Landscapes

Japanese Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden

The Japanese Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of my favorite places in St. Louis. Whenever I visit, I always come here, usually with my mom, and enjoy the serenity and beauty of this incredibly peaceful place. The 14-acre site within the larger garden complex was opened in 1977 and remains one of the most visited places in St. Louis, and for great reason. Visit the garden if you come to St. Louis. You will not be disappointed.

(Click on each photo to see a larger picture on as separate picture page.)

A snowy day in Portland as the new year begins
Westmoreland Park, Snow Storm, 2016

(Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

What a glorious day. When I looked out my window I was greeted with a lovely dusting of snow outside my home and all around the neighborhood. I was not expecting this, and because I had no plans to drive today, it was a blessing.

I grabbed my point and shoot Canon and did a run through the Westmoreland and Eastmoreland neighborhoods, taking a detour to the campus of my old alma mater, Reed College. The campus projects that regal and expensive air of high-priced academia when covered in snow, like its sister private schools across the country. Regardless of the very high cost to attend Reed, I still think it looks great dusted in snow.  My Sellwood neighborhood and Westmoreland Park also looked stunning. The park conjured an image of a Japanese woodcut painting of winter in Japan.

I hope others are enjoying snow as much I have today. Happy new year.

Season’s Greetings from the Pacific Northwest
The Community Trail in the Methow Valley, in Washington State, is one of the best skate ski trails in the United States, outside of Alaska. Photo taken in February 2013.

I can think of few better ways to enjoy a winter holiday than skate skiing. Hoping you find a way to enjoy yours, and that it brings you closer to nature, friends, and the world around you. (Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Random fall candids in Portland

The leaves are now falling en masse and the glory that is autumn is drawing to a close. I took a couple of shots over the past few weeks and decided to post them without any particular message, other than I enjoy sharing the season’s colors. I took two of these shots with a GoPro and one with my FujiPro, in really bad lighting without a tripod. But I still like the outcome.

Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.

Abandoned, east Detroit

Since coming back from Detroit in late September, I have reached out to five Portland area universities if they or their student groups might like a multimedia show on the realities facing Detroit. So far, I have not had any bites. I do not think the topic is of much interest to Portland area residents, as Detroit is nearly 2,000 miles away, and the realities facing a city with tens of thousands of abandoned properties and continued problems with public safety, poverty, and economic revitalization just do not register here. The Rust Belt and its many ills I think matter very little beyond the region that is experiencing continued economic decline for decades. But, I will keep working on this.

It still startles me how little people know and care about the pockets of distress in the United States, even though we still share the same country. This is not true all the time and everywhere, but for those pockets of intense decline and multi-generation poverty, it is as if we write them off as failed mini-states, doomed forever to failure. There seems to be an unwritten decision that just says, you are no longer worth it. And, for many in east Detroit, that looks a bit like what you see here.

(Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Back-roads bike ride in Lane County, Oregon

I used to live in Eugene, Oregon, in the mid-1990s. I had not been back for nearly two decades to do one of my favorite bike rides, up Fox Hollow Road, out into rural areas by the millionaires’ high-priced mcmansions and rural homes, then back into town on the Lorane Highway. It’s a classic short ride, with great views of Spencer’s Butte and rural Lane County.

Colors were about at their peak brightness, but a bit brown because of drought. I saw more than two dozen wild turkeys that day too–the most I have ever seen in Oregon. I love this ride. I miss it, but not the pay level I had working as a reporter in that area. Ultimately I left because I could not sustain things. I always enjoy my visits there to see places I know and the people I once had as neighbors and co-workers.

A great list of area rides is published by the local bike advocacy group called GEARs.

The reds return to Portland maples
Taken on the campus of Reed College, in Portland, Oregon.
Taken on the campus of Reed College, in Portland, Oregon.

It was pretty hilarious when I returned to this spot on the campus of Reed College this past Sunday. Earlier in the day I had spotted this lovely old maple tree light up in a love shade of red. That is worth a picture. When I came back near 5 p.m, not one, not two, but three photographers were there with tripods, all with the same idea. We all were polite and took turns. Sometimes a tree just has that power and calls you have a conversation of sorts. That we did indeed.

It’s not the destination, it’s the journey that matters

I will be taking a road trip in a week. The destination is probably where most people in my country last would want to be traveling. But I always seems to find unexpected treasures when I pick a new place, and have a purpose, and find wonderful, beautiful things in places overlooked or shunned. Hoping your journey leads to new discoveries for you.

Leaving Alaska on the Inside Passage
Taken in August 2010.
Taken in August 2010.
Taken in August 2010.
Taken in August 2010.

Five years ago almost to the day I left the Great Land, as Alaskans call their home. I departed the exact same way I came up, taking the Inside Passage on the Alaska Marine Highway, from Haines to Prince Rupert, BC. (FYI, that is the state-run ferry system.) That is just an incredible way to experience one of the world’s cleanest, healthiest, and most scenic waterways and landscapes.

I captured all of these photos on my pont and shoot Canon, which did what I wanted to do–preserve a memory of a very important moment in time when I transitioned from one stage of my life to another. (Click on each picture to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)