A road may take you straight ahead to distant mountains beneath moody skies
Or twist and turn uphill towards massive works of art
A road may drop you deep into the layers of earth
Or elevate you above wide winding waterways
Lens-Artist Photo Challenge – Pick a Word
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These Garry oak trees near the Columbia River caught my eye. The oaks were growing east of Mosier, Oregon along the Historic Columbia River Highway.
I’ve always liked how oak tree branches twist and turn. Garry oak, Quercus garryana, does not grow in a neat and tidy kind of way. This tree is also known as the Oregon white oak.
The deciduous leaves are darker green on the top side and finely haired underneath..
The distinctive lobed leaves turn brown in the fall.
These trees flowers in the spring and the acorns they produce ripen from August to November. The acorns are eaten by many wildlife species including, woodpeckers, doves, jays, chipmunks, squirrels, deer, and bear.
a cliff by the sea
smiles in shades of gold and gray
as spring tides roll in
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Our local Bend newspaper, The Source Weekly, is having a pet photo contest. Please vote for my pets! Click on the link above each photo to vote for the pictures I entered. There are 15 categories in the contest this year so check out the others while you’re there.
This one features Shelby after she played fetch on a rainy day. She doesn’t care what the weather is like, she just wants to fetch balls. She is showing me her best puppy eyes in this picture as if she’s asking if she’s a good girl, even when she is this dirty.
This photo is in the Best Puppy Eyes category.
The next one shows my dog, Tesla, and my cat, Kitty, sleeping on the same bed. Kitty can be quite demanding when she wants attention, but Tesla is always patient with her.
This photo is in the Best Buds category.
The last one is of Tesla warming the soil in one of our gardens. Did you notice she’s sticking her tongue out at you?
This photo is in the Goofiest category.
I’ve never entered photos of my pets in this contest before. However, 20 years ago, I entered one in a Life magazine contest. I won an honorable mention with this picture of our dog, Leto, in a costume we made.
Voting for the Central Oregon Pets Contest is open from February 24 to March 10. Please vote for my pets! THANK YOU. 😀
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On February 15, we visited the Bend WinterFest event in the Old Mill District. I was really looking forward to seeing the ice carvings. In past years, we always seemed to be there at the wrong time and missed these amazing works of art.
The artists this year included Lisa Donze + John Donze, Jacob Lucas, Russ Leno, and Wade Lapp. The ice carvings are beautiful by themselves, but if you add a little lighting, they become sort of magical.
This butterfly is shown with bold bright colors and softer pastel tones. I liked how this one looked in the bold blue color the best.
The next carving is a whimsical one. Two people with ice cube heads carry an enormous heart. The red color was very fitting for this one.
The next carving shows two penguins facing each other. I think I liked the purple color best on this one.
The last carving is shown in one color. This three rose sculpture looks great in this gorgeous green color.
WinterFest briefly moved away to another venue, and I was happy to see it once again at this site beside the Deschutes River. This event includes ice carvings, amazing hand-crafted fire pits, the Pump Bump Jam (a ski ramp with several jumps), a wine walk, food carts, beer, wine, and cider booths, bands playing on the stage, a flying dog show, and a kid’s area. It also includes booths from a wide variety of businesses and booths selling everything from jewelry and clothing to unique food items. This year there were more Marketplace booths than I’ve ever seen before.
I will be working on another post about the firepits that I’ll share in the future. I have featured the fire pits in the past on my blog, and it’s always been a popular topic.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Bold
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Yesterday, we thought we would try out a new food cart pod, Dogwood at the Pine Shed, on the east side of Bend. There are currently about 30 food cart pods in Central Oregon with more in the works. I decided to try food from The Dominican, a cart featuring food from the Dominican Republic. Have I had Dominican food before? Nope, but I’m always open to trying new things.
I tried a combination plate called La Bandera. The meal included a generous portion of melt-in-your-mouth-it’s-so-tender marinated beef. It was complimented with sides of fluffy rice and tasty beans. The Dominican house salad was equal parts leafy green lettuce and chopped tomatoes and cucumber, topped with shredded cheese and crunchy croutons.
The crunchiness continued in the tostones. Tostones are twice-fried plantain slices. A tostonera is used to flatten the slices prior to frying. I’ve never had them before, but they were delicious!
On another trip to The Dominican, I had the Chicharrón meal. It includes crispy pieces of pork belly topped with seasoned onions. The light crispy texture of the pork belly is hard to describe, but I will definitely be back to order it again. Yum! Fluffy rice and tostones fill up the rest of the plate.
I ordered the cocktail inside at the Dogwood bar. It’s the Thai One On and it includes blanco rum, malibu, basil, matcha, and coconut milk with a refreshing splash of soda. On other trips, I ordered the Southern Sidecar and Poco Loco drinks. Every drink I’ve ordered so far has been unique and tasty.
There are several Dominican options at The Dominican cart, but also a few American choices. They serve cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, and pork sandwiches. You can opt for a side of tostones or the more traditional French fries.
This pod also has trucks with Mexican food, Vietnamese food, sandwiches, cookies, and barbecue. There’s plenty of outside seating at picnic tables and inside the Pine Shed. The Pine Shed, a rustic metal building, once served as a warehouse, and later, as a coffee shop. It was moved across town from an industrial area to this new location. Inside, you’ll find Dogwood, which serves unique cocktails, beer, and wine.
At this time, major road construction is going on in this neighborhood. Please make an extra effort to visit this new food pod and support our local businesses!
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If I had to feature just one photograph, as this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge suggests, I would choose this one. On our way to Thermopolis, Wyoming, we paused to marvel at the Red Canyon Scenic Overlook, 24 miles south of Lander on Highway 28.
Why did I choose this photo?
The Red Canyon Scenic Overlook is a beautiful roadside attraction that’s worth stopping for. For more information on the geology of this location, check the Bureau of Land Management site.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Only One Picture
Weekend Sky (WS)
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Walking with a sweetheart along the Deschutes River in Bend, Oregon. The red, pink, and white flags are on display to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Hope you have a good one!
When I’m trying to decide if I should use black and white processing on an image, I ask myself one important question: Does the structure of the elements justify its usage?
When you think of structure, you may think of architectural details. Yes, that’s one interpretation, but everything has a structure.
The first two images show a Hosta plant during a downpour of rain at Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon. Initially, I was disappointed to visit on a rainy day. However, while researching the garden later, I found visitors often seek out rainy days.
The color image shows off the green colors in the leaves. The monochrome image shows off the structure of the elements. The contrasting edge color, the curving veins of the leaves, and the glossiness created by the rain, shine in the black and white version.
The next two images show a Borealosuchus crocodile skeleton cast at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. As soon as I entered this museum, the photographer part of my brain started imagining everything in black and white.
The color version shows the skeleton in warm tones and a recreation of what they looked like in life focuses on a vibrant creature. The black and white version highlights the structure of the elements. Whenever a skeleton is displayed well, you’ll notice its exquisite details.
Sometimes when you create a monochromatic version, you’ll find hidden surprises. The reflections from other displays across from the crocodile made this into what appeared to be a double exposure.
The next two images show barrels at Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. For certain brews, beer is aged in barrels once containing whiskey, tequila, and other liquor.
The color version shows the varying colors of the aged wood in the barrels. The black and white version also shows the age of the barrels, but emphasizes the orderliness of the storage and the structure of the stairs.
The last two images show the view from an overlook at the Paint Pots trail in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. This picture shows dense forests, mountains in the distance, steaming thermal features, and a sky full of puffy clouds.
The color version highlights the cool tones of the sky and forest and the warm tones of the soil around the hot springs. The black and white version lets the cloudscape be the main feature. The thermal features blend into the foreground.
Is a color or monochrome version best? Sometimes there is no right answer. As photographers, we try to capture a moment in time for viewers. With a touch of magic, we help them “see” what they may not have noticed, in color or black and white.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Exploring Color vs Black & White
Our pets know when we need to laugh
Or when we need to have a good cry
Pets show us when to dig in
Or when it’s time to hit the road
Animals learn how to fit into our lives
Or share a space when it’s needed
Pets help us weather hard times
Or find a soft place to land
Our pets know when it’s time to take a break
Or go on an adventure with a friend
Pets learn how to expand the possibilities
Or make the best of a tight situation
Animals know how to find excitement in every new day
Or show us how old age is not an excuse to slow down
And when our pets are no longer a presence in front of our eyes,
they will always hold a place in our hearts
This post includes pictures of every cat and dog I’ve owned since leaving home at age 17.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Cats & Dogs
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I thought it would be fun to take pictures of Cascade sunsets from above to get more comfortable with using my drone. For eight consecutive days, I flew my DJI drone up to an altitude of 100 feet from my backyard. The mountains featured in these photos are approximately 26 miles away, as the crow flies.
These pictures show several volcanoes that are a part of Oregon’s Cascade Mountain Range. I recently featured aerial pictures of them from a closer perspective in another post.
Hope you enjoy these images of our spectacular skies near Bend, Oregon!
The first photo shows a fiery sky. These are more commonly seen in the winter months around here.
The second photo shows a pale yellow background with the clouds floating over the mountains edged in pink.
The third photo shows a mostly clear sky. There appears to be a haze of smoke that could be from one of our prescribed burns in local forests. These controlled fires help prevent bigger fires.
The fourth photo shows another clear sky.
The fifth photo shows yet another clear sky. This time I took the photo right as the sun was setting over the mountains.
The next photo shows… uh, maybe we should pause for musical interlude. This song, Blue Sky & The Painter by Bastille, is one of my current favorites and it’s about blue skies.
Why did I include an interlude? Because there were more days without a single cloud in the sky when the sun set!
The sixth photo shows a clear day as the sun sets.
The seventh day shows, you guessed it, another sunny clear day.
Based on these photos, is it really true that Bend, Oregon gets 300 days of sunshine a year? Nope. However, we do have 250-260+ days a year that are clear or mostly clear.
The eighth day shows, HURRAY!, clouds as a storm was moving in. A thick, dark cloud floated ominously over the snow-covered peaks.
The Oregon Cascade Range gets quite a bit of snow each winter. Mount Bachelor (shown on the left in these photos), as I stated in another post, gets over 400 inches of snow a year.
I may try taking sunrise pictures for a future post. I just hope that if I do, the clouds will cooperate. 😉
Weekend Sky (WS)
Ragtag Daily Prompt (RDP) – Float
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This Oregon Garden bench looked like a nice place to rest while roaming the 80-acres of gardens. I have featured photos of this attraction in Silverton, Oregon in several previous posts.
This photo showing arrowheads up close was taken at Petersen Rock Garden & Museum. This unique roadside attraction is in Redmond, Oregon.
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Exquisite Creatures Revealed is an amazing exhibition at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland, Oregon. It will be on display until February 17, 2025.
Christopher Marley combined elements of art and the natural world into three-dimensional masterpieces. Marley has lived in dozens of countries and studied art and design, while pursuing a career in fashion. The time he spent working for Luis Vuitton, Georgio Armani, Gucci, Donna Karan, and Nike influenced his overall aesthetics.
These displays were created using mainly one color, complementary colors, analogous colors, and black and white. The unique works of art highlight the wide range of colors and forms occurring in nature.
The butterfly pieces were wonderfully colorful, but also beautiful because of their iridescence. The various species of Lepidoptera shown live in France, China, Indonesia, Laos, Peru, Brazil, Guyana, Bolivia, Central African Republic, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia.
These Jewel Beetles are all the same species, just different in color. The wide variety of colors, and their shiny texture, made for an eye-catching display. They live in Southeast Asia.
These remarkable creatures are considered one of the most efficient hunters in the animal kingdom. The dragonfly species in this piece live in regions of the U.S. and Asia.
There are over 20,000 species of leaf mimic katydids in the world. The insects shown live in Peru, Indonesia, Malayasia, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea.
This triptych shows the significant differences in crab’s body shape and size. Did you know there are over 7,000 species of crab in the world?
I think these were some of my favorite pieces in this exhibit. The sea urchins in these pieces reside in oceans around the world.
This triptych piece had a nice movement to it. I liked its curving lines, the variety of its colorful sea urchins, and the simple shapes of the white sand dollars in the background.
I liked the next piece because it reminded me of the excitement I’ve experienced upon finding a complete sand dollar while walking along Pacific Northwest beaches. If you shake them, you’ll hear a rattling sound. The small V-shaped pieces found inside dead sand dollars are called doves. In life, they function as teeth.
These seahorse skeletons looked so delicate. These seahorses lived in Hawaii.
This piece, composed of Brittle Stars, also looked fragile. This species lives in the Philippines.
This piece includes three Royal Pythons that lived in Sub-Saharan Africa. This piece was interesting, but I also found it to be kind of disturbing.
This piece showed the diversity of colors and forms of feathers.
These Rosella skins show the wide range of color in their feathers. This species is native to Australia.
Christopher Marley briefly described why he included this orchid piece in the exhibition. He was impressed by the flowers’ “bizarre, extravagant, even superfluous morphology, and the colors unbound by any parameters give them a ruggedly individual, almost defiant air that I find both intoxicating and humbling.”
In case you were wondering, all of the artwork includes real preserved specimens. The specimens were collected using ecologically friendly and sustainable methods in collaboration with zoos, museums, and collectors. None of the vertebrates featured in this exhibition were killed for the art pieces.
The Exquisite Creatures Revealed exhibition was unlike any I’ve ever seen. It was definitely one of my favorite exhibits I saw last year. Yeah, the specimens themselves are fascinating, but the way Marley displayed them was awe-inspiring. WOW!
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Complementary Colors
Three Things Challenge TTC)- Yeah, Year
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We had a burger dish and a pasta dish recently at The Blacksmith restaurant in Bend. We made sure to leave room for one of their special desserts.
This is a picture of the Blacksmith Burger. The dish includes a 1/2-pound Kobe patty on a brioche bun, topped with tomato, lettuce, red onions, and aioli. You can choose to have the burger with either fries or a side salad. The fries and burger were delicious!
This picture shows the Shrimp Linguine dish. It includes shrimp, cherry tomato, basil, mint, red onion, and garlic. White wine lemon cream sauce, parmesan, and fresh herbs top the linguini pasta. This dish was full of flavor.
The Blacksmith is well known locally for their desserts.
This photo shows their Fostered Bananas Split. This twist on a traditional banana split includes house-made banana bread, vanilla bean ice cream, and sauteed bananas, topped with orange rum caramel sauce and whipped cream. This was a good dessert, but my banana bread was a little dry.
This is a picture of their Brownie dessert. The dish includes a rich brownie sprinkled with sea salt, topped with vanilla bean ice cream, caramel, and toasted walnuts. This was a very tasty dessert, nicely presented.
I’m including a copy of their dessert menu. Yes, they are expensive! The banana split price, in particular, is too high, in my opinion.
You can find the dinner, happy hour, and drink menus on their website.
I enjoyed the food and atmosphere at The Blacksmith restaurant. This building, built in 1923, once housed Pete Pierson Blacksmithing. The owners since then have tried to keep much of the original structure. The building opened as a restaurant in 2003 and its current owners have owned it since 2013.
One of the things I appreciated the most about our meal there was the ability to carry on a conversation. I didn’t need to shout or strain to hear my tablemate speaking. At some restaurants in Bend, the industrial style-design makes talking with your tablemates very difficult.
Three Things Challenge (TTC) – Price
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This colorful Neptune’s Taphouse & Eatery mural is unique. It’s painted on slats of wood on a room divider. This restaurant, located in Livingston, Montana, has an ocean theme.
Livingston is a long way from the ocean, but Neptune’s Taphouse serves several dishes that include fish and shellfish. It has an extensive sushi menu. The menu also includes dishes with mussels, clams, scallops, crab, shrimp, tuna, salmon, and cod.
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This photo, taken in downtown Bend, Oregon, shows a bright future. I used infrared processing to show the light not always visible to the naked eye.
A sign on a lamppost reads, “Shelter, Help, Hope.” It’s from one of the homeless shelters here in town. Sometimes, if people in difficult situations can focus on the light ahead, they can find their way out of the darkness.
Monochrome Madness (MM)
Today I’m sharing some of my 2024 favorite photos. I divided them into four categories: Critters, Cuisine, Cultural attractions, and Countryside.
I’m beginning with the critters category. In case you didn’t know, I love animals and often feature pictures of them.
The first photo shows a curious Long-tailed Weasel emerging from roadside vegetation at Summer Lake in Oregon. It was so cute!
This Pronghorn pranced across a grassy field at Yellowstone National Park. These graceful creatures are one of my absolute favorites.
A Great Blue Heron in a Portland garden walked right up to me in the middle of a rainstorm. What a magical moment!
In this picture, an American Avocet crosses a pond at Summer Lake Wildlife Area. I liked the simplicity of this photo
The next category is cuisine. Did you know blog posts featuring food are some of the most popular?
I begin with an appetizer, of course. This Spicy King Salmon Hwe is from Yoli, a Korean restaurant in Bend, Oregon. We ate a tasty 5-course meal there.
The next photo is of a pizza from Rush’s Squares in Bend. Their Pesto Margherita pizza is delicious!
The next picture is of a fish taco from 10 Barrel Brewing in Bend. There are a lot of places that serve fish tacos, but this particular one’s ingredients make it stand out from the rest.
The last one is of a Mixed Berry Cobbler from the Blue Duck Restaurant at East Lake Resort in Oregon. This generously portioned dessert is great to share with tablemates.
The next category is Cultural Attractions. I did a lot of traveling in the West in 2024.
The first picture is one of several I took at Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon. This type of garden is designed to look beautiful from any angle.
The next picture is of old machinery at The Museum of the American West in Lander, Wyoming. I used black and white processing to highlight the lines and shapes of the machinery and the clouds.
This photo is of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. It is one of many photos I took at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana.
The next photo is of a rock-covered bridge and building beside a pond. This picture was taken at Petersen Rock Garden and Museum, a unique roadside attraction in Redmond, Oregon.
The last category is Countryside. I include photos of landscapes from the sea to the mountains.
The first picture was taken at Fogarty Creek State Recreation Area in Oregon. The curving shapes formed by the tide were beautiful.
This photo of river reflections was taken along the Columbia River in Oregon. I used cross processing to oversaturate the colors.
I used my new drone to take pictures at Summer Lake in Oregon. This photo shows an art piece created with rocks in the foreground and dust devils spinning over the playa in the background. I wrote a short story about my visit there, featuring other drone photos.
The last photo shows the mountains surrounding the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Bison herds frequently graze peacefully in these grasslands.
Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my 2024 favorite photos. Be sure to check out my recent 2024 Bloopers post to see photos from the last year interpreted with my unique sense of humor. 🙂
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Favorite images of 2024
Sunday Stills (SS) – Memorable Moments of 2024
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Now that the new year has begun, it’s time to post some of my 2024 bloopers. This is where I share pictures that didn’t quite fit into any category or were blurry. I try to add a little humor to them with captions and comments. Hope they entertain you!
“Ah, that’s the spot! Yeah, keep scratching right by my hip joint.”
A radiant smile can be found in the most unexpected of places.
“Did I really spill something on my bill, or are you just trying to make me look all cross-eyed?”
Good fences make good neighbors.
“Okay, I’ll give you three chances to get the focus right. One… two… three, you got it!”
“You say you’re having problems reading the subtitles? I’ll just read them for you, okay?”
Well, here’s one way to remind pool visitors of where to go and not go.
Uh… maybe I should just pay someone else to make sushi for me.
Hope you enjoyed my 2024 bloopers. See more of my funny photos on my photo bloopers tag.
Ragtag Daily Prompt (RDP) – Radiant
Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) – Joint
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A row of colorful lawn chairs lined up in front of a rock-covered building at Petersen Rock Garden and Museum. This unique roadside attraction is part way between Redmond and Bend, Oregon.
Memories of…
Relentless rain falling on a wise heron in a serene scene
Pronghorn pausing beside boulders layered with lichen
Crabs pacing and pirouetting in sun dappled darkness
Dust devils twisting over distant desert playas
Storms soaring past mountain peaks and lingering over large lakes
Waves, drifting and defiant, pummeling sandy shorelines
Wagon wheels carrying settlers to the promised land on treacherous treks
Trash turned into whimsical creatures making nests in restful retreats
Memories of…
Relentless rain falling on graceful dancers in a serene scene
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Last chance
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Are you in need of some howliday cheer? The holidays can be full of joy, but they can also be stressful. My talented dog, Tesla, would like to bring a smile to your face with some of her beautiful singing.
Here she is standing right in front me singing a short song. Note the wagging tail.
I have never owned a dog who has been quite so vocal before. Here’s Tesla accompanying random notes on a harmonica in a more complex song. She especially loves music with harmonica in it–any type of music. My other dog, Shelby, is her backup dancer in this clip.
Here she is singing in a more relaxed position. If you feel the urge to sing, you have to go for it no matter where you are, right?
Winter officially begins in one week. Try to stay warm and comfortable. Tesla is a pro at that. 😉
Hope this dose of some howliday cheer brightened your day!
Three Things Challenge (TTT) – Vocal
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Museum of the Rockies (MOR) in Bozeman, Montana, is a place I’ve always wanted to visit. I had known about their impressive dinosaur fossil collection for years. In June 2024, we visited this museum on the Montana State University campus.
A huge Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton sculpture greets you near the entrance. The Big Mike bronze sculpture, created by research Casting International of Ontario, Canada, is based on T. rex bones found in Montana.
MOR features several primary exhibits inside the main building.
The Living History Farm, outside of the entrance, gives glimpses of what farm life was like from 1890 to 1910. Programs on a variety of topics are shown in the Hager Auditorium.
No visit to MOR is complete without viewing the Seibel Dinosaur Complex. It is this museum’s star attraction. The collection is one of the largest in the world and features examples of Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex, and Allosaurus.
These and other dinosaurs are on display in the Dinosaurs Under the Big Sky exhibit area.
A generous donation by Thomas and Stacey Siebel tripled the exhibit space.
Jack Horner, paleontologist, and former director of paleontology at the museum, played a pivotal role in the design of this space.
You can observe preparators working on excavating encased fossils in one section.
Prehistoric mammals that once lived in parts of Montana are on display in the Cenozoic Corridor. These include mammoths, rhinos, and bone-crushing dogs.
This section focuses on the lives of American Indians of the Northern Plains and the Rocky Mountain region. Native peoples have lived in this region for thousands of years. When Euro-Americans moved into this part of America, conflicts followed. Despite being forced onto reservations and having much of their culture stripped away, Natives worked hard to maintain many traditions.
Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806) were among the first non-native people to explore this area. After their expedition, waves of outsiders flooded the area in search of gold and furs for trade. The Homestead Act brought thousands of settlers there. Limited resources affected the Natives’ way of life.
As more settlers and trappers established themselves in this part of the country, Native culture changed. However, they preserved elements of their culture that have existed for generations.
Since I have a deep appreciation of beadwork, I aimed my camera at several beaded artifacts in this exhibit.
Examples of quillwork were also displayed in this exhibit.
In this hall, the journey from early exploration to the mid-20th century is illustrated. The displays in this hall show elements of cultural and social change.
Murals, photographs, and numerous artifacts pull visitors into this area’s rich history.
I was drawn towards the line of carts and carriages in this section. The shock absorbing parts of these vehicles have always fascinated me.
An original homestead, built in 1889, is at the heart of this exhibit. Visitors are taken back in time to 1890-1910 by a series of buildings, recreated to look authentic. These buildings include a milking barn, blacksmith, root cellar, granary, shed, chicken coop, and outhouse. Gardens of flowers, vegetables, and grains contain examples of heirloom plants. Activities such as barn-raising, sewing circles, and quilting bees were an essential part of the communities.
Another section at the museum is the Welcome to Yellowstone Country exhibit. This exhibit shows parts of the past history of Yellowstone National Park. The work of entrepreneurs Charles A Hamilton and F. Jay Haynes in the park’s tourism industry in the 19th and 20th centuries is described.
The Martin Children’s Discovery Area is an interactive exhibition for kids. Children can visit the Explore Yellowstone and pump a geyser, climb a fire tower, fish from a bridge, set up a campsite, or experience the Old Faithful Inn.
For an additional fee, visitors can go to the Taylor Planetarium. There, you can enjoy regularly scheduled shows on the 40-foot-wide dome screen throughout the day.
During our visit, the MOR changing exhibit was Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids: Mythic Creatures. Since I like to include mythical creatures in novels I’m working on for kids, this exhibit was right up my alley.
This exhibition runs from May 24, 2024, to January 5, 2025. For more info on this exhibit, see one of my previous posts. It includes LOTS of pictures.
See operating times and days and admission prices here.
MOR has a large store near the entrance. It includes clothing, games, books, etc.
Here’s the Museum Map, near where you pay admission.
Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) – Complete
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Last June, while visiting the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, I watched this Sandhill Crane family stroll across a meadow in rapt silence. I took these pictures through my spotting scope with my phone.
We saw another Sandhill Crane family at this exact same spot three years ago. It’s right next to a pond. According to All About Birds, “Breeders gravitate toward the edges between wetland and upland habitats.” Yup, a perfect description of this site.
Sandhills perform elaborate courting dances and mate for life. Dances include bowing, jumping, and spreading the wings.
They nest in or near wetlands and construct their nests from nearby vegetation such as cattails. Sandhill Cranes lay 1-3 eggs in their nests. Their young are called “colts” and they stay with their parents until they are 9-10 months old.
Ragtag Daily Prompt (RDP) – Rapt
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Winter’s
Ice and snow accumulates
Neutralizing colors
Transforming the ordinary into
Enchanted scenes
Reverberating silence
All photographs in this post were taken at my High Desert home in Bend, Oregon.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Winter
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Today I’m sharing a magpie silkscreen image I created with blue ink. One of the things I like about Black-billed Magpies is their contrasting black and white plumage. There are a lot of birds that are showier than magpies, but their simple markings make them a good subject for art.
Though I’ve only created one magpie silkscreen, I’ve done several paintings and drawings of this bird in the past. Here’s a magpie I painted as part of a mural on my studio/guesthouse.
Here’s a photo of a magpie perched on a fence in Bozeman, Montana. They are year-round residents in much of western and central North America.
Black-billed Magpies are omnivores that feed on a wide variety of plants, insects, birds, and small mammals. They are also opportunistic feeders. Here’s a picture of a couple magpies trying to get a bite of a rabbit a Red-tailed Hawk was feeding on.
The scientific name of Black-billed Magpies is Pica hudsonia. When people have compulsive cravings to eat things with little to no nutritional value, it’s referred to as a ‘pica disorder.’ This temporary disorder is most common among children and pregnant women.
Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.
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Water pounds down mossy hillsides into heart-shaped ponds
and flows past creations full of fire
It meanders past herons, crafted of bronze,
and ponds bordered by colorful fragments of earth
Traveling through dense forests, it thunders over sheer cliffs,
and settles in creeks, calm and cool
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – 5 Elements
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If you’re looking for a special sweet treat while in Bend, Oregon, consider getting this fresh fruit pastry. You can buy this and many other delicious treats at Richard’s Donuts and Pastries, located at 61419 S Hwy 97 Bend, OR 97702.
The phyllo dough pastry is filled with a custard filling and drizzled with icing. The fresh fruit in light syrup rests on top of the pillowy pastry. Since it includes fresh fruit, it’s healthy, right? Well… maybe not.
A word of caution: Between the flaky pastry, custard filling, and chunks of fruit, this delicious treat can be a bit messy to eat. Do not attempt to eat this particular pastry while driving! 😉
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High Desert wonders
Roam and rest in grassy meadows
Emerge from burrows, full of curiosity
The visitor center at Fossil Butte National Monument may be small, but it’s jam packed with AMAZING fossils, many excavated here or nearby. Fossil Lake once covered this area and the conditions existing at that time preserved fossil remains especially well. Fossil Butte National Monument is in Kemmerer in southwestern Wyoming.
The fossils were discovered in this area in the mid 1800s. One well-known collector, Lee Craig, quarried and prepared fossils for museums and private collectors from 1897 to 1937. When collectors illegally used bulldozers in fossil beds nearby, preservation became a higher priority. The conservation of this site’s unique treasures was ensured in 1972, when it was established as a national monument.
This fossil was huge! It’s from the genus Borelosuchus, neither a true crocodile nor a true alligator. They could grow to a length of 16 feet.
Here are some of the fish fossils on display. Twenty seven species have been found in this area.
As I mentioned in my Fishing for Fossils post, this is one of the best places in the world to find fossils of fish. Since you cannot collect fossils at the monument, we dug fossils at a commercial business just east of Fossil Butte National Monument.
Grateful to visit vast landscapes
where lone bison contemplate the day ahead
And places where Cliff Swallows
flutter around High Desert nests
Grateful to visit coastal aquariums,
where Pacific sea nettles drift together in jubilant dances
And places where dinosaurs,
trilobites, and other creatures’ last moments are forever preserved
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Gratitude
Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) – Jubilant
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When I travel along the Columbia River, I usually drive on the Oregon side because it’s faster. Last spring I drove on the Washington side and made a stop at the Columbia Gorge Museum near the small town of Stevenson, Washington. This hidden gem of a museum opened in 1995 and it houses a wide variety of art, historical artifacts, and immersive exhibitions.
Collections at the museum include artifacts from centuries ago to the present. The displays include traditional Indigenous tools, pioneer-era artifacts, and contemporary works of art.
Several styles of baskets used for different purposes are featured in the displays.
The design of this part of the museum really impressed me. Big pieces of columnar basalt framed the display cases.
Nearby, a sculpture of a Native American fishing from a platform towers over visitors. This traditional fishing method is still in use today at places like Cascade Locks, Oregon.
When you see a Turkey Vulture up close and far away, you’ll have much different opinions of them.
Up close, you may not think of them as exactly beautiful. However, their bald face is more likely to stay clean after eating dead animals. Their scientific name, Cathartes aura, means ‘golden purifier’ or ‘purifying breeze.’
You will also see their dark brown feather’s iridescent color if you observe them up close.
From a little farther away, their distinctive profile stands out. The lack of feathers on their head makes it look smaller. When they’re flying, this is even more obvious.
You often see more than one Turkey Vulture at a time since they’re attracted to prey by smell. Compared to other birds, the part of their brain responsible for detecting smells, is much larger.
This bird that’s considered to be ugly up close, is incredibly graceful in flight. They glide on their six-foot wingspan in a distinctive teeter totter flight pattern. I often have the pleasure of seeing Turkey Vultures drifting by in the skies right outside my window.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – In the details
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Horse gear of the past at Museum of the American West, Lander, Wyoming
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I took this picture of a snowy divide in my front yard last winter. Snow mutes colors and I decided to accentuate that by showing this image in black and white.
Though it may be a while before I get much snow at my house, snow is beginning to accumulate at higher elevations. In Bend, there’s a snowy divide based on elevation. I live at an elevation of 3,400 ft.
Continue readingHere’s a short video of my dog, Tesla, burying a log. Some dogs like using their nose to bury things. A few days after I filmed this, Tesla dug up the log, played with it for a while by herself, and then buried it again.
I’ve had a longtime fascination with this behavior, so I finally looked it up. I learned that wolves and other canids often cache food by burying it for another day. After they’ve put what they’re caching into a shallow hole, they cover it with loose soil by using their nose. Here’s a video of a wolf using its nose to bury food.
You can easily tell when dogs and their wild relatives have been using their nose to bury things. Their snout will be covered in dirt. Yeah, it looks pretty funny!
I’ve seen my dog bury bones and sticks, but she also buries toys. Her one-time favorite duckie plush toy is buried somewhere on our property. Perhaps she thought if she planted it, more duckies would grow. 😉
reaching for the rain
bordered by purple petals
hostas welcome spring
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