Chocolate. Even the word evokes feelings of well-being. What better time than February to explore this tasty member of the vegetable kingdom? In just over a week, vast quantities of the confection will be distributed to loved ones in honor of Valentine’s Day, so let’s get the skinny on this rich treat. Chocolate comes from a pineapple-sized, melon-like […]
The Crater Lake Monster now has a name! For millennia, tales have been told about monsters lurking under the surface of Oregon's famed Crater Lake. The indigenous peoples who made their home near the lake had stories of such a beast, as did the early settlers of the region. Such legends are not just in […]
I stepped into the screened enclosure not knowing what to expect. Flowering plants were everywhere – all colors – and the fluttering of the orange wings of monarch butterflies filled the space around me. It was warm on this late summer morning, not yet at the day’s peak of heat, and it was a perfect […]
Could there be a Crater Lake monster? If you ask Mattie Hatcher of Albany, Georgia, she'd say yes. Like any good landmark, Crater Lake has its legends. There are stories of monsters and Wizard Island fire spirits told by indigenous peoples, as well as by early settlers. In 2002, the Fort Meyers (Florida) News-Star newspaper […]
The morning sun, softened by haze, gently illuminated the rows of tulips that swept grandly to the horizon. Bands of color met my eye - bright reds, sunny yellows, soft pinks, rich purples, and more - a tapestry of rainbow flora larger than I could have imagined. I was at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm […]
Hello, friends! The Pacific Northwest is full of stories waiting to be told, and I'm on the trail seeking the very best ones! What would you like to see featured here? It could be a bucket list spot or a little-known place… a person, event, or organization that makes the Pacific Northwest wonderful… a quirky […]
The red wine that my new friend Rhonda and I shared that evening helped our conversation flow, though we discovered that we really didn't need the assistance. Evening had fallen on the little town of Astoria in far Northwest Oregon, and the orange-yellow lights of the crab boats coming in from sea were bright in […]
Each summer, like deeply-hued jewels, indigo blueberries appear for the picking on farms throughout Oregon. More of these luscious little berries are grown in Oregon than in any U.S. state besides Maine, with more than 1,000 farms collectively harvesting a whopping 24 per cent of our nation's crop. I had the opportunity to gather my […]
When we pulled into the overlook, a blue unlike any other was spread before me, still and glassy, set in a dizzyingly deep bowl surrounded by sheer rock cliffs. I couldn't speak, or so I thought. Perhaps the truth is that I babbled incoherently, unable to find words worthy of describing the glorious scene in […]
It was the kind of day when colors pop under a gray Oregon sky and the air is pregnant with coming rain. We made our way up a gravel logging road that wound though a fern-filled forest with a magnificently swollen creek flowing at our side. The air was filled with mossy goodness and trees […]
The coast is what formed me. In my blood runs a combination of marine plants and salt air, sand and rough surf, infused in my growing up years through countless hours cliffside watching the sea and playing till numb in cold Northern California waves. I'm fascinated by the narrow line where the earth meets the […]
Highway 101 curves ahead, shiny with recent rain, a wet silver snake that slithers through forest and along roadside cliffs, leading me from my home in Northern California to my Oregon destination. The weather shifts once again. Rain, snow, and brilliant sun have presented themselves in an ever-changing and unpredictable dance as I make my […]