...and then there's always South Park

Ah, the wonders of the internets!

I think I might love this man

Taking in the Tulips

Up early on this beautiful spring sunny day, plans to get out of Dodge. Somewhere. Not too strenuous. Cynthia had never been out to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm outside of the town of Woodburn an hour South of Portland if one takes the more scenic Hwy 99 East route.  We did.

I've been going out to this tulip field for years, on and off since the 80's.  It used to be just a tulip (and daffodil) farm.  They sold bulbs by mail order - and now on the internet - and let folks into their fields to enjoy the blooms while in season.  Now it's a complete festival with rides for the kiddies, craft and food booths and this weekend a wine tasting festival in the display garden.  A real money making enterprise with corporate sponsors and you can't blame 'em for turning a profit. Luckily we got there before the road in was completely jammed, but the parking lot was already pretty full at 10:30 on a Sunday.

Back in the day, if you went during the week you could have the place pretty much to yourself. Especially if it was a typical Northwest Spring Day (cloudy to rainy) which were actually my favorite days because of the way the tulip colors 'popped' against the moody gray sky and the puddles reflected the image back to you if the sun did happen to come out.  Electric chartreuse of the new foliage on the trees made you feel like you'd taken drugs and if you were really lucky you'd get a thundershower and have threatening purple-y green skies for atmosphere as well.  

The insides of a most beautiful magenta pink tulip.

An orange one.

And a yellow one.

It was far from cloudy this time out and getting plenty warm - and more crowded - by the time we'd rounded the entire field taking photos.  Cynthia was hauling around a serious camera and tripod taking as many pictures of the people as of the flowers.  We headed back to town stopping for "Full Scottish Breakfast" - at 1:30 in the afternoon - at the Highland Still House overlooking Willamette Falls.  Sat out on the deck to enjoy the day.  Wafting fragrance of paper mill and a speaker cleverly disguised as a rock on the cliff past the deck rail playing the same Irish fiddle tune over and over again though Cyn swears that all Irish fiddle tunes sound the same...  The chips were amazing and the toast cold and dry.

Soundtrack to Life #7 - C'etait Toi

Okay.  I'm a total nerd.  I got myself into a tight spot mocking ABBA to someone who likes ABBA.  A lot.  And I like said person.  A lot.  So I 'fessed up to being reduced to mush by this completely mockable Billy Joel song.  

And here it is all wrapped up in Dr. Who.  

No. 9

Most definitely.

(Though I have friends who prefer No. 10)

Waterfall Therapy - Latourell Early April

Ventured out in need of some mind-quieting exertion and negative ions.   Latourell Falls is one of the easier hikes in the Columbia River Gorge - a two mile-ish loop that takes you up to the upper falls where this picture was taken from a slightly precarious perch not quite out of the spray.   One can actually step behind the falls for a more thrilling - and wet - experience.  April is a bit cold for that however.

As my very unquiet state of mind was caused by one of the male persuasion, this very suggestive tree root made me smile for a moment.  Came across it very near the trailhead, after only a few switchbacks above the paved path to the viewpoint.  My mood started to lift ever so gradually.  Hard to be pissed off and angsty when out of breath from the steep pitch of the trail and when Nature Herself is throwing such nice visual jokes in one's path.

The trillium were out in force with only a few still tightly furled.  Not this one...

Pausing just before reaching the upper falls to allow the folks ahead their space.   Even more than walking on a beach with the waves crashing, standing in the presence of a waterfall blots out everything else but itself.  The pool below is meditative and you can flow away with it in your mind's eye but the falls themselves take you outside of yourself.  Like good sex takes you outside yourself at the moment of orgasm.   This metaphor is particularly apt at Latourell as one starts down the return path away from the falls.  As the trail climbs and dips to and away from the stream, the sound of the water ebbs and flows like the waves of sensation as one recovers oneself and one's surroundings, slowly, post climax.

Nature answered and affirmed me with an image of the feminine and I made my way back down to the parking lot and back to the city in a much calmer state of mind.

Riding Shotgun Around a Dirt Track in a Fast Car

What a blast!  

I'm glad a) I wasn't driving (wouldn't have been nearly so fast - those guys are good!)  and 

b) I don't have to wash the car.  

Photo is 'after'.  Four times around with two different drivers.  It's okay for more than one driver to use the same car in RallyX  (Rallycross).  You get your own card and rack up your own points.  That's Scott, who owns this very FAST Mitsubishi Evo VIII, giving the thumbs up to Merrilee who's taking the picture. She didn't tell me that I'd get to ride in the fastest car on the track.   

 

Lucky for me and Miz Pea, there's also AutoX (yeah, you guessed right: Autocross) that's done on a parking lot and doesn't involve mud.  I'm so there!

Soundtrack to Life #6

How appropriate! 6 = number of legs on an ant.

This is the only Adam Ant song I really got hooked on. Miz Harmony on the other hand fell hard for Mr. Ant - I think she kissed him - but only Harmony (and the Ant) know for sure...




Still stuck in the 80's. Must be the tv I've been watching lately. BBC America Ashes to Ashes Hmmm...link is to the UK site. New Series coming! Woot! That means we'll see it in about a year and a half over here.

DCI Gene Hunt is quite delectable! Maybe more so coz he reminds me of someone...

Soundtrack to Life #5

Wow.  I didn't realize there was a live version of this!  

Funny coz the guys downstairs at work had it on the radio the other day and I had to stop and listen/enjoy.  Hell they'd even synchronized the radios in Fritland and in the at the orderdesk to play the same station. 

Stereo! 

Yep.  The 80's

Someone just shoot me if I decide I need a Smurf blue leather pencil skirt and matching 3" high pumps.  I had both back in the day...