08-31-2024 August Friends Family Fires and Fun

Sometimes writing about August can be a challenge. I often refer to the "dog days of August" since it is usually the hottest month. I dread the smoke, the stagnant air, the lack of rain, the drying grasses, and wilted flowers. It can be a difficult month.

Magnificent mid-August thunderstorm

This year was different. August had some heat, some wilting, and a bit of a water problem, but in the midst of it, there were some truly remarkable moments. I treasure the photo above because it reminds me of the beautiful, soaking rain that visited us for two days mid-month.

Our crepe myrtle is a late-blooming variety, not opening fully until late in August

When our acre is dry and we are trying to parse water to the places that need it most, there is nothing quite so lovely as an August storm. There were dozens of fires burning east and south of us when the storm hit, but this time there was enough rain to dampen the fires enough that the smoke cleared. Our daytime temperatures during the third week of the month were up 25 degrees F lower than average for this time of year. The lawns turned a rich green and the flowers brightened and recuperated from their summer struggle.

It takes much of the summer for the zinnias to bloom well

We began the month with a big treat for ourselves. We attended the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, about an hour south of us to see Macbeth.

photo from the OSF website

Neither of us had ever seen the play or remembered reading it, although friends said they read it in high school. Some lines are so familiar, the one that seemed the funniest to me was, "Out, out, damn Spot". I always thought that was about getting a dog out of the house.

The production was truly spectacular, but we both wished we had read more about the play before attending. Some of it was confusing and some was a bit overwhelming. I realized later that I was mentally confusing Macbeth with Hamlet. I told daughter Melody (the theater daughter)that at the time it was almost too much and I was so glad when it ended and yet when it was over and we thought about it we were both so glad that we went.

Afterward, we treated ourselves to Chinese food at a Medford restaurant that has good reviews. Another bust, with decent food that was fresh but without much flavor. It is easy to find "Asian" food and Thai food but any more it seems that Chinese food is passe and the few restaurants that remain in our area aren't that great.

Notice the empty tables. No one wanted to be outside in the heat on this Saturday afternoon

Our book club met at Schmidt Family Vineyard the next day with plans to sit outside. With temperatures in the triple digits, we didn't last long. The photo was taken by another group of women sitting nearby. We wanted to honor our member, Joan, who passed away unexpectedly. She had written a memoir. She was in her late 80s when she passed. Those of us who had read the memoir were shocked to discover the complexities of her life and all she accomplished. How often do we know older acquaintances without a clue of what they have lived through?  The book we chose a couple of months ago was "The Warm Hands of Ghosts".  We had mixed reactions to the book and the discussion was interesting.  We decided that it was time for a bit of change regarding how we choose our books.  I will let you know next time how that goes.

Just a few days later our friends Wes and Gayle dropped in for an overnight visit as they traveled from Tucson to Portland. It was wonderful seeing them again. We sometimes visit when we are near Tucson, but it has been three years since they were here. Gayle misses the wineries in our area and hasn't found anything in Arizona to compare with the wineries in the Applegate Valley. 

Gayle and Wes enjoying the view from the porch at Hummingbird Estate

Smoky skies limited the view of the mountains in the distance

After they arrived in the afternoon we took them to Hummingbird Estate for a bit of wine and snacks since they had never been to this particular winery. In spite of the smoky skies, they could see that the view would be lovely on a clear day.

Notice that Mattie has her own chair at the dinner table

Home again in time for dinner on the back deck with the four of us reminiscing about good times that we have shared over the years. Wes and Gayle were our neighbors in Rocky Point. One of our favorite memories is a time Mo and I invited them for hot dogs and we cooked them over a fire on a pitchfork.

Taken in 2011 in Rocky Point in the backyard

Wes and Gayle left on Thursday and on Friday morning I left Mo to take care of home and drove north to visit Daughter Melody for her birthday weekend. Her husband Robert was home Friday evening but had to leave early Saturday for a business trip.

Melody and Robert purchased a historic home built in 1908 in Brownsville, Oregon, a few years ago.  It is only a 3-hour drive from Grants Pass

Brownsville was the location for the movie "Stand By Me"

Robert and Melody started knitting and crocheting together last spring. Their den is overflowing with bins of yarn and ongoing projects. The next morning Melody and I relaxed with breakfast and coffee and the lovely prospect of an entire weekend of girl time.

Melody is developing a water-wise garden to replace the lawns in her front yard

We did the "flower walk", a tradition in our family that goes back a few decades. I love seeing my daughters enjoying their gardening hobbies and carrying on the tradition.

I think Kago was happy that I didn't bring Mattie along this time.

Melody took me downtown (Brownville is a tiny historic town) just a mile away to an amazing knit shop. It was a thrill to see a knit shop that was much like the few that I remember from my early days of knitting. Many of these small local knit shops are no longer open. Of course, I bought yarn, and with inspiration from Melody and Robert, I have started knitting again.

Daughter Melody in her happy place on the porch

Melody and I had lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and then spent the afternoon visiting another knit shop in Lebanon. Lebanon is about half an hour northeast of Brownsville. More yarn, more beautiful samples, and wonderful inspiration. No wonder the two of them have taken up the yarn arts. I so miss our little yarn shop in Grants Pass where I could take classes and participate in yarn groups.

Melody gets a big birthday hug from my grandson Xavier and my grandson Axel smiling in the background

The next day, Sunday, was time for a family gathering, with Melody's two sons and their spouses visiting from nearby Albany. They all had a day off at the same time. We took Melody to a wonderful noodle house in Eugene for her birthday celebration. It was so much fun. The kids shared the cost of the meal with me and we ordered so many dishes that I lost track. It was great fun and the food was incredibly delicious.

Left to right: Dom and Xavier, Axel and Py, Sue and Melody

Flower views from Melody's porch are wonderful

It was so much fun spending time with Melody and the kids, shopping, relaxing, eating, and sharing her birthday. I didn't make a cake this time, but I gave her a camera so she will have something to take to Paris this coming December for the big trip she and Robert have planned.

It was clear and gorgeous the entire time I was in Brownsville with blue skies and pleasant temperatures. While I was away the smoke also cleared in Grants Pass until the day I returned. By the time I drove down into our valley, the skies were thick with smoke from the many fires in the Cascades to the east and the north and from the fires in California to the south.

The Rogue Valley fills with smoke from fires around us in all directions

Mo and I originally planned to take the MoHo to Medicine Lake just across the Oregon border in California for a few days. With the heat and the smoke, we decided to skip our August camping trip. Instead, we drove over the pass to the east toward Rocky Point for a day of kayaking on our favorite canoe trail at Recreation Creek

The launch at Malone Spring on Recreation Creek

We left early in the morning to be on the water by 8:30 or so. We knew the skies would be smoky in the Klamath Basin but when we arrived were happy to discover that the area along the eastern front of the Cascade Mountains wasn't quite as bad as what we left behind in Grants Pass.

Wocus lily and tules (bullrush) hide much of the views at this time of year

It was wonderful to get back on the water in an area that we know and love. We paddled for a few hours and traveled a bit more than 5 miles. As Melody said to me, "Mom, you two could paddle there with your eyes closed", and she was almost right.

We didn't see another human on the entire trip.  With the heat of the day building up we decided to turn around before we made it all the way to Crystal Spring.

American white pelicans were skittish and avoided us

We have paddled often with rafts of white pelicans, sometimes getting very close, but this time they were skittish and stayed far enough away from us that I didn't get a very good photo.

The lack of wind allowed beautiful reflections on the water in spite of the smoky skies

Several beaver dams lined the waterway

We passed several beaver dams but didn't see any beaver in the water. We did see one otter, but she was also very skittish and kept diving beneath the wocus leaves before I could capture her cute little face.

I zoomed in on this wading bird at the base of the rushes

I thought it was a godwit, but looking more closely I think it may have been a willet. She also kept ducking away from the camera. I was glad I had the big camera instead of the phone so I could zoom in much better with the camera.

This little duck teased us for almost a mile, letting us get close and then skittering away to the next bend in the river. Even with a zoomed-in lens I still am not good enough at duck identification to name it.

To someone who knows ducks, the black beak should be a dead giveaway

We continued upstream for some time longer, enjoying the complete and utter silence of the morning. Even though we live in a somewhat quiet rural area in Grants Pass, there is nothing as quiet as Recreation Creek on a summer morning.

The smoky skies somehow added to the mystical magic of the morning

As we approached the point where we decided to turn around, I was suddenly surprised by the loud sound of sandhill cranes taking to the air. Of course, I had just put the camera away, thinking I didn't need any more photos of reeds and water.

Then near the meadows that open up as the river widens we saw at least a dozen great egrets through the grass. I discovered that attempting to focus a camera lens on a bird from river level is very nearly impossible because the camera really wants to focus on the grass between me and the birds. Manual focus is not going to happen while I am trying to paddle, get the camera out, and take a picture.

impossible to focus on the egrets through the sedges lining the river

In the same meadow, we saw at least two dozen white-faced Ibis, once again through grass that made a photograph nearly impossible

There were more than 20 ibises in this field (yes I double checked the plural of "ibis")

But a photo that captured the day most perfectly was taken the moment the egrets and the ibis took off from the meadow in a rush of wings.

lift-off along Recreation Creek on a smoky day

This photo somehow evokes the feeling of the birds, the water, and the quiet on a mystical smoky day that a more perfect shot might not capture.

The clouds before the thunderstorm in mid-August taken from the porch at Sunset House

As we returned home that evening, the skies in Grants Pass had cleared. A fresh breeze associated with the incoming front had cleaned the valley air. Within three days the triple-digit temperatures gave way to highs in the 70's and cool nights.

The annual bed responded well to the rain and cooler temperatures

Notice the white bird bath with the squirrel on it in the photo above. Mo has been bugging me for years to let her paint it a fresh white.  I don't want it to be fresh white.  I want to keep the old English garden look full of old antique items. We had two full days of blessed, heavy, soaking rain that was such a relief from the heat and drought. The lawn and the flowers responded almost immediately. I cannot remember when we have had good rain in August since I have lived in Southern Oregon.  Who knows if it will ever happen again.

Mo and I spent the rest of the month enjoying cool mornings working in the yard and looking forward to fall.

Mo spent a lot of time on hands and knees under the shrubs doing this project

Mo built a simple irrigation system that could use the salty wastewater that is the by-product of our reverse-osmosis system. She hated seeing it running down the ditch along the road. It now drip-irrigates the huge photinia shrubs that line the front of the property. Photinia thrives in hot climates, and they are somewhat salt tolerant.

Painting the deck, doing half at a time, and moving everything back and forth

Also, during the latter part of August, we pressure-washed the decks. When the weather warmed up again, Mo stained them. The decks need staining every three years or so in this climate.  Even though we live in a hot climate, winter fogs cause black mold to form on the wood. 

Rasberry Parfait crepe myrtle is a late bloomer

Somehow the month was truly beautiful. It has been a long time since I thought that August could be so delightful.