the party

For all that I love taking pictures, I'm very bad at documenting those special events in my life because I'm too busy being IN the moment to stick a camera in my face. But sometimes I do try, like yesterday for Anatole's birthday party!




We made some Sculpey beads (I'd forgotten how hard this stuff is, so mostly the adults made things...oops!)


And balsam & sweetgrass party favors for....smelling nice. And hanging on something. To smell nice.

And there were presents, some really, really sweet presents. Thanks, friends!







Too many other sweet things are captured only in my head, but that just means that we had a good time!

a wildly happy birthday!

to my very best four (!) year old boy.

what it's all about

hot cocoa. with whipped cream, mind.




and Thanksgiving feasts! this is actually a picture of our leftovers. i was so full that i didn't make it on to dessert until the next day, but the wait was worth it. pumpkin pie and cranberry apple cobbler....



don't worry, it's all gone now ;-)

audubottom

some weeks ago Scruffy and i went to the Portland Audubon Society.



we like to visit the rescue birds




(this is Anatole's favorite, Julio the female owl. he could stand outside her pen and chat all day.)

and then we go down into the forest for a little walk. oregon is so very, very green.






(Anatole has this strange fear of slugs, though he bravely faces up to them now. i kinda get it; they're weird.)







what are your local adventures when the weather turns a bit sour?

drumroll...

Crank! I don't have to remind you how great this is, or how very definitely you should be there if you're in the Portland area. See you at the party! (poster created by my dad, give him a hand, too!)

The Society of Jacks

Jack Frost!









Jack of All Trades!


(that's my brother! being his own fantastic and talented self on the day of the opening of his bike shop, Crank! I just got a tune-up and custom fitting and now I ride like the wiiiind.)



by the way, the little man took both these pictures.

and of course, Jack Dandy himself:



who was a butterfly for Halloween.



there was much adorableness (and some very lame, hasty pictures) on this inaugural trick-or-treat outing. i finally get Halloween, and why it's so much fun as an adult.

by bike

Most days of the week I take the boy to school on the bike -- not because I'm virtuous, mind, but because we are a very busy family with one car. I enjoy the ride, though, especially on beautiful October mornings. We've been lucky with the weather so far, but that luck is not going to hold and I know that I will be cold and soggy on the slog very very soon. Perhaps even tomorrow. But Anatole will be cozy and dry in his little trailer, at least, packed in with mitties and blankets and a rain cover...



I took the camera along the other day, figuring it would be one of the last good days when I could without risking water damage. So here, some snapshots from the roads of southeast Portland:



among the challenges inherent in photographing by bike is the blur factor, but I couldn't resist at least one passing attempt at the foliage.



Belmont and 34th:





Hawthorne with a misty Mt. Tabor in the background:



And the bike thoroughfare that is Clinton:



That was pretty much all I managed on the ride...I feared for my camera and my life to take it out of my coat too much, but I may try again on some fair-weather day in the future. When I got home, though, our kitty was posing most picturesquely in the fallen leaves.