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 is a photo of my cat’s eye up close. She likes to sit on my lap every time I sit down so I thought I might as well take her picture.
As cat’s age, the color of their irises changes and they may have a “lacy” pattern. The edge of the black pupil can also become less sharp and distinct. My Pixie-Bob cat is fourteen and a half.
reaching for the rain
bordered by purple petals
hostas welcome spring
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When days start to shorten and nights take on a chill,
the world begins falling back into Autumn.
A single fallen leaf shines as brightly as a star,
announcing Fall’s arrival.
Leaves begin to turn,
slowly at first.
High Desert skies can be full of fiery emotions
Or calm and blue, framing peaceful works of art
a killdeer paces
along a sandy shoreline
awakening spring
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I saw these three Long-eared Owlets at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area in southeastern Oregon last May. They were perched within a thick stand of willow trees.
There were rumors of these owls being in the area and I wanted to get a quick glimpse of them. I was lucky to spot these secretive, well-camouflaged birds. Older Long-eared owlets like these are referred to as “branchers” since they often perch on tree branches near their nests.
Today I’m sharing a photograph of the Pesto Margherita pizza from Rush’s Squares in Bend, Oregon. This pizza includes pesto, a cheese blend, fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, fresh basil, and balsamic glaze.
Though it doesn’t include tomato sauce, meat, or other common pizza ingredients, this simple Pesto Margherita pizza is my favorite in Bend. I especially like the fresh basil leaves and the drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Yum!
Rush’s Squares is one of the food trucks at the On Tap food truck pod in northeast Bend. As you may have figured out by their name, all their Sicilian style pizzas are square. You can order a pizza from their menu or create your own. Be sure to pair your meal with one of the beers, ciders, wines, or non-alcoholic drinks from the On Tap taproom.
If you’d like to see an impressive collection of treasures of the Wild West, be sure to visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This world-class attraction is in Cody, Wyoming, an hour’s drive east of Yellowstone National Park.
The Center contains five museums, including the Buffalo Bill Museum. There’s something for everyone at this museum.
During his lifetime, William F. Cody worked as a ranch hand, bison hunter, fur trapper, wagon train driver, Army scout, prospector, and Pony Express rider.
Cody is perhaps most well-known as a showman. He helped create a traveling show called Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. He took on the persona of Buffalo Bill.
Source: National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian Institution.
Cody and his crew of performers put on outdoor western shows, highlighting (and romanticizing) the legacy of the West. The show began in 1883 and continued for 30 years.
While visiting the Museum of the Rockies (MOR) in Bozeman, Montana, I was amazed to see mythical creatures filling one of their halls. Kudos to whomever had the great idea to create and display life-sized representations of creatures that have existed in our imaginations for years.
A colorful 17-foot long dragon guards one of the entrances. These are mythical creatures, but they resemble lizards, snakes, and dinosaurs.
Near the other entrance, a unicorn points the way ahead. Modern tales of this creature depict it as white with a single long horn. However, older stories describe them with the body of a goat and a short, colored horn.
Bison grazing under the beautiful Lamar Valley sky in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
The Born Again Babaylan mural is one of many murals located in downtown Bend, Oregon. This mural was painted by Bekah Badilla in 2021. I previously featured one of her other works, Myth of Progress, also located in Bend. The Born Again Babaylan mural was created in collaboration with the High Desert Equality and Justice Mural Festival.
Bekah describes this work in the following partial description. See her website for the full description.
Melting out of the glacial ice is the spirit of a Babaylan and her descendants. Babaylan refers to the naming for a matriarchal leader, spirit guide and warrior prevalent in pre-colonial Philippines. The Babaylan is embodied in the ice, changing, shifting and eternally offering knowledge and guidance not through elitism and brute force but through spirituality, mysticism and ancestral strength.
Bekah Badilla
Clouds collect overhead, darkening and protecting the landscape
Cumulus curtains part and the earth awakens
Colorful voices shout from sloping shorelines
If you’re looking for a special dessert in Central Oregon, try this tasty treat at East Lake Resort. While staying at the nearby campground, I had a craving for something sweet.
After a little kayaking on the lake, we visited the Blue Duck Grill at the resort. For dessert, we ordered this Mixed Berry Cobbler. It was a generous-sized portion, with plenty to share!
The crumbly cobbler was topped with a couple dabs of whip cream and plump, delicious berries in a sweet sauce. The scoop of ice cream costs $1 more, but it was worth it. If you’re looking for a tasty treat at East Lake, consider ordering this cobbler.
The menu also includes something called Terrible Pie that’s described as “so good it’s terrible.” I’ll have to try that on a future visit.
For dinner, I had the Habanero Bacon Jam Burger and it was very good. It somehow mysteriously vanished before I could take its picture. 😉
At West Thumb, magma boils below
Cooled by lake water’s ebb and flow
Alkaline frosting marks the shore
Thermophiles collect, framing more
I saw these Rudbeckia up close while walking along the Deschutes River trail in Bend, Oregon.
In photography, the way you show objects in small and large scale can have a big impact.
When I’ve seen grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, most of the time they are hundreds of yards away. I took this small scale picture through my spotting scope of a sow with two cubs in the Lamar Valley.
To see a closer view of a grizzly bear, I visited the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana. They are massive creatures.
Sometimes, bonsai masters sculpt smaller versions of objects of nature. This is a juniper tree bonsai, recently purchased at the Bend Summer Festival. It measures 4 inches in height.
Continue readingWe’ve visited Yoli Korean restaurant in downtown Bend, Oregon before, but had never ordered the 5-course meal. We recently tried it and were not disappointed.
Yoli, the Korean word for cuisine, was created by Chef Joe Kim and his wife Laura and opened in 2022. I included a copy of the 5-course menu at the end of this post. You can see the lunch and dinner menus on their website. If you’re feeling adventuresome, give them 24 hours notice and order a Tasting Menu.
For the Raw Starter course, I had the Spicy King Salmon Hwe and my companion had the Yukhoe. The presentation is artful and the food delicious.
The picture below shows the interior of the restaurant’s simple yet elegant design.
I decided to take pictures of some of the fruit and flowers in our garden today before they fade away.
Delicate petals of nodding hollyhocks filtered the sun’s light
Snapdragons filled the landscape, exploding in shades of pink
Iceplants with purple punctuations slid towards the pond’s edge
Near the shores of the Willamette River in downtown Portland, you’ll find a small gem of a garden. Lan Su Chinese Garden is the result of a collaboration between Portland, Oregon, and Suzhou, in the Jiangsu province of China.
The Lan Su Chinese Garden mission is to “cultivate an oasis of tranquil beauty and harmony to inspire, and educate our global community in the appreciation of a richly authentic Chinese culture.”
Kuang Zhen designed the 1.03-acre garden with the help of 65 artisans. The garden opened to the public in September 2000.
Over 400 species of plants can be found here. More than 100 plants grow near Lake Zither, a feature created for the garden.
When I looked at the pictures I’d taken at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, I thought several images were like abstracts adrift.
The northern sea otters rolled themselves up into buoyant balls.
Moon jellies fell like brilliant blue windblown blossoms.
Seeing pairs of bronze bulls bash together in winter blizzards
and a couple of cascades crashing down craggy cliffs
Seeing two octopi slip and slide over seaside skyscrapers
Last weekend, while attending the Bend Summer Festival, I had this Gulf shrimp po boy sandwich. This is a great event with booths featuring artists, musicians, businesses, and food.
My delicious sandwich was from the Southern Accents food cart, shown below. The cart was at the recent festival, but it’s usually at Silver Moon in downtown Bend.
This food cart features great options with a southern twist. Besides the Gulf shrimp po boy, you can also get things like fried chicken po boys, rice bowls, and fried pickles. Here’s their menu at Silver Moon.
UPDATE: Here are photos of dishes from a recent visit to the Southern Accent food truck at Silver Moon.
This is their Fried Chicken Basket. It includes fried chicken, fries, and Cajun slaw with your choice of sauces for the chicken. This is a big serving of food! The chicken is crunchy outside and tender inside. I opted for the Cajun fries and liked their spicey taste.
The next picture shows the Nashville Chicken Sandwich. It has great flavor and the piece of chicken is so thick, you can barely get it into your mouth.
We also ordered a daily special of Korean Fried Chicken. I really liked the flavor of the sauce.
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This antlers & horns & skulls chandelier is at the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center and Trailside Museum in Yellowstone National Park. A metal circle is adorned with bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain elk antlers & horns & skulls. It’s suspended by heavy metal chains.
This museum is small and probably overlooked by many visitors to the park. I recommend stopping by to see its collection of historic bird specimens. If you want to see mounts of many of the park’s birds to help identify them in the field, this is a great resource.
The hot pools of the Lava Hot Spring tourist attraction are in the city of Lava Hot Springs in southeastern Idaho. Four blocks from the hot pools, you’ll find a water park and indoor and outdoor swimming pools, also heated by hot spring waters.
Swooping red sunshades over the hot pools offer visitors shelter from the sun.
The five outdoor pools in the Hot Pool site have water temperatures ranging from 102 to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. Lava Hot Springs uses over 2.5 million gallons of hot spring water per day to heat their pools.
I enjoy using cameras small enough to fit in a pocket. I recently got a new flying lens as a gift.
Here it is. What, can’t you see that it’s a camera?
How about if I unfold it? Yeah, it’s a drone. I still have the lens protector on the front in this photo.
Here’s the controller. I like my new flying lens because it stops itself from crashing into things in 360 degrees of direction. It will also land from where it took off with the touch of a button.
Here’s a picture I took of a pair of puffins at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. This photo shows them in breeding and nonbreeding plumage.
This bird lives most of its life at sea, but they nest in burrows that can be more than 5 feet deep. A pair of puffins will feed their young tiny fish, which they line up crosswise in their bills. Sometimes they will carry as many as 20 fish at a time to their nests.
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I awaken on the shores of a High Desert playa
Dust devils on the distant shoreline dance across the flats
Dry soil at my feet cracks and crumbles
The funnel of a dust devil hovers over me and carries me a few miles away
I drift over a lake of summer and a ridge of winter
Water meanders its way through marshlands of green
I really liked this Bozeman wall art at the recently remodeled Bozeman Hot Springs. The facility was remodeled with a more modern style. I mention this site briefly in a recent post and will feature it in a more detailed post in the future.
I used Corel PaintShopPro 2021 for different photo processing effects. In the original image I slightly increased the contrast and fill light and cropped the edges. Use the slider to view each effect compared to the original.
This one shows the original photograph and the same picture with a Retro effect. For this image I went to Effects>Photo Effects>Retro Lab>Light cold. I liked how this effect makes the green color stand out. The blurring around the edges focuses your attention on the artwork.
On our recent trip we stopped at several hot springs of the West. Each site was special in its own way.
Hot springs occur when geothermally heated groundwater emerges onto the earth’s surface. In areas like Yellowstone National Park, magma is present at shallow depths below the surface. Temperatures in Yellowstone’s hot springs may reach 198 degrees Fahrenheit. At the developed hot springs of the West we visited on this trip, pool temperatures are constantly monitored and modified with colder water.
Lava Hot Springs is located in the town of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. In this picture, the scenic Portneuf Range mountains tower in the background. This post gives more details about the site.
Bozeman Hot Springs is in Bozeman, Montana. Remodeled in May 2024, this facility includes 12 indoor and outdoor pools. It’s gorgeous! The stage behind the outdoor pools will host future entertainers. Pieces of columnar basalt serve as seating and landscaping. Here is my description of this facility.
Here’s the High Desert Voices June 2024 newsletter for your reading pleasure. Lots of nice photos as well! This newsletter is published by and for volunteers at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, where I volunteer.
Articles this month include one on accommodating visitors with disabilities, one on facts about local wildlife mothers, one on the High Desert Ranger Station, and one on a birding event at the Museum.
Please enjoy this month’s issue!
I had a major magical moment with wildlife while visiting Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland a few weeks ago. I took a little used side trail and paused briefly in the pouring down rain.
This Great Blue Heron walked right up to me before turning to stand near a pond. I could have reached out and touched the bird. WOW! I stopped snapping pictures when it was really close to me because I didn’t want to scare it.
I’m working on a book where the main character is a girl born with the powers of several animals. One animal is a Great Blue Heron. Was this heron showing its appreciation of my efforts so far on that book?
I had another magical moment with wildlife at Yellowstone National Park this week. We were at the end of the road at Slough Creek and saw a small critter weaving its way through the sagebrush. A badger!
