Why We Fell in Love With Portland & Oregon

Friendly rallies.  

                                                          

Mass transit. 

 Art shops with . . . CLASSES!

  

Meandering rivers and roads.

Extremely friendly natives.

And the most beautiful views you'll ever find.

Not to mention the best foods! 

And the most beautiful gardens. 

With homes to die for.

Sigh.

I'm Alive, I Promise!

I am so bad, I know. I apologize. I have photos from everywhere to share and I just keep pushing them aside. What is up with that?  Yes, Easter is around the corner, so you KNOW I'm decorating! I found these wonderful chicks stashed in the basement. Bought them at Harrod's this summer (on the 1/2 off table) and completely forgot about them. They are tooooo cute! (Note the Oregonian rocks I carried home?)

Earlier in the week, we got slammed with more storms. I noticed the doves hunkered down on the bird feeder and saw the storm coming (round II). The wind started whipping and I went to get something to tie the bird feeders down with and . . . 

Boom!  By the time I got back to the door, a wall of water hit. Literally. We lost shingles on the roof which I am still finding in the yard. Thank goodness I had already made an appointment for our roofer to come out and do some other work. Lord knows what's going on up there now!

We were so enamored with pancakes for dinner in Portland, we made them again. This time, I made fried pears. 

YUM! And yes, I'm soooo fat!

Recipe for 2:

1 pear

1 T butter

1 T honey

1/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t lemon and/or orange zest

spec of nutmeg

Easy peasy. Enjoy!

Portland, OR

We made it Portland, finally!  I already feel like I'm home.  We are loving it here.

I had my first (and last) Bloody Mary at breakfast.  Yuk.

We found Besaw's around the corner. Yum. Everything was great. Good thing I cleansed before I got out here, huh?

 Of course, we made a bee-line to the big toy shop in town, Finnegan's.

We ran into a peace rally. How cool is this?  Reminds me of my childhood!

Don't think you'd see this in Nashville.

Look at the dalmatian with a message!

 Lunch at Little Big Burger.

Then back to the hotel to look at our goodies!

 The kid's.

 Ours.

And my toys! Smurfs! I remember in high school German class, our teacher brought these back with her from Germany. I love them!

Ok, time for a siesta, now. I so seepy.

Spring is in the Air

You'd think, one day, I may just grow my own iris. I haven't planted them in the past two placed we've lived.  That's just not right. I adore them!

My daffs are blooming, so I've made the place look a little springy inside also.

I love these little fellows.

The basement  is coming along just dandy. (Don't look too closely at the smaller "before" pic. HOARDER!) I don't care to admit to how much junk I threw out or gave away. Why in the world do some of us do this? Lawdy me. I got it from my mom. Hope my kids don't catch it from me!

While we had wonderfully warm weather yesterday, there was a nip in the air today. The hub was given a wonderful gift of Chinese tea when he was in Beijing last week. It is perfect for these cooler afternoons.

Today we've had this spring forward time change, which is always a challenge.  I don't much like it.