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June 7, 2026June 7, 2026

A Trip to the Library

At least once a week we make the trek to the Crooked River. This week was no different.

That journey usually takes us past the site of Deschutes County’s new Central Library. It’s been under construction for a bit more than a year, but this month it opened.

The thing about libraries is that you don’t need to search through stacks to find a book, movie or magazine.

The internet has put the library online and most of our reading involves connecting to a website and downloading a borrowed e-book or audio book.

Physical books can be tracked via the library’s catalogue and a visit to our local branch makes pick up quick and easy.

But there is something nice about craning your neck reading titles on a row of books. You walk into the genre and start to find reads you never knew existed.

The apps, like Libby and Hoopla are great search tools. However, prowling the shelves of the library will often bring a forgotten author back to your attention or a book cover will spark your interest in ways no computer search can.

Lots of natural light and places to read

The new library is beautiful, as well as cleverly laid out.

Along the outside walls are massive windows and lots of nooks with comfortable chairs, desks and tables to review that stack of books you pulled.

Shelving takes up the middle ground and then in the center of each of the three floors are closed work spaces.

Some are staff offices, but many are study carrels, meeting spaces and even a MakerSpace.

Not sure we’ll visit there often, it’s kind of out of the way, but they did an excellent job of making a library that invites a visit.

May 31, 2026May 30, 2026

Rainy Days

Being retired allows you to pick and choose the activity, as well as the day.

The crux of this is . . . we avoid weekends and holidays, regardless of how nice the weather.

Not to begrudge the wage slaves their Memorial Day weekend, but as the campsites started to clear, the dark clouds rolled in.

Tuesday arrived blustery and gray, so by midweek the storm clouds had bunched up overhead and the rain moved in. This dampened our plans. But being resilient, we shifted to more home oriented projects and waited for the inevitable sun’s return.

Last week’s trip to Portland netted us a stack of light fixtures and accent pieces for our ongoing house update. Sooo . . . we spent some of those rainy days installing stuff.

Evening thunderstorms roll through, usually moving north or west along the eastern side of the Cascades. The sky opens up and for a few hours there is sunshine.

Summerlike weather is returning to the forecast next week, so we’re planning accordingly.

For now, we keep working through our house projects.

May 24, 2026May 23, 2026

Strawberries

Strawberries . . . the harbinger of summer we’ve been waiting for. We acquired a half flat of “fresh from the field” berries at Nanneman Farms stand on a brief road trip this week.

The weather has been a bit janky these last few weeks. We woke up to a fresh dusting of snow early this week. We were starting to think summer may never get started.

Then the days warmed and forecasts brightened. We figured it was a good time to head west over the mountains.

Portland, OR. street view from Powell’s City of Books

Our destination, Portland, Oregon . . . primarily to visit family and friends. We did manage a trip to Powell’s City of Books, all of which has been on the ‘to-do list’ for a few weeks.

For 30 years we lived on the edges of the Rose City, so there’s no novelty in a trip to the city, but Powell’s is difficult to replicate in any location.

Most of our reading material these days is supplied by the local library and a majority of that is ebooks. Technology has profoundly altered our relationship with books.

You don’t do a quick stop at a book store . . . especially this one.

Independent authors, which make up a large portion of our reading material, frequently only distribute via eBook. JQ has become an avid audio book “reader”.

So, between Libby.app, the county library system and Hoopla our reading material lives in a tablet or e-reader.

We’ll avoid the Cascade range passes as avenues of travel from November to May. However, when the fresh fruit comes into season the Willamette Valley becomes a destination . . . our “go to the source” location.

Moving between the high desert and the coastal rain forest makes the trip that much more interesting.

As we get into the heart of fruit and produce season there will be more quick trips to the farm stands in the valley.

Nanneman Farms in particular offers seasonal berry varieties you’ll never see on the shelves of your local mega-mart.

May 17, 2026May 16, 2026

The Edge of Summer

Snowmelt fills the small ponds along Cascade Lakes Highway.

It got 80 degrees out this afternoon, but the day started just above freezing.

It’s a time between lingering winter storms and full on summer heat . . . the shoulder of summer to lean on.

Upper Deschutes River was clear of snowpack early this year

School is still in session, vacationers are at minimal numbers, and the weather is typically sunny, but nearly always dry. This year we’re able to get into the Cascades nearly a month early.

That will likely come back to bite us before summer’s end. For now, we pull on a sweater as we leave the house, knowing it will be shed when the day warms.

The aspen’s leaves have started to obscure the tiny song birds queued up for a turn at the feeder.

Rabbit Brush, an invasive species, carpets the pine forest with bright yellow . . . for a few weeks in the spring

Small yellow blossoms cover the rabbit brush, so the wooded lot across the street has a golden carpet for a few weeks.

There are wildflowers coming up on the canyon walls and pretty soon the wild iris will add patches of light purple to the riparian.

Birds are paired and fledglings are starting to join in the swim or take flight.

All too soon we’ll be hunkered under broad brimmed hats and tucked into whatever shade we can capture from the junipers.

But in these few weeks we are at peak outdoor time and intend to enjoy every minute

May 10, 2026May 9, 2026

Spring Birding Trip

Trying to put a name to what we just saw

Our first spring visit to Summer Lake was this week. It’s not much later than normal, but this has been anything but a typical wiinter/spring transition.

Regardless, it’s a great half-day drive.

Lord of the reeds . . . Yellow-headed Blackbird

Oregon is a premier birding state, not because of a single site, but because there is such a diversity of habitats.

Coastal rainforests, mountain meadows, and sagebrush steppe all situated on the Pacific Flyway.

How do they manage that perch? Red-winged Blackbird

Central Oregon is on the northern edge of the Great Basin and offers a number of alkali marshlands as ideal birding sites.

Most people think of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge when you mention birding the high desert. And while that’s a massive reserve, at 187,000 acres, it’s not our top pick.