I rarely run with anyone other than my dog, Mack. When I am getting dressed to run he doesn’t wait by the door. He sticks with me as I brush my teeth, pull on a jacket, get a drink of water, up the stairs and back down, until he is out the door, assured of going with me. He bursts to the edge of the porch and surveys the situation in the driveway and yard, alert to the smells in …
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With four planets in reverse this month, the pace slows down even more, if you can believe it. Perhaps most notably, Venus, goddess of love and money takes the scenic route through Gemini, turning love in the time of coronavirus into an inside job. Six weeks and counting into socially isolating, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere gaze through our widows at the trees leafing out and birds bringing treats to their hatchlings, yet with three outer planets and …
Spring in Central Oregon is untamed, unfriendly, and moody. Not just wild but downright grumpy. Like a cranky old man being woken from a too-short sleep, his dinner burning, his chickens being bullied by coyotes, neighbor cats pooping in his garden, and his truck with two flat tires. Still, he takes the time to walk to the fence line and ask how you are*. It snows even when it is sunny. Squalls are on and off for days. The wind …
With strokes of luck and intuition, RK and I ended up in the perfect place. We can observe the Milky Way in the night sky with owls and coyotes as the soundtrack. The forest is just down the street, where we know the trails so well we have even named some of the rocks. The neighbors aren’t always perfect, there are faraway gunshots heard from the buttes, but this is the wabi-sabi in our lives — something to notice and …
Recently, on a morning run, I used a stick to lift a dead kangaroo rat off the trail. The white belly fur was vivid in the dawn, long back legs outstretched, tail curled into a U, the body stiff and frozen. Later, at home, I lay on my back stretching and saw a small dark moth on the ceiling. As I watched, it released its grip and fell to the floor, much faster than a creature with wings should fall. …
Years ago, when I surfed, I was seduced by an empty ocean and paddled out to surf on water that was rowdy, powerful, and dangerous. …
We found Emma in a circus tent filled with border collies and “lab mixes” at a pet adoption event 12 years ago. While dozens of dogs barked, smiled, wagged, and encouraged us to pick them, she was curled up into a spotted brown ball in some wood chips, very much not into the situation. When she looked up at us with eyes that were a mix of white, blue, and brown (we soon learned that catahoulas commonly have such eyes …
Aside from the abundant wax current blooms, which count as flowers, of course, but as tiny and pale pink as they are, do not satisfy the flower itch, the first wildflower that I spotted this year was a scrappy little white thing alone in the dirt. I loved it! And was secretly worried that someone was going to tell me it was invasive, not native, not a wildflower at all. I did a little research and feel safe in my …
There are things to fear at the edge of the forest. A man on the road told RK to carry a pistol on dog walks in case of coyotes, bobcats, and cougars. A woman screamed when Mack startled her on the trail, she said she thought he was a bear. And, I’ve been told, you have to watch out for unsavory characters. Our neighbors, usually reticent at best, have been all a-buzz about a recent cougar sighting just down the …
The first time I ran on my current backyard trail was April 2017. RK and I went to central Oregon hoping to mountain bike and instead we went running in sideways rain/sleet/snow. There are two loops, stacked. Or you might visualize it as a big loop bisected into a small loop and a medium-sized loop. I guesstimated the small loop was maybe 5 miles and convinced RK it would be great! Back then RK had one bum knee and wasn’t …
Most of us remember connect-the-dot puzzles, moving a pencil around a piece of partially printed newsprint from numbered dot to numbered dot until a composition is revealed. I guess this is a way of teaching kids how to count because as we all know, in real life dots can be connected any which way and the connection does not always reveal anything sensical. My friend Lisa visited us in Central Oregon recently and after painting a mural so pretty it …
A few weeks ago, before we moved, and one of the last times I pulled into the trailhead parking lot in the dark. I was not surprised to be the only car. Central Oregon doesn’t have as many fans of early morning trail running and now that it is headlamp time, and cold, the number of people out and about pretty much includes me. Even the rooster that lives at the house nearby wasn’t up. The thermometer on my dashboard …
Friends! It seems like forever, but it has been a tumultuous time. RK and I have been finding our way in Central Oregon, which has a different kind of pace, style, and energy than we are used to. Rest assured, bikes are being ridden, trails are being run, fish are being moved, and we are enjoying the great outdoors as much as ever. What has changed? We are the proud owners of a vintage 1981 passive solar monopoly house sitting …