Volcano, Portland, Farm & Flowers

I'm enjoying sharing my part of the world with people around the globe.  I recently put a "flag counter" on my blog only 8 days ago and in that week I've had visitors from *51* countries!!  I've had 22,830 pageviews since I started blogging in earnest, just last September, 2010.  Many comments on my blog tell me they never knew how pretty Oregon is. :-)

Yesterday my 2 sisters and I met for lunch at "Skyline Burger", then 2 of us headed on up to visit our mother's resting place at Skyline Memorial.  It was her birthday and she would have turned 90 yesterday.  My older sister, Roberta, and I visited the mausoleum and I thought it would be neat to sing a song for Mom, so I picked a vintage song Mom would love and we sang "You Are My Sunshine" in 2 part harmony.  The echo in there worked to our advantage and we sounded pretty good!  Before you think we're loony, we were the only ones there. :-)

On my way UP to Skyline I noted there was a wonderful view of Mount Saint Helens - our very own volcano, up in Washington, but the view from Oregon is pretty amazing.  My sister Roberta sent me this photo below of her and a school friend canoeing on Spirit Lake in 1957 long before it erupted on May 18, 1980.  Isn't it pretty?  It was a lovely "snow cone" of a mountain.

Below is a photo of the mountain erupting.  I'll never forget when it happened, my mom, sisters, children and I drove down to Roseburg to visit my brother and I was driving home.  I looked north from the freeway I-5 and saw this HUGE cloud that looked different than a cloud - I remembered that geologists had been predicting an eruption, so I said, "Wow, look at that!  I wonder if St. Helen's erupted??"  My sisters said.... noooooooo... so I turned on the radio and sure enough, I was right and it had erupted.  Here is a great video from History.com

We live in the countryside of Corbett, Oregon an estimated 70 miles (as the crow flies) and I'll never forget the amount of volcanic ash that fell on our acreage.  Everyone had to wear face masks when outside and it played havoc on automobile engines.  

This is the photo that I took yesterday - I call it "Old Flat Top" now.  Over the trees you will see the Columbia River, across it is Vancouver, Washington and the mountain beyond.

I have a bad habit of taking photos while I'm driving :-) -- This is beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon, which is bisected by the Willamette River, which makes for a gorgeous view of downtown while on the bridge over the river.

Another shot.  I think hubby and I live in heaven - the Columbia River Gorge is just 20 minutes from this beautiful cosmopolitan city with museums, Portland Opera, world class Zoo, theaters, wonderful restaurants - but it's still clean and pretty and not TOO big.

And here I am, 20 minutes later, driving up the lazy Sandy River Gorge.

I arrived home to find hubby out mowing the pasture on his Kubota tractor, burning yard debris and having a good old time.

This photo shows our two wonderful pear trees that have probably been here for 100 years.  Our farm was one of the older ones in this area and was once a fruit orchard, and we still have apple, pear and plum trees bearing fruit.

This is from the hilltop behind our house looking down on the back of the farmhouse - you can see the chicken house and our garage through the trees.

Now inside and here is my beautiful bouquet of 3 colors of Lilac from our garden - white, lavender and dark purple - and a bouquet of Lily-of-the-Valley I picked - and I cut the lilac too.

I wish you could smell my lilies.  Mmmmm.  In my glass lantern, I still have agates hubby and I found on the beach, some bits of driftwood, 2 fossils and a few bits of sea glass - and a tiny bird nest I found.

When I walk by this bouquet and put my face in the middle of it and let the fragrance wash over me.  When we bought this farm 28 years ago there was just ONE giant and venerable common lavender lilac, now I have 4 lavenders, 2 dark purples and one white.  I need a blue-toned one and a pink toned one.  Years ago I visited the Hulda Klager lilac gardens up in Washington and saw a tri-color bouquet in the farmhouse there and wanted to emulate it.  Success!

And so there you go.  My day yesterday.  I must say I love blogging as before I thought I lived a pretty run-of-the-mill, humdrum life - then when I started recording it and photographing it, it's made me appreciate all that I have around me and things to do..  sooOOOoo much more!!

Again - I want to thank those of you who visit my blog and those who take the time to leave me your adorable and heartfelt comments.  I treasure you!!  ((hugs))  Teresa