Alaska Visits

The weather has been quite unusual lately. Usually the weather is fairly moderate and uneventful (meaning not much other than rain and occasional moments of sunshine) on the north Oregon coast.

However, last year at this time we nearly blew away and this year the migrating birds are pulling out their maps trying to figure why they still haven't left Alaska. Its been a week of icy, snowy, below-zero weather with more in the forecast for Christmas week as well. Maybe we will have a white Christmas this year!

Even though its quite unusual weather for this area, we are still very blessed. Its enough to make the season a exciting, but mild enough that everyone is pretty safe and able to stay relatively warm. I know there are other places that are much worse...in fact just east over the coastal range, there are several problems with snow and ice. Go even further east and you will find sub-freezing temperatures, snow, and no electricity. We pray that everyone will endure the storms well.

Snow on the Beach (with shipwrecked Peter Iredale in the background)! I had to see the snow on the beach for myself because in my experience, its all but unheard of in this area.

Santa Baby!

'Shrinky-dink' ornament. A five inch drawing on plastic (# 6 plastic) with colored Sharpies, shrunk to about two inches by baking on a paper-sack lined cookie sheet for ten minutes or so at 250-300 degrees.

Coast Through My Neighborhood

I've enjoyed doing my blog so far. I've learned to incorporate almost every common media. You thought I was just giving some variety to my blog, but in reality I was selfishly using it to learn something new. And yes, I was trying to add a little variety too. Its fun learning how to utilize resources to their potential.

Its so great living in the Northwest--Its beauty is unmatched.

Tiny Green Froggy. My youngest son (3 yrs) found this at our picnic this past weekend. They are cute as little tiny things, but I think an antonym of 'cute' would be more appropriate if they were human size.

It's hard to beat sunsets on the West Coast. One of the things I like about living on the coast is the sun goes down so late. In the summer, you can often see the light from the sunken sun past 10 pm.

You also can't beat the cloud affects nature displays on the coast.

Throw in some rocks to entertain the waves, and you have a place full of eye candy.