Donna woke up with the same crud I had last week. I asked if I could stay around and nurse her back to health but with a slight hesitation she said no...and I was out the door before the "o" hit the floor.
I have seen a lot of this crop in the valley and without it, "happy hour" wouldn't be so happy.
I believe Germany is famous for it's "hops" but Oregon does a very good job at growing some outstanding...hoppy beers!
On the coast, every time I mentioned looking for a lumber mill a local would grumble about "them damn tree-huggers" had the mills shut down. Here in the Willamette it seems that if a power wire is close to the tree, rather than cutting the tree down they just give it a "close shave"
or...they might go right through the middle of the tree. It seems they make every effort to keep what environment there is, stable.
Hell, they even build a something or other around the trees.
On this boat ramp near the ferry is a small sign on the center tree.
This sign was at least 15 feet above the present level of the river, hard to imagine what the damage was in 1996.
For the small sum of $2 I just had to take the Wheatland ferry again to Amity, Oregon.
Amity is in the western part of the Willamette Valley and is a farming community.
Amity also is not immune to the financial meltdown of the last few years because you see every other store for rent or sale.
One of the reasons for going to Amity was to visit the Brigittine Monastery, where the monks are famous for their fudge.
The monastery was not quite what I had expected, very "on the down low'" surrounded by 1000 acres of new hazel nut trees.
The monks had planted the trees three years ago.
A few years down the road there will be nuts hanging from these leaves.
Back to the monastery...the chapel was simple, yet beautiful with wonderful wood tones being high-lighted with stain-glass windows.
I can't really say I know which saint is which but the stain-glass panels were inviting and warm.
When I was leaving the monastery I noticed...yet, another osprey nest in the distance with no road leading near it. I parked and walked a block or so to see how far I could get before upsetting the mating pair.
A few shots of the female (I think) returning to the nest after I disturbed her.
A series of photographs showing the female ospreys dexterity with her wings while landing on the nest.
Least, but not last was a stop at one of the local cheese producers.
I stopped here on Friday for a taste of the famous Willamette Valley Cheese right here at the factory. I walk in and the lady says we have no tasting today because we are short workers who are setting up for the weekend farmers markets in Salem and Portland. (doesn't this happen every week anyway?)
The end of the day came when I drove up to Portland to give a guy a down payment for a dear friend of mine, Billy. Having found this Valkyrie Interstate Billy asked me to look at it. I'm a Harley man but that Interstate is one awesome looking machine.
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