Fall is here, summer has gone and that means…….

Pretty, isn’t it?

Fall is beautiful in Oregon. Leaves dazzle with vivid colors, rich oranges, deep reds, cheery, sunny yellows. I love the colors.  Hikes are more peaceful with the summer tourists gone and the trails less busy. Now we live with just other locals, at least until ski season.

Along the beautiful Deschutes River

But with our kayaks scrubbed clean of summer fun, tucked away on the garage walls and our bikes serviced for next year, but with us still wishing for one more ride, the realization that winter is near has settled in.

Each day the colors grow less brilliant, leaves scatter, and sunny, bright skies give way to gray. Winter is coming…..time to plan….an escape.

How I’ve Spent My Summer and a Lesson Learned

Early fall in Bend……beautiful

Since it is now Oct. 2 and fall weather has blown into Bend, I guess I better scurry along on the review of how I spent my summer.  Don’t worry, I’ll be briefish and will illustrate with lots of photos.

But first, I learned an important personal lesson this summer. R and I are volunteering for a congressional campaign. I applaud anyone and everyone who volunteers for a campaign, fulfilling their civic duty.  We’ve worked on a fundraiser, including attending meetings, generating lists of attendees, communicating with the campaign. Other times we handed out literature and buttons, at events and while marching and protesting and also entered tedious fundraising data — lots and lots of data, multiple times. And donated money and asked others to donate. While I believe deeply in this candidate  and will be canvassing for her and working to get out the vote, you know what…..volunteering for a campaign isn’t very interesting to me and it is lots of …grunt work. Though we both feel satisfied that we’ve volunteered, R really likes it better than I do. Nonetheless, Go Jamie!

What was interesting about summer…..

We both love music, especially concerts in the summer. The season started with a trip to Portland to hear James Taylor and his fabulous band at the Moda Center. 

Bad photo of James but he and the band sounded great. I love seeing older performers rock.

The Taylor concert was followed by concerts in Bend, including Jackson Browne, Steve Martin & Martin Short and the Steep Canyon Rangers, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow as well as listening to our grandniece perform on the kids’ stage at 4 Peaks. In September we headed to the Sisters Folk Festival for the first time.

Steve Martin with his band. Another poor photo but a great performance

We also kayaked and kayaked……

Kayaking with Lynne. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Cycled around, including on López Island, WA

The man planning our cycling route

We protested and campaigned and visited family. We served food at a homeless shelter and donated food to a pantry.

We made new friends, lost some friends, remembered those who passed and appreciated those we still have.  We traveled, to San Juan Islands, Victoria, BC, Vancouver, BC and parts of Alaska.

Stunning Alaska. See it soon. Climate change is harming this special place. 

We read and discussed books and played mahjongg, laughed, cried especially while watching the brave Dr. Ford and grieved for women everywhere. I guess it was a full summer. Now on to fall…..and then winter.

But first a final political note…..