A Few Friday Things

Joining in with Tom's Willy Nilly Friday Five with a few fun things from the last two weeks...

1.  I belong to a Writer's Group and we usually meet in each other's homes, but last month we met at Rainshadow Organics and had a lovely all freshly grown organic meal....Five of the seven of us (including me, who is taking the photo) were attending, plus two guests.

This tasty soup had chunks of pork, corn, beans and other goodies.  There was a fresh green salad also.

They also served some home-made whole wheat tortillas that were cooked in this outdoor oven.

2. My sweet daughter, son-in-law and grandson took me out to brunch and to Drake Park on Mother's Day!

My sweet daughter and wonderful grandson

3.  Brunch at The Washington was lovely.  But, apparently if you order the Bloody Mary, you don't have to order anything else! :-)

4. My son-in-law gave my daughter Yvonne and me each wonderful white lily bouquets!   Such a sweet thing for him to do!   And the flowers were so beautiful, and smelled heavenly!   I love to get flowers!

5. I have a few iris blooming in the yard right now...

and some wise words....

Thankful for Kids Opening Success

Sharing this post with Michelle's Thankful Thursday and also Tom's Willy Nilly Friday Five and Tricky's Five on Friday.  I am so thankful God is blessing my kids's new business.  They have been selling food from their food truck for about a month, but the Grand Opening of the Food Cart Lot on Arizona Ave. happened a week ago.  They are doing wonderfully well, and getting repeat customers!  Here are some photos:

My daughter serves a customer at the window of The Tin Pig

2.  Here's what it looked like for the Grand Opening...

Their food cart is the light blue one in the corner.

3.  Some Oregonians are not sure what a hush puppy is!  Or a pork rind!  The kids are leaning toward some southern favorites although all their food isn't southern, but all of it is very comforting locally sourced and delicious!  My daughter makes wonderful desserts including these amazing moon pies, dipped in dark chocolate:

4.  One of the food carts is an extremely successful one that has moved over from another lot, called Thailandia.  They of course have delicious Thai food.  The owners are expecting a new baby soon.  I asked if I could take her photo with my husband...they were both smiling when I clicked the shutter, but with the camera delay my hubby decided to say "Let me pat the baby on his head" (like a goober!) so I caught him in mid-speech! :-)

5.  And finally, on a different note, I am so thankful for our new cat!  Photos in my next post!  We got him two days ago, and he is such a sweetie! We haven't had a pet in a long time, and the last one was a dog so it's been a VERY long time since we had cats.  We are really enjoying him.

Early Spring Five

It's spring!   I think! :-)  Joining in with Tom's Willy Nilly Friday Five, Tricky's Five on Friday and Eileen's Saturday's Critters:

1.  This is a view of Black Butte with it's winter snowcap.  The mountain beyond it is Mt. Washington.  I am not sure why they call it a butte, because it doesn't have a flat top like a butte you would normally see.  The reason I am posting this winter shot is that Black Butte is our gauge for spring around here.  Once all the snow has disappeared from its summit, it is safe to plant things! Plus I hadn't shared this photo yet, and I thought it was rather pretty....

2.  I have been working on my raised beds now that most of the snow is gone off Black Butte.  We had several beautiful days this week, and I bought more blocks and more dirt.  Still a little hesitant to put anything in the ground, but I have a bit of work yet on the beds.

getting started a few weeks ago

3.  Here are two photos I took recently of robins.  The American Robin isn't necessarily a herald of spring around here, though.  In the winter they come in droves to eat the juniper berries, and sometimes get pretty tipsy!

4.  Here is a lovely pastoral scene, two horses grazing in a pasture in front of a barn...

5.  And finally I just HAD to buy this larkspur the last time I went to pick up more blocks and dirt.  I managed to catch a couple of bees enjoying it!

The bee almost flew out of frame before I could get the shot!

Five Random Things From Our Trip

Joining Tom's Willy Nilly Friday Five and Tricky's Five on Friday.  Just a few things that we saw while in Portland/Vancouver and the Columbia River Gorge area....

1.  We drove past roughly a dozen random waterfalls as we travelled both highways 30 and 84!  I got a couple of shots from the car....

2.  There were many patches of lovely wildflowers wherever we went...

3. The sun shining on the hills and trees...

4.  The Columbia River Paddleboat Cruise... (would love to take that some time!)

We passed this large paddleboat in Dalles (pronounced Daah-ls, short "a")...the guard rail of a bridge obscuring the bottom half of the boat.

5.  Mountain views...

Mt. Hood with it's cap obscured by clouds.

Friday Return

OK, I am back from my blogging break, and also from a quick trip to Northern Oregon, Portland area, and Vancouver Washington  I went to also, and still am sick.  But the trip was necessary for two V.A. appointments my husband had.  We can usually have things taken care of at the Bend V.A. but some things require the three hour trip north.  As sick as I was we managed to turn this trip into a wonderful adventure...check out all my posts for the next week or two for more!   But, to start with Portland itself, here is my Willy Nilly Friday Five for Tom's wonderful meme (earlier Tanya's) and Tricky's awesome Five on Friday:

1.  The view from the big picture window in the Portland V.A. which is located on a mountain...

 2. My husband Russell getting his scooter back on the lift in the parking garage, and then a view coming down off the mountain...

3.  I caught a couple of shots of the overhead tram...

4.  The fresh spring green in the leaves was so gorgeous!   And the beautiful spring flowers that we saw everywhere.  We took highway 30 along the Columbia River Gorge, which is a smaller road that follows the Lewis & Clark original trail.

5.  It was exciting to be on the Lewis & Clark trail and to see the Sandy River which I had read about in the journals.  The day was beautiful, and the scenery was beautiful.  We stopped at Chanticleer Point which is along that trail.  More photos to come....