This is a mesmerizing tunnel of Christmas Lights at the Village Green’s holiday village in Cottage Grove. We have visited a couple of times since it began and each year it gets more elaborate and interesting. This year there were two lighted tunnels for the kids to zoom down at full-on warp speed! While we won’t be going this year,
What wonder to discover a whole ceiling full of rainbow umbrellas surrounded by dripping icicle lights! All of the little ones around could not stop staring in disbelief! This reminds me that the wonder of the holidays does not have to surround Christmas specifically — Santa, flying reindeer, candy canes, Christmas trees and presents are all part of the popular
The kids danced out of frame for long enough for me to snap a photo of this giant Christmas tree and some huge presents! We felt like mice on the floor in the living room. (Hope the cats don’t notice us!… 😉 ) This tree was so tall that it could be seen blocks away towering over the rooftops. I
Everyone needs Christmas presents! Even cats! Last year we wrapped catnip and toys up for our crazy cats to open… of course we couldn’t set the special presents out until after the Humans opened their presents, otherwise EVERY present would have been opened by cats. (Yes, there have been years when the cats have “helped” by opening all of the
Each year I come across at least one praying mantis. It is somewhat rare, though, and every time I normally stop in my tracks and stoop down to get a closer look. The size of the critter (probably 3-4 inches from noggin to butt) is always quite intimidating and I’ve never been one to pick up bugs if I’m not
We have a kid that is too old for pin the tail on the donkey, but not too old for a good birthday party game (hope that’s everyone, honestly — don’t ever get too old for a good birthday party game!!) A couple of birthdays back (since this one in 2020 sucked eggs for any kind of in-person parties) we
About a year and a half ago from this posting, we visited Addi’s diner in Springfield, Oregon, and tried to defeat the biggest pancake that I have ever seen! We failed pretty miserably. Even though it was darn good pancake, it took two of us to eat half of it! I would liked to have seen what they cooked this
Oregon is filled with surprising magical places, like Iris Vineyards tasting room and their lovely patio perched on a hillside, tucked away between the hills in the remote Lorane Valley. I saved this image to attempt to paint some version of it some day. I like the homey-ness of the door with the two potted plants at the end of
Sometimes very curious things happen in life — this was one of them. This little brown butterfly feller flew down and landed right by me. I picked him up and he tilted his wings to the side and seemed to give me the side-eye. He made no effort to fly away so I took a picture of him and put
Occasionally I see something that just strikes me as amusing… like this crow who flaunted the parking rules. One of the last times we visited old town Florence, Oregon, this crow was parked on this 30-minute only parking sign when we arrived. We went about our business for at least an hour… visiting all of our favorite trinket shops, the
These two tiny toadstools poked up through the fallen leaves to bask in the pale, late-autumn sunlight for a bit. They were so fragile that I doubt they lasted for an entire day before they crumbled away to nothing, so I feel very fortunate that I was even around to see them, let alone have my camera there to get
I was waiting for an appointment in a parking lot that is located several blocks south of a small municipal airport, when I heard what I thought was a helicopter coming in for a landing. When this strange contraption appeared from behind the trees, I was too stunned to take a picture of it. I thought I had lost my
