I had a lot of fun during spring break even though my son is grown and my wandering was with friends or alone depending on the day. I got to the Oregon Zoo and spotted a number of very cool critters: a baby elephant, , flamingos (not the plastic kind!) and an adorable screech owl. A bunch of others too but while I did see lions, and cheetahs, I can't break into the chant from Wizard of Oz: Lions and tigers and ...well, you get the point. But at the end of the day I clicked my ruby.. well, black tennies and went on home. But this was not the end of my wanderings. You see, the weather was warm, sunny and dry - unheard of for spring break here in Portland, so I ran away from home a bit more and got to visit the Rhododendron Garden here and Portland before we wound up the week with a drive up into the Columbia River Gorge. Just this once we skipped the waterfalls at the west end of the Gorge and crossed over to the Washington side of the River passing through Stevenson on up to Carson and then crossed back when we were opposite Hood River, Oregon. And instead of returning to Portland on the Oregon side of the river, we drove up and around Mount Hood itself where we saw the remains of winter snow.before we dropped back to the very warm Willamette Valley.

If I had to pick a favorite part of the day I would have to say it was the time we spent prowling through an old-fashioned antique store in Carson, WA. This was definitely not an antique mall, all neatly arranged. This was an old building stuffed to the gills with lots of stuff from many eras scattered around. There were some attempts at order, but mostly you had to go through the whole place to be sure you weren't leaving a treasure behind - this trip I focused on Scout memorabilia: badges, belt loops and old magazines. Man that was fun.

Keep smiling, Mary ·

Normally my excitement levels rise when I'm holding my camera in any of the wonderful places we visit here in Oregon or elsewhere. Not so this last month or two. Oddly, I have had three encounters with bald eagles all within five miles of my home - twice from the foot of my driveway. First of all, I live in the city of Portland, OR. Not all the far from downtown as the ...eagle flies...sorry, I had to say that. I have lived in this house for 21 years and until this year have never seen anything bigger than a hawk in the neighborhood, and more generally our largest birds have been crows & Canada geese. Then on January 17th, thanks to a woman who was parked at the foot of my driveway, I spotted a pair of bald eagles in the top of a neighbor's evergreen tree. The eagles courteously waited while I ran in the house, got my camera, fitted it with our best lens and ran back outside to get some great shots. After awhile the birds grew tired of posing and flew off. I thought that would be the end of my close encounters with eagles.

I was wrong - on February 15th we had another gorgeous day and I grabbed my camera and went to the Rhododendron Garden here in SE Portland, just a couple of miles from my house. It's a great place to get pictures of various ducks, geese, coots and other birds. Even a cormorant or two. But as I wandered the garden, I looked up and spotted what looked like a bald eagle swooping over the pond. I hurried over and was rewarded by the sight of an eagle teasing the geese, swooping down close the smaller birds, then flying off again. Once again I was certain that I was done with eagles locally.

Wrong again - Last Thursday (2/28) I was working upstairs in my house when I heard a huge commotion. I went to a window that overlooked my backyard and saw 20-30 crows congregating in a huge tree in a neighbor's yard. They were screeching, taking off a few at a time and then coming back to roost. Wondering what was up, I ran downstairs, grabbed my camera (have you detected a pattern yet?) and went out back. Saw nothing but the crows. I had no idea what had stirred them up. After a moment I went back through the house to the front for another view and found the subject of all the noise - a single bald eagle was back in that evergreen tree again. Only this time the crows were taking turns dive-bombing him, trying to get him to leave. He stayed for quite awhile again, then spread his magnificent wings and flew away. The crows dispersed and the neighborhood quieted again. Yikes!

After all this I am not ready to say I won't encounter an eagle again in the neighborhood. I guess we'll just have to see. And remember that you can find pretty amazing things in your own backyard.

Keep smiling,

Mary ·

A person has to hunt in the winter to find color at a time when the predominant colors are gray, brown, and here in western Oregon, green. Our climate gives us green grass most of the year. My heart jumps up when the sun breaks through and the skies turn blue, or the clouds at least break up enough to have interesting textures and shades of color from black to white and everything in between. On days like that I abandon all of my chores, grab a camera and head out in search of color in places like the Rhododendron Garden where I found a wonderfully cooperative heron who modeled for me for a good half hour and gorgeous wood ducks in the mating plumage. (I adore those Darth Vader-like helmets the males sport!)

My biggest excitement in the last few weeks came in my own front yard. One day as I got home from doing errands I spotted a woman parked across from my driveway taking a picture of something with her iPad. When I got out of my car she called over to me and asked if I had seen 'them'? What 'them' did she mean? She said there were two bald eagles sitting in the tree across the street. I started to laugh - in the 21 years I've lived here I had never seen an eagle in my city neighborhood. Then I looked up and saw the two white heads. Oh my gosh - there WERE two bald eagles in the tree!!!! I immediately pulled out my point and shoot that lives in my purse and grabbed a couple of...well...let's be kind and say not-so-good photos. Then I silently begged the eagles to stay for just a few minutes and ran into the house and grabbed my 60D, changed lenses for the longest zoom we had and ran back outside. When I looked up at the tree the eagles were still there!!!! Happily I got off a number of shots before they decided to leave and gave me a couple of wonderful views as they flew away!! (Check out my birds album in the media gallery if you'd like to see the eagles.) I am so glad the eagles waited for me tog et the shots because I'm not sure anyone would believe my story otherwise. Like I said I live in the city. We have lots of birds but generally not something as big as an eagle. It's going to be a great year!!!

Keep smiling,
Mary ·

Frankly I don't really enjoy the cold. One of the reasons I moved out here from Massachusetts was to get away from the extreme temperatures I grew up with and for the most part Oregon has delivered very well on that score. We live in Portland which is at the northern end of the Willamette Valley and we tend to avoid long spells of extreme temperatures. Not this winter though. We've been down around freezing a lot more this January than I can remember. (I know I sound like a wimp to those of you in the Midwest or New England, but what can I say - it's what you're used to.) But, to get back to the subject of photography, the cold doesn't keep us from wandering with our cameras.

We've had two trips out to the Columbia River Gorge in search of frozen waterfalls. The first time the roads were really icy and we couldn't get to more than Multnomah Falls, a gorgeous spot but things were so slippery I couldn't get closer than the parking lot. Monday was a holiday, so Mark and I tried again and got to visit the waterfalls, but they weren't nearly as frozen as we've found them in other years. However, we did find a wonderful wall of icicles on a road which leads down from the Old Highway which was built back at the turn of the 20th century to the modern interstate that parallels the river. These icicles were awesome. And the wind was fierce so we grabbed our shots and jumped back in the car to get warm. Brrrr!!!!

Our other wandering was done down in Corvallis which is about an hour-and-a-half drive down the valley from us. It's a college town, home of the Oregon Beavers if you're into football and a great place for a photowalk. This was our second walk down there wandering the streets and alleys of the downtown area. Both times we've met up with other photographers from Google+ and they have been a blast to wander around with. This group ranged in age from kids to those of us who are definitely not kids any more and the enthusiasm was outstanding. There are a lot of interesting sights in those alleys. Mark and I wound up wandering around, totally frozen with chocolate milkshakes in our hands. Why would we do this, you might ask? Well, sometimes you need to use the restroom and the only one available was in a local Dairy Queen. We didn't have to get anything - we could have come and gone without spending a penny, BUT, they don't lock their bathrooms. They don't mark them for customers only. In return for those considerations we were happy to spend a few dollars and become customers.

That's about it for this time - hopefully by my next posting the weather will have warmed up and all I will have to complain about is constant rain which is the norm for this part of the country in the winter.

Keep smiling,
Mary ·

Hope you've all had a great holiday season - mine's been hectic in the extreme and I am more than ready for the more peaceful, reflective time that has followed Christmas and will continue into the first week of the new year. Check out the folder for December 2013 and you'll see what I mean by hectic. The month began with the end of my Portuguese class, fun with the Cub Scouts and the beginning of the performance season for the Conchords Chorale, the community choir I have been with for 3 1/2 years now. The month is closing with the end of a 52-week photo project on Google+, the chance to revisit Middle Earth at the movies with The Hobbit as well as a visit to 19th France with the film version of Les Miserables. Travel's good for us whether it's the armchair version or the real thing. Gets those brain cells whirling.

What will 2013 bring? Some things can be planned: I've signed up for two 52-week challenges on Google+ (one in color and one in black & white) More scout activities to photograph and Cub Scout fun with the boys in my pack. My garden and chores - can't put them off indefinitely, can we? And a probably trip to Brazil with my husband to collect our son who's been on a 2-year mission down there and a chance to see and photograph a part of the world I never thought to see. Yea!!!! Definitely time for new adventures just like Bilbo Baggins when he decided to leave his comfortable rut...er, home...in the Shire and go off with a band of dwarves and a wizard,

May we all have adventures in 2013!

Mary ·

This has been a tough day in this country. And that makes it easy to get cynical and angry; to want to go out and scream into the night, I saw a quote passed around by person after person on Facebook today that is a far better way to find comfort when scary things happen, Since very scary t hings happened today, I want to share the quote with anyone who might read this post:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world." -- Mister Rogers

Lets remember to look for the helpers.

Mary ·

This week has definitely given me a chance to wander away from home and chores with camera in hand. Monday's holiday gave us the perfect opportunity to hit the road. So we offered to take the young missionaries assigned to our ward on a field trip to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. Timberline Lodge is a wonderful building, constructed during the Depression of the 1930's as a part of the WPA (Works Project Administration) which gave employment to many artists, artisans and craftsmen during that time. The result was Timberline Lodge - a building that is treasured here in Oregon year-round. Hikers, skiers, snowboarders, photographers and a host of people who just enjoy a chance to see a beautiful building in an amazingly beautiful area all make the drive up Mount Hood. Our day was a rainy one in most parts of western Oregon, but as we got closer to the turnoff to the Lodge we saw hints of snow which increased mile by mile. The signs warned us that chains or other traction devices were required and as soon as we made that turn we understood.White snow covered everything and while the road was mushy where we were, we knew it would only get more difficult as we gained altitude. Now we are wimpy city folk who do indeed carry chains "just in case" but we've never used them until that day. Mark and the two young men with us figured it out while I meandered up the road to photograph a small waterfall. They succeeded. I photographed and we moved on up the mountain to the Lodge which was covered in snow. I thought maybe we'd picked the wrong day because the wind was blowing sleet at us, but that part of the weather improved shortly and the interior of Timberline made everything worthwhile - beautiful wood, carvings, railings that are decorative as well as useful, magnificent and large fireplaces that help warm the folks literally come in from the cold. who come in from the cold. My other chances to wander came today as the skies cleared to a lovely blue, the sun was almost warm and I abandoned my chores to head out with camera. A snow-covered Mount Hood from Mt. Tabor here in Portland was the highlight of my wanderings. Did you get a chance to wander today? ·

Eventually I am moving into a Word Press world, but in the meanwhile, I really thought I should say something here. Life's been crazy as it is for most of us and it seems as though my projects multiply when I'm not looking. I spend a lot of time on Google+ these days - an awesome place for photographers - I am constantly amazed by the number of really good photos I see up there and am happy to 'talk' to all the people whose work I admire. Someday I will make it to a hangout, but not yet. It's on that list of multplying projects! :D

One of those projects that takes prioriy is learning Brazilian Portuguese because we'll be heading down there next year to see where our son has spent the last couple of years. And then he will return home with us!! It's so hard to let go of your child and let him fly free. I understand my own mother a lot better these days. She hated to see us go off on adventures far from home. She'd be proud of us too, but preferred to have us stay nearby.

Another project is photography related - getting out of my rut and visiting new places with my camera. I live in an incredibly scenic area here in Oregon - a couple of hours to the coast, the mountains or just up the road to the Columbia River Gorge. What more can a person ask? But we all tend to slip into ruts and visit the same old places. I am trying to climb out of the ruts and visit other spots along the way.

I won't bore you all with the rest of the list - that's it for now. See you out there!

Keep smiling,

Mary ·

Hi world! Sorry that I have neglected Mary's Pixels for so long. Life has definitely taken a few unexpected turns which have cut down my ability to get everything done. Mary's Pixels is about to undergo some reconstruction and will be back on a regular basis beginning in May 2012. Thank you for your patience.


Mary ·

The last few months have been extraordinarily busy, sometimes difficult and never boring for me. Actually, I could have dealt with boring a bit better. At first it was shear business that kept me from keeping the blog updated and posting new pictures. I had my summer job at the Cub Scout Day Camp and all of the photos I took there, plus several photo assignments I had taken on. It got harder to get a daily shot. I missed days here and there, but I thought I had gotten a handle on the 365 Project, but then towards the end of September I tripped, fell and while trying to save my camera, I managed to dislocate my right shoulder, and a few days later, it happened again. Yikes! Don't ever believe those movies and tv shows where someone dislocates a shoulder, calmly gets it pushed back in and is up and running around like nothing ever happened. A dislocated shoulder hurts. A lot. And you get told that even if you felt you could lift the camera, you shouldn't.And that hurts almost as much as the shoulder if you're like me. Anyway, to make a long story short, that's why I've retired the 365 project, at least for now.

Oddly enough, abandoning the project wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, I love having a camera available whenever I see a picture I need to make, take or whatever the proper bit of jargon is. And I generally do take at least one picture every day. But, and that should almost be in capitals. I've never liked being told I had to do something, even if I'm the one doing the telling, I guess. But if I feel the urge...try to stop me.

The therapists gave me the okay to use my camera again and I grabbed the opportunity to visit the Rhododendron Garden and found so very cooperative wood ducks. Then I got to play with the cub scouts and got more pictures. And last night we had a big chili cook-off and trick or treat night at our church and I got even more pictures. That feels so good - I'll get some of them up here shortly. And there'll be a lot more because that's what I do. Life is definitely looking up again. And no one told me I had to do it. Not even me.

Keep smiling. ·