Coast to Coast Beauty

What a miracle flying is. One minute I am on the East Coast and later, the same day, I am on the West Coast. May we never take this for granted, tipping our hats to those who went by way of the Conestoga wagon, spending months on the Oregon Trail, and oftentimes, never making it. Helps to keep the complaining about delayed flights to a minimum when you think that way. I was visiting my favorite cousins that I hadn’t seen in years. You can’t get much further apart than Portland, OR to Cape Cod and so, the visits are never as often as we wish. But this blog isn’t meant to be about my family tree and our times together, but just to share some of the amazing beauty that exits in their backyard.

The cousin I stayed with has a home overlooking the Clackamas River in the town of Oregon City, the actual end of the trail for those Oregon Trail travelers. In their home, every window offers a sublime view. Look one way and you see their geometric herb garden with a view over the river gorge to the hills that rise on the other side. Spiky pines that make wonderful silhouettes, especially when they are wreathed in clouds, fog and rain as they often are. Or on those mornings when the sun rises early, shooting sunbeams through their branches, the stuff of calendar art. Look out another window and you are likely to see a Mule Deer passing by, and their vegetable gardens beyond. Yet another, affords a view of the birds at the many feeders they have. No need to take a hike, nature is truly all around you. Better yet, view all this from their hot tub with a cup of coffee and Violet Green Swallows swooping overhead. A naturalist’s idea of Club Med if ever there was one!

What I love about travelling, is that whatever animal life is common in this region, is often uncommon to me. Scrub Jays replace our Blue Jays, Ravens trump our Crows, and they have a slightly different western race of Towhees. But the birds that made it seem so exotic, were the Grosbeaks. Black Headed Grosbeaks with bright orange bodies, yellow Evening Grosbeaks and an amazingly colorful Western Tanager. Bright red head with a yellow chest, a quick glance and a tropical bird would jump to mind. All seen with coffee cup in hand as the steam rises from the tub. Not my usual life style I can assure you!



They also were visited by a Pileated Woodpecker, which is a really large woodpecker with the red, swept back head that my cousin thought must be the inspiration for Woody the Woodpecker. And if you remember him, you would have to be of a certain age. This one was re-sculpting her grape arbor. They aren’t really the birds you want taking a fancy to your woodwork. If you have them where you live, you can see huge areas excavated in old trees as they ferret out carpenter ants. Thanks for getting rid of the ants, but at what price to your lumber, should they find them on your deck!


Here on the Cape we only have the Ruby Throated Hummingbird, making Id’ing pretty easy! In Oregon they have the Rufous Sided and, hmmm, maybe the Ana’s. I have forgotten but they came buzzing in and out of the arbor also seen from the hot tub. And with all this food about, she had amazingly slim and not overbearing squirrels. In my yard, they look as though they should all be worrying about diabetes. And mine multiply like crazy due to my Italian ways of feeding anything that looks hungry. But health conscious, Oregonians, seems to include squirrels too, for they all looked svelte compared to mine. Plus there was only a handful of them, not the herd I entertain in my yard.

Then the same magic that whisked me West delivered me back East. The first day back was such an amazingly beautiful day, that I had a little made up rhyme going in my head. “If the sky is blue, and it’s seventy too, you know what you have to do-Go Outside!” And as I walked the conservation area nearby, known as the Game Farm, I thought, I have just left the City of Roses, and now I find myself in a field redolent of the smell of roses. For our invasive Multiflora rose was still blooming, probably won’t be for much longer, but what a gift to breathe in that sweet air. So the magic of the trip extended itself to my own backyard. Coast to Coast beauty, for which I am very thankful to have experienced.