We are sliding into spring around here. Flowers are blooming, with a few warm days between the rainy stretches. We were vaccinated at just about the one year anniversary of the pandemic, and I am grateful! I feel the hope of spring, yet I know we still have so far to go until everyone can say that. And then my daughter reminds me of our privilege in the world. I know. I can only live where I am, but I do know.
Knitting, reading, hiking, on we go, fuzzy days mushing into each other. Planning the weekly grocery list. Creating with my hands, my brain, I take notes. I try to find the distinguishing features of each day, and celebrate the positivity and the beauty. That is most of what I do, and will do, and am lucky to do. So….
Hiking
1) We snowshoed up White River on Mt Hood on March 2nd – clouds swathing the peak much of the day, but in a most artistic way.
Mt Hood in clouds, near the Sno-Park.
Lunch view, near the Timberline Trail crossing.
The snow on nearby Boy Scout Ridge looked unstable, so we kept our distance!
Return trip…
Last views – we can almost see the entire peak.
2) On March 11th we hiked Tom McCall Point and around Rowena Crest, east of Hood River in Oregon, to see the fields of grass widows.
Thousands of grass widows on the plateau below Tom McCall Point.
Grass widows
More grass widows…
Columbia River reflecting the Cherry Orchard cliffs in Washington.
Parsley alley
Mt Adams and Rowena Plateau, from near the top of Tom McCall Point.
Tiny flowers of spring whitlow grass.
Then we walked around Rowena Crest, closer to the river:
East view from Rowena Crest cliffs – kettle lakes in the foreground.
Westerly view.
One of the lakes on Rowena Crest.
Abstractions in the lake reflections…
And more grass widows!
3) The next week, on March 16th, we went out across the river to Lyle Cherry Orchard again. No squalls this time – a perfect hiking day, and the first of the bright yellow balsam root blooms were opening as we hiked.
Hiking up above the Convict Road.
Columbia Desert Parsley in full bloom.
Balsam root opening on the upper slopes.
Lots of flowers showing for the first time this spring:
Stunning views from the cherry orchard:
Eastward, one of the remaining cherry trees.
Westward, balsamroot
4) We also walked a fast loop through Tryon Creek Park, on March 17th, where the very first of the trillium were opening, a little later than last year.
Tryon Creek
First trillium of spring
Around Portland
My neighborhood is also blooming.
Knitting
I finished knitting a pair of socks for me and another hat and a cowl for the guild charity project, and cast on new socks and a cardigan.
And…
I hold the more difficult challenges to the outside world in my heart. This week it is yet another uniquely American gun violence episode in Georgia, another hate crime, anti-woman, anti-Asian. I know in my heart it is all true, and part of the work we all have to do – bring out all the biases into the light of day and see how they harm so many. I am listening and learning more each day, and it all rings true, and saddens me. I pledge to myself to be as much of an ally as I can recognize. Listen and learn. Validate. Search for the commonalities and not the otherness. From my place on the privilege spectrum. That is most of what I do, and will do, and am lucky to do. And before I can publish this – yet another mass shooting at a grocery store in Colorado.
As a youngster with all the idealism of youth, I envisioned a giant magnet circling the world sucking away all the implements of violence, all the guns and weapons of war. On days like today with a heavy heart and a less idealistic world view, still I sigh and wish it could be true.
And a volcano is erupting in Iceland!
Grass widows were waning, desert parsleys, gold stars, yellow bells and buttercups were emerging.
Margaret Quilts 