In September we visited an art festival, and went on two hikes in the mountains, and one at the beach. I took my usual neighborhood walks, read a few books, and made very little notable progress on my ongoing knitting projects. At the end of the month, we flew to the east coast to visit family there (next post).

9/1 – Art in the Pearl

Some of my favorite artwork in this year’s show:

9/2 – Crescent and Cannon Beaches, OR

A hot day in Portland. We drove to the coast for a short hike to Crescent Beach in Ecola State Park, then went to Cannon Beach to walk near Haystack Rock at low tide.

After an ice cream break in Cannon Beach, we walked toward Haystack Rock. It wasn’t a particularly low low tide today. My husband took a much longer walk, while I found a good perch right in front of the Needles, and watched several pods of pelicans fly north along the breaker zone.

9/10 – June Lake, Mt St Helens, WA

Another hot day. Another relatively easy hike, first to June Lake, then up onto some of the lava flows (Worm Flows) on the south side of the mountain (4 miles, 800 feet).

Some of the late wildflowers along the way:

June lake is calm, reflecting the waterfall coming out of the lava flow above.

Then we went up a fairly steep trail, and onto the Loowit Trail, and the lava flows:

We descended, with another stop at the beautifully reflective June Lake…

9/16 – Little Crater Lake, Mt Hood, OR

And yet another hot day! Another easy hike, first to Little Crater Lake, then to the eastern edge of Timothy Lake along the Pacific Crest Trail (3.5 miles, 50 feet).

This small artesian spring-fed lake is always a treat, with its deep turquoise color, reflections and transparency. An indulgent photo stop.

We walked to the eastern edge of Timothy Lake, then retraced our steps.

We were told we could see Mt Hood from the Timothy Lake Dam, so we drove around the lake to see the view – it was just a glimpse over a ridge.

Neighborhood walks

Flowers and landscape elements I noticed in September:

I haven’t done much quilting lately, so I composed a concrete quilt from some of my favorite sidewalk cracks.

September books

I finished six books in September. The most inspiring was the biography of Robert Louis and Fanny Stevenson – A Wilder Shore, by Camille Peri. They were a very unusual couple for their time. He chose writing instead of the family business of lighthouse engineering. She grew up in rural Indiana, spent time with her first husband in the mining camps of Nevada, then in bohemian San Francisco, before going to France with her children to study art. They traveled all over the world, by horse carriage, train and ship, eventually settling in Samoa. It seems amazing to me that they were so widely travelled, and that she lived her own style, ignoring much of the expected behavior of a proper Victorian lady. I was inspired to reread my childhood copy of his poem, The Land of Counterpane, from A Child’s Garden of Verses, with illustration by Garth Williams – this is one of the definitive visual memories from my childhood – the quilt, and the imaginary play it inspired.

Also in Portland…

Things started to heat up. Deliberate misinformation reported a ‘war zone’ throughout the city. The only actual activity is near the Federal ICE facility in southwest Portland, where the true spirit of Portland is on display in peaceful protests that defend free speech and due process. I am writing this in October, when things have gotten crazier but in September, we were just getting ready for threatened invasion! I’m sure I will be adding something about the frogs next month.