Tell Me a Story May 2015

Bullard's Beach State Park

Flowers and More

We went camping at Bullard's Beach State Park on the Oregon Coast (where I live) and took a 4 mile walk/hike on Wednesday.  There were wild flowers blooming everywhere and initially that's what I thought my blog would be on and it is, except I've thrown in some other interesting (I think) things.

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I came across this sign and thought it was pretty interesting and I've taken a couple of the Camas flowers that accompanies this sign.

A beautiful Camas by itself

 A field of Camas

We continued our walk and found some beautiful little flowers.  Not sure of the name of all of them but I will attempt to name them.

 I thought this was some sort of wild clover, but I'm not entirely sure.

 This was growing right in the sand.  They are called beach morning glory.

 I love these tiny heart shaped bells.  They are called Salal.

 I believe this is seashore lupine.

For the life of me, I could not find the name of this flower.  I used this website to identify some of the images listed:

http://www.pnwflowers.com/ 

 Wild Iris

Wild Radish

 This is Scotch Broom and although it's very pretty and comes in all yellow blooms as well, this is an invasive weed to our area.  We pull it up out of our property.  I'm sure one day it will take over everywhere, thereby eliminating all other flowering plants.

Scotch Broom flowers.

A few more images of our walk in no particular order.

 This is a "by the wind sailor".  Read about these beautiful creatures here:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150420-velella-jellyfish-pictures-california-beach-ocean-animals-science/

 Looking back toward where we travelled.  We picked up ticks in this area we believe.  Nasty little bugs.  Thank goodness we got them all off the dog and ourselves!

 Just some interesting grass I played with.

 Hub found this rusted something or other.  Kind of looked like a drain out of a ship or something!

 I have never seen tops ends of pine tree branches red!

 On the way back to the trailer, we went thru this tunnel of trees.

"Uncooked" pine cones?

This plant was growing up towards the sun.  The very ends of it were red and I thought it was very pretty!  Not sure what it is.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~Anais Nin



Tell Me A Story - April 2015 - A Windy Day at the Playground

I went to Minot AFB, North Dakota to watch my granddaughter Emily, while her mom and dad went to a conference in Virginia.  She LOVES going to the park and we tried to go everyday, but boy was it windy out.  This day we went to the "froggy" park as she calls it. 

Minot AFB has tons of playgrounds in its housing area.  This is the "froggy" park so dubbed by Emily!  Balancing on a beam takes "talent".

Peek-A-Boo (yes we had a bit of a runny nose)

I love this image.  Her face was full of joy as she went down the slide!

 Wild haired girl, Getting ready to go down the slide!

Do I have piggy whips (lips) Grandma?

Last swing of the day.  Swing me HIGHER Grandma!  I admit I was afraid to let her go too high! I also should have put her hair in a pony tail or braid!

A sunset at the end of our day made it special.  These were taken from the back of my sons house.


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 Beth Williams - Venice, Italy

Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation. ~Lois Wyse

 

Tell Me a Story March 2015

Heceta Head State Park and Bed & Breakfast

Our excursion this month was something we've always wanted to do, stay at Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast.  There are six rooms in the house with 3 being on each side.  Our bedroom (Mariner's II) is the top right looking at the house.  The house was originally the assistant light keepers house and was a duplex of sorts.  Over the years it has been many different things including classrooms for college classes.  If you ever get to the coast of Oregon, this is a MUST see. Here is the link to the bed and breakfast.

http://hecetalighthouse.com/bed-breakfast

The view from our room

 

One of the parlors looking towards the front of the house

This cat belonged to the light keepers (husband and wife) whose quarters were below the B&B in the basement.  We were sitting in the chairs above enjoying the view when he came and sat on the porch.  Was taken through old distorted glass.

The other end of the parlor looking towards the diningroom where we were served the most delicious 7 course breakfast in the morning!

An old organ in the other parlor (remember it use to be a duplex where two families lived)

Fireplace in 2nd parlor. Me in the mirror!

A replica of a captain's wheel on the fireplace mantle

 

An old Remington Standard Typewriter No. 7 in the corner of the diningroom.  I can almost remember typing on this but not quite! HA

Some old bottles and lanterns above the cupboards in the guest shared kitchen

When we left to go to dinner south of the lighthouse, we stopped at the turnout and saw some sea lions playing in the water.  You can see them in the lower right sunbathing in the glorious sun that day.

Waving from the Water

Frolicking in the surf 

 

Lighthouse on the left and the B&B on the right.

After dinner, we walked up to the lighthouse.  Sunset was beautiful!

This was the crowning glory in my opinion.  Heceta Head Lighthouse beckoning sailors safely home. 

The next morning, we took a walk around the grounds and the tulips were blooming

I hope you enjoyed my photos.  To enjoy more photos and blog, please visit my fellow photographer:

Beth Williams/Budapest, Hungary

Thus he struggled, by every method, to keep his light shining before men. Surely the lighthouse-keeper has a responsible, if an easy, office. When his lamp goes out, he goes out; or, at most, only one such accident is pardoned. ~Henry David Thoreau

Tell Me a Story February 2015 - The Sweetest Creek of All

 

Sweet Creek, OR is east of Florence, OR near Mapleton.  Our weather has been gorgeous so we took advantage of that and decided to go to Sweet Creek and Old Town Florence on Saturday, February 21st.  What a treat the day was.  We picked up my brother and sister in law where they camp host in Winchester Bay and headed North.  The skies were blue and it was a cool 50 something degrees. 

 

I had decided to NOT bring my tripod on this trip thus no silky waterfall photos that I love.  I also only took my 50mm 1.4 lens.  I kind of regretted not bringing my 18-200mm lens but such is life.

 

One of the falls along Sweet Creek. I stitched 6 images together to make this panoramic image.

 

 Someone put these Cairns up by the creek.  I thought it was interesting.

 

 

 

 Mushroom growing out of a tree stump.  I loved the swirly pattern on the top of the cap.

 

 My husband with his walking stick and the falls in the background.

 

 Another mushroom growing out of an old stump.

 

 This looked like a huge turtle head to me.

 

My husband walking down to my very favorite place to take photos of the creek.  There is a flat spot you can sit with your tripod and camera to the right of him when the water flow is a little less than it was this time of year.

 

Old Town Florence

 

When we were done with our hike along Sweet Creek, we decided to go walk around old town Florence and have some lunch.  We parked and starting walking towards town when out of the public parking lot came a string of old restored cars.  I'm not sure what they are, but I was able to take 3 images below.

 

We ate lunch at the Bridgewater Ocean Fresh Fish House.  It was delicious! I had the Mandarin Avocado Blue Cheese Poppy Seed Salad which was a bed of fresh romaine lettuce. Also had red onion and hazelnuts tossed with a sweet poppy seed dressing.  I chose to add chicken to my salad.  Oh my was it ever a treat! I would go eat here again and again!

 

The Kyle Building is historically the most significant building in the Florence-Mapleton area. Named after William J. Kyle, a Scotsman who came to Florence in1884, it is considered a dassic example of the false­ fronted general stores build during the early pioneering days of the West Coast. It remains virlually the same as it was when it was built in 1901.  It was added to the National Historic Registry on December 2, 1981

 

A view of the north end of the bridge over the Suislaw River on Hwy 101.



 I've never seen the draw bridge open for a boat before.  I was excited to see it and to get an image.  Suislaw River

 

Since the weather was so nice, bikers were out in force.  They were LOUD but fun to see.  Here is another old car that was parked on the street.

 

These were in front of a storefront and sun shining thru the color just captured my eye.

 

 We had a thoroughly exhausting, but fun day.  This was the view back to the parking lot.

 

 This is not my photo, but here is a photo of me and hubby.  It was taken by my sister in law, Laura with her iPhone!

 

 

 

 

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. ~Louisa May Alcott

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