Dec 31, Part 1 - Bend, Oregon: Weekend Reflections, "Warm Inside"

We were supposed to drive to Portland today (three hours, crossing the high desert and the pass over Mt. Hood), but a snow storm started early with anticipated freezing rain still to come, making today one of the worst driving days all year if it pans out. I took this photo at Starbucks around 8:00 a.m, while we were still discussing whether or not to hit the road. Now at 10:48, I'm home, still watching the flakes turn into inches. We'll put off the drive to Portland until tomorrow. The photo? Nothing special, just a reflection of the day, but I've always liked these hanging orange lamps.

See more Weekend Reflections here . . . but I'm a day early. You may have to wait until Saturday.

Hey, I started a meme!

NOTE: I set up a site and got a Mr. Linky account, but I didn't actually start the meme. I realized it was going to be a lot of work. I'm glad James finally set up a meme for reflections.

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Oh, cool! I just did something new! I started my own photomeme (like a theme for photobloggers and people who post their pictures in albums). It's a game you can play once the pictures are posted, and it's called Reflections on Saturday. Anyway, I've been having fun with existing ones, so I thought I'd make my own :) I guess the reflections could be visual or thoughtful. I'm anxious to see what people come up with. One of the things that was fun about it was starting another blog and installing the Mr. Linky thing. I really like the way it works. By the way, I've posted the photo above before - it's from January 20, 2009, the day Obama took office. It's kind of hard to tell, but it's a reflection in my car window when I was parked behind the post office. I love those stumpy, scatterbranch trees!

April 29, Astoria: Reflected sunset

It was such a beautiful evening along the River Walk, and the sunset seemed to go on forever. Below you can see more of the pictures (including this one again, since I'm creating a separate post for my entry in the first "Reflections on Saturday" photomeme :) I think the orange, puple, pink, and gray all look pretty cool together.

NOTE, October 3, 2009: I decided not to pursue running a Reflections meme, because I really don't have the time, so I was thrilled to see James start one. Please check out Weekend Reflections and participate if you can!

Trees in the sunset, Astoria Column

We'd had about three cloudless, rainless, fogless days in a row, although it's been cold. The sun was setting on the column, which I could see from Video Horizons as I exited with five movies, planning to hunker down and get to bed early (which I didn't). There was no time to walk up there to catch the sunset, so I drove, hoping I'd make it in time. I went up 8th Street to the ridge, then turned left on Niagara Street, and at that point realized where the action was. It was in the branches along the street. Whether I made it to the top for the sunset or not now seemed immaterial. OMG, were these trees gorgeous. What an effect the glow of the setting sun had on their tangled bare branches. Typically, the camera brought the red out a little brighter than it probably was, but I didn't tweak these pix at all.

If you click to enlarge the photo, you can see that the branches and trunks are gray where the shadows fall blocking the sunlight.

The tangle of stems at the base of the trees were pretty, too. Here the light is already fading. It's so ephemeral, you have to catch it just right. Maybe that's one reason we all love the effects of light so much, besides the fact that they can be so striking.

This replica of an Indian canoe is on display at the base of the column. I meant to get close up to the information, but it was getting dark and I didn't do it. Read more about the canoe here.

Here the sun drops below the horizon of the ocean. There's a wider view of the river on my web album. I wondered if it was ocean or fog, because the horizon level seemed high, but I think that was an optical illusion. It's so far away, it could seem higher than the river (or bay). I'm not sure if this is technically Youngs River or Youngs Bay in the foreground. Anyway, it's a lot of water flowing into the Columbia. You can see the prow of the boat in silhouette.

I've turned south. This is Youngs River flowing into Youngs Bay at the base of the Astoria hill.

We're still at the base of the column. I liked the pink behind the spiky, leafless plants.

The top of the column.

The Astoria Column with a beautiful pink and lavender sky behind it. I love the trees here at the top of the hill. This is facing approximately east from the parking area back to the column.

Here I've turned south again to catch Saddle Mountain in the clear pink sky. The posts are part of the visitor area at the column. Looks kind of cool.

I like this photo a lot. It's looking at 15th Street from the doorway of our shop at 1490 Marine Drive (actually, on the River Walk at 15th). I'm looking out through the glass that surrounds the entryway, so the glass beyond our door reflects the lamp right next to the door and puts it into the scene of 15th Street.