Meandering on the Way — March 26 to April 5, 2026

Thursday, March 26th

E returned from a trip to New York State where she attended a memorial service for her sister-in-law Joanne, who passed away recently. (Obituary here.)

E is grateful for Joanne’s presence in her life. It was E who first introduced Joanne to her future husband. She’s happy that her long-ago attempt at matchmaking led to 58 years of loving marriage.

Saturday, March 28th

We went downtown to Futura for coffee this afternoon and ran across this sign on the corner:

Sunday, March 29th

While we were hiking down at Finley Refuge today, we saw a bear! Black bear sightings are pretty common in Oregon and we’ve even met a few landowners who routinely see them on their trail cams. But neither of us had ever seen one around here, so we were excited. It happened when we were walking west on the Mill Hill trail at a spot where the path traverses a forested hillside. At the base of the hill there is a wetland that consists of densely packed willows and a largish pond. First we heard something moving down below us. When we looked down, we saw the bear sloshing along in the shallows on the far side of the pond. Our first impression was wow, that black bear is really black. A moment or two later the bear stepped up onto solid land and disappeared into the forest.

Another nice part of the hike was seeing all the wildflowers. They’re going crazy about now. Here are just a few.

Monday, March 30th

A busy day today: grocery shopping, gardening…and laundry.

Tuesday, March 31st

We’ve been having nice weather for the last two weeks: some clouds, some sun, highs in the 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s, little or no rain. It’s been great for hiking and working in the garden. But they say that rain is on the way.

Wednesday, April 1st

Bad news today–we were told that the Konditorei, our favorite cake shop, is going out of business. What a disaster! The only bright spot is today’s date.

As predicted, the rain has come, falling steadily all day long.

Like the flowering currant above, many native shrubs are in full bloom these days. Our serviceberry, elderberry, and Oregon grape are also going strong. The last is showy enough to pop out even on a wet day.

And do we have any non-natives? Well, sure: tulips, for example. As far as we could learn, they originated in Central Asia, maybe in Kazakstan. The earliest record of tulip cultivation goes back to Persia (Iran) sometime around the year 1,000.

Irises also came from somewhere else, brought to America by the first European settlers. These are a dwarves.

Easter Sunday, April 5th

Really nice weather–sunny and 70. The Andees came down for Easter dinner. They brought us a lovely bouquet…

…and we gave them eggs. (But they had to go find them in the back yard.)