A gift of tapirs

I did not take this photo, but I feel lucky that my work is such that people send me things like this! There were four photos in all. For the full story and three more photos, please visit my tapir blog.

Oct 10, Bend: Morning colors and things on the tops of buildings

There are always unusual things to take pictures of in Bend, Oregon. On the way to a garage sale this morning, I spied this found-metal fish on top of someone's garage. Very Bend.

Down the street was more garage art. What the heck is this horse doing on the point of the garage roof? Who knows. Maybe they couldn't part with it after it wore out. Anyway, it's something a little different.

Of course, this is also the time to be enchanted by trees turning colors. Some turn faster than others, and they turn such a variety of colors.

It's also a good time to find native high-desert plants in flower - at least, I think this is a native sage.

The trees on Wall Street near Revere were screaming red.

Here's a closer-up view of the same trees.

And more sagebrush, also on Wall Street near the highway entrance.

The flowers on the brush are subtle, and so pretty this time of year.

Flowers with more of the sage. The dusty colors complement each other perfectly.

I also like the gratings around the young trees in this part of town.

Here's one with a touch of Autumn showing.

These leaves are more withered than showing the natural trend of the season. The colors are here, but they are also fading rather than glowing as brightly as they otherwise would. A freak early snowstorm on October 4th (seen here on Lee's Bend, Oregon, Daily Photo blog) zapped the life (or part of it) right out of many of the plants here.

I left this photo in mainly to remind me that I want to go back and photograph some of the old buildings in this area. They are definitely frontier era, and quite charming, even though sometimes hard to photograph between the cars and behind the power lines. This one is on Revere Avenue and Division Street.

Today is Laurel's birthday. Happy 28th!!! We called, but were sorry we weren't there to help celebrate. Laurel, if you read this, I or we will be bringing something to Astoria for you by Wednesday or before. See you then :)