Share Your World – Week 21

I am warning you now that Chris bought me two books full of ice-breaker questions!!

Here are the four Share Your World questions for this week.    I hope you have some fun playing along.  It sure was fun learning about all of us.

1. If you were having difficulty on an important test and could safely cheat by looking at someone else’s paper, would you do so?
   
2. Since adolescence, in what three-year period do you feel you experienced the most personal growth and change?
3. If you could change one thing about your home, what would you like to change?
4. If you were given a yacht today, what would you name it?

See my answers below.

NOTE:  Click link to easily find Other Share Your World Week blog entries.

I will be putting out four different questions each week for you to answer.  There are two ways which you can participate.

1. Create a  Share Your World  post.  Then post the link to your blog in my comment box or leave your answers in the comments box of my blog.
2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Share Your World” tag.
3. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly reminders.

I will state the questions first and then post my answers in the bottom part of my blog.  I’ve also created a banner if you would like one for your blog.

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Here are my answers:

Blooms in My Yard

Spring is finally in full swing.  The colors are coming out.  This past weekend I took some photos of tulips, a tree leafing out and a few other flowers.  I hope you enjoy the show!

 

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Hugs and blessings

Cee

 

Jakesprinter SUNDAY POST: Culture

Jake you nearly had me stumped this week because I really didn’t think I had a lot to offer this week … until I told Chris about Jake’s topic of culture.  She thought for a moment and then said agriculture.  We live in the part of Oregon that is known as the Central Willamette Valley.  We are right on the 45th parallel, which is just perfect for a lot of grapes, hops (beer), nuts and flowers.   The 45th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees north of the Earth’s equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole, but the true halfway point is actually 10.1 miles (16.2 kilometres) north of the 45th parallel because the Earth is oblate, that is, it bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles.  At this latitude the sun is visible for 15 hours, 37 minutes during the summer solstice and 8 hours, 46 minutes during the winter solstice.

When we drive the countryside we see plenty of orchards, nursery and tree farms.  Here are a few photos from some of the agriculture right around where we live.  I hope you ENJOY.  As always scroll down to see larger versions.

Hazelnut (Filbert) on tree.

Schreiner’s Iris Gardens is over 75 years old. Their gardens are spectacular. They grow 100s of varieties.

Wooden Shoe Tulips farm.

Hops. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer. Oregon is the second largest hop producer in the United States.

Grape vineyard. Wine is a big industry in Oregon.

Hazelnut orchard in the winter.

Swan Island Dahlias. Largest dahlia farm in North America. Located in my home town of Canby, Oregon.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

This week WordPress Challenge is Journey.  I’ve decided to pick photos that I’ve taken while Chris was driving.  We were on a journey to somewhere in the gorgeous state of Oregon.  Hope you enjoy the view.  As always scroll down to view photos enlarged.

Leaving Heirloom Roses on a foggy morning. Photo taken in St. Paul, Oregon.

The beginning of the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

I know I’ve shown this before…this is the road that leads to Mt. Hood.

Photo taken in Woodburn, Oregon. Spring is in the air!

Country roads east of Canby, Oregon.

Back road in Lane County, Oregon.

Highway 1-1 near Lincoln City, Oregon and rainy winter’s day.

I-5 Freeway between Salem and Eugene on early morning.

Thoughts and Photos on Ripples

I was trying to think of a blog topic today while in the swimming pool.  The idea of ripples and reflections popped into my head, via Chris’s suggestion.  So I thought I would break them up into two different blogs.  This is all about ripples.

How many ripples have you caused in your lifetime?   I bet it is thousands and the majority you are not even aware of.  How many times have you seen someone smile, when you needed it the most?  Or someone told you to go ahead in line?  How many have had a teacher, boss, or co-worker say “good job”?  It is the little ripples that add up to a huge wonderful and beautiful wave that is filled with so many colors it is just magical.

Thousand and thousands of little ripples make up this perfect wave. Photo taken near Newport, Oregon.

This is photo is so zen-like to me. Photo take at Bob’s Wayside near Florence, Oregon.

Ripples on a pond. Photo taken in Canby, Oregon.

Low tide ripples in the sand around a rock. Photo taken at Bob’s Wayside in Florence, Oregon.

I love the ripples that this little duck is making. Photo taken in Canby, Oregon.

Photo taken near Coos Bay Oregon.

 

I love the idea of ripples.  Think of your favorite person or persons who have ever lived or is even still alive.  Did you realize that you are breathing the same air and drinking the same water as they did?  Air and water sustain all living things.  Last I knew we didn’t import air or water from another planet.  If you are a musician or appreciate music  you are breathing the same air as just a few of the following classic composers:

• Ludwig Van Beethoven – 1770-1827
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – 1756-1791
• Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – 1840-1893
• Frederic Chopin – 1810-1849
• Richard Strauss – 1864-1949
• Aaron Copland – 1900-1990

For those of who love writers, what about the following authors:

• William Shakespeare
• John Milton
• Charles Dickens
• Jane Austen
• George Bernard Shaw
• Gertrude Stein
• Virginia Woolf
• Mark Twain

Now for us science people, here is a list of a few scientists:

• Isaac Newton
• Albert Einstein
• Charles Darwin
• Louis Pasteur
• Marie Curie
• Edwin Hubble
• Euclid

These lists could go on forever.  I love how people can make ripples in other people’s lives.  You just never know who you are touching and reaching out to.  The universe is huge and expansive and a mystery that works in such great harmony and balance.  What ripples have you sent out lately?  What ripples has you welcomed into your heart and life lately?  The life and the human race is huge and wonderful and ever present in our lives.  Embrace the ripples that come your way and bless the ripples that leave your heart and warm other hearts.  We are breathing not only for us, but we are breathing the powerful, energetic breath of the past and future.  What a glorious gift we give to the universe in every breath we take.

Here are some photos I have of water ripples.  ENJOY and I hope you take some pleasure from them.  As always scroll down to see larger versions.

 

Pudding River Flood and More Rain on the Way!

You have heard me talk about the rain we have been having.  Last month in my part of Oregon we broke the all time record for rain.  We had 28 days of rain and with slightly over eight inches of rain.  The one river that floods flows between Canby (where I live) and a small town Aurora which is about 5 miles west of Canby.  Yesterday, Chris and I stopped to look at what normally is a moderate sized well-contained river.  So I’m posting of the photos I took yesterday of the flooded river.  Hope you ENJOY!!  Oh yeah, in the next couple of days it is going to rain more.  Then fortunately we get a break for a few days.

This is a small business. He is trying to keep this small portion of land from being buried under water. He already pulled one of the metal storage buildings out of the flood area.

Here is another shot of their driveway showing a fence under water.

More of his fence that was a little deeper in river.

This is where the Pudding River should be.

View from the eastern edge of the Pudding River. All the water shown in this shot is out of the river’s banks. If you enlarge the photo, you can kind of see where Chris is parked on the side of the road. We figured that is about 1/4 mile away or farther.

More views of the flood.

More views of Pudding River.

Pudding River flood of 2012.

Using my 600 zoom on my Lumix camera here is a photo of the road closed sign.

These shots are basically as they came out of the camera.  I didn’t do any post processing except maybe to brighten them a bit.  As usual scroll down to see enlarged versions of the photos.

Share Your World – Week 17

Here are the four Share Your World questions for this week.    I hope you have some fun playing along.  I’m so thrilled some of you participated last week few weeks.  It sure was fun learning about all of us.

1. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?
2. What individual item of food would you not eat, even if it was served to you at the Queen/President’s dinner table? (Something ordinary.)
3. If you could choose between Wisdom and Luck, which one would you pick?
4. What was the last time you went to a new place?

See my answers below.

NOTE:  Click link to easily find Other Share Your World Week blog entries.

I will be putting out four different questions each week for you to answer.  There are two ways which you can participate.

1. Create a  Share Your World  post.  Then post the link to your blog in my comment box or leave your answers in the comments box of my blog.
2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Share Your World” tag.
3. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly reminders.

I will state the questions first and then post my answers in the bottom part of my blog.  I’ve also created a banner if you would like one for your blog.

——————————-

Here are my answers:

Thank You!! and A-Z Archive: Letter M photo challenge

I’d like to thank everyone who has been following my blog.  Yesterday, I had an all time high number of views.  I had a staggering 462 views and I owe it all to you bloggers!!!  My appreciation goes out to everyone!

So here are my entries for FrizzText A-Z Archive Challenge.  He was one of the first people to comment on my blog.   As always scroll below to see larger versions.  Thanks

Moon over Swan Island Dahlias in Canby, Oregon.

I know I’ve posted this image before, but it was too irresistible for this week’s challenge.

Moss along a roadside rail along the Old Columbia Gorge Highway.

A purple Shelby Mustang.

A mossy rainforest in Oregon.

An old Motometer from an old Ford.

I saw this monkey at a car show that was held in Canby, Oregon.

This is the view of Mt. St. Helen’s from a friends backyard. Photo taken in Winlock, Washington.

Forecast: Snow in Canby, Oregon

Yes, that was the forecast for overnight.  And we did get snow!  We had about 3 inches.  Canby usually gets a trace of snow each year.  Not inches.  Portland which is about 40 miles north of us gets an average of 3″ of snow per year.  It was a glorious scene early this morning and it is melting fast.  Chris and I swim early so I wasn’t able to get out an take photos until just a couple of minutes ago.  Hope you enjoy the view in my backyard this morning.  As always see larger versions below. By the way, the sun just came out so the snow should be gone by noon.

Planter in my back yard with grass popping up out of the snow.

Last but definitely not least, MacKenzie shaking her head at the disbelief.

Iris’s popping up out of the snow.

These huge trees were covered with snow early this morning, but it was melting fast.

Also for today, a friend of mine from Bryon who has a website on Redbubble sent me some fun factoids I’d like to share.  It’s for those of us who love trivia.  ENJOY.

• Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand. 

And ‘lollipop‘ is the longest word typed with your right hand. 

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
• Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters mt.
• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears 
never stop growing.
• 

The sentence: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
uses every letter of the alphabet.
• The words racecar, kayak and level are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).


• There are only four words in the English language which end in ‘dous’: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
• 

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: abstemious and facetious.
• TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
• A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. 

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
• A ‘jiffy‘ is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. 

• A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. 

• A snail can sleep for three years. 

• Almonds are a member of the peach family. 

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
• Babies are born without kneecaps. 
They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
• 

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
• 

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• 
If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
  
• 

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. 

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!


• Rubberbands last longer when refrigerated. 

• The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.
  
• 

The cruise liner, QE 2,
moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. 


• The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
• The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

• There are more chickens than people in the world.
• 

Winston Churchill 
was born in a ladies’ room during a dance. 
Women blink nearly twice as much as men. 



Here are my enlarged photos.

50 Steps from Home or Work –

I found a new photo challenge that I just had to do today.  This new challenges comes from Print-Sense photography and design blog site, please check it out and join along in the fun.  Here is the assignment.

I’m inviting each of you to take a small walk.  Only 50 steps.  Our challenge is to take 50 Step from our homes or places of work to find something amazing, beautiful or creative to photograph.

It has been raining for nearly two weeks here in Oregon, which is fairly common here.  We even had snow a couple of days, now that is not so normal.  Fortunately none of the snow here in Canby stayed around for more than an hour or so once it stopped.  Anyhow, here are my photos from my little walk in the rain!  These photos were taken in a couple of my neighbors front yard.  As always scroll down for enlarged versions.  ENJOY!

Daffodil with raindrops. I did do a little post-editing on this photograph.

This poor little flower pot has seen better days. I adore the moss growing by his nose.

A cactus garden. They get the prettiest yellow flowers in the summer.