Sunny and 80, TWO DAYS IN A ROW!!!

While the rest of the country has been sweltering in 100 degree heat, it's pretty much been 60 and drizzling here since June. (Before that it was 50 and drizzling, etc.) But this weekend finally felt like summer!!! Woke up this morning to actual thunder and lightning though, and it's raining again now. *sigh*

But while the sun WAS shining, Stan & I spent Saturday morning puttering about the yard. Stan built a step up to the gazebo out of scrap wood from Claire's house and then spent the rest of the morning, well, breaking stuff.

First he "fixed" the bump on the gazebo floor where the deck has settled more than the posts. (This is right where you step into the "front door" of the gazebo.) It was only a little bump, not really bothering anything... But Stan wanted to cut a chunk out of the decking, grind the post down, and then screw the small chunk of deck back down. I wasn't so fond of that idea, and said I thought we really need to take the whole plank up and do it right, like we did with the one in the middle. Next thing I know, he's got a circular saw out, running it sideways between the deck and the post, trying to slice the post off that way!!! What he succeeded in doing was mangling the front beam of the deck. Then he put a bunch more screws in the deck to hold it to the post. So now there's a dip in the deck, screws sticking up where they didn't quite go in right (he didn't use deck screws...) and a big mess of patching material on the face beam that looks like a heron pooped on it or something!!! But there isn't a bump anymore... *face palm*

Then he went to work assembling his new Road Trip Grill. Which he broke the handle off of before it was even fully assembled. Then he tried to glue the handle while the grill was hot and got a big glob of permanent glue stuck on top. Then while we were toting it off to Woodlawn Park the screws fell out of the legs and it crashed and got all scratched up and broke the handle again. Then when we were done he put it on the back seat of the KIA where the grease pan leaked all over the car. REALLY wasn't his day...

BUT.... We were going to Woodlawn Park to see TREK IN THE PARK which makes everything better!!! Stan and I arrived about 1:30 for the 5pm show and got one of the last spots in the amphitheater! By 2pm everyone else had to sit in the field behind the stage. They are considering moving to a bigger venue next year because it has gotten so popular. People apparently were showing up at noon to claim seats even last week when it was raining. Anyway, Natalie and Phil joined us soon after and we had a cookout while we waited for show time. (Stan's grill functioned admirably despite the rough treatment, and Natalie & Phil are officially not a couple but still hanging out all the time anyway. Go figure.)

Trek was fabulous of course, and we had a marvelous time! "Mirror, Mirror" was the episode they did this year. Very creative as always. There's a part where the crew beams up from the planet and ends up on the parallel universe "evil" Enterprise, complete with different uniforms. You know how the "beaming" in the show looked like swirling sparklies? Well, they accomplished this on stage by having girls in sparkly, Treky costumes that ran around the beaming crew, changing parts of the uniforms on the crew as they went around!

Fabulous fun, and more lounging in the backyard until bedtime, enjoying every last moment of sun.

Then Sunday we woke up to more sun!!! Church, then went to Fred Meyer, then Stan & I went hiking up to Angel's Rest. Which is a much nicer hike when it's not raining. And you can see more than just clouds at the top. It's still very "up" though, but we are trying to get in shape for a Mazama mountain climbing trip to the Steens Mountains in a month. Anyway, had lunch at the top of Angel's Rest before heading home and an afternoon nap.

For dinner, Colleen and Maria came over and Stan barbequed in the back yard. I'd forgotten that the girls haven't seen the yard in a while, and they were surprised at the path and vegetable garden, etc. (They both missed Patrick's birthday party as Maria was at U of O, and Colleen was still in China.) We got to hear some more of Colleen's China trip and some about the Art Camp that Maria is working at this summer as a counselor. It sounds a lot like the Rock & Roll Camp that Eli used to go to actually.

In other news of Stan's kids, Patrick and Alisha finally set a wedding date of July 15th next year. And Alex broke his foot playing soccer and is in a walking boot type cast for the rest of the summer.

Oh, yeah, and Nick got his driver's license. On the first try. (It really helped that I know the basic route they use and had him practice that a lot. But he believes it's just because he's awesome.) Now I'm going to start teaching Maria to drive, starting tomorrow!

I'm also working at JaCiva's on Wednesday, filling in for Mimi who's got some appointment, and Tami can't fill in because she's got some wedding related appointment to go to. A few extra dollars helps as long as I can still walk afterward!

Last week I redecorated the utility room. It's now kinda cute instead of "industrial" as Lindsay put it. Nick and I painted it turquoise with a bit of pale pink trim (that 50's Florida look, lol!), cleaned off the shelves, and got turquoise baskets to put everything up on the wire shelves on, and made curtains. I like it!

And perhaps the sun will come back again tomorrow...

Little Mexico

So... the day after backpacking I headed off on a mission trip with the church group to a Los Embajadores site. This is the group we usually make the Mexico mission trips with. However, with the way things are along the border these days, they've decided that it's too dangerous to take other people's kids down there. So they started a program last year in Woodburn, Oregon. There is a very large farm worker/migrant population there. Old Town Woodburn even looks much like Mexico with all the shops and eateries and signs in Spanish. Except there's toilet paper and you can drink the water.

There were 17 high school kids and 3 chaperones. (One of the chaperones was Sharon Stevenson from OLS--we had a fun time together.) We slept on the floor of an office in an apartment complex built specifically to house farm workers and their families.

We spent most mornings working at a construction site near PCUN (which is a farm workers' union and service organization) which will house several different service agencies when it is finished. They also have a radio station there. (Some of the kids went on the air on a talk show one day.) They are building a "passive energy" building mostly on volunteer labor. Then in the afternoons we went to a community center in another apartment complex similar to the one we were staying in. They have a community center there and an activities program for the local kids similar to Portland Parks & Rec's summer programs. Complete with free lunch, which is what we ate every day, lol!!! (The boys had a chicken nugget eating contest one day with the leftovers. The results were not pretty...)

Then before dinner we had presentations on various issues such as agricultural work issues, immigration and border issues, etc. Then we'd have a fabulous dinner prepared for us by some local women at PCUN! Then in the evenings we had more presentations, discussions, etc, and also some fun time. Went swimming at the local pool (only place we could find to get a shower!), listened to a mariachi band in the park one night, went to the fireworks show in another park, and went out for ice cream at a Mexican nieveria. (I had one dip of Sweet Corn ice cream and one of Mexican chocolate... YUM!)

The most interesting and hard day was when we went to spend a day in the fields! The kids were saying how it would be so much fun to work in the fields picking berries and such. So the program coordinator said well, that could be arranged! Berry picking didn't work out, though, as strawberries were just finished and blueberries hadn't started yet. So we went to St. Josef's winery and pruned grapevines a good part of the day! I found it very interesting. But boy were we sore afterwards, as it was kind of like doing squats for 6 hours straight!!!

On Friday night we went to a party/discussion group/open mike night at PCUN. Javier (one of the guys that worked there and a frequent speaker and runs the radio station) made ceviche with tofu instead of fish that was FABULOUS!! It was the biggest pot of ceviche imaginable!! Erubiel (in charge of the construction) played the guitar, a song that he had written in honor of the last Space Shuttle flight. Then one of Javier's friends named Rudolfo taught us some Merenge dancing, which was fun but pretty hilarious. Especially as everyone was really sore and some of the moves would have all of us groaning at the same time! Then Javier's son tried to teach us some traditional Mexican dancing (he's like 11 years old and actually dances professionally). That was REALLY hilarious as he is like 11 going on 35 and was REALLY trying to be positive and encouraging even as we were obviously failing miserably. It's kind of like Irish dancing with much fancy footwork.

Anyway, it was a great week. Got home about midnight Friday, then out the door at a bit after 4am to head to the Kent, Washington dragon boat race!! Weather was beautiful, and I ended up racing on two teams. The Bridge City Gold women's team was in need of a few more paddlers. Gold is their recreational team, Blue is their competitive team. (Blue was full of women who all look like Jill Marie, Heather's old amazingly fit swim coach.) No medals, but we came very close to one in the women's division!

Sunday we mostly had a lazy day puttering about the house. The weather has been beautiful this week. About 80 and sunny most of the time. Summer might actually be here soon!! We went to church, then stopped at a farmer's market in the Woodstock area. Got a bunch of veggies, and some of the last of the Oregon strawberries (which I am about to turn into strawberry/raspberry/rhubarb pie). Spent the afternoon in the back yard doing things like shelling peas and hanging laundry out to dry. Made a big stir fry for dinner out of some of the veggies. Oh, I now have some corn growing along with my pumpkins. Either the squirrels or jays have been taking corn out of the feeder and burying it, and some started growing in one of my newly started flower areas. So I just transplanted them to the raised beds. We'll see if the growing season is long enough to get any corn!

BTW, Heather-- as I am writing I am munching on Choc-kits and drinking some kind of wine from South Africa that has a cheetah on the label, lol!

Let's see... any other news...? Hiked up Mt. Tabor with Natalie this morning despite my still sore leg muscles. Bought "event chairs" today (the short sand chair type of folding chairs) for going to Trek in the Park next weekend and a Peter Frampton concert next month! Lindsay and Sawyer's wedding is this coming Saturday, which I will leave the Highland Games a bit early for. Jaxom will be visiting from Arizona, so Therese and I will be at the Games with the boys. Well, not Nick as he is Lindsay's "Man of Honor" so will be occupied with wedding stuff all day, lol! Eli is supposed to leave to the Navy on July 26th, I believe. Nora is supposed to get her nun's habit and a new nun name on July 27th. I don't think there's much else to share, and I'm rather tired of removing Sophie from the keyboard so I think I shall wrap this up. Adios!

Instant Karma, Parkour Beetle, and It's a Small World After All..

It actually turned into summer a few days early here in Oregon!! It's been almost 80 and sunny since July 1st, and here it is the 4th and still sunny! Weird! Anyway, we took advantage of the weather and went backpacking!

Headed out to the Clackamas River for a fairly flat hike at a low elevation so at least we wouldn't freeze overnight. Nick and I had been talking about an overnight backpack for a couple weeks but the weather kept turning nasty. Since it was now a weekend, we talked Stan into going, too. Lucky thing for us, too-- I had been reading the map to the trailhead upside-down and would have been about 25 miles off on locating it!!

So we did arrive, and headed out, trudging up every slight incline as if it were a mountain. About halfway to our destination, I started getting a blister and stopped to put on some moleskin. Stan HATES stopping for anything while hiking. I sat down on a kinda tippy log. While waiting Nick sat next to me and Stan was on the far end of the same log. When I was ready, I got up, Nick got up, and the log shifted and sent Stan rolling off backward!! He ended up in a berry bush patch like a turtle on its back--arms and legs flailing as he had the full backpack on! He was kinda grumpy about it until we got him up, relatively unscathed. Then he laughingly admitted he should have seen that coming. He sat in that spot purposely trying to tip the log up with me on it, but Nick had sat down first and it wouldn't move!! Instant Karma's gonna get you every time, lol!

Once at our charming little campsite by the river, we made dinner and hung out. We were greatly entertained by a wacky beetle that wanted to hang out in the middle of camp. Stan had used a stick to stir dinner with, and this beetle found the stick and absolutely WALLOWED all over it! Then he'd go plow directly through nearby sticks and rocks and barkdust to check out the other sticks in the area. None of them were apparently as exciting, so shorly he'd barrel directly back to the yummy stick and wallow some more! It was amazing the direct line over, under, and through everything he would take! Eventually Stan moved our Parkour Beetle and his favorite stick out of camp so we didn't accidently step on him.

It was amazing how it was a sunny 4th of July weekend and almost no one else was out hiking there. While we were camping, we only had one hiker go by on the trail. He gave a perfunctory "hi", and Nick said "hello". Then they both stopped and went, "WAIT!" "WHAT?" "WHAT?" "REALLY?" "HEY!!!" Turns out Nick knows him from PSU where they are both Geology majors, LOL!!!

So... It was a really nice time, though somehow I tweaked my back and I'm REALLY sore this morning. Not good timing as I'm leaving this afternoon for a week long mission trip with teens from church. Ce la vie...

Cats Everywhere!

The folks across the street have an additional cat AND 4 kittens now! The kittens are of course DARLING! They are about 11 weeks old and just now starting to hang out outside. Apparently Mr. T won't go in the house with them, which is why we've seen him hanging out more lately. Anyway, the momma cat is mostly medium-haired black with what looks like brownish fuzzy riding chaps on, and is named...(wait for it....)

BLACKIE!

That's Blackie with Maleka, and Baby rolling around in the background.

Then Blackie has 4 kittens. Three of them are black.


One looks just like his momma and the other 2 look just like Rhys as a baby, awwwwww......!

And then there's the last one...

Does this little guy look like Sophie or what?

By the way, Professor McGonagall still hangs out each morning.



And so do the teenager crows. :-)

Birds of Namibia 2

Here are a handful of additional birds to look for in the thornveld of Namibia...

Acacia Pied Barbet
About 7 inches long. It is colored with a red forehead, bright yellow eyebrow, and broad white stripe behind the eye. It has a black throat, white underparts and a black back with narrow yellow streaking. The immature has a black, not red, forehead. The call of this species is either a nasal "nehh-nehh", repeated at intervals, or a hoopoe-like "doo-doo-doo". Found alone or in pairs in dry broad-leafed woodland, thornveld and scrub, this common resident avoids true desert.

African Hoopoe
About 11 inches long, this species is easily identified by the combination of a cinnamon-colored body, black and white barred wings and tail, and long decurved bill. The female is duller than the male withless white in the wings; the immature is duller than the female. The black-tipped crest is often kept closed but when the bird is alarmed it is held erect. Its call is a soft, frequently uttered "hoop-hoop-hoop". This common resident inhabits thornveld, open broadleafed woodland, parks and gardens. (This bird is frequently mentioned in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books.)

Cardinal Woodpecker
Just 6 inches long, this is the smallest woodpecker in the region. It appears black and white all over. The male has a brown forehead and a red nape (back of the neck); the female lacks the red nape. The immature has a red crown and a black nape. This bird is sometimes difficult to locate, but its incessant soft tapping on wood and high-pitched "krrrek-krrrek-krrrek" call reveal its position. It frequents a wide range of habitats from thornveld to thick forest.

Lesser Honeyguide
Overall a dull, greyish bird with an unmarked grey head, a greenish wash on the wing coverts, dark moustachial stripes and conspicuous white outer-tail feathers. The immature lacks the moustachial stripes of the adult. This bird is easily detected by its distinctive "klew klew klew" call. It occurs in woodland, forsts and thornveld, and has adapted to suburban gardens. This common resident is often seen interacting with its host, the Acacia Pied Barbet.

Redbilled Hornbill
About 18 inches long. Similar to the Southern Yellowbilled Hornbill, this species has a shorter, more slender, all-red bill. It is also slightly smaller. The display call is a "kokwe-kokwe-kokwe"; in calling display the head is lowered and the wings held closed. This bird usually occurs singly or in pairs in thornveld and mopane woodland and is the most common small hornbill in the central and northern areas.

Heather, Do What I Say, Not What I Do!

Yeah, ok, so I haven't posted anything in a week and a half. Sorry, it's just that SOOOOO much excitement has been going on here... *yawn*

So, briefly, what's been happening here the last couple weeks, in no particular order...

Finally planted some vegetables in the raised beds I built last year! One of them now contains cauliflower, green onions, leeks, artichoke, anaheim pepper, and a bunch of different kinds of tomatoes. The other one is planted to attract The Great Pumpkin come fall. It has 3 different pumpkin plants and some seeds for a 4th variety. And one butternut squash. Sure to be "The Most Sincere" pumpkin patch!!

Speaking of Pumpkins, we joined a local farm produce co-op thing (there's an actual name for it but I forget...), so we get a random box of whatever is being harvested that week on the farm. And The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island is "our" farm! We got strawberries this week, which are FINALLY getting ripe. Usually the local strawberry season is done by now, but the weather is still like early May perhaps. Anyway, so far we've also got rhubarb, bok choy, salad greens, onions, broccoli, cabbage, and radishes from the farm.

Like I said, it's not particularly warm here yet, but at least the incessant rain has many more long pauses now. On the official first day of summer, it actually got up to 80 degrees!! That is the 3rd day so far this year that it hit 80. We've only had 12 days that hit 70. It's mostly about 65 and cloudy now. Anyway, with the decrease in rain, I've been getting out and doing much more exercise. Natalie and I have been walking up Mt. Tabor together 2 or 3 times a week. Nick and I went on a 15 mile bike ride on that glorious sunny first day of summer. (BTW, we actually saw a raccoon and a heron along the Springwater Trail bike path!) Stan and I have joined the Stumptown dragonboat team for the summer, and will be racing in Kent, Washington in a couple weeks. Ohhhhh I got spoiled being the tiller this season! I am NOT in good paddling shape! Also trying to get to yoga and pilates classes in the mornings still. Anyway, while I have lost about 8 pounds (combining work outs and Weight Watchers) I have gained a rather sore hip this week. :-(

I also have Nick working on house projects. He finished edging the planting area along the back wall with paving bricks, and is working a bit at a time on Heather's favorite project--beating dirt out of removed sod so it can go away in the yard debris recycling, YAY! :-)

Last weekend it did rain a lot on Saturday, and Stan decided to rearrange all the furniture! :-/ So now Heather's room is the tv room, (even from halfway around the world I'm bracing for the "WOT???????") and the living room is all twisted around. It all looks rather strange, especially as all the pictures are on the walls in rather odd places now. Don't want to rehang everything until we decide if it's actually staying this way for a while.

For Father's Day we hosted a brunch with all the kids currently in the country. Plus Alex's girlfriend Alix. (Who we hope will be "one of the kids" someday!) Maria made the most amazing cake!! She is quite artistic in many media! Stan really wanted to go to this automobile exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, but as it turned out, all the tickets were sold out. (It's a timed-entry affair.) So I guess they're going next Saturday. Oh, yeah, and Colleen is coming back from China on Friday next week! Once again, she actually arrives in Seattle before she leaves Beijing!

For the local wildlife report, it is crow fledging season, with the adults yelling and dive-bombing people, and many teenager crows flapping about being comically klutzy and disheveled and yelling "MEH" at people. We have this orange and white cat in the neighborhood that has taken to spending the morning sitting on our garden wall by the street. I keep suspecting Professor McGonagall is looking for someone. Maybe Jacob's destined for Hogwarts, lol!!! And one morning this week, when I hadn't seen Sophie for a while (our indoor cat), I heard banging and scratching on our front screen door. I went to tell Sophie to knock it off! She likes to hang out on the front porch and occasionally climb the screen. But she wasn't on the porch. So I looked outside to see what was making the noise, expecting to see Mr. T, the cat across the street. But NOOOOO, I look out and see SOPHIE sitting on our front steps yelling at me!! Not sure how she got out or how long she'd been outside....

Been reading the most fascinating book about the influenza epidemic of 1918. Picked it up because I'm trying to alternate "meaty" books with "junk food" ones. And it looked kinda interesting. And it was a dollar at the church book sale. Anyway, more about that later perhaps.

Today, tried to do my nails (FAIL!!), went to yoga, then Costco, then went and got my nails professionally done (keeps me from chewing on them), then to the nearby fruit & veggie stand, home for lunch (smoothie!!!), now blogging since I tell Heather I want to see hers twice a week and here it's been way longer than that for me, next up is walk to Fred Meyer for assorted items on the grocery list, then make dinner and a strawberry-rhubarb pie, then dragonboat practice! I told Nick we'd go on an overnight backpack hike tomorrow, so I better do some prep for that as well. Probably ought to water flowers, too. They've been predicting rain for 3 days straight, but there's only been clouds so far. Must run or the pie won't happen and Oregon strawberries, though way delicious, have a notoriously short shelf life! TTFN!

Birds of Namibia

Here's a few birds for Heather to look for in Namibia! I'm starting with some medium-sized birds that my book says live in the CCF area and may have some green on them...

Diederik Cuckoo
(7 inches long)

This bird can be distinguished by the contrasting bottle-green and white plumage, broad white eye-stripe, white spots on the forewing and red eye. The immature has a conspicuous red bill. During the summer the 'dee-dee-dee-deederic' call is heard around the colonies of the weavers and bishops that these birds parasitize. This common summer visitor occurs in open grasslands with stands of trees, in thornveld and exotic plantations, avoiding extreme arid regions.

European Bee-eater (11 inches long)

This is the only bee-eater in the region with a chestnut crown and mantle. In flight a dazzling array of colors can be seen; it has a chestnut to golden back contrasting with torquoise-blue underparts and almost translucent rufous wings. The immature differs from the adult by having a green back and pale blue underparts. Groups in flight utter a far-carrying, policeman's whistle-like, characteristic 'prrrup' call. This common summer visitor occurs in thornveld, open broad-leafed woodland and adjacent grassy areas.

Swallowtailed
Bee-eater (9 inches long)

This is the only bee-eater in the region to have, as the name indicates, a forked tail. It is also identified by its yellow throat, blue collar, blue-green underparts and blue tail. The immature shows the forked tail, but lacks the yellow throat and blue collar. It utters a soft twittering, and calls 'kwit-kwit'. A common resident of Namibia, this bird frequents a diverse range of habitats from semi-desert scrub to moist, evergreen forests.

Lilacbreasted Roller (13 inches long)

In flight this bird shows a range of pale and dark blues in the wings. The lilac breast and elongated, pointed outertail feathers can be seen at rest. The immature resembles the adult, but lacks the long outertail feathers. When displaying, the male utters harsh squawks and screams. It occurs in a range of habitats from thornveld to open broadleafed woodland and is frequently seen on telephone wires and poles along roadsides. It is common in the more wooded and thornveld regions of Namibia.

Purple Roller (13 inches long)

This is the largest roller in southern Africa and is easily identified by its broad, pale eyebrow stripe and lilac-brown underparts streaded with white. The immature is a duller version of the adult. In display flight this bird utters a harsh, repeated 'karaa-karaa' while flying with an exaggerated, side-to-side rocking motion. It is found in dry thornveld and open broad-leafed woodland. This roller is a common resident in Namibia, with some local movement in certain areas of the region.

Soooo, the first couple of birds turn out to be listed as summer birds, but sounds like the others hang about year-round. The crimson-breasted shrike is listed as about 9 inches long, btw. I'm guessing the common green birds around CCF are Swallowtailed Bee-eaters, but let me know!