Sorry it’s been so quiet lately – lots of work, travel, more work…but also time out to take a hike at the park down the road from us. The trails don’t seem to go far, but they intersect logging roads so we Not Saw Any Signs and continued on our way into the mountains for a few hours. A few random photos (none, I’m afraid, of the incredible vistas of fir-covered mountains with clouds sliding through the valleys – had only the silly little pocket camera) We saw a gazillion mushrooms, which is a daily event now. It’s raining at least a little bit most of the time, and you really get the term “temperate rainforest” walking around out here. Tired from working full time + an evening/weekend project, and the hike, but we’ll make a new year’s resolution to keep the blog interesting…or at least full of pretty photos, which come easy out here =)

We recently had a request to post some winter scenes of our new home. Well, winter here typically means mid-40s temps and drizzly rains – much nicer than the New York sludgy winters we’re used to, but not really lending itself to “winter scenes”. Mother Nature must have sympathized with our dilemma, delivering a beautiful snowfall of big wet fluffy flakes for a couple of hours on Thursday morning. Of course, all traces of snow were gone by the afternoon, but we still enjoyed the show. Looking out of our “widescreen” bedroom window: Wayne watching kitty television from the front living room windows: View from the side living room windows (did I mention we have GREAT windows?): Looking toward the orchard (from the side living room windows):