Happy Friday. I’m so inspired by the beauty of the ocean and nature. Have a great weekend.
Roadtrip retrospective 2, Oregon
Entering Oregon, the trees change from redwoods to pines and other trees. It struck me as odd that the trees would be so different in two such close neighboring states. I think the redwoods need something in California, fog probably. The August edition of Scientific American has an article called Forests on the March.
Trees can’t walk to a better place as climate worsens. So scientists are relocating helpful genes instead.
Highway 101 takes you up a long winding mountain pass in Oregon where you can see mountains with forests everywhere. On the rise, you can see the mosaic patterns caused by clearcutting and reforestation.
http://oregonforests.org/content/clearcutting
I saw where paper and wood come from: Oregon. We kept seeing lumber trucks in Oregon and in Washington. I’m rethinking my paper towel usage and continuing not to use much paper. It’s so great that with electronics, writers don’t need as much paper. I see big changes happening in energy and resource use and am excited to be part of progress.
Oregon has peaceful, beautiful forests. When visiting the Columbia River Gorge, we stopped at The Vista House.

We couldn’t hike the steep trail due to knee problems, so we meandered around the level path, coming out into the opening over the Columbia River just as a Bald Eagle soared by! I didn’t have the camera with the powerful zoom, but I snapped it. As a wise blogging friend once relayed, “The best camera for the picture is the one you have with you.”



I wanted to capture the bird calls and the aromas for you, but no camera can capture those. This is what it looked like. Imagine warm fresh air and bird chatter.

We spotted what we think was the bald eagle nest. It looks small, but it was at least a mile away, so to look this big, even with an 80x zoom, it very well might have been its nest.

Here are some more photos of the beautiful Columbia River Gorge in Oregon:






I’ve realized how much I like nature. They’ve discovered just how good it is for one’s health to walk in nature. Check out this article:
How Walking in Nature Changes the Brain
Mist over the mountain
This is a very short video to show you the pretty mist yesterday.
Today was snowing and blowing, so it was a good day to finish up some indoor projects.
The news is that California is due for an average or even an above average amount of precipitation over the next three months. I’m told as California goes, so goes Australia, so here’s hoping for a (gentle) end to the drought here, and in Australia.
Good morning busy bees
I haven’t posted in a few days. I was lacking motivation, but this morning I went out with the camera. Here is a compound photo, created using my favorite aspects of three photos and three software applications.
I was up and out early enough to catch wild bees at work.
I have a visual image in my mind I want to create. I wanted to do it with a tulip, but I have noticed in looking through my photographs of tulips, that tulips grow straight up. In fact, it seems like almost all flowers aggressively seek the sun with an unequivocal upward open thrust. This was a thought-provoking and enlightening realization, however, I wanted a lazy floppy flower. This morning to my surprise, I found one right outside my door. Oleander!
For some reason, it had to face to the left. No problem. I took the picture as it was, then flipped it. This approximates, somewhat, what I had in my mind.
Power (and art self-education continued)…
The next photo is out of focus, but included for comparison to the featured photo.
I prefer the featured photo’s composition. It looks lonely to me, and dramatic. The emphasis on the branch in the foreground in the latter picture reduces that effect, to me.
The next photo has GIMP color enhance applied, as well as white balance. All of the others have white balance only.
Take a walk in the park… Rancho San Antonio, Cupertino, California
Note: All tree closeups I owe to sethsnap.com for teaching me to see “tree art.” http://sethsnap.com/2013/02/16/tree-art-of-halls-creek/.
















