ll get the same color, size, shape and features as the old one, with a few little upgrades. It’s promised by August. Here’s the old one and the planned materials for its replacement.
:
E returned from Eugene in time for a meeting of the Lemon Meringue Pie Society. They met at A’s house, with E, H, T and L in attendance. The pie was delicious and a good time was had by all.
But the events of the day were not over. In the late afternoon a package arrived. Here’s what it contained–the newest member of our household.
Saturday, April 15
Nice day–mid fifties and lightly overcast. Also, chocolate croissants for breakfast! Then a hike in the OSU forest to check on the wildflowers. There were lots of trilliums around, but many were turning pink and drooping. The height of their season has passed. The fawn lily blossoms, on the other hand, have not quite arrived. We’ll need to check next week.
What we noticed most today were the yellow violets.
Sunday, April 16
M went out trucking in the rain today, messing around in the Coast Range, where there isn’t any snow. The plan was to go west on Hwy 20 to Burnt Woods, then south to Harlan, then farther south across the mountains to connect with the Falls Creek road and finally come out on Hwy 34 near the fish hatchery sign. It didn’t work out though. M came out onto 34 okay, but had drifted too far east to even come close to Falls Creek. Must try again sometime.
Harlan is more of a crossroads than a town, but the area is very pretty.
M’s route is up out of the valley into the mountains. The road goes on and on through a whole bunch of trees, which is somewhat monotonous. Also rainy.
Clear cuts make for a change of scenery.
And very occasionally, there’s a lake. M found this one high up in the middle of nowhere. Strange looking stubs in the water. Anyone know why are they’re shaped that way?
For our last few days in Spain we stayed with Lesley and Marciano at their house in Rivas. Lúa, Ke, and Buddy reside at the same address.
Lesley invited some of E’s old friends to lunch today, giving us a chance to see them one more time before we leave. The temperature was around 70, nice enough for a dinner outside. Lesley outdid herself with a multi-course banquet: fondue in a bread bowl, mushroom soup, Chinese vegetable salad, followed by the choice of salmon or cod in hollandaise. Then came two awesome desserts: brownies with a thick coconut topping–contributed by Margo–and Lesley’s fresh fruit pieces in port wine sauce over blueberry ice cream. Wow.
It was a shame that we only had half an hour to rush through this meal; we really should’ve planned better…Nah. Just kidding. We gave this meal the time it deserved–more than three hours.
Wondering about all those initials? Left to right: Paco, Margo, Marga, Lesley, Marciano and E. Photo by M.
Sunday March 26
We went to downtown Madrid today for some last minute details, including half a kilo of magical powder:
Monday March 27
Another nice day. We went for a walk through an old olive grove, and later on we grilled some halloumi cheese to help with the midday meal. Also, of course, we packed up the suitcases. We are really tired of packing.
Tuesday March 28
Marciano and Lesley got up early and got us to the airport by 4:00 AM so we could catch our 6:00 AM flight. Heroes both of them! By 8:30 we were in Amsterdam and by 10:30 we were on our way to Portland. The bad news was that our plane’s in-flight entertainment and wi-fi were both down. You can imagine the groans that greeted that announcement. In other areas the Delta/KLM service was wonderful, including the main meal, which was very tasty and healthy too.
We finally got back to our little house at around 4:00 PM, 21 hours door to door.
Wednesday March 29
When we arrived yesterday, Oregon seemed cold and damp; but the sun came out today, long enough to dry out the long grass in the back yard. M took the opportunity to break out the mower and go on the attack. Inside the house, both of us got back onto our computers as soon as we could. Besides being really tired of suitcases, we were super tired of small screens.
E took a walk and was happy to come across a new friend from the animal kingdom.
Thursday March 30
Cloudy today, but not raining. In the morning we worked on our taxes. In the afternoon we did some weeding and cleaning up outside. Jet lag is making us feel sluggish. We woke up at 3:00 AM wondering if it was time for breakfast.
Today marks the 4th wedding anniversary for the ANDEES. E sent them a gift of flowers, since an internet source said that flowers or fruit were the appropriate gift to signify the deeper blossoming and ripening of the relationship.
Friday March 31
Progress on the jet lag front: this morning we didn’t wake up till 4:00 AM. In the afternoon we took a forest walk and saw lots of Trillium and a few tiny yellow violets. Also we saw that the Indian plum is leafing out. It’s always the first. When we got home, we took a closer look at our two Indian plums, and sure enough, they have new leaves too–and blossoms.
We are reminded once again that spring starts early here but then seems to proceed very slowly. Besides the not very showy Indian plum blossoms, we have a few nice hyacinths and some long rows of daffodils, but these all look a little forlorn since so much else is just barely getting started and there’s a lot of brown around. It doesn’t help that the weather has turned dark and rainy and is predicted to stay that way for the next week or so. Of course there are buds everywhere and new red leaves have appeared on the roses. If we look closely we can see that the flowering currant is on the verge of flowering and that the forsythias are about to turn yellow.
Saturday April 1
It’s nice to be home of course. It’s comfortable and there’s an easing of tension. Certainly there is tension involved in traveling, especially when you’re older. But we kind of got used to it and now we miss it–at least a little. Today we were trying to figure out something about our finances and had to go over our credit card transactions for the last couple of months. It was so exciting to see all the transactions from the trip. Look, there’s the Senator Hotel. Remember that? And what was the Hungry Grill? Must have been in an airport. What was the 62 dollars at Puerta del Sol? Was it the purse? Remember the purse quest? Etc.
Our Visa cards are issued by our credit union. We used them a lot, but we were always a little nervous because they didn’t always work. E ended up calling the credit union twice to try and get them working again. This helped some but did not solve the problem completely. On our unexpected descent into the Lyon subway system, for example, we found that the ticket machines didn’t like our cards. The machines took cash, so it wasn’t a serious problem, but it was disconcerting. Has anyone else experienced such issues with credit cards in Europe?
One thing that worked well was Apple Pay/Apple Card. It was especially handy when used in combination with the Trainline app on the iPhone. Trainline makes it easy to arrange train travel in Europe. You just enter where you’re traveling from, where you want to go, and the date you want to travel. You then push a button and it gives you all the different train types along with all the possible departure and arrival times and all the prices. You choose what you want and then pay for the tickets by choosing Apple Pay and pressing one button on the phone. Then you’re done. Trainline sends you an e-ticket that you can show to the conductor when the time comes.
Of course Trainline is not that easy the first time you use it, because at that point you have to input all your basic information: name, address, email, age, passport number for everyone you are buying a ticket for. You can also enter any discounts you may qualify for. In our case, we got a Dorada (golden) card from the Spanish rail system, which provided a 40% senior discount on long distance tickets. Other EU countries honor the Spanish discount and Trainline remembers it all. Using Trainline costs $5.00 per ticket, but it’s worth it. (It should be noted that Trainline is not idiot proof, as M demonstrated on our trip to Granada, but we won’t go into that.)
Sunday April 2
Damp, gray, calm. There’s a bit more yellow on the forsythias.
