June 2026, in Portland …

In mid-June, we had an adventure to the Wallowa Mountains in eastern Oregon, and a visit to the Portland Art Museum, described in later posts. Otherwise I was mostly around Portland, knitting, reading, and gardening, and I went on one waterfall hike in the Columbia River Gorge.

6/4 – Hiking Day – Latourell Falls, OR

Latourell Falls is one of the easiest waterfall hikes on the Historic Columbia River Highway. I hadn’t been here for a while, but today it suited my purpose – not too steep, as I regain my stamina (2.5 miles, 560 feet). It was lovely in the shady forest. We saw lots of interesting plant life along the way, and the trail was relatively quiet once we hiked past the crowded viewpoint of the Lower Falls.

Lower Latourell Falls, 224 feet drop.
Typical trail view through the shady forest.
Manroot vine tendrils.
Manroot flowers, tendrils and leaves; and avens flowers and seedheads.
Salmonberries
Cedar and fern

Eventually, we reached the Upper Falls, and found a shaded lunch spot near the bridge.

Upper Latourell Falls
Upper tier
Lower plunge pool
Lunch view

The return trail was mostly down hill, with a view point of the Columbia River Gorge near the bottom.

Walking under a canopy of cedar and maple.
Banana slug on the trail.
Upriver view toward Cape Horn, WA
Downriver view toward Steigerwald, WA.
Back at the Lower Falls, the sun angle was not great for photography, but the columnar basalts and lichen stand out nicely.

6/13 – World Wide Knit In Public Day and other knitting

My knitting group went to Laurelhurst Park and knit in a shady area for a while. (I forgot to take a photo.) Meanwhile, I finished a pair of socks and a market bag this month, and started new socks and a cardigan.

Wooladdicts Socks
Ilene Bag, Linello yarn
New socks using leftovers of Zauberball Crazy.
Slant on Nature cardigan, in progress, Juniper Moon Cumulus yarn.

6/25 – Rainbow neighborhood walk

This time of year, when my neighborhood is so colorful with blooming plants, I like to take a rainbow photo walk.

Reading –

I finished reading nine books in June, with only one in the Jane Austen adjacent category. I read two more D.E. Stevenson novels, and two by Molly Clavering – mid-20th century Scottish writers of ‘domestic’ fiction – about people in small villages, with lots of descriptions of the natural surroundings.

June 2026 books

Garden –

As noted, June is a busy month for plants. Two notable events in our garden – the blooming cluster lilies and the first ripe tomato.

Cluster lilies
The first ripe tomato of 2026!

Etc –

This month I am featuring an old photograph, from my family archives. There are about 400 boxes of slides that one of my brothers has taken charge of, and is having digitized. I had not seen most of these photos since those family slideshows after they were first developed, over 50 years ago, when the world was a carousel of color, and Kodak ruled the photo world. I am very glad I get to see them again, as they show people, places and events long gone, and bring back many great memories.

Family hike, June 1963, Glacier National Park, MT, possibly Baring Falls.