Winter Weather Blues

We've been snowed in for the past week. We live on a hill and with the exception of Friday, the snow and ice have been bad enough that we didn't want to risk driving in it. We did manage to get out yesterday and over to the other side of Portland to pick up one daughter whoe was somewhat stranded there and to visit with two of our grandchildren and our other daughter. Also, our son, daughter-in-law and newest granddaughter flew in and met us there before heading to the coast to visit with the in-laws. For a brief period of about 20 minutes, we had all three of our grandchildren in the same room. It was delightful.

Unfortunately, we had to forgo dinner plans with some very good friends of ours whom we haven't seen in several weeks, but we're going to make every effort to see them in the next couple of weeks. We didn't get home until later in the evening, and slept in this morning. By the time we got up for the day, it was already snowing again and there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground here at the valley floor. Three inches isn't much really, especially since we lived in New England for several years before we moved to Oregon, but the snow removal capabilities of the county and cities in the area don't compare at all to those of the Northeast so the roads are quite treacherous. I did buy chains for the truck, but unless I have a real need to leave the house, I just can't see driving in this mess.

We had hoped it would warm up and all this would be gone by Christmas so we could have all our grandchildren and children here on Christmas Day, but it's looking iffy right now according to the latest weather forecast (which haven't been terribly accurate). We're keeping our fingers crossed, though.

One advantage of this nasty weather has been that it's given me some extra time to work on post-processing the images I've taken this past year. I usually shoot quite a lot during the warm months then work on the images over the winter months - and not being able to get out of the house has given me some extra incentive to work on the images. The two sets I've worked on most recently have been the River Fairy and the Sand Fairy. If the weather keeps up like it has been, I'm sure I'll get on to the Water Fall Fairy and the Spring Fairy as well.
Here's the Sand Fairy:


With any luck, I'll be able to shoot the Winter Fairy too. Wish me luck.

Current Work

Finished working on Danse Fae:



Started working on Bubble Fairy 2:

Moving into Fall

It's getting cooler, wetter, and the leaves are slowly turning into the muted yellows and reds that herald the fall season in the Northwest. The Willamette Valley stays fairly green throughout the fall and winter. With so many evergreens in Oregon, that's not surprising. But the grass also stays pretty green, as do the ferns and many other plant species.

Usually this means it's time to move my photography indoors. This year, I'm going to try to do more outside shooting, including a great idea for glamour in the fog that a good friend of mine gave to me. I'm also hoping for a good snowfall in the valley this year, as I have a couple of ideas I'd like to try in the snow as well.

With the arrival of fall, and definitely with the arrival of grandchildren, we've enjoyed going out to Sauvie Island to visit the Pumpkin Patch to choose our pumpkins for carving to let our granddaughter play in fields and on the hay pyramid. This year, we got to take our grandson as well. The only thing that would have made it more fun, would have been to be able to take our other granddaughter along as well. Her mom and dad took her to a pumpkin patch in California where they live, though, and I'm sure they had fun too.

We're going to visit that granddaughter next week. Our son and daughter-in-law think we're coming to see the whole family, but Wanda assures me that we're going there to see the baby. We haven't seen her in about a month (except for on video sharing), and Wanda is getting itchy to hold her again. The period between this visit and Christmas is going to be very difficult for her. It's a good thing Ryker, (our 6 week old grandson) is around for her to cuddle. Of course, it's fun for me too...

Being a grandfather is great fun, and I really enjoy holding and playing with my grandkids. My maternal grandfather died before my mother was born, and my paternal grandfather had very little to do with me, so I've had to wing it. I'm going to try to be as much a part of my grandchildren's lives as they and their parents will allow. Fortunately, they've all been great.