I’ve been at my new job one month now and I’m delighted to report things still seem to be going well. This week OWEB had it’s board meeting, which I attended for part of a day as a spectator. During that time I saw presentations by our region reps about grants they were recommending for funding.

With this new information when I went for my Friday night hike at the little Metro rehab area on the way to the SEO barn, I looked at things with a new eye.

These logs have been placed in the stream to provide a place for fish to rest.

This wall of logs is another way to create nice, cool fish resting places. Because the logs protect the bank, the river gets deeper there and the fish hang out.

While this is a lovely scene at the end of my hike, the flatness and un-shady-ness is not ideal for fish; however, this area has been diverted from the main river and there are a bunch of logs in the area just above. So clearly some kind of planning is going on…?

In addition to these delightful pondering, I enjoyed the spring flowers in bloom.

I also caught a nice photo of a pair of tree swallows (so plentiful, but so hard to ID) actually perched.

After finishing my hike, I went to see the horses, then came home under an amazing sunset. This photo does NOT do it justice.

In the last two weeks of not posting, Canemah has emerged into bloom. Camas, fawn lilies, and even iris area out.

It was another drizzly day around here, but we made it out. The camas will be done soon, but everything is still stunning.

I am sure that the woodpecker pair I commented on a few weeks ago does have a nest in a tree hollow. When I stopped there today to take a look, I heard the faintest little cries coming from the tree. As the website says there incubation period is 11-12 days, that seems about right.

It’s been two weeks since I’ve posted. I don’t have a great excuse. I’ve done two paintings nights that I could have posted about (and hope to tomorrow). I’ve taken some walks and hikes. But mostly I’ve just been surviving.

Today was a rainy spring day, so I stayed in most of the day and worked on getting caught up with… well… everything. I did leave the house to give the dog a walk and I took my camera to capture the beauty of the neighborhood flowers.

That will have to do for a post!

I am sure I am not the only person who finds all sorts of fun things to do on Facebook and has a hard time following up on them. For a while now, I have wanted to take one of the monthly “walks” guided by the Native Plant Society of Oregon. Today that finally worked out for me and I went out to St. Helens to a little park called Nob Hill.

I wish I would have asked for a plant list, though I did pick up a nifty pamphlet by Metro I hadn’t seen before. With this pamphlet I hope to put formal names to some of the flowers I see around Canemah regularly.

On this hike, however, we saw white fawn lily (Erythronium oregonum), trillium, camas, strawberries, several types of ferns, ninebark, and lots of other things that unfortunately I am now having trouble remembering…

But the most exciting thing was seeing, for the first time, checker lilies (Fritillaria affinis).

Of course, after this reports of seeing the first osprey of the year completely pale. I also saw a cute little ruby crowned kinglet. But the checker lily was the most exotic.

At home in Canemah, Great Horned Owl let  me see him three times this week (with the time change I’ve been able to go after work; as it’s getting dark, he’s calling so I can find him easier). Vultures have returned and trillium are in bloom. The rain this week helped with the drought, but it’s going to be a tough summer for the frogs.

And I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print about today!

So, unusually, I had a free weekend. I had nothing scheduled, nothing to go to, nothing committed. For once, I wasn’t behind on some project and most things were in a stable state.

What should I do?

Too much.

Saturday I got up and went to the farmer’s market, then headed out to Sound Equine Options for regularly scheduled stall cleaning. On the way out to see the horses, we stopped for a quick hike; spring had definitely sprung.

After taking care of these errands, I buckled down to a task that’s been on my plate since the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in September: cleaning my fleece.

After some debate, I decided to try the instructs on this website and use my washing machine for cleaning duty.

First wash

Second Wash

Eventually the water looked better, so I moved the fleece to the garage for drying. JJ supervised and says so far so good. We won’t know how things turned out until it dries and I get it to the carding stage.

I decided not to bother with the skirt and put on a little trellis area in hopes the birds would use it for nesting material.

While waiting between washing stages, I continued my resolution to have a better yard this year. At the farmer’s market I purchased bags of hazelnut shells from He Sells These Shells and after weeding, spread them around my yard. Because spring is coming…

Sunday came and I apparently woke up without my brain. After church I took a quick hike in Canemah to admire more signs of springs and a lovely Ruby-Crowned Kinglet.

Then I decided to use the free ticket to the golf expo a co-worker gave me. My dad taught me to golf and in high school I was on the varsity team. While I gave up my clubs a few years ago, I inherited my dad’s clubs and I’ve been giving some thought to getting back into it. But I’m glad the ticket was free, because basically it was a lot of advertising and sales. I’ll sort through everything I collected and it may turn out I got a couple of free rounds, but other than that I didn’t learn anything too exciting.

I arrived home hoping to do some more gardening to a message from Three Rivers Artist Guild; I had COMPLETELY forgotten today was the drop off day for art going into our new gallery! I hustled down with no time to spare as the volunteers were just locking up. But I did make it.

From there it was back to gardening, then groceries, and now laundry.

Where did the weekend go?