Oct/Sep/Oct

WOW,  I can't believe my last post was in August! It feels more recent! I didn't intend to give up on the blog, but when things got hectic at work this summer, I cut myself lots of slack on personal projects. Also, I tend to use Instagram a lot more for my photos, since I can easily transfer them off my camera even while I'm out in a garden or wherever. If you don't already follow me there, please come visit/follow! I'm @greengatephoto. If you don't yet have Instagram, why not? :)

Anyway, I wanted to say happy October! As you probably know by now, I loooove October. It's my birthday month, but it's also a nice time of year for other reasons. This October has not disappointed so far. It's only day 4, but I've been feeling great and I am super excited about my plans this month (more about that in a minute).

Before I proceed with October, let's talk September! I know I won't get to it otherwise. It was a busy month (work and personal), but I did get out to take pictures a couple of times. By the way, most of the photos in this entry have been posted elsewhere on social media, so I'm sorry for repeats.

First, at the state fair. I mainly went to try a few of the classic ride photos that I've been seeing online.

Later in the month, my parents visited! It was a really nice time, and we got to go to the coast and the refuge. I didn't take a ton of photos, but here are a few.

There were TONS of bullfrog pollywogs, but sadly most of them probably died since the water was drying up quickly.

I also got out to Bush Park at some point, but didn't stay long. It had only started turning fally at that point.

Back to October! The weather has been awesome--sunny, but milder than our hot summer. The leaves are changing and it's looking really nice outside. To kick off October, I got to go to the Oregon Garden for a work photo assignment on the 1st. After taking care of my duties, I spent my "lunch break" briefly walking around the garden and taking a few photos. I was carrying a heavy bag so I didn't stay as long as I normally would.

Then, last night I went to Deepwood hoping that the porcelain berries would be in bloom. Timehop showed me that they were ready last year at this time, but we've had such a weird year of hot weather that I wasn't sure. But yes, they are looking their awesome selves!!

I loooove them. I know they are invasive, but they're so cool looking!! I would love to pick some for some photos/arrangements, so if you happen to know of someone local who would let me take some, please let me know!

Oh and I also took a few other pictures:

I mentioned having fun plans, and now I'll tell you about them: I'm going to Utah! I have never been, but my friend Dania invited me to join her on a trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon. We'll also get a little time in Vegas, where we're flying in. We're both super excited! I have even rented a lens so I can hopefully get a few good landscapes. While I'm down south, I'm also quickly hopping over to New Mexico to visit my younger sister's family. It happens that I'll be there for part of the hot air balloon fiesta, so fingers crossed the weather cooperates for us!

I hope you're having a good October so far. :) I want post here more before the end of the year. Hopefully some trip photos, and then I have plans to go to Houston (where my older sister and parents now live) over Christmas, so that should give me a lot to post about. Meanwhile, I will definitely be Instagramming as usual, so find me over there if you want to see some pictures on an almost daily basis.

Thanks!

Ocean/flowers

There's nothing earth-shattering to tell you, but I had a few photos I thought I'd upload while I felt like it.

This past weekend I had four glorious days off (yes, my work gives us two days off for Independence Day)! I spent them hanging out with friends, playing lots of games, watching Parks & Recreation, staying up late, sleeping in, going to two arcades (??), eating strawberry shortcake, going to the coast, and even seeing a movie, which I so rarely do. (That's three theater movies this year--probably a new record since my early 20s.)

We're having a bit of a heatwave here in the PNW, so since my place has no air conditioning, it's good to get out during the hottest hours. My friend Dan and I headed to Lincoln City where the weather was perfect. There was a bit of fog coming in, which created a nice effect in my photos.

Oh yeah, and I took a couple of photos of this flower the other day. Might as well throw them in this post.

The only issues with our Lincoln City trip were slow service at a restaurant (and we were pretty dang hungry by that point) and lots of traffic on both drives. The way home took us quite awhile, probably because it was Sunday after a holiday weekend. I hadn't thought of that--I've never had traffic problems between Salem and Lincoln City (probably because I don't go enough).

The movie we saw was the latest X-Men movie, which is totally not the type of movie I would choose to see, but it was alright! It had a couple of special effects. One or two action/fight scenes. The story was fairly easy to follow, though I had a bunch of questions afterwards, like why must superheroes always wear capes? It seems a little impractical.

Dan sweetly brought me some roses, so I took a few photos tonight before they wilt too much. Not sure if I mentioned that it's hot here lately. :]

Going back to work today was pretty difficult, and I felt really overwhelmed at first. But I powered through with some whining and caffeine. And now we only have three more days to go!


Other favorite parts of my weekend:

• Playing Catchphrase with Dan, Jon and Mariel. So fun and funny!
• Sleeping in. That deserves another mention, since it's one of my favorite things.
• Seeing beavers swimming around.
• And a deer!
• And herons flying around.
• Iced tea!
• Sunshine.
• My new glasses arriving in the mail.
• The dishes being done.

Tada!

K's visit: Silver Falls and the coast

The next set of photos is from a couple of the little trips I took with K while she visited. I didn't know at first if she was interested in going to Silver Falls since she didn't mention it after reviewing her sister's video. But when I brought it up as an option, she seemed all for it.

Some blossoms growing on the sides of the cliffs near South Falls. I'm sure they love the constant mist.

I've taken almost every guest to Silver Falls (specifically South Falls, but sometimes a couple of others) because it's pretty close, cheap and usually something unique for out-of-staters. At least, I don't think I had ever gotten to hike behind a waterfall prior to moving here. It appeals to all ages so I really like it. But now I've gone so many times that I don't take as many pictures anymore. And I didn't really get any good ones of K in front of the falls, though I instagrammed one, I believe.

We enjoyed taking lots of pictures of the water droplets that had collected on the cliffside. It was misty enough this time of year that there were lots of little photo ops and I could've stuck around taking pictures there even longer. (The photo on the right is one from home, actually, but I happened to tack it on with the droplet one.)

A couple of days later we went to the coast. First we hit Tillamook Cheese Factory, since I had never been. I guess I don't have anymore photos of that since I included some in the video and on Instagram. (I sound like a broken record.) Then we stopped at two beaches, one in Pacific City.

It was sooooo windy on this beach. The noise and pressure were starting to give me an ear ache. The blowing sand stung our legs. But K loved it and didn't want to leave.

She was really into looking for sand dollars and was thrilled when she found this one that was mostly intact.

Leading out to the beach was this grassy area that was neat for photography. My camera must've gotten some sand or mist because it took a few hazier photos which actually looked kind of cool.

Then we headed to Lincoln City, and after lunch at Mo's we wandered around the little bay by the restaurant. This was more ideal--much less wind and a lot more creature sightings.

Like this little jellyfish! He was just a little larger than a golf ball. In the video (that again!) I have a photo of her holding a dead one, so you can get an idea of the size.

There were lots of sea lions swimming around and laying out on the shore in the distance, but it was hard to get a good photo.

The most interesting part of our time there, in my opinion, was watching the crab fishing! There were several people fishing along the shore and they were all very nice and I learned a bit about it.

Basically they have a special basket that they bait with either a dead fish or someone had a hot dog (I think?). It's attached to a rope hooked to the shore, so then they just toss it out into the water for about 5 minutes and then drag it back in to see if they caught anything.

The rules are that the crab has to be male and at least 5.75 inches at the widest part of their top shell in order to keep it. These rookies (their words) from Colorado were trying to measure their crab when he latched onto the measuring stick and he wouldn't let go! They finally had to knock him off somehow so they could set him free.

Once free from the trap, the crabs generally scurry back into the water. None of the ones I saw caught met the minimum size requirement.

It was a great day and I wish we could've had more time at the beach, but I was pretty tired from all the driving, wind and sun. I always feel bad about the fact that I don't go to the coast more often when it's relatively close, but it is over an hour and the road is kind of windy, so it's not quite as easy/convenient as it seems. Still, I need to get out there more often than I do. I just need to grab friends to do it, because it's not as fun all alone!