A winter weekend in the southern Willamette Valley

A cool afternoon walk on the Ridgeline Trail

We stayed in town this weekend. Beautiful, cold, crisp weather changed to wet snow by Sunday morning. Great for the kids and fun to watch come down. A little snow always helps to make the mundane suburban streets look more presentable. This storm might actually amount to something, we're at six inches and counting right now. Forecast calls for snow through tomorrow.

A snowy Sunday morning in our front yard

Back to the Bogie

Through the clear-cut we must go

We spent the Martin Luther King Jr Day weekend on the Olympic peninsula. As is often the case in mid January, we had fine weather - one day of rain and three days of clear, cool sunshine. We arrived after midnight on Thursday, still startled by the freshly clear-cut parcel through which our long driveway traverses. But this is the Olympic peninsula and outside of the national forest and park, standing trees older than 20 years are becoming scarce. Still, once there, the property provided an enjoyable stay as always and outings to Forks and Rialto Beach proved interesting and entertaining.

The cabin

Rialto Rocks!

The holidays are behind us

Looking toward Black Butte as another snow squall moves in

We had a busy end of 2007 holiday season. Christmas was spent in Seattle while New Year's Day found us in the central Oregon Cascades. We've had great snow in the mountains and a little in the valley. I skied several times and, in fact, had some of the best skiing of my life on New Year's Eve, which felt great. Three months ago I could not imagine bombing down black diamond runs so it felt particularly gratifying. Here's to a great and healthy 2008!!