Remembering Sam

Sam and Tegin on the trail

We met Tegin and Sam five years ago hiking in the Cascades of Oregon.  We struck up a friendship based on  love of nature and being outdoors. They were on vacation,visiting wilderness places which they loved to do best. They came to visit us on the ranch. We'd visit them in Portland; they'd visit us on the ranch.  Sam liked to disappear into the sagebrush with a beer and his guitar. They invited us to their wedding party at Lost Lake. They came to visit us on vacation at Rockaway Beach.Their art and music was important to them, so important that last year they bought an RV and went on the road, intending to travel around the US working and getting gigs to play their music.  February 19, 2014 that all came to an end when Sam died in Berkeley, California. Tegin lives on and is carrying on their dream of playing music and being the artists they always want to be.

Tegin, John, and Sam cooking up a gourmet meal

One November they came for a visit and the three of us painted a scene from the Oregon High Desert that became the cover of  my book, High Desert Detective

Painting the high desert

Sam in happy times

Celebrating Tegin's birthday at Karaoke night at Rockaway Beach

Hamming it up at Karaoke night

Their wedding party at Lost Lake

Sam and Tegin, newly weds

It is hard to loose so such a young, talented, and vibrant friend. It was hard to write this post, but Sam belonged on my reminisces of Along Palomino Lane.  Miss you, Sam.

Living on Ink: Notes on the Writing Life

Living on Ink

Jennifer

My dear writer friend, Jennifer M. Fulford, keeps a writing blog and has decided she wants to interview her writer friends. So she selected me to be her fist victim, I mean, author. So if you click on the "Living on Ink" link in the top left hand corner of this blog, you should go to an entry on her blog on what I think of the writing life. I answered questions she posed. Jennifer, might I add, has her first novel coming out in April, Blood, Love & Steel, published by Thames Press in London, which is a series that is the continuation of the Three Musketeers!  More on that later.  

January House Concert

Emcee -- Janet Brayman

Janet Brayman, great supporter of the arts and famed musician, has been sponsoring house concerts here in Burns. John and I attended our first one back in January.  The group was a trio from Houston, Texas called 2-Bit Palomino and they were good. They had fabulous voices and sang great harmony.  Maybe 50 people attended. Donations go to the musicians.  They were a group that knew how to work the crowd and the Burns crowd responded.  This really fine group plays mostly folk and they write most of their songs.  Fun evening and worth the price of admission. Thank you, Janet!

TWO-BIT PALOMINO 

Intermission

Happy New Year

The sun is setting on the first day of 2014, and as you can see we have no snow.  No snow pack in the mountains. We can only hope for more rain or snow soon.  The pond is a solid block of ice so the ducks make due with the top of a plastic barrel for their pond. John and I spent a quiet day eating well, walking and talking and laughing. Last night we watched again one of our favorite moves, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The night before it was The Cave of the Yellow Dog, a story about a nomadic family in Mongolia by the same filmmaker who did The Weeping Camel. We recommend them. Funny and uplifting is what we look for these days. We're looking forward to a goodly interesting new year. We hope you are, too. We wish everyone the very best in 2014.

Padre Island

Padre Beach looking south

 In November, 2013 I took a trip to Texas to visit my good friend, Marlis. Due to technical difficulties, it has taken me a while to post these photos. These are images of Padre Island National Seashore which is south of Corpus Christi where we stayed for a few days. Padre is 70 miles long, and there is no road. So you drive on the beach. It's a bird refuge. The sandhill cranes were just arriving for the winter. Corpus is a nice place to winter so there's lots of Texas snow birds come there. It is always humid. Summers can be unbearably hot.  Camping is permitted on the beach on Padre. And the Gulf of Mexico is blue. Good place to go for winter vacation in your RV to play a little music, eat good seafood, listen to the sea.

Beach looking north

In Corpus we took a look at the harbor. Lots of vanes for the big windmills come into Corpus. There were unloading one the day we were there. One vane is as long as the ship.  Great sea walk along the north shore. Missed the aquarium.  Laid back town.  And as everywhere in the state, friendly Texans abound.

Lots of shore birds and a crane

Crane on top of sand dune

 When the weather is windy and cloudy at the beach, sit and watch the waves and the birds with a box of dried okra at hand.

Marlis at the visitors center

Pelicans overhead on a cloudy day

Beach vegetation at Padre

View of Corpus Christi from Omni Hotel

Waves on a cloudy day at Padre

Two old broads enjoying a night on the town in Corpus

Fountains in the street

Marlis with her favorite drink

Container ship coming into the harbor

Sunset from the room balcony looking east over the bay

Merry Christmas!

A spontaneous Christmas  tree in the field  near Crane, Oregon

From all of us to all of you, have a wonderful holiday. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

The real thing

It ain't gonna be me

What the heck is that?

Man, there gotta be an easier way into the yard

Where's that darn owl?

I'm glad I'm not a turkey.