April 29, Astoria: Gorgeous sunset tonight!

It's been pretty nice with the sun out, although it's still very cold for April. It looks nice, and I step out with "just" a sweatshirt and run back for my winter jacket, even on a day like this. The tree, by the way, is still firmly anchored horizontally in the pilings.

The little patch of garden is doing nicely. The columbine is blooming.

The ranunculus (red) and wallflower (yellow) are doing well, and the purple sage is looking good. The horsetails are also coming up. Technically, they're weeds, but I'll let them stay for a little while. I enjoy the green and they're such interesting ancient plants. There's something with a broad leaf that I should take out soon, some stray grass, and a few dandelions. I saw Jim pour vinegar over the dandelions around the edges of the building, and I was astonished. I'd never tried that (I have a whole litany of things I did try in a former life that didn't work, and another list of things I didn't try because I didn't want to poison the yard). Well, it worked! White vinegar for weeds! It's non-toxic, and it's cheap, too.

The clouds came and went today in a typical pattern of Astoria on an inconclusive day. I loved the shades and lines here, and I have a thing for peeling buildings when they look as cool as this does.

I worked late, as usual, and when the sky began to turn orange, I left for the gym with camera in hand. You never know what the sky will do. It had been raining, and everything was wet, but the clouds were thinning out. I took this from the Sixth Street Viewing Platform.

This was the view facing the other direction (up-river). Lovely colors.

I walked a little way down the River Walk and found this nice reflection before I turned back. I was planning to drive in the direction of the bridge anyway (just barely visible in the lower right of the reflection).

It was worthwhile. It was still and quiet, just a little damp from the rain, but not much. Only another photographer and a dog-walker were about on the River Walk behind the Holiday Inn Express.

July 18: Lazy scenes of Astoria and the river

I still feel like I'm just beginning to investigate this new place. It seems there's a lot to do if you just go out and do it. Unfortunately, money is really tight, but it would be nice to just pick a few concerts and events and go.

What's free is the ever-changing river scene here. I took this photo from the Sixth Street Viewing Platform.

Here's another shot from the platform. Over the roof of the restaurant, you can just see the top of the hill near my apartment. It's actually a bit east.

This is the deck of the Sixth Street Viewing platform looking at the buildings upriver (east). When I was trying to decide whether to move here, some of the few photos I found online centered around this pier.

For some reason the lens makes a lot of the photos come out crooked, and I don't even notice until I see them. In this case, I like the result.

Here's the old pier below my apartment again.

I love this tall tree. Once again, I can't get the wire out of the view, and I'm too much of a historian to photoshop it out. If I were doing something with the photo, I would, but I'm just recording it for now. It really is a lovely scene, though, yes?

The power line is out of the frame, but you don't get the majestic feel of the tall tree.

These are my back steps. The ones further into the frame go up to the street on the outside of the building.

I like the patterns of the sunlight and the slats in the railing.

Overlooking Astoria on another matchless summer day. The max. temperature was 64 degrees. Average for today is 67 degrees. It can get into the 90s or even 100 or so, but it's rare. I've been told that there are only a few days each summer where the temps get that hot - maybe as few as 4 or 5 days per year. I still can't believe my good fortune in finding this place!

July 8: Scenes on the river - Astoria, Oregon, 2001

Sunday Market. A couple of streets shut down and you can listen to music, have food from vendors, and browse hand-made products and hand-grown produce. It's laid back and lazy, and a great place to go on a sunny day.

My apartment is taking shape, things are getting put away. The book shelf is filling up, and altogether it's still pretty neat (either meaning).

I thought I'd brighten up the room with a salmon-colored mattress cover. It's serving as a couch right now. The bed is out of the photo on the right. That white furry fabric may someday be pillows. Both are out of keeping with my usual choices, but this is fun.

You can't see the mini mirrors, but the navy blue square on the door is Indian mirrored fabric. Supposedly if you have a front door and back door facing each other, you should put something reflective on the door so the energy flow stays put. What I like about these Feng shui solutions is, they usually feel right, look right, or something. I wouldn't keep doing it if it only felt superstitious.

Here's the front door. The hall is filling up. What a great space to put books and things so my other rooms can feel spacious. On the right are two ceramic tapirs made by Audrey Jakab for the tapir gift shop. Yeah, they all made it here without breaking.

The office, too, is coming together. And I'm learning things. I bought the copier in the lower right when I was in Colorado. Once I got here, the paper started sticking and jamming, and nothing that had worked in Palisade to keep it going worked very well in Astoria. I had Mike come out from a local store and he told me the copier itself (a Konica) didn't work well in damp climates, but worked fine in dry. I mean, who knew? Who would guess that? Not good.

I like this funky photo. It makes the river look as wide and limitless as it feels. It's four miles wide right here. I took this from the Sixth Street viewing platform.

All of the rest of the pix in this post were also take from the platform or near the base of it. Here's a shot looking up river with some of Astoria's houses visible on the hillside. The waterfront is used for many things now. These are office buildings nearby. I'm not sure what the building further back is. It may still have something to do with fish.

The bump to the right of the ships is the peninsula of Tongue Point.

That's Sixth Street, as seen from the platform.

I love this. It needs music or something. The pilot boat is racing out to do its thing with the ship - exchange pilots for the trip across the bar, which is incredibly dangerous to navigate if you don't know what you're doing. It has more impact if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

Nice! This ship is making its way up the river. I love the sparkles.