10-31-2020 A Colorful Halloween

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Halloween has always been a favorite holiday of mine.  It was especially sweet when I lived in Klamath Falls very close to the historic neighborhood on Pacific Terrace.  Every year throngs of people from all over the city would flock to the wide parkway lined with decorated historic homes.  We would get trick or treaters at our house, but the most fun was going with kids and family on “the terrace” to people watch and see all the kids and eat popcorn from the house with the outdoor popcorn machine and watch movies projected on garage walls.  It was a great time for me and for my grandkids who later grew up in that house on The Terrace.

Halloween on Pacific Terrace in Klamath Falls

Here at Sunset House, we live on a somewhat narrow rural road, with very few children around us.  Most folks in our open neighborhood are older, and many are retired.  We also have no sidewalks, and in the three years that we have lived in Sunset House we have never had a single Trick-or-Treater come to our door.  Most years I do a lot of decorating, both indoors and out.  Somehow this year I just couldn’t get in the mood.  I put up some “fall” decorations, lights and pumpkins, but left the Halloween stuff I have collected over the years in the big orange bins that I store in the mezzanine in the RV shed.  Ah, well…what can I say.  This year has been so demanding in so many ways and so mentally exhausting. 

Still, yesterday I felt like Mo and I needed something to add a bit of cheer and variety to our days.  How about a picnic?!  On the previous day and on many others I pass our beautiful Riverside Park on the way to various errands.  I often think, “Why don’t we take Mattie walking in the park more often?”  Even from the car the brilliant colors of all the beautiful mature trees in the lovely park caught my eye.  Time for a picnic and a walk along the river.

We planned to go on Saturday afternoon at 3.  The time was rather specific because from my previous day passing the park I could see that the colors were most brilliant in the late afternoon light.  Before 3 was too flat and after 4 the light would be too low in the sky to illuminate the leaves. I packed an egg salad sandwich picnic (our traditional picnic favorite for the last 18years) and we packed up the dog and drove the 2 miles from our home to the park.

I also wanted Mo to see the brilliant color of all the street trees that line both main streets of downtown Grants Pass. Sixth  and Seventh Streets are one way thoroughfares that link the southern and northern parts of the city and the color right now is gorgeous.  I am more often the errand runner in town, and knew that Mo probably hadn’t had an opportunity to see the town street trees.

As we approached the park, I suggested that we drive the town streets before going to the park.  I had seen on the news that Grants Pass was due for a truck parade, said to begin at 3:30 pm, and I thought it might be smart to drive through town before the hoop-la began.  Oops. 

Turning north past the park on 7th street, we were suddenly right in the midst of the big truck parade.  You all know which ones I mean, but I am not going to talk about that part.  Neither of us would have chosen on purpose to get caught in the middle of this parade, but somehow there we were.

My liberal friends will be aghast and my conservative friends will cheer, but we actually got a big kick out of the whole thing.  It was loud and the trucks did spew a lot of diesel, but in general most drivers were polite, and were simply excited by their cause.  I saw no guns, although many of the trucks did have gun bumper stickers. I was thrilled to see that there was not a single confederate flag anywhere. I would have never chosen to participate in this parade, but simply wanted to see the downtown trees.  I will be glad when all this is over, to say the least.

I thought about how parade deprived we are in this stupid COVID year.  Grants Pass usually has at least half a dozen parades and many amazing events throughout the year that have all been cancelled.  I love parades and I found myself laughing out loud. 

Then the best part came as we approached the main business section where we discovered throngs of kids and families trick-or-treating along the sidewalks.  Business owners (the ones that are still open) were passing out safe treats in safe ways to the kids. 

It was so encouraging to see them having fun in their costumes as they walked along the streets. It was a great alternative to door to door trick-or-treating that has been discouraged in Grants Pass this year.

It was a gorgeous, blue sky day with temperatures around 70 degrees, much warmer than the icy Halloween nights my kids grew up with in Idaho and even on Pacific Terrace.  The street trees in town were amazing.  Many of them much taller than I ever noticed in their summer green cloaks.

When we got to the park, all was quiet, as most of the big flag draped trucks were continuing around the city loop.  We parked and then walked along the river to find a perfect picnic table with a view for our late lunch/early supper. 

Riverside Park is truly a treasure, and the mighty Rogue River was deceptively quiet on this lovely fall day.  We thought once again that someday we might launch at the park and try this quiet part of the river in our kayaks.

Whomever is responsible for this beautiful city park should be commended.  The plantings are wonderful, and among the big giants there are new plantings to take over when needed. 

There were several varieties of oaks, maples, and sweet gums in addition to some beautiful old redwoods, pines, and firs.  The expansive lawns allow for lots of play area and the playground for the kids now has a new spray park that was added this year. The ducks, geese, and pigeons were as happy as ever to hang around the picnic areas hoping for treats.

Mattie was thrilled with the entire day, especially the parade part.  She sat in the middle of the Tracker console watching everything intently.  She never barked, but she was very excited about the whole thing. 

Of course, kids and ducks in the park were exciting to her as well, and she loved every minute. It was a surprisingly lovely afternoon and left both of us in a happy place.

06-30-2019 Small Town Times in Grants Pass Oregon

Current Location: Sunset House in Grants Pass on a clear summer day with temps in the 80’s

May is probably the most perfect month in Grants Pass, when the rhodies bloom

You probably noticed the giant gap in my writing between our return home from the cross country trip to Florida and our early May camping trip to Nehalem.  I know that I would notice in a year or two when I tried to find out what we were doing and there is nothing but empty space on the blog.  Ah well, I do have my calendars, both paper and Google, and the google calendar has a LOT of stuff in there. 

I always wanted a doublefile viburnum and here she is, growing great, even though bloomtime is short

I read that google calendar went down yesterday for a few hours.  Lucky for me I was busy elsewhere so avoided the complete panic that might have ensued.  Lately it is the only way I can begin to keep track of all the doctor, dentist, eye care, car repairs, hot tub installations with orientation, and other myriad appointments that seem to be filling up all our days.

We actually managed another camping trip in the midst of all this, just 2 nights at a local lake, but I will have to write about that one in a separate post.  This time I am going to try to recreate all the “stuff” that has kept us so busy for the last couple of months.

April was chilly and rainy, but it didn’t stop us from spending a lot of time and energy on cleaning up almost 3 months of winter and early spring debris in the yard.  I love our oaks, but they do drop a lot of “Stuff’.  We managed several dump loads and by Easter everything was clean and fresh and flowers were blooming. 

We also spent some time working with Jared, probably the most amazing tile setter around, who managed to install our antique tiles on the backsplash in the kitchen.  It was amazing to see the tiles go in, and Jared charged us quite a bit less than his original bid because we did all the arranging and planning ourselves and all he had to do was stick them to the wall.

I got to use some of my quilting experience and quilters might notice the repeating nine-patch design, including borders.  The most amazing part of the entire process is that those tiles fit exactly in the 18 inch space between the granite and the upper wall, no cutting required.  We also decided to follow the new trend of not grouting between the tiles. 

Love the look, and Jared was delighted that he didn’t have to try to wipe grout from all those carved intricate tiles. The backsplash really made a difference in the look of the kitchen.  One more thing checked off for completing our Sunset House.

No, it isn’t really curved like that, but I wanted a shot of the entire thing, and the distortion is from the panorama

Another addition to Sunset House that has been waiting for the right time is our hot tub.  We needed to have an additional deck built adjacent to the bedroom to accommodate the tub. We are lucky to have a good relationship with the subcontractors who worked on our house, and when we called Joel about building the deck, he found time in his very busy schedule to come and build it for us. 

We had the same luck with the painters, and Eric and Ian showed up in record time when the deck was completed to get it stained in time for the hot tub delivery.  The entire process went smoothly, and within a week from starting the deck, we had a hot tub bubbling just steps outside the bedroom door.  Ahhhhh…..we had a hot tub in Rocky Point, but when that house sold in late 2016 our hot tub evenings were no more. 

Nothing like a good soak before bed to ease old joints. The pink light is reflected from the sunset view that we have from the hot tub.  Stars are more rare this time of year since we don’t often stay up late enough to see them.

In the midst of house and yard projects, we enjoyed some good family times.  For some reason, Easter is the family holiday where almost everyone manages to make their way to Sunset House for our family time.  We invited the neighbors as well, and instead of our usual brunch we cooked a traditional ham dinner with a ham from our local butcher shop. 

Melody’s guy Robert made his famous deviled eggs again, and as the years go by, it has become a family tradition to enjoy Robert’s eggs with our family dinners, but definitely they are perfect for Easter.  The only hard part was keeping everyone from eating them before he could get the halves filled with his yummy, savory egg stuffing.  They are very popular here!

Jeanne from Vermont just happened to be here visiting on Mother’s Day weekend, and while our time together was short, it was precious.  Jeanne didn’t want to intrude, but I convinced her to stay around for Mother’s Day brunch. Deborah and Matthew shared the day with me this year, and instead of our usual outing for a Mother’s Day brunch in town, Deborah offered to make brunch for me right here at home.  She came over early on Sunday morning with her incredibly yummy eggs benedict casserole and enough hollandaise sauce to keep us all happy.  She also roasted some fresh asparagus with bacon and seasonings that was the best I ever had.  Yum.

After brunch, we sent Deb and grandson Matthew off to do some projects around his place and Mo and I wandered downtown to enjoy the 25th Annual Native American Arts Festival & Mothers Day Pow Wow at Riverside Park. We learned that this is an annual event and the largest native event in Southern Oregon. The biggest surprise was that in addition to traditional dancing and drumming, there were Aztec Dancers from the Bay Area that were incredibly good.  I hadn’t heard of Aztec Dancers before this and discovered that much like Tribal Belly Dancing, performed by people of many cultures, they are people who are dedicated to preserving the traditions and rituals of the pre-Hispanic culture through the expression of dance and ceremony. They perform at various special events throughout the year and regularly at powwows.

Three of the basic forms of Aztec dance were performed; ceremonial rituals, concheros (a rhythmic and slow dance performed to the music of armadillo shell guitars), and warrior dancers, which are very colorful and energetic. It was a new experience for us and incredibly entertaining.

Memorial Day doesn’t have quite the effect that it used to when we were working and treasured the long holiday weekend.  Now in retirement, we tend to avoid camping on those big holidays and lay low.  This year, however, we decided that it would be fun to check out our local Memorial Day Parade.  It was a perfect day, not too hot, and beautifully clear.  The parade was everything a small town Memorial Day parade should be, with bands, and kids, and flags, and lots of different kinds of displays to honor the military.  We took our folding chairs and parked them right on the sidewalk to watch the parade.  Arriving only an hour early got us great seats.  It was a fun day.

Just a few days later, on my Saturday morning foray to the Farmer’s Market I happened on the annual car show that is held in conjunction with our local Balloon Festival.  We had decided to skip the balloon fest, with no need to fight the crowds to see a few balloons.  Instead, when I saw how great the cars were at the downtown show, I went back home to get Mo and we wandered the streets together oohing and ahhing at all the great old cars.  These vintage bikes in the back of an old Ranchero were my favorite!

A couple of times we made our way 15 minutes south into the Applegate Valley to enjoy Friday night wine and wood fired pizzas with live music on the patio.  We love Schmidt Vineyards, not so much for their wine, which is Ok but not our most favorite, but the gardens and parklike atmosphere is just wonderful.  The wood fired pizzas are really great, too. Driving down the Applegate Valley in late afternoon so beautiful and this is one of our favorite places to be on a Friday evening.

One evening in June, as we were settling in I got a text message from Gayle and Wes, our friends who live in Arizona, letting us know that they were going to be in town the following Tuesday and were we going to be around.  I was so glad they let us know ahead of time because we had planned our camping trip for Tuesday and it was easy to postpone it and have a nice time visiting friends. 

This time they didn’t stay long enough for a meal, but I managed to put out some of my favorite little cheesy tartlet things that were a hit.

We also had some surprise visits from friends Maryruth and Gerald from California.  They decided that it was time to leave Oroville and the scary fires that have plagued the Sierra Nevada foothills for so many years.  Their home is in the midst of dry oak woodland, and they have been evacuated 3 times in the last 2 years.  After both of them living their entire lives in California, they have decided to come to Oregon.

I totally forgot to take photos because we were so busy trying to look at houses, but here is a photo from their visit last year when we drove over to Brookings

It was nice that they could stay with us when a house appeared on the market that they wanted to see.  The process was agonizing, with most properties being sold literally overnight, and we all were losing hope that they would find what they need and want.  Finally it is a done deal, and my lifetime friend of 56 years will be living just a mile away from me by the end of August.  Maryruth and I look at each other and shake our heads.  We had no idea that this would ever happen.  I am really looking forward to having them in town and happy that we all get along so well.

Another small town activity that I had read about in years past and never managed to attend was our local Grants Pass Porch Fest. In one of the nicer historic neighborhoods of town, people open up their porches to local musicians, the streets are closed down for walking, and there are food and craft vendors as well.  The music was typically folk and bluegrass type music, but there were also jazz and blues bands, vocalists, guitarists, and other kinds of musicians.  It was fun, although sometimes it was a bit disconcerting to be hearing 2 or 3 bands playing at once from different directions.  Again, it was a gorgeous day, cool enough for walking and yet warm in the sunshine. We enjoyed it thoroughly, the best of small town life and entertainment.

The photo above captures the feeling of that day, with old friends meeting each other and laughing, kids running around playing, and everyone having a great time listening to the music.

Somehow in the midst of all this activity, we managed to attend to an ongoing list of appointments for all sorts of things.  I went to Eugene to see my daughter, my friend Joanne, and to see my urologist checking up on my surgery from 2015.  Mo managed to get successful cataract surgery for both eyes, and we counted a total of 12 different appointments to get that process completed, including the pre and post op visits.  Sheesh.

Neither of us is “sick”, but the mechanics of things seem to be wearing out and time for some repairs. Between the two of us, knees, wrists, ankles, hips, and the like have kept us busy visiting all the various specialists.  I still can’t figure out why a wrist orthopedist is different than an ankle orthopedist, and from a knee doctor.  Sheesh!  Sp many appointments!  I think we are almost done for the time being, except for carpel tunnel surgery scheduled for Mo next month. We should be good to go after that for a few more miles I hope.

The apartments were a bit more charming before the EPA took out all the vegetation

In the midst of all the appointments, Mo decided that it was time to sell the apartments in Klamath Falls.  The EPA project is completed, the papers are signed and the property has been certified safe and good to go.  We thought it might take a bit of time to get it on the market and sold, but to our surprise is sold for cash in just 2 days.  Surely were happy about that, although we did have to pack up the last of our leftover stuff that was in Apartment B and bring it all home to Sunset House. 

Last Day at the Apartments

Last view up Old Fort Road from Apartment B

Finally we are completely through with moving.  It was a process that began in 2015 with the sale of my house in Klamath Falls, in 2016 with the sale of Mo’s house in Rocky Point, in 2017 with the demolition of the Cottage and building of Sunset House, and then finally this year with the sale of the apartments.  We now have only one home to manage.  Finally. 

As I sit here writing, I can see why I might have let the blog slip.  The days sort of run together until I actually look at the calendar and the photos and realize that we have been on the go much more than I realized.  Time to slow down and enjoy the summer. It’s a dog’s life for sure.

07-05-2018 Playing Close to Home

Current Location: Grants Pass Oregon at 86 degrees F with strong breezes and mostly clear skies

It has been a precious summer so far.  For the entire month of June I breathed in the blue skies and fresh air without a touch of smoke from wildfires to mar the loveliness.  Sometimes during a simple quick run to the grocery store I would be completely awed by the technicolor blues and greens that made me wonder if I hadn’t perhaps ingested some sort of mind altering substance without knowing it. 

The colors were almost psychedelic, cartoonish, so brilliant that I would just breathe and drive and gasp out loud all alone in the car.  I know the fires will come eventually, the clear air will go gray and dingy when the smoke from the wildfires that are already beginning to dot the maps of the west finds our valley once again.  Then again…could we really be lucky enough to skip the smoke this year?  I haven’t lived here long enough to really know if that is a possibility.  Smoke always seems to come when everything is at its most beautiful.  Maybe not this year, I’ll wait and see.

This is our first summer actually living in Grants Pass full time.  Mo and I are enjoying having more time to fiddle around with projects.  Mo’s most recent creation was an arbor for the old front gate area, where she used two old doors that we saved from the cottage as side walls.  Thank you, Pinterest, for the ideas!  We loved the old doors in the cottage, built in 1926, and I think these doors were originals.  Mo cut and sanded and painted, figuring out the puzzle of using the old existing gate posts as standards, and making the whole thing fit in, level and even.

I love the arbor, and the old gate that it surrounds.  Somehow it feels like a portal to me, a portal from the outside world into a magical world of our own making.  I love the feeling of memories of the old cottage contained in those old doors.

July 4th was quiet this year.  Daughter Melody and her family had other plans.  For years she has missed sharing time with her old theater friends from the days she lived in Albany, and now that she is in Eugene, just an hour away from Albany where those friends live, she was able to attend the annual Fourth of July party with the theater group.  She told me a year ago that she would NOT be available this year for our traditional family time.  

Instead she and Robert drove down from Eugene on Saturday to spend the weekend with us, and on Sunday daughter Deborah showed up for yummy brunch, family time, and the traditional game of Bocci Ball, which seems to show up every year on the 4th, no matter where we are.

On the actual 4th, Mo and I decided that we needed some sort of entertainment that was out of the ordinary house work, yard work, book work, and such, and decided to try out the trails in our nearby county and BLM park.

Cathedral Hills is a big park, with several miles of trails for mountain bikes, hiking, and horseback riding, no motorized vehicles allowed.  Still, when hiking, a mountain biker barreling down those trails can seem quite fearsome, especially when getting off the trail involves negotiating the thick stands of poison oak and corralling Mattie!

This view from the Hogback Trail is facing east toward our house, which lies on that terrace at the base of the mountain to the right of the big pine tree.

Close friends know that Mo has been having some ankle trouble lately, and it has kept our hikes short and to a minimum.  She has been seeing a physical therapist and felt good enough that she thought she could handle at least a couple of miles of walking.

We started early in the day, while it was still cool, and found our way to the main entrance to the park, farther west than the Walker trailhead that is just half a mile down the road from our house.  I hiked the Walker trail a couple of years ago, and knew it was terrifically steep with tight switchbacks to the Hogback trail on the ridge.

There were quite a few people in the parking lot when we arrived, but the multiple trails were not the least bit crowded.  In our entire 3.5 mile hike we passed just a few people, horses, and dogs.  Mo’s ankle held up well, and she was only a little bit sore the next day.  Both of us were encouraged, since for the past 16 years one of our major forms of entertainment has included hiking and walking.  We surely don’t want to give that up!

My crazy hip did fine as well, with the buckets of Aleve that the doctor said I should take, insisting that my kidneys were strong.

After our hike, we came home and relaxed a bit, did some chores, had a early supper, and decided to brave the city crowds for the fireworks show at Reinhart All Sports Park in Grants Pass.  Once a long time ago, when we first bought the property in Grants Pass, I discovered the pedestrian bridge, but hadn’t explored the park.

Official parking was less than a mile from the park grounds where the fireworks were going to be set, and the walk through the park and across the river was lovely.  Mo’s ankle did start barking, and we decided that if we do this again, we will save the big hike for another day and save our steps for the park.

The music was loud, but in the distance, the crowds were pleasant, and not too thick, the police presence was there but not intrusive.  We set up our chairs and waited, hoping we were in the right place.  Many people around us hoped for the same thing since the city fireworks show hadn’t been in this location in the past.  In fact, last year, Grants Pass didn’t even have a fireworks show.

The show itself was interesting, and quite different from any I had seen before.  Gone were the big loud booms, with the wait, and then the bursting flower of color high in the sky.  Instead, some sort of machine shot out many bursts at once, in all directions.  They were lower in the sky, but very colorful and there were a LOT of them.  We enjoyed the show, but I did miss the big ones.  There were no fireworks allowed in the park, so the scary prospect of a firecracker set off underfoot by some crazy person wasn’t a problem.

The parking was handled exceptionally well, and we were surprised at how orderly and easy it was to exit the parking area and within minutes afterward we were back home.  It wasn’t a typical July 4th celebration for us, and I did miss the family time on a lake somewhere, but it was still very nice.  My kids know I get all silly about July 4th if I don’t have family around, but this time I was perfectly fine.

When Mo and I returned from our trip to South Beach, we left the kayaks on top the baby car, thinking that we would find a lake to kayak soon enough.  On the last Wednesday in June, we traveled south through the Applegate Valley beyond Ruch and the wineries, to Applegate Lake.  It is actually a reservoir, with only a little bit of shoreline showing and the water wasn’t terribly low as is the case in some of the other reservoirs in this area on the west side of the mountains.

I remember a couple of decades ago when Melody lived in Ruch, and saw Applegate Lake for the first time.  I still lived in Idaho, and she called me in a panic saying, “What is wrong with this lake??  It has a huge bathtub ring?!!”.  She had the luxury of being raised in the Northern Idaho Eastern Washington lake country, where every lake is real, and very few have dams that let out the water to levels that make for those ugly steep brown exposed shorelines.  Here on the west side, every lake we have found is actually a reservoir, with associated levels that are affected by the spring rains, snowmelt, and irrigation.  This year, with a drought officially claimed, those levels are going down fast.

Still, our day on the Applegate was perfect.  The skies were again that technicolor blue, with only a light breeze.  We first checked out the official campground and boat launch site, but it really didn’t have much to offer and was at the northern edge of the lake, without much to see on the shoreline.  There was also a $7.00 fee to launch and the manager of the place was rather rude.  I told him nicely we would look for another launch, and he said, “Your stuff won’t be safe there, why in the world would you want to be on that end of the lake?!”  Duh, we are kayakers, not boaters, and we want complex shoreline, little coves, and no big fast boats getting in our way!

The Copper launch was just about perfect.  Clear water, no silty mud, and nice long paved launch where we could take the car right to the water. Something I read on Wiki was fascinating.  The boat ramp is the upper part of the road that once went to the town of Copper, buried forever when the lake was filled in 1980.

Once on the lake we traveled south, and found a beautiful little cove the meandered back into the forest, shrouded with shady firs, and huge rock cliffs.  It was back here that we did see some birdlife, mostly geese, but with their little ones they were very entertaining.

There were a few more kayakers on the water, but they weren’t intrusive, and told us about another cove farther south past a place they called “The Orchard”.  Sure enough, we continued south and found this inlet, along with a big open park that looked like a campground.  Still planning to check if it is a day use area only or includes overnight camping. 

We spent about 2 1/2 hours on the water, enjoying every single moment of crystal clear skies. clear clean water, and brilliant sunshine. I am sure we will return to this lake in the future, since it is the best place so far on this side of the mountains for kayaking.  As I said before, the mighty Rogue River is a bit much for us, with a strong, fast current.  It is a big river, with lots of rapids in between the quiet places, and neither of us is particularly interested in that kind of kayaking in our long lake boats. 

I packed a picnic for us and we shared it on a real picnic table overlooking the lake.  I have no clue what we did for the rest of the afternoon, but were back home by 2. 

Being on the road and traveling in the summer can get so tiresome, with overcrowding, parks full of kids, hot weather, and no vacancies plaguing so many folks any more.  Our idea of good summer times is enjoying all the beauty of our own local world.  I think we are off to a good start.