The Road Less Traveled

I stink.   Truly.  I stink of dead fish and squid and who knows what festering ick lived in the piles of debris in the driveway and drainage ditch in front of the house we worked at today. I pity whoever sits next to me on the plane home tomorrow.  I can only hope it’s one of my fellow Flight Friends who will understand, as I’ve washed my hands a half dozen times, I’ve showered, and still my hands stink of fish.  And I couldn’t care less.

Taking photos of our accomplishment during a rest break. That entire wet spot covering the ground was several feet deep in muck, consisting of everything from dead fish to soaked tatami mats, all stirred up in sea water and silt.

The details of our work project today, while incredibly relevant to those of us who did it, are probably not that exciting for others to hear.   (Though I was on such a high from the experience, I’m sure I seemed like a crazed babbling person sharing my stories with those I sat with when the half full bus from a different work project picked us up at the end of the day.)  More after the jump… (more…)

I met my hero today.   Several of them, in fact.  I was brought to tears several times by the stories they shared of their experiences helping tsunami and quake survivors in the villages of NE Japan.   Each of the four speakers at our Embassy briefing today has played a part in the collective response to the triple tragedy of March 11th.   The Ambassador himself, the gentleman who heads US-AID (Agency for International Development) in Japan, the Director of the Tokyo American Center, who volunteered through All Hands, and the Naval Commander who became my new hero for the day.

I didn’t have any expectations about the briefing before we went to it this morning.  (More after the jump…) (more…)

Harvest time along the Fruit Loop

I don’t like to say that any one season is my favorite, but I have to say that this particular fall has been especially beautiful.  I’ve been taking advantage of the fall colors to go out and practice my photography.   So recently I spent a wet weekend day driving the Fruit Loop with a new photography buddy, Brian. (Check out some of his stellar work here.)   For the uninitiated, the Fruit Loop is a 35 mile circuit through orchards, wineries, farms and fabulous fall colors starting in Hood River, Oregon.   (Read on after the break…) (more…)

I’m not really a gardener, as any of my friends could tell you.  But I do love flowers.  Years ago, during my Park Ranger days, I would lead folks on guided walks looking at wildflowers in the the meadows of the sub-alpine (at Olympic National Park) and the tundra (at Denali National Park), which I loved.  But gardening – not my thing.  That was until recently when I went to the Dahlia Festival in Canby recently.  WOW!

I always thought of dahlias as looking like this:

My image of what a dahlia looks like

Something with firm flower heads made up of tight little coiled tunnels that catch the rain.   Beautiful, but I thought that was pretty much it, in a variety of colors.  Well, not being a gardener I was delighted to discover that they range from delicate and graceful to huge and gaudy, and everything in between.

Who knew a dahlia could look like this?

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