An orchard near the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, Earth Day

After a couple of hours immersed in vivid color, my newly-moved-to-Portland-from-Minnesota friend Julie and I turned the wrong way in her little red Kia, at my urging because I misread the Google Map. Serendipity, it turns out because we saw this orchard. And Julie, game gal that she is, agreed to pull off somewhere close and safe so that I could get a photo.

Much farther away the shadows were even more impressive, but I'm quite happy to have only walked far enough to get this one. My muddy Crocs held my tired feet, muddy from the fields of tulips, tired from the lumpy ground in the fields of tulips.

Come back tomorrow for photos to the fields of tulips and those of us humans drawn outside by the sunshine to seek beauty.

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it! I have a photo in the 2010 Hawthorne Bridge Calendar, celebrating 100 years in art and words!

Back in mid-June I got at e-mail from Facebook, from Sharon Wood Wortman, Portland's Bridge Lady. Here's part of that e-mail: Lynette, I found your image of the Hawthorne Bridge during one of our snowstorms on your blog and would like to include it on the December page of the 2010 Hawthorne Bridge Commemorative Calendar. There are more than thirty images in the 2010 calendar. Yours will be one of the smaller images, but it's strategically placed.

Needless to say, my heart rate increased dramatically, and my breathing changed, too. I fulfilled the requirements to get my photo published in the calendar as quickly as possible to meet the printing deadline.

After I received a copy of it in the mail less than a month later, I got even more excited. My photo is small, but it's on December, 2010, the birthday month for the Hawthorne Bridge and me! It turns 100 a week after I turn 62! And my photo sits right beside Dec. 31, which would have been mine and LeRoy's 38th wedding anniversary.

The only way I could be happier is if I had one of the big photos for a month. But there's always the Steel Bridge that turns 100 in 2012 and the Broadway Bridge that celebrates its centennial in 2013. Maybe I can take a photo worthy of a big photo for one or both of those. It's a grand goal to have, don't you think?

Go to PDX Bridge Festival for all sorts of great info about the upcoming celebration. Plus there's a wonderful animation of the bridge going up.

Here's my photo which I named "Snow Break." Here in Portland Mama and I have enjoyed many a sun break, when the glorious sun bursts through the cloud cover, so it seem appropriate to me that this photo be named in honor of those wonderful moments--it was hardly snowing at all when I took this one as I walked west over the Hawthorne Bridge on January 16, 2007, during our first Portland snowstorm.


One more thing I'm looking forward to, a Hawthorne Bridge chocolate bar from Jaciva's.

Smooth

Taken through the closed door, on May 6, 2009, of John Helmer's, Haberdasher in downtown Portland.



Taken through the open door on June 13, 2009.

Which perspective do you like best?

Seen on the streets of Portland, No. 12

I go out to walk Duncan on May 27. We follow our usual path on our mostly deserted early morning sidewalk. Before crossing the street, I look to the left and the right--we've seen too many drivers going the wrong way on our one-way street. Whoa! What? What's that? An ironing board! On top of a white van! Huh?

We finish our walk and go back to the apartment. I put his food down for him, grab my camera and head right back outside to take photos.

What's the strangest thing you've ever seen atop a parked car?

Rite of Spring, High School Style

Exit the limo

Pose for the photo

Have an unforgettable night with your best friends.

What memories does this conjure up for you?