at the parade 2016

We always start the parade with the flag!

Can you tell we sat in the wrong part of the parade route? I was thinking, “Oh boy, shade!” which didn’t work at all for the photos. Do’h!

 

I’m trying out my new camera with long distance zoom AND action settings. Some hits and misses. But I’m purposely blurring faces here, because it’s not fair to put someone up on the internet without their permission.

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I love the above man and his horse every year. He really has his horse dance.

I focused on the beadwork. And fringe is always so pretty. I finally bought a fringed purse. Am I ahead of the fashion curve or behind? When you get to a certain age you don’t care anymore, and you just buy what you like.

I love the rosettes on the forehead straps, and the beadwork on the chest straps. There sure is a lot of time going in to decorating those. I was talking to someone who does beadwork for his art, and he says very few people actually do it anymore, and parents ask him to teach their children. Makes me wonder if those decorations in the photos are carefully kept now and handed down.

 

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I focused on horse photos this year, and of course won’t share the best photos until they show up in paintings. 🙂

The below horse has a nice neck curve and interesting coloring that would be fun to paint.

When you hear about the huge loans farmers need to take out to stay in business, just picture owning more than one of these vehicles. I bet the cost is astronomical. Frankly, I don’t know how they can get our food to market for as cheaply as they do–not when you count in these tractors, employees, land, water, etc. Their expenses must be ENORMOUS.

 

I always love to see a vintage vehicle, don’t you?

 

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unusual visitor

I was out taking photos of paintings (Sunlight is best to capture the true colors, but also turned so there’s no sun glare. It’s always a challenge.) and a flock of something or others alighted in a tree near me. They flew away when they saw me. I got one good photo.

I saw one bird fairly closeup and thought, “That’s a cedar waxwing. But we don’t have those here.” The crest is a giveaway, though, and the black mask. So I was able to get this one clear photo, and I think it’s a female waxwing. Even though we don’t have those here.

From my Audubon manual: ” A sleek, crested, brown bird with a black mask, yellow tips on tail feather, and hard red wax-like tips on secondary wing feathers. Almost always seen in flocks.”

You can see the bit of yellow on her tail, but she’s turned so there’s not a good look at the wings.

The flock must be on their way to California.I think they stopped to eat the remnants of our grapes. She looks like she’s had a pretty tough journey.

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at the Pendleton Roundup opening parade

How we have not gone to the opening parade for the Roundup, I have no idea. So today we remembered and were there in plenty of time to pick a good place on the sidewalk.

Everybody stands for the flags going by. And then sits down again when they’ve passed.

So many horses and cowboys and cowgirls. So much fun. These are the directors of the roundup. There were 8 or so.

I liked she is riding a mule.

All the pretty beadwork on his horse.

Here we finally have the answer to: “Is it possible to transport a horse via pickup truck?”

And also an answer to whether it’s possible to have a full brass band playing from horseback. I edited out the drums. 🙂

A pretty palomino.

More gorgeous beadwork.

And a tiny wagon pulled by a tiny horse.

A beautiful horse. Wouldn’t it be fun to ride in that wagon?

The sign says it’s an 1890’s log sled. Imagine that thing being pulled by horses through the snow. There’s no way to get out of the way in time when it picks up speed downhill. What a job.

This cable car has been retrofitted into public transportation. I would like to drive around town in this thing, it sure beats the regular bus.

Does it make you want to come see the roundup? One of those things everyone needs to do at least once in your life. The last day is Saturday the 19th. I was looking at the website, and tickets are still available.

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a touch of snow, the end of summer

Here’s Mount Hood seen from Highway 84 as it curves past Portland. How far is the mountain from here? It seems like about an hour or an hour and half. As seen through a car window. Turned out pretty good, didn’t it?

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more from the fair….

I haven’t sat down to edit my 323 photos (of course 1 out of 10 are any good) but here are two that grab my attention.

What makes the prize a little less emotionally fulfilling is that the Disney Pez collection submitted and displayed next to her embroidery also won a champion ribbon. Sigh. So if going out and buying something wins a prize, well…just sigh. But I didn’t say that out loud, sshhh.

We were laughing that whomever came back to get his cup of orange soda might be in for a surprise and wonder where it went, just before taking a big gulp.

😀

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random photos

Here are few photos from around the yard.

Coconut was pretending to be a stealth rabbit. She’s been tunneling out under the fence. So far she comes right back inside, but I know that one day she’ll forget to come right back. I fill in the hole and we’re good for a few more days. It’s hard to explain to her that the world is full of dogs and cars, things she doesn’t know about. I know there’s a metaphor in there, but rabbits don’t understand metaphors. She doesn’t even understand about the dogs and cars.

The flowers are turning into autumn hues. Sigh. Why does it seem like there is more winter than there is summer?

I try to snap shots of crows with open wings. This one is fly away, but in the photo it looks coming toward. What do you think?

This beautiful dragonfly was hiding in the grapes. His eyes are particularly luminous.

Another week of high temps. I’d take the heat over winter, anytime.

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dragonflies in the garden

This is the first year our garden is a dragonfly magnet. Most years it is a bee magnet, but for the first time that “bee die off” is being seen in our area. I would also say the butterflies are being affected, too, because there are not so many of them, either. And when I say “dragonfly magnet,” that really means I can look around and spot about 5. But doesn’t that sound like a lot of dragonflies in one small space?

Most of the dragonflies look like this one.

I spotted this guy because that white abdomen (thorax? tail?) was just so striking. What the heck? I’ve never seen this before or again. It looks like he was hit by a splash of paint from an airbrush gun, only the white was also on the underside. Do you think it’s a kind of mold, maybe? I had to run and get my camera before he flew away.

And here’s a shot of Coconut relaxing in the cool dirt. It’s supposed to be 109-degrees here in a couple days. Sigh. Those kinds of nights just never cool off.

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