We Live Here, Too #5

Walter at Lava Island



Rhiannon and Friends in Harmon Park



Sara and Bella and Joanne at Farewell Bend Park

Years ago, when I first moved here, my friend Jenny was going to an outdoor wedding in early May. The weather was much like it is most springs here in Central Oregon; grumpy. Snow one day, sun the next, hail and sleet and rapid winds through out it all. "If you plan an outdoor wedding in May, you're just asking for trouble." I think the same can be said for setting up photo shoots in the spring in the Central Oregon outdoors.

Though it was cold, it was lovely to wake up early this morning and head out to Lava Island with Walter and Rosie, hos dog. The sky was gray and showing specs of blue. Steam was coming off the water and morning dew was frozen to the Dogwood trees. Its on those early gray mornings that you see the real hidden colors of this lace, with the bright green lichen and red red bushes that line the river.

This afternoon Rhiannon and a whole bunch of her friends met me in the park. They wanted to play on the playground at Harmon park. Too bad I didn't get a photo of when they dismounted that dinosaur. It really gave them a what for. Hysterical. I suddenly thought about my friends in high school and the way we laughed with each other. It was nice to be around this group of young folks (not that I am that old, but still...). It was so nice to see how they support and adore each other in the way you do with your friends when you are young-- like the world is perfect and this person in front of you is proof of that.

Bella suggested Farewell Bend Park to be photographed with her moms, Sara and Joanne. I asked her why and she told me they spent Mother's Day there a few years back and she really liked it there. We walked out to the bridge and Sara and Joanne pointed out the Water Council's project to help protect the wetlands along the river. I appreciated being able to photograph them in a place that was special to them as a family.