Eugene Park Tour - Alton Baker Park

Dale and I visited our second Eugene park on the spur-of-the-moment. Alton Baker Park is the largest developed park in the city. It's along the north bank of the Willamette River. There's a long bike trail that travels along the river, behind the university's stadium, and connects all the way to Island Park in Springfield. There are lots of green areas and bike paths. There's a plant nursery and and amphitheater.  We had a chance to walk through the education garden dedicated to Nobel Peace Laureates.

Because we hadn't planned this visit and weren't wearing good walking shoes, we spent most of our time at the duck pond. It sits next to this grove of gigantic trees whose trunks are covered in ivy. (Ivy is an invasive species, but it sure looks pretty).

The pond is surrounded with gravel and sparse grass. The ducks and geese like to peck for bugs at the edges.

There's a wooden boardwalk supported by a concrete base. More ducks hang out here and jump in for a cool splash-around.

I like watching the mothers and their babies. The little ones are shedding their down and growing feathers at this time of year.

Some of them like to talk very LOUD

Others whisper to each other.

Crafters can easily find a supply of feathers for their artwork.

After our walk, we hopped in the car and drove around the park to get the lay of the land. It'll be fun to return to explore some more.

In Bloom Around Town

Flowers at Alton Baker Park

Eugene, Oregon

#flowersforfriday

Throwback Thursday: Sunset, Early July

 

#throwbackthursday

Sailing Away

Say, Susie here will forever remind me of my mother-in-law, Joany.

My daughter Jodie and I spent the day together last Monday. She needed me to help her process a hard thing. She needed family. She needed hugs. She needed to share a meal or two. She needed time. She needed conversation and shared memories. She needed distance vision and cool breezy salt air. We drove west on the lush, winding road through Oregon's coastal range to Florence.

Why? Dale's mom died peacefully in her sleep Sunday night at her home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Joany is the only grandparent Jodie remembers. Thankfully, Joany wasn't alone. Dale was on care duty that night, having given both his brothers a chance to get some sleep. Joany's transition wasn't a surprise. She declined quickly for a couple months. She passed away where she wanted to, and on her own terms. 

Just as she lived. 

Consequently, Jodie was shaken. 

As are we all.

Original photo by Jodie Delsere, Edited by Margaret Davaz

Joany led a good long life. Really good, with some really hard times mixed in. She told some great stories. The three things that were most important to her were family, family, and family. She was an artist and her home was her canvas. She was an avid and talented gardener. She has the prettiest yard on the block -- probably on that whole side of town! She loved cupids and surrounded herself with them. Over 300 naked winged bodies at last count.

But who's counting? 

Joany was the family matriarch for over 30 years. Tiny in stature, she filled a gargantuan place in our lives. With open arms, she generously welcomed all our kids and grandkids into the fold, whether adopted or biological heirs. She knew what it was like being a little girl, hoping for a new daddy. She wanted all kids to know they were precious and loved.

Because of Joany, we'll often start our phone conversations with, "Say ..." We'll begin paragraphs with "Consequently ..." even though there was nothing said before of consequence, and often nothing afterward worth noting. It's a lovable Joany-ism. It will stick.

Joany Davaz Steffan
with great-granddaughter Melody Otto
on Joany's 80th birthday

So Susie there will always remind me of Joany, of the day of remembrance Jodie and I spent together, of looking out over the water to try and see what's on the other side of this world.

Rockin' Robin

I'm finalizing my idea and making lists of the materials I need for my next #tryittoosday. Instead of another challenging project today, I've got a puzzle to share. I put this together at the end of June when Dale was out of town.

Songbirds

This is a good quality, 500-piece puzzle by mudpuppy that I bought for myself simply because I adore the illustration - and it was on sale. I'll be sure to put this puzzle together many times over the coming years.

It was great fun to put together! I could construct each bird and place it in its approximate spot quite easily. The blue background with the black notes was the more challenging part, but there wasn't much of it.

It reminds me of a cross-stitch pillow I once made for my college music teacher, 33 years after I graduated from college. Constructing that, too, was hours of enjoyable time.

I'm considering stitching this piece again and keeping it for myself.

Ready for My Close-Up (part 3)

The last four stickies take a bow

Struttin' his stuff

The traffic cop

The skater

This is my favorite. "Wheeee! I'm flying!"

Or maybe I'm jealous of Twiggy's long legs.

Blackberries

The blackberries that grow wild all over town are beginning to ripen. I picked this handful on my walk.

Ready for My Close-Up (part 2)

 The next four take the stage.

I call this one "Hair On Fire!"

This dude says, "Whaaat?"

Daily-Do

Last Wednesday, Dale and I joined Jodie for a concert-in-the-park. These pretty flowers greeted us at the gate.

#flowersforfriday

Throwback Thursday: Cabaret

1983

Me, as ‎‎Sally Bowles

Dreamy.

#throwbackthursday

Ready for My Close-Up (part 1)

After showing the stick people to my granddaughters via a video chat today, I decided that each deserved a close-up. Here are the first four after they were cleaned up, but before they got their new background and shadows. It's easier to see their colors as well as their shapes on the white background.

Try It Too-sday: Nature Dancing

I happened upon a remarkable photograph by artist Chris Kenny earlier this year. I loved it so much, that I wanted to create my own version. For the last four months, I've been collecting twigs on my afternoon walks. I finally gathered enough to give this idea some legs.

Here's my version:

Click for a larger image

Here's Chris Kenny's original version. You can read more about it on the Colossal website and see more examples of his twig people on his Instagram account, TwigSaints.

In the photo editing process, I learned how to make drop shadows. It's a process! I had to stretch my brain cells quite a bit to get the shadows to work. I had help from a YouTube video by George Peirson.

This #tryittoosday completes #14 in my 21 Goals in 2021. Whoo-woo!

A Tale of Two Peacocks

It was the best of puzzles ... it was the worst of puzzles.

This is the true story of "you get what you pay for." In May, I gave myself the challenge of putting together the two round jigsaw puzzles I own. They also happened to both be images of peacocks.

The first is a gorgeous, big, high-quality 500-piece puzzle from Bits and Pieces. It was a gift from a friend of mine who knew I was having some anxiety issues through the pandemic, and knows I use jigsaw puzzles as a way to level out my emotions.

Isn't it pretty!

The colors are bright. The image is crisp. The pieces are a nice thick cardstock that allows the puzzle to snap together securely.

Check out how vibrant the colors are in the birds

and the flowers.

Nice puzzle!

The second puzzle is one of my one dollar finds. It's a 350-piece puzzle by Cra-Z-Art. I don't expect much from these little puzzles. A few hours of distraction. A way to turn a pile of chaos into order.

I think this illustration is quite pretty. The colors are vibrant. But the image is soft-focused with no sharp details. 

I can deal with mushy details. But this! Ohhh. This is a big Bozo No-No. Look at all the puzzle dust! Ugh. I cleaned up the worst of it after sorting the pieces, but the darn flimsy pieces kept shedding through the entire process of building the puzzle. What a dirty mess.

The cardstock is terribly thin. The plies are not well-glued to each other. Worse than usual. And the machine that cut the puzzle obviously needs its blades sharpened. There were many many pieces that came out of the box still connected. More than one normally expects. Those that were separated had tags of the puzzle backs stuck in the tab sockets. While sorting, I had to rip out a lot of that excess cardboard. This, of course, made the pieces even thinner, flimsier, uneven in thickness, and less likely to hold in place.

In fact, after I finally constructed this frustrating puzzle, as I was moving it into place to photograph it, the puzzle fell apart. Sigh.

This is one puzzle I won't repeat. In fact, I won't even bother purchasing another round puzzle. I put jigsaws together for fun and relaxation. This definitely wasn't worth the frustration.

On a happy note, where Jodie works, they have a jigsaw puzzle exchange. People who like puzzles can bring the ones they no longer want, and exchange them for someone elses's puzzles. Sort of like a lending library, but you can keep the puzzles if you want to. 

After the pandemic, her workplace got inundated with puzzles people put together during lockdown. Remember the days of jigsaw puzzle scarcity? Yesterday Jodie brought me about 15 "new" puzzles. My shelves are overflowing. I have days and days of fun to look forward to.

Late June Sunset

86 degrees at sunset. June 29, 2021.

Pink sky. Quiet in the neighborhood park.

We've had a lot of evenings like this lately. I'll take 'em.

Eugene Park Tour - Acorn Park

As part of my year of Explore, and to get to know our community better now that the worst of the pandemic is past, Dale and I decided that we'd like to start our explorations by visiting the Eugene parks. Eugene has over 150 parks and open spaces, so we have a lot of exploring to do!

For fun, or maybe to make it easier to figure out where to explore next, we've decided to visit the parks in alphabetical order. We'll likely jump around a little bit, but this points us in a general direction.

Today we visited Acorn Park. It's a small park in a quiet neighborhood,

It's got a large open grassy field, a playground, some picnic tables, and nice benches around the perimeter. Today a Nana and 6 year old boy were playing catch with a big bouncy ball, a woman was sitting at a shady picnic table reading, a mom was alternating pushing swings with her two daughters  squealing in delight, another mom was sitting in the shade of a big oak tree with her infant, and a couple teenage boys were hangin' out on a bench on the far side of the park. If you like sports, there's a single basketball hoop on a concrete pad ready for a quick game of horse.

There are several of these unique, colorful tiles embedded in the walkways. 

Oh, and acorns. Lots of acorns.

On the southwest corner of the park is a Little Food Pantry. Much like the popular Little Free Libraries, these pantries are located all over town, stocked by volunteers. Inside are non-perishable food staples like canned goods, rice, and boxed drinks. Anyone can donate to these pantries, and anyone can stop by for food. The hope is that no one in Eugene needs to go hungry.

We also happened to find a geocache in the park: Kalapuya History #8 (Umtáktufit). It was an eensy weensy bit difficult to find, because it had crawled out of its original hiding place. Luckily, I spotted it's bright yellow underbelly.

Visiting our parade of parks is a pleasant long-term goal that Dale and I can tackle together. It's a great excuse to push myself out the front door.