Or: Two-lane blacktop...
It's been a busy couple of days. Little events that really didn't add up to a blog and then, after several days, a realization that there is a lot of stuff to cover. Having a blog about life's little adventures means that you include even those mundane little enterprises that hardly merit notice but, added together, make a sizable lump.
And so it is with this blog. Little events which add up to a story of a life being lived. Woo,Woo!! And we start this one because, well, because the lawn needed mowing.
The young man that lives in the "Hardy Boys Mystery House" behind us normally takes care of the mowing. It makes sense, because most of the lawn is on his side of the property and, also, because he's the only one between the two of us that owns a lawnmower.
Unfortunately, he is moving. He's been a terrific neighbor but he is moving on and moving out. And since he's decided to move, he has been less than enthusiastic about mowing...he's been busy. Ergo, the distasteful task has fallen to me. Ratz!!
Finding myself without a mower and loath to spent several hundreds of dollars on a power mower for this little patch of grass I decided to get myself a small hand push mower...y'know, the kind we used to push around back when we were all small kids. At least if you were a kid in the 50s and early 60s. Yeah, that kind.
Oh, there were other considerations. Storage being one. Ain't got none. And those power mowers aren't the kind to just slip into a corner neatly. They're big and they smell and....you get the idea.
And there are plusses to getting a push mower. It's definitely smaller, it requires no smelly gasoline or irritating electric cord. And, finally, it gives me a reason to get off my rusty dusty and get out and get some exercise. Of this I will speak more on later.
But I'd ordered a small, 16", hand push mower from my favorite store, Wally, and it finally got in...so we were off to the Wally in Newport to do our shopping and pick up the new mower.
And the plan was to enjoy the drive down there. It was kind of an out of the ordinary trip anyway and so we were going to meander a bit on our way down. And, besides, it was a foggy day...just made for a little adventuring.
The fog around these parts is funny. It's here but not over there and then, within a span of a few short minutes, it's over there. Rather than blanketing the coast in a uniform layer, it floats in and out leaving one section socked in while the other basks in the overcast sun.
So we drove through a foggy Lincoln City and then as we neared Nelscott, the fog lifted and the day was just a normal, overcast gray.
And, here's Oregon!! They revel in their out-of-the-ordinary view of life here. They celebrate their sometimes contrary way of doing things. They like being unique. Like this...as you look at the Nelscott business strip you see there, on the far right, the familiar Green Cross of a medicinal marijuana store.
OK. It's legit. But, there on the far left of this little strip mall is the Christmas Cottage.
So you have the Yin and Yang of Oregon.
And in between these two opposites are a realtor's office, a coffee bar, a Mexican restaurant and the Candy Store where Carol gets her frozen bananas.
Hahaha, Oregonians march to the beat of their own drummer...when they can find him.
After the fun at Nelscott, the next stop isTaft and the Siletz Bay. As we were driving through Taft and coming into the Bay area, Carol spotted this fine fellow and so we pulled on over to have a look-see.
Fun Facts: Great Blue Herons (GBH) look for food anytime there is enough light. GBHs don't just eat fish, however, they eat a wide variety of prey including frogs, salamanders, turtles, snakes, insects, rodents and small birds. Whoa, uncool, Blue Baby!!
When they're catching fish, the GBH grabs small fish between the two mandibles of its bill. With larger fish, they use a quick strike to stab them with their beak. Impressive, eh!?!
Now this is the coolest Fun Fact...GBHs have special patches of powder-down feathers, which they rake with a foot, causing the powder to fall on fish it has caught. The powder causes the fish slime and oil to clump up so that the herons can brush it off with a foot. They also rub the powder on the underside of their bodies to repel swamp slime and oils. Clever...
I caught a glimpse of these Common Mergansers taking off and rushed to get a shot. Yeah, yeah, suck it up, Trooper. It's my blog...it's my rules.
And they're one of our favorites, the Ol' Common Merganser. We first discovered this Daffy Duck-like creature on the Cedar River in Renton. He is the hardest guy to get a picture of as he's always diving and then popping up 30-40 feet away.
They're great swimmers and divers but on land, well, they resemble a penguin when they try and run on land. That fits them, really.
You've seen this before...Siletz Bay looking towards the beach at Taft. It's low tide.
And, looking around, we saw these clowns playing in the Bay. Those are three harbor seals with their nose and their tails stuck up in the air. There's a fourth seal just behind the one on the left.
And finally to our GBH.
More Fun Facts: With their long legs, the GBH can hunt in deeper water than most of their species. They stand around three feet tall but can stretch up to four feet in length. And this wows me, but as tall as they are, the adult GBH weights about 5-6 pounds.
Hahaha, enough fun. Let's get back on the road.
In a very short while, then, we were back in the fog. And it was one of the densest fogs I've experienced here in The Beaver State.
The 101 is a beautiful drive on a normal day but on foggy days it has a special twist to it. Fog, like snow, makes everything look better...or is it maybe just different? Nawh, I'm gonna go with better. Anybody can do different but few can do better.
Hahaha, I love this drive!!
Whoa, coming into Depoe Bay, the city with the world's smallest harbor. Can't tell it but there is an ocean out there somewhere to the right. This is the short bridge over the entrance to the world's smallest harbor.
And then we took a detour over to Cape Foulweather, where Oregon's history began.
And the fog lingered.
Cape Foulweather was given its illustrative name because the weather was so bad when Captain Cook first sighted the cape back in March of 1778. And, in doing so, he started the clock on Oregon's history, so to speak.
Hahaha, that name shouldn't be too surprising, right!?!
Even with the fog, the sights were still great.
And they have a small gift shop there with a very colorful history.
Fun Facts: There's a lot to this story. Seems one, Wilbur "Buck" Badley, a chocolate salesman for the Hershey Chocolate Company, decided to retire in 1934 and realize his dream of living along the Oregon coast. He bought the property along Cape Foulweather which included the Stagecoach Station for the Old Oregon Coast Road.
He and his family had their house built here and then built their restaurant, the 'Fair Weather Coffee Bar'. The plan was for folks to come on up and dine while gazing out at the Pacific Ocean below them. Folks came but they, evidently, left their appetites at home.
When his wife refused, while shopping, to spend an additional .15 cents on a 'mystery magazine' for Buck, he realized that the restaurant was a bust and they needed to do something else. Well, he reasoned, folks were coming but they weren't eating so maybe they could sell gifts and such instead of food.
They did. Their biggest sellers were pillowcases with 'Mother' sewn into them. Soon were turning a nice profit in their new gift shop.
Along came WWII and the Coast Guard stationed six men there to use the building's basement from which to base their air and sea surveillance. They lived and worked in the basement while Mrs. Badley cooked for them. Can you imagine a better gig during WWII than this?
Ol' Buck passed on in 1964 and his wife, Ann, sold the place but stayed on there until her demise in 1990. Their house, outbuildings and a caretaker's house were razed leaving only the gift shop.
In 1997, the current owners purchased the place and renovated the shop and opened it, once again, for business. It's been closed the two times we've been there so I can't say if they are still selling those pillowcases with 'Mother' stitched into them. But the building is still there waiting for you to come and visit...if it's open, that is.
And, at this point where Oregon's history began, there is this important historical marker.
That year, 1897, was a very good year.
Soon enough, we were on our way down The 101 again. speeding in and out of the fog as it moved up and down the coast.
We did up Wally's and got the new mower and were back on the road again heading north. And it was still foggy there in Depoe Bay
While we were in Newport, the sun was out and the skies were semi-blue. But driving north, we ran back into the fog bank again. Never enough to make driving dangerous...just enough to make it interesting and beautiful.
And when we got back, the sun was shining in our little part of LCO.
We got back in time for me to play around with the camera. I've been leaving it on continuous autofocus shooting. What better way to practice than sitting in the front room shooting the birds,mostly Brewer's Blackbirds, out by the feeders. And so I did. I shot over 500 pictures and the deleted all of them except for about 10. Hey!! It was just for practice.
Here's the Missus, and....
...here's the Mister.
Remember I mentioned the lawn earlier? Here it is. And, by golly, it wasn't easy. It doesn't look like a lot but mowing it with a 16" wide mower took a while. And the grass was long, too.
Hahahaha, I remembered this push mower business being a lot easier back when I was 10.
But, it was, in a fashion, fun. And it looks better plus I got some exercise. It's a win, win for me.
Foggy days and freshly mowed lawns. Hahaha, fun is where you find it. And, you know, I got a certain amount of satisfaction from mowing the lawn the old-fashioned way. Hahaha, while I was sweating away, I was saying to myself, "You still got it, Jackie-Boy!!"
The grass is cut and life is good.
Hooah!!
No comments:
Post a Comment