HelenaPF's favorite photos

(+2 insets) (view large for the best detail!) It was so pretty this morning with the sun shining brightly and so lovely to be outside as the world was waking up around me. Well, ok--to be honest, when I begin my walk at an early time like today it's 7:30am and the sunrise ship has already sailed away two hours before! But I'm sorry, 5:30am is officially "0-dark-hundred" and that is no time for a sane person to be getting up! At least, not in my mind, anyway! Heh...I'd consider myself a "morning person" now but that only goes so far! Steve and I have been so busy working on the property and prepping for our trip that I've had to neglect my pictures from our last trip. However, today things were much more relaxed so I took the opportunity to get some images finished from our lovely visit to Stout Grove, in Jedediah Smith State Park. This lovely park is nestled in a huge forest of old-growth redwood trees. These magnificent trees include the largest and tallest trees in the world! They only live along a narrow strip in northern California to southern Oregon and are quite the magnificent sight. (I'll be sharing pictures of the redwoods in another post) :) The forest here was also brimming with fern species and I went totally hog-wild with my photography the moment we got out of the car. You may know that I'm a hopeless junkie for ferns, especially when the fronds are unfurling...they are so unbelievably cool to me. :) And so, today's presentation is all about some of the lovely ferns I photographed! The main picture is a close-up of an unfurling Sword Fern and the insets show two other pictures of this super cool species, including their "elephantine" unfurling fronds and a fun shallow dof art shot! I hope you enjoy the show! Explored on 6/5/19; highest placement, #4.

(+1 inset!) (please view large for the best impression!) :D What a day! Finally I have a moment to sit down and it's after 8pm! Sheesh! So much to write though, so let me get this new novel written! :D The excitement of today began last night, actually. Every evening we watch an hour of a movie or an episode brought to us via Netflix. Night before last we'd finished watching the first season of what turned out to be a fantastic sci-fi show called "The Expanse." We'd need to start something new except...I had a plan. We're leaving on our next RV adventure in a few days and I'd been dropping hints about fishing but Steve apparently wasn't tuning in. Fact is, for all but the past couple of months of our relationship, Steve has been totally uninterested in fishing. He had an issue with it, but primarily with folks who catch and release because he thinks it's horribly cruel (I agree). Those who fish and actually eat the fish or catch to sell the fish are fine but because he loves fish (as divers and self-appointed ambassadors to the sea, we both love and respect marine life), the idea of catching, killing, cleaning and eating a fish was totally out of the question. I respected his feelings on the subject and didn't try to change his mind. We both feel that it's a person's right to choose not to do something they don't like. However, that being said...I love fishing! What fun it is! Throughout my teen years until I was about 16 or so, I went fishing almost every weekend up at our summer cabin. The resort community where our family's cabin resided put on a couple of fishing contests every year, and every single year I'd invariably with first or second place in several categories—Biggest Bluegill, Most Bluegill Caught, Biggest Catfish, Most Catfish Caught, and sometimes I'd get lucky and catch a winning Carp too. My brothers also fished (except my oldest brother, he couldn't care less about fishing!) and both Brian and Scott vied for the top place in the Bass and Trout categories. Once we stopped going up to the cabin, I stopped fishing and life went on. I never thought about it. When I met Steve, it was fun telling him about my fishing history and it was ok to me that he didn't like the idea. I'd had my day in the sun with angling and was content without it. But a funny thing happened. We got an RV. We began going on camping trips. And everywhere we went, we saw folks fishing and going out in boats. I didn't say anything about it...but one day out of the blue, Steve said to me, "You know, I think I might want to change my mind about fishing." We talked about our feelings regarding fish and he thought that maybe he could handle killing a fish and ultimately eating it. I was amazed because it's a big step to get to that point. In fact, even though we love eating poultry, beef and pork, we absolutely could not raise these animals, have them killed and then eat them. We are very cognizant of the origin of every bite we eat but we love these animals too much to kill and eat livestock that we actually know. It's too close. Fish are different. They are different enough that even though they do have a variable amount of intelligence, it's not a hard task to distance yourself from feeling destroyed over the thought. I have killed plenty of fish in my young days of fishing and even though it's not fun, it can be done quickly and humanely and then you have a meal to eat! Which brings me to an admission: when I fished as a teen, I never ever ate my catches! (My parents did!) At that age, the only fish I'd eat was tuna from a can, mixed with plenty of mayonnaise and made into a sandwich or casserole. We all know that canned tuna really isn't like a normal "fishy" fish, and that's the only reason I'd eat it. Other than a bit of catfish sometimes in my 30's, I wouldn't eat fish for years until I met Steve. My ex tried to get me to eat raw fish in sushi but his attempts to shame me into it weren't exactly a technique that would have a chance of working. Then I met Steve. Soon after we met he took me to his favorite sushi restaurant and had me try hamachi. To my utter disbelief, I *LOVED* it. Sushi soon became my favorite food and at the same time, Steve took me to seafood restaurants and introduced me to different kinds of fish that I almost always loved. These days we have sushi on special occasions and we will pick up a lovely steelhead trout about once a month. We adore fish and are hopeless trout junkies. Bass is lovely too but too pricey usually, as are most of our favorites. Which brings us back to camping in our RV and our next adventure. We'll be staying at several lakes for up to 5 days each and I couldn't stop thinking about fishing and what Steve had said. However, I wasn't making a big enough noise apparently. So last night, instead of watching Netflix, I suggested we watch a series of videos made by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. They explained everything you'd need to know about how to catch trout, including what to buy, how to get set up and even exact techniques. Steve loved the idea so much that we not only watched the entire series last night, we got up early this morning and went all over the place to look at fishing gear! We are now the proud owners of two new poles, really nice reels and everything we need to go trout fishing on our trip!! HOORAY!!! We are so excited! The idea of catching our yummy trout dinners has us bouncing up and down! I am so happy that Steve is excited too. We can't wait to try out this new fun activity together! :) Ok, today's photo is another view of the amazing sunset that Steve and I photographed when we were in Coo's Bay. It was the first picture I took as we arrived on the beach and I loved the way the sun was shining through the trees. I am also including an inset, which is an archive picture I posted years ago when I had my older camera. Steve and I went to Ashland, about 40 miles south of us, to photograph the splendor of autumn at Lithia Park. I found this amazing mosaic artwork as we entered the park and just loved the detail. It's a trout! How perfect to share for today! :) Pam, do you like to go fishing? It really is such fun and so exciting. I can't wait to catch and cook our own fish...what about you? Is that something you've ever tried? Anyway, my thoughts are on you right now...and I'm hoping you'd doing well today! *BIG HUGS*!!! Explored on 6/8/19; highest placement, #1.

(+1 inset!) Oh my, it's been another crazy day…it's just amazing how the hours just disappear. I got up at 6:45am this morning and I am just now sitting down to relax for a couple of minutes before dinner and more running around. Today I did a lot of cooking and meal preparation for our upcoming trip. I simply don't know how the hours drain away but after all is said and done, we now have 15 breakfast egg, onion, cheese and sausage muffins, a couple of quarts of faux-tato salad (made with cauliflower...it's 10x better than potato!), and a bunch of other things are sorted out and ready to go. Whew! The best part is having Steve try each of my creations and then wanting to eat them all! :) I'm bummed that I haven't had time to visit contacts on ipernity or leave comments. It's frustrating but time is so short that I don't even have time to work on my pictures. A shame. I haven't been able to process very many images from our past trip but what are you going to do when life is throwing a million tasks at you? I do apologize for not visiting—I feel guilty when so many have stopped by to say hi and I've not been able to reciprocate. I'm not sure what I can do about this problem...I can barely comment when we're away on our trips and when I get home I'm swamped with a million things to do. I would love some advice from you busy folks who manage to fit commenting into your day! This is also Saturday, and that means Saturday Self Challenge! When I read what the topic was a few days ago, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get out for pictures of a subject for "Statues and Monuments". However, as luck would have it, Steve and I went out a couple of days ago and there was enough time for a picture of a particular statue I loved. In downtown Medford we have the Ginger Rogers theater—she lived here for all of her later life! Outside the theater is a square called Vogel Plaza. It's nothing special, though it's been used for protests and demonstrations through the years. The one thing that does make it special in my eyes is the awesome sculpture located on the far side of the square from the theater. There sits a bronze gentleman who is pondering his next chess move. Opposite to him is an empty bronze chair which tempts anyone nearby to sit in it! The artwork is fabulous with awesome details, an obvious understanding of proper anatomy and of course, a brilliant idea and execution. I asked Steve to pose for me so I could have a fun picture to share—I couldn't be happier with the wonderful mirror image he created for me! I also have an inset today...it's ME sitting in the empty bronze chair back in 2013! What fun! :) Pam, do you like to play chess? I love it but chess is a game which takes such a long time to play. I participated in online matches for a while but eventually I grew weary...I just don't have the time to contemplate all of the moves and look forward to the following possibilities, etc. It is a great intellectual pastime though! And my father—with his math-bent genius IQ—taught me as a kid and heh...beat me all the way up until he passed away at age 87. What a mind. Playing chess with my father made me feel like I was a cornered mouse being toyed with by a cat who likes to play with its food! LOLOL...well, I think it was nice that the smarts I got from my parents is all of the creative sort! Hope your day was a good one my dear! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 6/9/19; highest placement, #1.

(+3 insets!) (Sorry, this is probably my longest War & Peace novel yet! Scroll to the bottom for photo info or get some coffee, kick back and have yourself a read if you like!) :) Oh, the SMELL of PINE FOREST when sunshine is just starting to warm up the pine needles….MMMMMMMMMM!!! There is simply nothing like that amazing fragrance and that's what hit me in the face as I opened the door of our RV to take a sneaky peek outside. I spotted movement on the ground off to my right and--OH!! A CHIPPER!!! *SQUEEE*!!!--there was a tiny chipmunk poised on a rock about 10 feet from our doorway. "Awwww," I cooed, how adorable it was! I tucked back into the RV and grabbed my Sony, but when I opened the door again the bitty chipper scooted off at Tasmanian Devil speed, disappearing into the bushes. However, I did get to see its dark tail flicking and its little feeties kicking up the silty dust as it zoomed away…"Ohhhhh, so cute!!!" I purred happily as I stepped outside and took a deep breath of the lovely, scented air. "Mmmmmmmm…." I repeated, "It smells soooooOOOooooo good out here!" I took a pair of pictures where I stood to capture my first impressions, noticing too that it was chilly but not too cold…how nice! My photos showed both the picnic table with conifer forest beyond and also an upwards capture of the lovely trees that stretched up to the beautiful blue sky. I peered around, hoping to see my wee buddy but there was no sign of it, so after enjoying more forest fresh air, I reentered the RV and got my day started…hooray!! Our RV trip has truly begun! :) I'd already enjoyed a snuggle with Steve and a shower supervised by Pumpkin. She was sitting in her clear travel cage now as she ate her breakfast and watched me move around the RV. We twittered and whistled back and forth as I set up her day cage with fresh vitamin-enriched water and made my Americano-style espresso. Steve was cuddled in his fluffy bed, still exhausted from the drive and days of preparation for this trip. He didn't usually get up as early as me so as I climbed back into my "Nest" with my computer, he drifted back into a blissful snooze. "Good," I thought to myself, he needs the sleep and it's only 8am. I spent an hour working on pictures and enjoying the sounds of the campground coming to life around our trailer. It was a great place. Quiet even though it was full. I'd always judged my perception of campgrounds on a few experiences which were accented by yelling kids and guffawing adults, campfire smoke and mosquitoes. The reality that we have experienced thus-far has been the opposite and we couldn't be happier. I gently woke Steve a bit after 9am and he smiled sleepily up at me, yawning and stretching. We shared our "good mornings" and soon Steve and Pumpkin were singing in the shower and having a merry time listening to music. Steve's now eating his hemp-heart porridge for breakfast along with his iced espresso and cream. He enjoys cruising the photo/info/fun website, "Imgur.com" while he eats and is really pleased that our mobile reception is so good Before sitting down, he heated up an egg-sausage quiche muffin for me (he'll be having one too!)and I'm about as satisfied as can be. Pumpkin (our supervisor) approves of all of these proceedings and is content and totally happy as she sits in her clear cage right next to Steve. All of us really love being on our adventures and Pumpkin adores the non-stop attention she gets during the day. Even when we are away, she has a view of the Great Outdoors in a new place, something she never tires of. Life is Good. :) Yesterday we were so pleased with ourselves because this trip's preparations have been the smoothest yet, even though this trip will also be a full week longer than our last trip. We have our roles down to a pretty exact science and it was nearly effortless to get everything ready and packed. And then, about an hour from home, Steve yelled, "Oh no…I forgot the thumb drive!" I cringed inwardly. Oh no…not the thumb drive. All of our movies. Our shows. At home. We both stared at the three weeks before us, now seemingly devoid of shows to watch in our hourly nightly ritual. Since Pumpkin was a 6-month-old chick, we've spent this precious hour to allow her to bond with us, clean her feathers and settle down for the night before being tucked into her little tent which hangs from the top of her cage. No, we didn't NEED the shows. We could read books but it would be a huge departure from our normal situation. Well, I can guarantee that we'll NEVER forget the thumb drive again, lol. The silly thing is that I had it on our "DON'T FORGET" list but since it's something Steve handles, it slipped my mind to vocally remind him. Oh well…we were annoyed but soon arrived at, "Who cares…it doesn't matter." My but aren't we turning into mature adults these days?! :D (In the past we would have been very upset to the point of the day being basically ruined. How silly! :D) When we got to our campsite, Steve discovered that his phone was getting really fast speeds and we would be able to easily stream shows from Amazon. YAY! So last night we watched a show from Amazon called Bosch, based on the Michael Connelly books which feature the very popular detective, Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. Steve and I have both read and enjoyed this series of books in audio form and figured the show would be fun to watch. It was! And now we have a new series to enjoy, yay! :) We're not sure how the show-watching situation will go throughout our trip but whatever happens, it will all be just fine! :) Today is set to get pretty warm but hopefully not too hot in the deep forest. We're planning on going on a bike ride and maybe a hike…maybe fishing…we're not sure what else. I'll be tuning in later to let you know what we came up with! --------------- Well, it's been a fun, interesting and frustrating day for us. To give you a clue, right now Steve is watching fishing videos and I only stopped watching with him so I can get my post up! :D Our adventures today began with a totally awesome bike ride along the Deschutes river on a well-tended dirt trail that took us along the bank for a number of miles, sometimes cutting inland a bit but always touching the river again and showing off lovely views. We stopped on many occasions to enjoy the beautiful river. At one point the trail ended and we had a choice to return the way we came or try riding back on roads which would eventually take us back to the park. Had we known the roads were all rough gravel, we would have taken the trail; instead we ended up traveling back on bone-jarring roads. We were finally dumped onto the main road back to our campground and made good time on the asphalt highway. Live and learn! But the first half of our ride was fabulous and we'll likely do that again before we go--we'll make sure to take the correct trail back to camp! After lunch we organized our fishing gear and headed out to the bank of the Deschutes River--literally a two-minute walk from our trailer! This swift-moving river is so pretty and full of potential yummy FISHIES! Could we actually catch a fish today??? Noop. No, nada, not a chance! We did get two casts each though…just before we lost out lovely, shiny lures in hidden snags. BOO! Most of our time was spent trying to get our lines set up to begin with. It's funny because even though I've done a lot of fishing as a kid, it's been 40 YEARS and I essentially remember nothing. We prepared by reading informative website pages and watching intro YouTube videos that explained what we should do but as it turned out, we didn't watch the right ones. "Frustrating" was definitely the word of the day for us. After losing our lures we decided to go back to our RV, have some dinner and then watch videos on everything we were confused about. That was the right answer. After just a few topics we both feel so much better prepared. Just now Steve announced that he knows what he'll be doing for his next attempt and is redoing his line in preparation for tomorrow's attempt! Once I'm done here he's going to show me what he did and explain the setup while we get mine set up. Yay! Well, today's score is FISHIES: 1 and BRIENS: 0. Maybe we can reverse the lead tomorrow and have FISHIES for dinner! :) Today's main picture is the view of the pretty trees stretching up to the sky that I took this morning. I have three insets too…one of them is the other view I got as I stepped outside: the picnic table and view beyond. I've got a picture of our truck and rig at our campsite and finally, a portrait of Steve! :) Last evening when I was getting my macros, Steve was barbequing our steaks and he looked so cute that I told him to "Say Cheese!" and he did! This particular picture turned out so well that Steve was thrilled--he almost never likes his pictures but this one is super! :) Pam, I forgot to mention how much fun it was reading about your fishing history! Funny how the years just drift by from the time we were avid fisher-folk! Well, Steve and I are going to keep trying to figure it out until we snatch some NOMMY FISHIES for our dinners! :) At this point it has been anything but a positive experience but tomorrow is another day and we'll try other methods until we find one that works! :) We're thinking about you…CHANNEL YOUR FISHIE-CATCHING LUCK please!! *BIG HUGS*

(NOTE: as a "365" this picture was uploaded too late to count. We lost all of our internet last night and couldn't post until this morning. Thus, today I will be posting two pictures!) This morning I'm trying a new experiment! Remember the picnic table in my last post? That's where I'm sitting right now! And why not? I have a laptop, the table is in the shade, and it's much more interesting to be outside than in, right? Being immersed in this pretty place instead of inside my fluffy nest is a total win, I'm discovering! (If you don't know, I sleep in the lower bunkbed of our RV…it's a lovely little nest for me; Steve sleeps in the bed up front because he snores and this arrangement is perfect for us!) It's sunny with a bright blue sky and all around me are dappled shadows of the tree trunks and pine clusters on the silty dirt around me. It's still chilly but I prepared myself by wearing a sweater and a hat and I'm perfectly comfortable as I take in the scene around me. Once again the smell of warming pine forest is nearly intoxicating. To me, this smell is synonymous with summer fun because I've only smelled it in campgrounds, on hikes, or up at my parent's summer cabin which is nestled in the middle of a redwood forest. There's no way to feel anything other than bubbly and happy with such associations! Beyond this strip of forest in front of me is one of the well-appointed camp bathrooms. It's really nice and has a set of large bathrooms and showers for each gender including a set for both/neutral. I've been watching people come and go and can't help feeling lucky that our RV has its own bathroom and shower. The smells of bacon, eggs, sausage and toast are drifting around now and I can hear bits of conversation from folks getting ready for the day, whether that means more adventures here or else preparing for the 11am checkout perhaps homeward bound. I've seen one robin but it flew off before I could get its picture. The trees are brimming with twittering birds of seemingly countless variety, though I've only seen the robin. It's so nice to hear the wildlife though. Ok, I gotta be honest here. I'm on the lookout for CHIPPERS. Thinking about sitting at the picnic table immediately had me hoping I might see another darling chipmunk and get its picture. I saw one flash by and disappear back into the bushes soon after I sat down but it didn't come back. SCORE!! Just now I was the victim of a CHIPPER AMBUSH!! Out of the blue a little guy came zooming up to me and then around the table, here and there, up ON the table and then AWAY! All in the course of a minute! I had my camera ready…I thought. Heh. You'll see my useable attempts including the blurry shot. LOL, cute little devil. I'll keep trying for better pictures. Cross your fingers for me! :) Steve just poked his head out. "We have no power." Oh no… ------------ Steve has been to the camp host and back again to find out what's going on. No power for the entire park which also means no water. No answers either. I guess the power must have gone out soon after I went out to write my post. I'm back I'm back in my nest now as it was too bright to be on my laptop anymore. Unlike me, Steve can't have his shower like I did, nor can he have anything other than a cold breakfast. Our morning energy-juice, aka espresso, isn't possible without power either so we're a bit stuck until things are restored. Hmm, thinking about the activity outside, I now understand why there was such a steady stream to the bathrooms! It seemed a bit odd because most RVs have bathrooms and most of the people camping around here are in RVs. Suffice to say I was a bit confused. -------------- It's 11am and power's been restored, hooray! While we waited, I went on a bike ride around the "South" and "Middle" loops of the campground which was great fun! I ended up going on four laps because it was such a nice way to get some morning exercise and wake up my body. I also enjoyed watching folks walk around and start their day. People were walking their dogs, taking a stroll, and I could see them having breakfasts of all sorts at their picnic tables. It was fun to see. We had some serious concerns in regards to the power situation. It gets very warm here and that means our RV gets hot, and we must have the AC to make sure it stays cool enough for Pumpkin. Without the ability to regulate the temperature, we can't leave her in the trailer unattended. Likewise, if it's too hot outside, our options are further limited to the running cab of our truck, which would then be the only AC available. ------------ We went on an amazing bike ride this evening, the picture I'm sharing is one of the lovely views! Can't write anymore! :D *HUGS PAM*!

Hi everyone!! Steve and I are finally back in the world that actually contains an internet connection! We don't know how long it will last but I'm posting this picture while I can. Our last stop was 6 days/5 nights at a wonderful state park called The Cove Palisades, located in north-central Oregon on beautiful Lake Billy Chinook. We'd never visited terrain described as "high desert" before, and were unprepared for the incredible beauty of this place. The canyon walls reminded us of places we'd seen in Arizona, Utah or New Mexico. Incredible. We are now at our next stop, close to the north-western edge of Oregon. The park is L.L. Stub Stewart park, and sits in lovely forest and grassy meadows. We arrived late yesterday so wre're still settling in for this 4-day stay. I'll try to update as I can! Explored on 6/19/19; highest placement, #1.

Beginning of summer www.youtube.com/watch?v=guKoNCQFAFk

merci de vos visites et commentaires bon week end à tous,,