Portland Oregon

We went to Portland the second week of January. Jim has been going to Portland for meetings every January for a number of years now and I have never been there. This year I went along (for an extra 10 bucks a night) We stayed at the Embassy Suites Hotel on SW Pine and 4th.

It was walking distance to all the downtown shopping - on my first day I spent $42.00 in Josephines Dry Goods. I bought a lovely bit of Liberty Cotton for $17.00 U.S. With the exchange rate at 15% and no sales tax at all in Oregon I was basically shopping at PAR. Also I found there were sales everywhere - being it was January (after Christmas sales) Josephines was 20% off the entire store. I went to Fabic Depot -- it was 30% off the entire store there. I had a great time there and spent $95.00 U.S. I took the Light Rail transit there from downtown. Very easy to get to.

The nice thing was to being able to shop and wander at my pleasure while Jim worked all day. In the evenings we went out for some great dinners. I had Crab Cakes at McCormick and Schmick's that were absolutely wonderful. Every night we had great meals - too much food and wine. I spent an afternoon at Powell's Books - got 4 Quilting books and a couple of novels. I took a bus over to the Hawthorne Street district one afternoon - found a Powell's book store there as well as a Fred Meyer. I just love American grocery stores. There are things in there that I never even knew existed. There is this Wolfgang Puck coffee that you can buy for $2.50 that looks like a take away coffee cup and it has this little built in heater that you activate and it heats the coffee up to 140 degrees. Can you imagine. I bought one for Eric (who still hasn't tested it out, when he does he will report back the results)

I really enjoyed Portland, it is a lovely little city and I hope to go back again. I took very few photos there - probably because it rained the entire time we were there. I did take one in Portland's very tiny and insignificant Chinatown. I added that picture to this post.

Phineaus 

Phineaus eating corn 

Phineaus comes calling

We have this Pheasant that has moved into the neighbourhood. He first appeared over two years ago (maybe even three years) - we first would see him off in the corner of the yard and scooting around the bushes. We think he may have come in on a train - maybe a grain car attracted him then when train stopped in behind the house while waiting for another train to get into the siding up at Brunswick Beach he hopped off the car and ended up here. That's our story as to how he ended up here - he certainly is not in his natural habitat. An oceanside village is not the home of many pheasants.

The first year we saw him only occasionally and off in the distance. He slowly started to come into the back yards looking for bird seed from the various bird feeders in the neighbourhood. One set of neighbours drove off to the nearest Co Op and bought him some pheasant food. He became a regular visitor to their backyard and started to come around even when people were out and about in the yard. We purchased Cracked Corn and started putting it in the yard for him. He quickly became a regular visitor to the yard. In the summer coming twice a day - morning and late afternoon.

Now, in the winter he comes every morning between 9-11 a.m. He is not an early riser at this time of the year. He likes the corn, also eats the bird seed and really likes the left over AviCake from the Cockatiels. We spread the corn after he arrives because the Jays and Pigeons would eat it all if he wasn't around. If he has to wait too long to be fed he will start to call - quite persistently - kind of a crow/cluck sound.

Last spring the neighbours bought him two females for company - and he seemed to enjoy them and would start crowing and flapping his wings about 5 a.m. every morning. Unfortunately both the females (Phoebe and Phyllis) did not live out the year. We are not sure how long pheasants live in the wild, best guess is Phineaus is going on his third year here, so he must be at least 4 years old now. He is a very good looking bird.

Eric in Tofino at the Ball house. 

This is the latest picture of Andrew. Needing a haircut and shave 

Boy, Is this ever complicated

Well - after 40 minutes I managed to post a picture. I will try to post a few more before the weekend is over. I think I know how to do it! I will post a picture of Eric and Andrew as well. I must remember to "publish" at the end of all of the tasks.

This is a picture of Jessica, my daughter who is getting married June 24, 2006 

My first entry into the world of blogging

I have decided to set up a blogging site -- get myself into the computer world of online diary and bearing my soul to the world. Good - I see there is spell check here.

I have been reading with such interest other online blogs and diaries. My biggest concern is once I post this I will never be able to find it again! I will do a few experimental posts before I get too far into this process. Who knows how much of interest I will even have to say!.....