Wednesday Walk..The View From Above

I did manage a small start on Ewe & Eye & Friend's "Nest" on the trip home from Portland. 

It's time for a Wednesday Walk.

This "walk" is perhaps a bit outside the box, but it certainly provided me with some gardening inspiration, so perhaps it will for you as well.  It is proof plain that Mother Nature does a better job than any of us could aspire to!

This is the view from atop Gimple Hill about 4 miles west of our house.  There are five 5-acre lots to for sale - most of the acreage is steeply vertical rather than horizontal - a gardener's nightmare really.  But the vistas, the views - oh the views!

This epitomizes Western Oregon in early August.  We are looking to the west toward the Coast Range and moving from the south to the north.  Unlike the U.K., our fields are brown this time of year, but the Douglas Fir Trees are green.  Pictures 7 & 8 feature Fern Ridge Reservoir a popular place for boaters.  Picture 9 looks to the west through a large Madrone tree at Spencer's Butte - back in the direction I live.

If I had views like this I think I'd be mesmerized for days, weeks, months...would I ever accomplish anything, or would I just gaze outside and give thanks for the beautiful world that is ours? 

Now for a quick "Backyard Tour"

Our guide, the ever-watchful Parvati Patel... (yes, she's named for a Harry Potter character!).

We will start at the edge of the garage with this interesting lizard!

Then off to our berm where the Goldfinches have begun to eat the thistle seeds...

And the thistles have begun to explode!

Soon we will be awash in white clouds of thistle seed...  

The Queen Ann's Lace rules the meadows... 

And the Teasel finally have some color!

That's it for today! A macro and micro look at my world!