My African Violet

About 23 years ago, not long after I took a job with the City of Vancouver as an entry level computer programmer, I became the proud owner of an African Violet.  The small, soft, rounded green leaves seemed like just the thing to add a little nature and warmth to my cubical. There it languished for several years… I can remember watering it with the dregs from my coffee cup because a fellow worker said that his plants liked coffee.  It never changed much…. Losing a few leaves to caffeine overdose and growing a few new ones, it seemed to be happy to just be alive.

About nine years ago when I moved my office to the County’s Public Service Center, my violet didn’t make the move.  It came home to live in my home office.  Mostly forgotten, it owes its life to Shirleen who waters it when she waters the other house plants.  It has never been fertilized or repotted but it seems to love its new home and its little clay pot.

It’s now the picture of health and is sporting its first bloom.  I don’t know why Mother Nature has seen fit to bless my home with this bright little bloom right now but I don’t think her efforts should go unnoticed.

Life is good.

Lewis Woodpecker

Recently while on a photography outing in the Columbia River Gorge we spotted a bird that we had never seen before, a Lewis Woodpecker. This got me thinking of starting a life list.  Most serious birders compile a life list. It’s a list of all the bird species they’ve identified with absolute certainty during their lifetime. Being “serious” implies knowing about look-alike species and subspecies and the breeding/ non breeding plumage states.  …

hmmmm Are we that “serious”??
For some of the serious birders that I know their life lists takes on all the character of stamp collecting.  Just get a name, add it to the list  and move on, ignoring the beauty of the birds and their habitats…. I guess we are more photographers than birders.

I found a definition of life lists… A life list is a list of goals you are fully committed to accomplishing before a specific date.  This is different from a bucket list which is a list of things you would like to do before dying.  The biggest difference between the two is the end dates, one you set  the other you are never sure of.  As I grow older I’m not sure which list to add things to but more of them seem to be ending up in the bucket list

Just for fun …How many lists affect your life?

•  The honey-do list
•  The Grocery list
•  price list
•  someone’s shit list

We were invited to go on a photo walk with our good friend/ photographer Ken Powell.  We chose the Eastbank Esplanade and spent an enjoyable early afternoon shoot.

Named after Mayor Vera Katz,  The Eastbank Esplanade is a 1.5 miles long, floating walkway on the Willamette River, extending north from the Hawthorne Bridge, past the Morrison and Burnside Bridges, to the Steel Bridge with connections to east-side neighborhoods as well as across the river to Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park. At 1,200 feet, the floating walkway is the longest of its kind in the United States.  Construction of the Esplanade began in October 1998 and was completed in May 2001.

It provides unique views of downtown Portland and the Willamette River in all seasons and is a must if you enjoy photographing cityscapes.

For more photos from this walk …