Fleur de Lis, pretty historic and a weed! Then the road less traveled.

The wild iris in bloom at Salmon Creek Trail

The fleur de lis is not a lily at all, but the Iris Pseudacorus, so a pseudo-lily?

This invasive water plant grows in shallow water or near swamps and blooms briefly on the Salmon Creek Trail I trek along with friends.  An attendant forest ranger, one morning, pointed the plant out as an invasive weed needing to be eradicated.  Then he said it was given the historical distinction of having saved a king in France in battle because it formed a mat for him to travel through positioning his army to best advantage. Thus it became the Fleur de Lis.  Okay I checked Wiki and: ‘Clovis [the Merovingian king of the Franks] adopted the symbol [fleur de lis] when water lilies showed him how to safely cross a river and thus succeed in battle’.

Driving home from the Long Beach Peninsula I followed old highway 4 taking my time to imagine what the trip was like for Lewis and Clark in the 1804-06.  This road twists along the north side of the Columbia River. It wends its way through bogs, amid forests, over streams and rivers that feed the Columbia and bottle necks in historic towns with graveyards commemorating folks who resided there before and during the Civil War. 

Rosburg Telephone

I stopped at a graveyard filled with Swedish settlers' bones, but was most taken by the telephone booth, sans telephone, left to herald the newfangled conveniences of the 50s and 60s.  Then there was the side trip to see an historic covered bridge.  The cover was placed over the bridge to keep the bovine travelers from slipping on wet, slimy wood when crossing the creek.  Might have been nice for the humans as well, you think?  These farmers were so practical, eh!

Still Creek

Also, of note are the logging trucks which are still harvesting for the pulp mills 'up the road'. There is definitely what locals call the "smell of money" when driving through Longview, WA.

Columbia River

Fertile banks of Columbia

All good here and planning my trip home to NZ soon.
Yes! J

Kelsey Family Farm is Good!

Had a lovely visit to ‘the farm’ on a sunny day here in Clark County, located in Southern Washington.

This is a working family farm. The Kelseys are striving to keep their produce as natural as possible. 

Nests for variety of hens laying

Happy Hens make happy eggs

Farmer collecting eggs

The farm produces eggs, which 'sell off the shelf within hours of their placement' at the local market.  The cartons are filled with eggs from free range chickens which are fed non-soy, non-GMO, natural grains imported for purity.  Besides the high quality of the eggs, the cartons come with a sequential story which progresses each week. 

Sheep are raised for wool and meat.  The wool is spun in its natural colors and can be purchased. The meat is, in my opinion, of good NZ quality.

Pigs and turkeys are raised for food and like all of the animals are nourished by organic feed.

Dandelion Wine with Sultana raisins

The farm has bee hives, fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

It is a great endeavor made easier each year with determination, ingenuity, imagination, creativity and loving care by the Kelsey family members.  Maybe the dandelion wine helps as well!

They can be reached at: 

www.kelseyfamilyfarm.com/

All good here, but I miss my NZ home.  Back in a week.  Can’t wait!  J

Sailing on Vancouver Lake

The dock

Last Tuesday evening was meant for racing sail boats on Vancouver Lake.  It was about 65 degrees, with a brisk wind and a clear sky.  The dock was quiet one moment and then inundated with eager sailors edging their boats onto the water surface with loose sails calling for attention and boats that needed to skim the lake surface.

Officials' boat

Rollers on the lake

We pulled away in the guide boat
and readied the flags, horn, buoys, paperwork, while our lungs luxuriated in the fresh air. The lake developed good sized rollers as the boats formed up to starting positions.  Flags were synchronized to the sounding of horns and the sail boats were off!  Crews scampered from one side of their boats to the other as a fit person offered his/her body as ballast off the side of the boat appearing to be a wooden planks horizontal to the water surface.  The mainsails,  

The sun is setting

Spinnakers unfurled

the jibs, and spinnakers gathered the wind to propel the boats forward.

Boats are put to sleep for the night

As the sun set, reflecting off the sails, a chill wind began to infiltrate my now deficient hoody.  Wishing for a good windbreaker, earmuffs and gloves I finished the paperwork and we all 'raced back to the barn' for the night.  The boats were trussed up with sails furled and all 'ship shape' until the next race.  Sailors gathered in the club house for pasta, cocoa, wine and beer.

A good evening on the lake.  All good, J

Rosie the Riveter and Wendy the Welder and General Grant did NOT sleep here!

Rosie the Riveter

I took a wonderful walk along the Columbia River Waterfront on a sunny afternoon and took in the view of one of my favorite statues; a metal sculpture of a woman representing the many women who worked in the Vancouver shipyards during WW2. 

Wendy the Welder

Brief story of Women at War

My neighbor,in her late 80s, told me about her adventure in 1941, traveling to Vancouver from Pennsylvania, alone, on a bus, to become an employee of the Kaiser Company.  She was only 16 and ran errands for the main office.  I can just imagine this tiny young woman whisking about, blond pony tail flying as she be-bopped from site to site.   She told of having the male shipbuilders flirt with her, asking her to let them show her around the entrails of the not completed ships.  She was told there was a special gold bolt in the bowels of the ships that they could display for her.  She loved the attention, but didn't fall for the 'gold bolt' ploy.  But, she said, she knew many of these men and would often frequent a nearby dance venue, on the weekends, where they would go to enjoy themselves.  To this day she still loves dancing and nice looking men. She has unbounded energy and a well vocalized appreciation of the young men who do work in landscaping and construction in our neighborhood. Blue eyes twinkling, under a bonnet of blond curls, and a smile reminiscent of many a flirt she offers home made lemonade and cookies to all sun bronzed male bodies who are so fortunate.

Fort Vancouver used for housing and staging deportation of US troops

 

Vancouver side of Columbia River

The Vancouver Shipyard in 1939 and Kaiser Permanente in1945 fostered by industrialist Henry J Kaiser are still viable interests.

Fort Vancouver, a few blocks away, established in in 1825 and used as a staging site for US soldiers in WW1 and WW2, is now a combination of historic village and historic barracks.  Although there is a U. S. Grant house, President Grant never slept there, but George C Marshall did occupy Marshall House.

Still enjoying beauty in the NW, J

Missing New Zealand, but glorious NW Spring

Smell the Honey Suckle

Howick rainbow piercing the horizon

Am here in the beautiful NW in Southern Washington State.


The roses are blooming, the honey suckle calls me to breath deep, the strawberries are vibrant and blooming with a promise of a bumper crop, my neighbors are very supportive,  alas, I miss my husband and our quiet home on the water in Howick, NZ. 

But am looking forward to seeing our family up close and personal for the next few weeks.

Salmon Creek

An NZ friend sent pictures and my husband sent some as well from our Howick deck.  It is cold in NZ right now and I'm sauntering about in a tank top as I clip a few flowers and chat with friends on the block here in Washington State.

I've been hiking, early mornings along the Salmon Creek trail where the turtles are sunbathing on exposed rocks in the ponds as osprey circle overhead. I know how fortunate I am to have access to such beauty.

Rhodies are happy here!

All good, J

Flying out of NZ through OZ to US

$60. per tin

Because of frugality we fly in a rather convoluted way to get from Auckland to Portland.  I started at 0800 out of Auckland to Sydney, with a 3 hour wait for the Auckland to San Francisco flight. I was hoping for that last 1st class seat or one of the two business class seats, but that was not to be.  I got an economy plus seat with an empty seat next to mine. The 14 hour flight schedule was reduced to 13 hours due to tail winds and woman seated on the other side of the empty seat was a quiet, thin woman who agreed we could share access to the empty seat.  The flight attendant comped my wine and the meals were adequate and not too filling as first and business class offerings can be. The flight was choppy  over the equator, but that is pretty much a given.  I watched The Enemy at the Gate.  It is a spectactular movie. So I was happy.

Each time I went through the TSA monitors my bags were pulled aside because I had placed some silver mint coins, inscribed with the Year of the Horse, for the twin grand-kids we are expecting, in the bottom of the carryon.  Each time it was a brief delay, but not something that caused me great tension.  However, in Sydney a young man, on his way to Tokyo, was relieved of eight tins of fine Australian abalone and maybe 4 tins of smoked salmon.  He was not happy and was allowed a quiet discussion with the manager of  security who assured him he could go back out and check these items through, but because the tins had fluid in containers larger than 4 ml they were considered a threat to cabin safely.  I priced out the tins in the Duty free area, where they cost $60. each.  Two items became clear when I talked to the woman who sells Duty Free abalone tins.  One is that the fellow traveler lost about $720.OZ in tinned fish and probably some of the good will of those who were to share his booty in Tokyo.  The second bit of information is that the stall woman assured me that the cost was about the same for the tins on the street in Sydney as in the Duty Free area.  Traveling through various Airports internationally I had begun to think that the prices  of Duty Free items were not necessarily less and that sometimes they are actually higher than like items on the street.

Vancouver Lake, Mt St. Helens & Mt Adams

Columbia River

All of the flights were full coming up to Portland so I had to spring for a full fare ticket and wait for a 6pm flight.  The flight pattern into PDX took us across Vancouver Lake, where we sail, and over the Columbia River to land to the East toward Mt. Hood.  All beautiful country.

Mt Hood

All still good, J

Movie extra work, The Coast, and Gratuitous photos

Another sunny morning and I’m still thinking about the ‘movie work’ and realized that last night I watched a little Netflix programming and was concentrating on the extras and not the main characters.  The extras were busy trying to mouth conversations and look like they were actually vocalizing.  It is not easy and it takes good hearing, concentration and is not meant for those who like to push the envelope.  I so wanted to start a conversation mimed ruckus with my friend on set.  This would not have gone over well. 

I remember years ago being an extra in the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus with Richard Dreyfuss.  One scene required us to all observe absolute quiet as Mr. Holland, the band instructor, conducted his high school band in a marching contest.  Quite obviously he was a beat behind in his conducting, the music was miserable and Mr. Holland used curse words to berate his band of students.  I was so wrapped up in the good acting that I became aghast at his treatment of young people in front of the other youngsters in the crowd scene that I began to clap loudly as an encouragement to his sense of rhythm.  I will never forget the steely blue stare from Mr. Dreyfuss and my shock at my mistake.  “Cut!” Nice young woman reminds over-enthusiastic extra to remain silent.  I realized it was all theatrics and Mr. Dreyfuss did not need my help.  It was a fun excursion with my sons on a sunny day in Portland, Oregon.

In the local shooting here a young college student, earning money as an extra, was cast on the set, to usher me, a visitor, from one place to another.  We started a brief conversation and she told me about her University major and the fact that she already had a job lined up in her home town Something-Something-Nui.  Not having a clue what the name of her Maori christened hometown was I asked “Where is it was located?”  “Oh, it’s on the coast, of course.”  Oh, of course ‘the coast’ I thought, that should be an obvious location, if this wasn’t a country of two main islands with plenty of room for coast line.  Later my friend translated the name of the town and said it was up north and considered ‘the coast’.  I'm learning and laughing at my own mental processes along the way.

Dining area

Now for some gratuitous photos, of lighting surrounds original to our rental home, as I don’t have any photos of the above.  NZ is glorious this morning after a night of rain again.  Quite happy with our surroundings and feeling very fortunate. J

Master Bedroom

PS What are these called?