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.

Colors of Astoria in February

Some days just have better color and lighting than others, and this was one of them. I didn't know what this bird was, but I found it in my Birds of Oregon book. The white over the beak gives it away. It's a lesser scaup, a common diving duck that breeds east of the Cascades and winters here on the coast. The book says they can often be seen in flocks of thousands, but our birds here seem to live in small numbers. I haven't specifically noted this scaup before, but I think I'm becoming more attuned to the differences in birds here. I like birds, but I've never been as interested in their species as I was in mammals. That seems to be changing now that I'm living near so many of them. The young of scaups form groups "tended by one to three adult females." I guess this would take place east of the Cascades, so we don't see it here. I thought the colors of this photo were just lovely, and the ripples in the smooth water make me want to touch it.

I love the colors here, too. The infusion of blues like this doesn't happen every day.

I've taken pictures of this building many times, because it's hard to pass up the colors and shapes, but this time the lighting was rich and my timing was right. Look at the birds. I think they must be ducks.

I've always liked this purple hose on Commercial Street in its Victorian . . . thing (what do you call the bit that holds up the hose?). Today it seemed especially photogenic.

It was pretty chilly, but Lee and I bundled up and had gone for a walk along the river. This was taken about a block past the Maritime Museum. As we stopped to chat with Jan, I took a picture of the trees against the sky. I like the pale colors of the sunst and the delicate lines of the bridge.

Sunset from The Ship Inn, Astoria, Oregon

The food was predictably lousy, but the sunset was gorgeous to watch as Lee and I ate dinner. I'm not sure why we chose the Ship Inn except maybe because we couldn't believe the food was as bad as we remembered it. A lot of people seem to like the place and it's a local landmark, in the guidebooks, etc. We'd each been there separately, but not together, so we gave it a go. Today is my mother's birthday. She would have enjoyed the setting, but she was south in California. So, Mom, this picture is for you. A have three more photos of the sunset in my Picasa Web Album, "Astoria 2007."

July 23, Astoria: Ships, signs, and the ever-present Columbia

It started out a bit overcast today, but it cleared up beautifully. It got up to a whopping 66 degrees. As I've said, I love this kind of summer! The ship above is going past my apartment. I'm still amazed after more than a month that I can come out onto the deck and see such sights.

This is the Astoria welcome sign at the other end of town near Hauke's market. It has to be the nicest sign I've ever seen welcoming someone to town.

Same sign, closer view.

Not far away from the welcome sign is this stretch of the River Walk. I took photos here four days ago, but it was heavily overcast and the results of the photos were completely different. I love all the remnants of things in the river. The rock piles were intended to be breakwaters, I'm sure, but there are pilings and such to look at all along the waterfront.

Here's the view back toward the Astoria Bridge and the big red building that the owners have to reach via a small catwalk. The boxy black thing is made of concrete. It's probably left over from a cannery or something of that sort.

What a beautiful wide-open feeling you get at the East Mooring Basin. There are fishing boats mostly, but other types of boats can dock here, too.

Just another view of the Columbia River with pilings from some old building. That looks like a sailboat out there. I've seen a few here, but not many.

There's one of the big ships that pass this way. Even that looks dwarfed here where the river is so wide. The hills are in Washington, on the other side of the river.

Back home now. A huge auto pack glides out toward the ocean. I love the shapes of these. It seems odd how they reach so cliff-like from the water like huge floating walls.

I've gotten one more area cleaned up and organized. This is in the work room, and the bins contain packing material for shipping. The wreath and the ribbon on the door are thanks to Kate. I love the artistic things she sends me. She makes wonderfully surprising gifts. I'll have to get into that sometime. Thank you, Kate!

July 19, Astoria: Bridge and river

I'm starting to see the wide variety of colors that play around the bridge in different lighting. I especially enjoy the light on the bridge with dark clouds behind.

The photo above and the one below are both taken from the East Mooring Basin, near the east end of the River Walk. As you can see, it's another misty, overcast day. It seems the weather is constantly changing here in the summer, from beautiful and bright to misty and mysterious.

The high temperature today was 64 degrees, with the low at 48. In Santa Barbara, we had some foggy June weather, but I'm not sure it lasted into July. I've never lived anywhere with summers like this, and I have to say I do enjoy it.

July 9: Scenes from the pier, Astoria, Oregon

Despite my headline, this first shot is not FROM the pier, but OF the pier in front of my apartment. Hanjin is one of the lines I'm starting to get familiar with. This old pier doesn't seem to be used for much, but it's picturesque. There's an ugly old house trailer out on it, and the pier is fenced off with a gate. If someone is staying in that trailer, they certainly have an enviable position! The building to the right of the pier is Stephanie's Cabin, a restaurant and cafe.

This shot is from other direction. I'm out on the pier looking back at my apartment and the hotels below. You can see the fire escape/decks; mine is the bottom set of windows clear across the back of the building.

The Astoria-Megler bridge in the evening sun.

These are the condos you can see from my back deck along with a lot of old pilings from the Bumblebee Seafoods fish packing plant. The piece of old metal is what they call a "crab shaker." Or at least someone said that. If that's true, I think it separated the meat from the crab. So much of the waterfront here in Astoria used to be about the fish packing industry.

The tide comes in and out of this area, leaving only mud and weedy grass at times. I can watch the tides from my apartment, and it's nice to get down here and see what it looks like up close.

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.

June 30: A ship on the Columbia, and a new desk for me

I love this photo of a big tanker passing my apartment in Astoria. I love how the clouds appear to create a focal point over the ship. We're having such beautiful sunny days. Having lived so long in California, and then spent hot summers in Colorado, I'm loving the fact that the beautiful sunny summer days here are mild and pleasant. Sometimes it even feels cold. I did pick the right location for someone like me!

Here the ship passes under the bridge on its way out to sea.

I bought myself an assemble-it-yourself desk at Fred Meyer. Oh my god, is it heavy! I'd promised myself I wasn't getting any more press board furniture, because it weighs a ton. But I looked around, and this is what was in my price range. It's a lot of desk space for what I paid and it looks pretty. It took me a couple of days to screw it all together, and I had to bring it down the stairs from my car one or two pieces at a time. As big as the moving truck was, I'd had to leave my computer desk in Colorado. It was one of the more replaceable items. There's my computer on the right and - believe it or not - a typewriter on the left. It's for typing labels for shipping items from the gift shop. I'd given it to my mom, but she wasn't using it, so she shipped it back to me for labels and forms.

June 25: The docks at the new Maritime Museum, Astoria, Oregon, and sunset over the Columbia River

When the sun is out even part way, the days are usually exceptional. I had a good time discovering a new part of my new town - the docks along the Columbia in the area where they're remodeling the Maritime Museum.

It's too bad these came out a bit dark. I tried tweaking them, but I can't seem to do much without burning them out. I wanted to keep the sky colors and the clouds. Shooting with digital is now my preference, and someday I want to get a better camera. I think you can tell, though, it's beautiful here. The seagulls like to perch on the old pilings. It's peaceful, and there's always something to look at and learn about.

This just shows another view of the docks and the old pilings. You'll see more of the ship on the right in a minute.

Here's the Astoria-Megler bridge from this location. It stretches the 4 miles between Astoria and the Washington side of the river.

Here's another view showing the expanse of the river to better advantage. It feels almost like an ocean here.

I love it that we have a river-front trolley we can ride for $1.00. I never think to ride it, I'm usually walking. The fence is part of the construction at the museum.

Here's a poor view into the sunlight, but I wanted to include the sign.

Here's some Astoria that's exciting because it's so unfamiliar and powerful-feeling. Look at the size of that anchor! I guess it's hard to tell, because we need a person for scale, but there's a bench behind it. It's big! What a nice thing to have here where people can enjoy it. Behind it is the Light Ship Columbia, which is now part of the museum.

Here's the light ship again and the buoy right in the dock next to the museum.

And another view. The museum is on the right with the unusual roof.

Some info about the light ship and buoy. Life on the river here is not static.

Now I'm back in my apartment on Bond Street at the other end of town from the Maritime Museum. Look at the lovely sunset colors. I took this and the next two pix from my balcony.

Wow, look at the colors. This is spectacular. I'm still astounded at my luck at finding this. I can't believe they lowered the rent because it had been vacant for a few months. I guess it was waiting for me!