Wednesday, March 27, 2013

In our neck of the woods

Don't you sometimes wonder where these unusual sayings come from?  I do, and there are several in my vocabulary that I use frequently and have no idea of their origination; other than my mom or dad used them, and so, I do.  You know how that goes, right?  Kind of like my mom and dad called one of my favorite dishes, "fried potatoes".  They came from the midwest years before I was born, Missouri in fact.  My good friend and neighbor, Kelly's family were originally from Wisconsin.  Her family called the same dish, "raw fries".  Interesting.  Either that, or I'm easily amused.


According to our weatherman, we're experiencing one of the driest years (so far) on record, well since they've been keeping those kinds of records anyway.  Back to the '40's, I think.  In fact, our winter of 2012/2013 has been quite mild and overall unusually dry.  We're just continuing that trend into early spring.  I'm not complaining.  It's been beautiful and perfectly comfortable.


The spring flowers are blooming in earnest now.  Below is a picture of my heavenly scented daphne bush.  Oh, how I wish you could smell this...it's just delicious!  One of my favorites.  It's actually burst forth into more open blooming than this and its' scent is heady.  Soon will come the tulips and my lilac bush.


Mountain Heather - beautiful, but not much scent


This is one of our two cats, Snip.  In an accident or more likely an altercation with another cat; quite possibly with our other cat Patch, she lost sight in one of her eyes.  As you may or may not already know, Patch only has one good eye.  Each cats' opposing eye is good; so between the two of them, if they stand side by side, make a perfectly good-sighted, two-headed cat.  :)  Interesting little factoid there...

Ruby basking in the warm, morning sunshine.  And speaking of Patch; he's in the background eating a freshly-caught mouse.  Hmmmm, fresh mouse!  Sorry, did not notice that until I'd already posted it here.

 Annie enjoying a good roll in the sunshine.

 Looking down upon our little homestead from the twin oaks, so often in the background of many of my photographs.

 Ruby having a sniff of something interesting at the base of one of the twin oaks.  This is looking  northeast of our house, towards Portland some 35-40 miles away.

 Another shot looking North/Northeast from the twin oaks.

 Looking  west from the twin oaks down upon our homestead, and our ponies in their pasture.
Those little white sticks are newly planted filbert/hazlenut trees.  In years to come, the view from our home will look vastly different.

 Wide angle shot looking west towards our place.  The Coast Range mountains in the distance.


 Our ponies.  L-R Kadie, Eagle, Ladde, Shad and Sugar far right.  Not sure where Harley is.

 This is where we've called home for 18 years now.  Someday, we'd like to spruce up the two outside shelters.  They're a bit peter tumbledown, but keep the rain off the horses.  Our to-do list never seems to get shorter...

 The coast range got a fresh dusting of snow overnight.  

 The old grainery due North of us.  In this thicket of oak trees is a small, meandering creek where I taught Harley about creek crossings when he was a wee thing.

 The Yamhill Valley, so named for the Yamhill River that flows through this area.  Rich farmland and lots of horses reside within.  This is across the street from us and looking West towards the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the Coast Range mountains in the distance.

Looking a bit more Northwest from our farm, you can see the hills around us are dotted with grapes.  In the last 20 or so years, our area is a mecca of wineries where world-class Pinot Noir wines, among others are made.  We live in the heart of the Northwest's Wine Country.  

 Shad finally spotted Ruby and I coming back.  There's Harley on the far left, then Merlin, Kadie and Shad.  A pretty good shot of our neighbor's place.  They are a horse rescue called the United SPCA.  The mare being loaded onto their trailer was going to her new home.  

 Eagle having a morning nap in the middle of his breakfast.  

 Ladde watching me, watching him.  He and Sugar have fallen so hopelessly in love that, if left alone now, Sugar pitches a hissy fit and runs all around.  Not what she needs to be doing, so Ladde has to play pasture buddy to Sugar.  Poor baby...
Spring has definitely arrived around here, and I am so thankful.  We're very comfortable temperature wise, a few showers here and there, mixed with a fair amount of warm sunshine.  Flowers, trees in bloom, horses shedding like crazy and our lawn growing in out of control mode.  I can now walk out in the pasture without wearing my Muck boots.  We're even supposed to have a dry Easter weekend with temps hitting 70 degrees!  Whoohoo!!  I realize that many of you are still in the icy grip of old man winter.  Will keep you all in our prayers that spring will be arriving in your neck of the woods any day now.

Until next time,
Lorie @ Cingspots

18 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh Lorie, I love where you live. It is so beautiful and green. I would move there!

Sugar and Ladde sound much like Brickster and Trax were for the week that she was with us. She was so stuck on him, he couldn't make a move without her on his tail. When I took her home I had to take him a long just so she would calm down in the trailer. Luckily he doesn't mind hauling around.

What a good kitty killing that mouse. Annie is a silly old girl.

Oak Creek Ranch said...

Your place is beautiful!!! I thought the hazelnut trees were vineyard at first. I have to go find a Daphne bush to smell. You have me very curious about them. I love fragrant plants.

Grey Horse Matters said...

You have a beautiful place! Love all the flowers already in bloom. Not a thing here yet. Almost made it to fifty today though. You're so green and colorful already.

Love all the pictures and hearing about the two lovebirds. Spring is definitely in the air.

Anonymous said...

You live in a very beautiful place - thank you for sharing it with us!

Reddunappy said...

OH yes!! I am loving this weather to Lori!!! LOL Now we have to mow the grass again!

I dont remember how far you are from me! I am in Washougal!

Maybe I will try to ride this weekend!

I need to go help my Sis in law with her garage sale on Friday, so we will see!

Karen thisoldhouse2.com said...

What a pretty patch of heaven you have there!... your countryside is so beautiful and rambling!... here in CT. you don't often see that far off into the distance, I've probably already said that on your blog..lol..

we still have temps in the 40's and 50's .. hoping spring arrives soon, last year it was in the 70's at this point in March.

Enjoyed getting to know your critters..

Unknown said...

Lorie,
I have been to Oregon, in fact my Mom lived in Rainier for a while and that is where I first met my horse Danny. Then she lost her place and so he made the long trek to Wy to live with me.
I did ride some trails on him by her house, and she took us all over that area. I love it there.

Perhaps some day I can come visit in the summer, and then in the winter you can come to AZ. That would be fun!

Jenn said...

Oooh....its a postcard perfect homestead! What a view! Beautiful. I can't wait til our flowers really start coming in and blooming and filling the air with the scent of springtime.

If it ever stops snowing/raining/sleeting/icing, that is. :/

C-ingspots said...

Thank you! All such nice comments. One thing I should mention about the NW that is apparently much different than some locations, is that we are green about 8-9 months out of every year. The only time that we get dry and brown is the summer. Usually about July-September. Our grasses grow in cool weather and die when the weather warms up. As soon as summer's over and the rains begin, everything is green almost overnight. Many true Oregonians, like me can get very tired of all that green, because most times it means we've had more than our fair share of rainfall. But, I try not to complain because we're usually very mild year round.

Carolynn Anctil said...

Wow, what a great place you live in! I've always wanted to live in wine country and I guess I did for a year last year. Now, I'm living in wheat country. Isn't it great to see your animals so happy and content. My favourite image is the one of Ruby soaking up the sunshine in obvious bliss, with Annie being silly in the background, while another enjoys a tasty springtime treat. All appears to be well in your world.

Blessings,
Carolynn

Anonymous said...

Thankfulness to my father who informed me on the
topic of this website, this website is truly amazing.


Here is my web-site ... rolexコピー

Jeanne said...

It's lovely seeing ("C-ing)" so many pictures of your place. We 've had the 16th coldest March on the record books, so there is strange weather everywhere and thanks for visiting my blog.

shirley said...

What lovely rolling hills you have - I love the interaction of all the animals, especially the horses (and we have an Appaloosa, complete with stubby tail and short mane).
It's also great to see flowers in bloom! Enjoy your weekend!

Stephen Andrew said...

Oh how gorgeous!!! It's finally warming up here in Ohio! My lilacs are trying so hard to convince me it's spring and the bright red flash of peonies are popping through the ground, so it will come...eventually. What a beautiful place for horses (and people) to live.

Anonymous said...

An interesting discussion is definitely worth comment. I do think that you should publish more about this subject matter, it
may not be a taboo matter but typically people don't discuss these topics. To the next! Cheers!!

Also visit my homepage ブランドコピー販売

RURAL said...

You live in a beautiful part of the country...it reminds me of the hills of Langley where I grew up.

Happy Easter.

Jen

RURAL said...

You live in a beautiful part of the country...it reminds me of the hills of Langley where I grew up.

Happy Easter.

Jen

allhorsestuff said...

So, You'll Have To Email Me About The Meds. Not Here.

Loved***Seeing Your 360 Views!!
Gorgeous. It's So NeatThat You Know So Much History Of The Area.
The Hay Nap, On Sunshine,I Could Go For That, About Now!