June/July

I don't know where the time has gone except that it's summer and I tend to spend a lot of time outside.

The wildfires are raging across Oregon and the bad air quality has finally hit Portland so I'm stuck inside for a few days. The Grasshopper fire just east of Mount Hood really exploded last night because of high winds. With those winds shifting west it's now threatening more of Mt Hood including Meadows. Really hoping they can get it(and all the other fires) under control soon. Many indigenous tribes have been hit hard by this fire including folks living in Warm Springs who lost structures and had to evacuate. This is on top of spending years with no potable drinking water. If you have a few bucks - they're taking donations here https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/the-confederated-tribes-of-the-warm-springs-reservation-of-oregon-ctws-wildfire-recovery-fund

In some more positive news - I submitted a handful of photos to Oregon Natural Desert Associations annual wild desert calendar photo contest and they chose one! There are always so many amazing photos in this calendar and I am really honored to have one of mine in there!

Last month we celebrated my birthday by taking the bus out to Lincoln City and spending five days riding bikes down the coast to Florence. We had a really fun time riding 15 - 25 miles a day which meant plenty of time to stop and check out some beaches, look at the birds and anything else that caught our eye.

A very cool thing about Oregon State Parks at the coast is that they all have hiker/biker campsites, no reservation required. So even if campgrounds are totally full, there's always space if you walk or roll to get there.

Here are some other nature pictures from July:

I'm finally get back into painting and really hoping I have some finished work to share by the end of August!