Sunday, October 20, 2013

Chasing the Mountain

We've been having an amazing run of beautiful weather.  Yesterday my blog friend Gracie and I decided to meet up for lunch and go to Jonsrud Point to get some photos of Mt. Hood with it's fresh coat of snow.  We met at a Chinese restaurant and chatted away, Gracie had her phone on as her her daughter is going to have her 4th baby girl any time! After lunch Gracie took me to the one and only yarn shop in Sandy where we looked and looked and felt the softness of the fibers.. I wish I'd bought a big luscious skein of handspun alpaca from a local farm.  But I was anxious to move to our next thing.. looking at our mountain, so we left without purchasing anything.  And off we went...


What is interesting is when you are standing at the viewpoint, the mountain looks close, but when you snap an image, it looks tiny, so thank heavens for the zoom lens.  The image above is as close as you can get and still get both sides in and some foreground.  The one below shows more of the forest and see all the fall colors in the trees?


This one is without much zoom and shows the Sandy River below that starts with snowmelt from the mountain and runs all the way to the Columbia River, which runs into the Pacific Ocean.  Gracie even spied a fisherman in the river!


This is the closest zoom.. I love this!


I love this big patch of mowed grass..  


After we left the viewpoint, Gracie took me down a country road to where she'd seen a good image before... I was enchanted by this image of the mountain with the white farmhouse, colorful trees and golden pasture.


And then this one, I wanted to show you both shots, but this is my own personal favorite.  I think it's the perfect composition. :-)  I think it would be a great subject for an oil painting!


The fun thing is to the left of where I took those two photos above is a pumpkin patch where you park there, then you go on a hayride, pulled by tractors to the patch to pick out your pumpkin!!  


Gracie and I then parted ways and I ended up finding my own country roads to see what I could see.. this is a tree nursery with trees of brilliant colors.


My "aha moment" was when I saw this old silo with Mt. Hood looming behind it.  Now if only I had a crane attached to my Ford Explorer so I could have gone up higher for this shot.  :-)


When I got home I decided to do some 4-wheeling and drove to the top of our back pasture to get a photo of the Hawthorne berries up there.


And my final Mt. Hood photo of the day was gotten from our back pasture near the berries.. how cool is that?


A different perspective of our farm buildings.. the barn, the garage and the shed.


Kristi showed me the pumpkin that she and Travis had carved while I was gone.. isn't it wonderful?


I just had to show you the turkey breast that Dayle roasted in his Green Mountain pellet grill/smoker for several hours - I just wish you could have tasted this!  


He served it with mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and corn.  All 6 of us enjoyed it!


Another sunny day today.. no plans but to enjoy the day.  What are you up to?  
((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

25 comments:

  1. Hello Teresa, WOW what super magical photos of Mt. Hood.. The harvest hay field and the farm is a perfect setting with this grand Mt.. Lovely indeed... The turkey dinner looks like the perfect meal to me.. Hugs Judy

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  2. Those are some incredible photos. I think you changed some things on your blog? It looks really nice. I love your profile picture. The turkey looks so delicious. We always smoke part of our turkey on Thanksgiving; he gives me the breast to roast in the oven and he smokes everything else. Sometimes we smoke the breast too. We're smoking salmon today! We'll have it for dinner tonight. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. :)

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  3. AWESOME!!! Thanks for a wonderful visit and for producing another beautiful post, Teresa. I can't believe we walked out of Designer Yarns without buying ANYTHING. Kristi and Dayle should be proud of us :) I turned my computer all the way off last night and still had problems with Google Chrome this morning so I distracted Mary by asking her to help me sort out the problem :) She is still not having steady contractions but is ready to be!
    Blessings to you and yours,
    Gracie xx
    Gracie :)

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  4. So glad you and Gracie had a wonderful visit with each other. And the pictures are awesome.

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  5. Teresa, You take the prettiest photos. I love them all and think Mt. Hood is just breathtaking!
    The carving on the pumpkin is so amazing. I remember the days when it was just eyes, nose and mouth of missing teeth. We're come a long way!!!!
    xoRobin

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  6. Your photos take my breath away, they are spectacular. I guess with the subject matter you can't go wrong. So glad you had a lovely time with Gracie, I love that you enjoy each other so much.
    I am coming over for dinner, that looks so yummy.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  7. Gorgeous photos ... the mountain is certainly spectacular and you live so close to it !!!! I agree with you about that last picture with the White House (autocorrect wants to use caps here) .. would make a fabulous painting.

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  8. Totally gorgeous and fascinating pictures!! You and your camera ROCK! Those are some great fall shots. Looks like y'all had an early Thanksgiving meal. It all looks great...even better with family there to enjoy it with you. One of my favorite races of the year was on today and I fell asleep right after it started and didn't wake up until 5:00! I had taken a Benadryl because my eyes were itching like crazy from allergies (I guess). That combined with insomnia at night lately, and I was zonked out. Now I feel like my day was wasted and I can't believe it's nearly over already.

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  9. Oh wow! I love your Mt Hood photos! Amazing! I liked the ones with the fall color in them. Sigh! So glad you live close and can get those shots. Am headed over to friends house to deliver bean soup to them since Rhonda is recovering from her 2nd knee surgery, a third one coming up next year....bummer. But I did spend some time out this afternoon, sweeping up leaves again and enjoying the sunshine! Have a good week!

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  10. Not much going on around here. I spent some time getting a post up about the shawls I finished and now wondering what I should do next. That AF blanket is looming in the back of my mind. I have half of it laid out on my queen-sized bed cause right now I find myself sleeping in the spare room all the time. I want to do something, but can't decide. I need to stop procrastinating and be like NIKE' and "just do it!" get that blanket together for once and for all and be done with it. Your photos are so beautiful. They would make a lovely calendar or even jig saw puzzles. They would also make lovely greeting cards especially with Mt. Hood in the background. About the only exciting thing to be going on today was the combine across the road taking down the corn crop. The dogs barked at that for awhile, that is till I closed the door. I had had enough, lol. That turkey looks yummy. My boring meal was cooked cauliflower....as you can see I don't pamper myself too much with cooking. The only reason I fixed that was it needed used up before it ruined. I did find some chocolate for dessert. Your meal looks 100 times better, believe me!
    Have a good week.
    (((HUGS))) Susanne :)

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  11. Those photos are just stunning! So crystal clear!

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  12. No fair! I missed lunch and a yarn store. I'll be back at Christmas though and we'll have to plan something. My favorite is the second picture of the farm and Mt. Hood. The colors are stunning. Gracie took me to Jonsrud viewpoint when we met at the tea shop. Oh my! The views of Mt. Hood are amazing from there and you have captured them beautifully. Lucky girl. You can even see it from your property!
    The turkey dinner looks so delicious I can almost taste it. I think I need to borrow Dayle and his cooking skills!
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  13. I am so envious!!!! Those pictures are beautiful! I have been there, but that was over 30 years ago! ( I am not that old...am I)? I helped move a friend out to Seattle and her brothers live in Oregon. I still remember that there are BEAUTIFUL places no matter where you look! Have a great week, Teresa

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  14. I agree with you that the white farm house with the golden field just needs to be an oil painting. Lovely views and the turkey dinner is making my mouth water! Can't wait for turkey day. ;-)

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  15. What stunning photos Teresa, the colours are wonderful where you live. I would love to visit that pumpkin patch and your carved pumpkin is sooo clever. I'm off to see my daughter this morning...let's hope that baby stays put today..lol x

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  16. Such stunning pictures, I so enjoyed seeing them all, Teresa! How lucky you are to live in such a beautiful place.....The pumpkin carving is just amazing, I would love one like that! Glad you and Gracie had such a good time:)
    Helen x

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  17. Hi Teresa! all of your photos are stunning as usual! I do think that the one with the little white farm house would look lovely as an oil painting too...it's my favorite!

    Yumm....turkey! I can't wait until Thanksgiving!

    Hugs...Shari

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  18. Teresa .. do you have your iPhone 5S yet? Am contemplating upgrading from my 4S and was wondering what the camera is like on the 5S.

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  19. Mmm! That turkey meal looks fabulous. I truly wish I could reach through my laptop and have some right now:)
    Love all the snow on Mt. Hood--my favorite one, other then the ones taken at Jonsrud, is the one of the white farmhouse, autumn trees, fields (the one that is an oil painting candidate).
    Have a great week--am loving all the gorgeous weather!
    Blessings,
    Aimee

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  20. Such beautiful photos <3 It must be incredible to live with Mt. Hood always in view...it's gorgeous with the snow :) Yummy dinner too, on your new plates!
    Smiles, DianeM

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  21. WOW. Simply wow. Such beautiful photos, and magic landscape. Wish I was there, right now. :-)

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  22. Hi Teresa, those are some gorgeous photos. You live in such a beautiful area. And you are right, that one image would make a great painting. The carved pumpkin is absolutely brilliant. Wishing you a fabulous day. Tammy

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  23. Oh my word Teresa the photos are stunning. Mount Hood is so beautiful. Oh how I'd like to live in the white farm house - well I'd be quite happy to live in yours !!!! :-) Think you're pretty full up though at the moment :-) our weather has been awful grey and wet but warm. Hugs Anne x

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  24. My goodness Teresa...your photographs today are simply stunning!!...I've loved looking through them and such a fantastic Halloween pumpkin..very clever indeed! Can't not mention Dayle's turkey breast too...it looks absolutely delicious!
    Happy Wednesday dear friend!
    Susan x

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  25. Oh you have more photos of the beautiful rainbow trees! I was admiring Gracies photos just now, our trees haven't quite gone that lovely colour and it doesn't help that living in a city there aren't nearly as many :-(

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