8, Snails

In the spring it is easy enough to find a snail on demand by just flipping over one or two of the large paver stones on the wall out back. The one demanding is usually Caroline. I'm just as fascinated, too, as I have never lived any place with snails as common as earthworms. I love their intricate and surprisingly fragile shells, and the funny way they stretch their faces out when they start moving.  

6, Fig, 7, Slide

In thinking ahead to the pictures I want to include in this month long project I fear I might be leaning too heavily on individual plant specimens but I must not let the fig tree in our backyard go unmentioned. I had never even eaten a fresh fig before, let alone picked one off my own tree. They are such funny little fruit on a funny little tree but anytime I am lucky enough to encounter them in the future figs will always make me think of here. 

I believe William took this picture, and I was about to delete it but instead I'm blogging it. Another thing we have all been grateful for about this house has been the large backyard and the huge wooden playground/swing set. My father-in-law reportedly scrubbed this whole slide clean when he and Don first got out to the house so it was ready for the kids. I think they all spend as much time running up it as sliding down. It's a very good slide. 

5, Fire

When we rented this house a big selling point was the wood-burning fireplace. D and I both grew up with fireplaces but hadn't yet had one in a house of our own. 

Almost two cords of wood later, we have loved it even more than we expected. It doesn't really get very cold here, but it is cold-ish for quite a lot of months, and quite damp at the same time. The light and warmth and family time that this little fireplace has provided will be one of our favorite memories of this house. 

4, Coffee

One small thing I will miss when we leave here is the extremely excellent coffee, made even more excellent by its wide availability from places like this - stand alone, drive-thru coffee shops where you roll up, turn off your car, and lean right up to the window (not a speaker) to place your order. Forgive me if I'm actually a dolt and places like this exist elsewhere in the country but this is the first and only place I've ever seen them. Coffee, especially my favorite latte-type drinks, is such a thing here that there is even a barista in the medical center. 

Incidentally, rainy mornings (like the one when I took this blurry picture while driving away) are made much friendlier by a little coffee stop. 

3, Green

To go with yesterday's front window view, here's one out the back. I'm sure you've seen our backyard in pictures here before, but this one, from about a month ago, captures the intense GREEN of the grass here. During the dry season, August and September, it all goes dormant and the yard is brown and thatchy. Once the rain begins in late October the color returns rapidly and this vivid green stays through the winter and grows like mad through spring and summer until it dries up again. 

Right now the deciduous trees and shrubs are leafing out again so the grass is no longer the only green in the yard. The seasons are subtle here, but still very much present. 

2, Rainbows

I have seen more rainbows in our 21 months out here than I have in all my previous years combined. Probably twice as many.  God's little reminder to smile through the rain, that He is always right there, all the time. 

This is also the view from our front window. Low, tiny, old-ish houses and windswept trees dominate residential areas around here. People walk past our house constantly, too, which was unsettling at first but I've come to accept as some part of the culture here. Not yuppy fitness walking, just people of all conditions getting where they need to go.  I admire them, especially when it's raining.   

Plans for April and 1, Ocean

For the month of April I'll be popping in daily with a picture of Oregon, something that I want to remember from our time here. 

First up, a view of the Pacific through the trees, on a turbulent day. 

I love this place for the way the forest drops right into the ocean, so different from everything I knew about the shore on the Atlantic side of the country.