Week #52 - P52 Completed!

A dramatic sundown seems to be a good way to end my Photo Project 52 of 2019---a week late.  Winter hasn't been very forceful yet this year. We've had hints of snow and lots of rain.  It's cold and windy and dark.  This past week, I could see that there were pretty horizons with clouds and lots of color, so we drove up and out of the valley to Cricket Flat, where I could pick any horizon I desired.
Now I can order the photo book.

Week #51 - P52

Winding down the Project 52 for 2019 (already into 2020), I visited some of my favorite trees...the Golding Trees.  At least 3 of these are walnut trees, a fact I didn't realize until several years after I started photographing them.  The trees are located on the Golding homestead, where waves of naturalized daffodils bloom in the spring.  If we had snow one would expect in late December, the tree silhouettes would be even more dramatic.  As it is, I've chosen this image for Week 51 of my year-long project.  Hopefully, I will locate another good subject this week to finish the 52nd week.

Week #50 - P52

The town I live in is located in Indian Valley (actually the only "town" in the valley)in the northern end of Union County.  Just a few miles to the south, the Grande Ronde Valley begins and Mt. Harris is the 5000+ ft mountain to the east. It's really quite close and accessible by narrow road.  Those of us who live here see Mt. Harris in all seasons and lights, with and without fog, clouds, and fresh snow.  (Mt. Harris has been featured in 3 additional choices this year, here, here, and here.)

Week #49 - P52

I'm feeling rushed..because I'm behind on P52, and there are only two weeks left in the year.  Surgeries just threw a monkey wrench in life, in general, and definitely with photography.

For Week 49, I've chosen a simple, common everyday piece of nature in NE Oregon: the teasel.  This time of year is their pretty phase, in my opinion.   I added some texture to the image of three prickly ones.

Week #48 - P52

It's too easy to get behind on these posts.  A hip injury that will require replacement...a little incident of breast cancer ... and all of a sudden, I'm weeks behind!  However, I'm powering through: one surgery is behind me and the other is still two weeks away.  All at Christmas time!  Speaking of Christmas, I've chosen my Christmas tree for the 48th week of this year's P52.  It's an artificial tree, at least three years old.  It's an electronic marvel with pre-strung lights that change color with the click of a remote control. 

Week #47 - P52

This is one of my favorite go-to locations, just one mile from our back door.  It's Clark's Creek, which starts up in the hills and runs into the Grande Ronde River, just half a mile from this point. I stand on the bridge and aim my camera west.  Most of the time, whatever the season, I record an image that pleases me.  There is something special about a winter scene, though.  This was taken the morning after the first snow of the season; we had another day of snow, but it's no deeper than 2 inches.   (I have a set of photos in my Dec. 24 2015 post; just click on "Clark's Creek" in the labels under the post.)

Week #46 - P52

I long ago lost count of the times I've photographed these aspens, which grow on private property 15 miles north.  One family owned the land for several decades, a family with four children who all grew into wonderful, talented, successful adults.  Mom and Dad moved "to town" two years ago to be closer to medical care.  I don't know who bought the land, but I hope they let this grove of aspens continue to flourish in a corner of their property.  I will continue to call them the "Insko Aspens."

Week #45 - P52

For the past 5 or so years, I've photographed my niece Erin and her two daughters. It's so interesting to see how they have matured...but it's a little disconcerting to think that they are now a sophomore and a junior in high school.  Their mother has been a single mother since they were little. Kaelin and Gracie are volleyball and basketball athletes, and they are also on horseback with their dad's side of the family. 

Week #43 - P52

This is the reason we travel for 5 hours from east to west at least every month, and sometimes more often, depending upon when our son travels and we can help our daughter-in-law, who works as a child therapist.  Ava Maeve is 2 1/2 in this photo; she is a ginger-haired character whose emotions are "big" and right on the surface.  She has always had difficulty sleeping through the night; how that she's out of her crib, it means she gets up in the night to go to her parents' room.  Daddy takes her back to her room and almost always ends up sleeping the rest of the night with her.  Now there is a full-size memory foam bed with a little teepee at the head.  The foam mattress is not just for Ava Maeve!

Week #42 - P52

This is one of those serendipitous photos...I was totally surprised to find it, not that I was looking for it.  In fact, we were driving through my hometown on the way back from a day in the county where I grew up and where I love to visit often (it's only 25-55 miles from where I have lived for 45 years).  Anyway, on our way through Wallowa, I caught sight of this...immediately told my driver/husband to turn right and go around "the block" so I could see it again.  It's a building I knew in my childhood as the office of the local Justice of the Peace.  I'm pretty certain it's been empty for a very long time.  But there it was...that tan stucco exterior and those blue windows--all draped over by wild branches and faded leaves. I loved it!

Week #41 - P52

I have looked everywhere in this area for tiny white pumpkins, which were in abundance last year but nowhere to be found this fall.  I did find these "tiger striped" ones, which I paired with persimmons for this FALL image. (It involved standing on a chair .  :-)  )

Views on the Mountain and Week #40 of P52

Looking through the 40 images I've selected for my 2019 Photo Book, I see several landscape images; it's simply a natural choice, considering where I live.  My latest sightseeing trip was on another mountain road...this one paved because it's a primary Forest Service road.  We turned around 20 miles in, at the end of the pavement.  Although fall colors aren't all showing yet, there are berries and red bushes to break up the standard green and blue.

Week #40 

Week #39 - P52

This is really a photo of one of my favorite subjects--a large stand of quaking aspen trees about 15 miles north of my house.  I photograph these aspens in every season (I have to stand up in the back of our pickup to avoid the top wire of the fence)...and I never tire of the images.  This photo was edited in one of my many editing programs, and this watercolor edit is a favorite. 

Week #38 - P52

The osprey was first documented in Oregon in 1855; it is relatively common around bodies of water, where it finds the fish it depends on.  As a species, the osprey is tolerant of human activity, often building a nest on any suitable "platform" close to water containing fish.  Fish make up 99% of the osprey diet. 

The osprey is one of my favorites because one of the early pairs to call Elgin home built their nest in a bank of lights above the high school football field, just across the field from the classroom where I taught for 26 years.  That was about 25 years ago.  After the pair raised two chicks that summer and migrated in September, the local power company and lumber mill provided a crane and manpower to build a wooden platform to attach above the lights and to move the nest to the platform.  Every year since that time, the birds have returned by the end of spring break, added to their nest, and raised one or two chicks right above the 200 meter mark on the high school track.  Generally, before school begins in the fall, the birds migrate to Central or South America...first the female (who has spent interminable hours and days on that nest in every type of weather), then the male.  The chicks fly last.

Four years ago, my sister and her husband had a 30-40 ft. pole and metal platform set up only yards from their back patio.  Nothing happened; the wildlife experts presumed that the nearby pine trees were too tall, providing perching areas for predators and annoying crows.  However, last year, a young pair chose the platform, built a sparse nest and hatched 3 chicks.  One died during the summer, most likely because it was tangled in baling twine the parents had used in building the nest.  Jack and Diane raised Aspen and Pine, helped them fledge, and flew south in September.  This spring, they returned again and raised three chicks, Sage, Dilly, and Thyme.  The neighbors could hear their noisy "talking" and see them fight off obnoxious crows and other ospreys.

This image of what is most likely a young osprey sitting high in a tree beside the Imnaha River in the remote eastern Wallowa County.   Either the bird has separation anxiety or the fishing is good.

Week #37 - P52

This is a reminder for me... and a good choice for Week 37. 

Week #36 - P52

Once in awhile, we drive "up" into the timber that is southeast of town; much of it is owned by an investment company which bought all the timberland the local Boise Cascade mill once owned.  Local cattle ranchers lease some of the land for grazing.  This is the view looking north once we climb out of the valley.  

Week #35 - P52

I tend not to think of fall when I see changing leaves...I think of winter, because I know it often arrives sooner than expected.  This bright red leaf lying in lush green grass is a good indication of the overlap in seasons.  (Winter will be here before we know it!)  

Week #34 - P52

This summer, I have seen more giant bumblebees than ever in my life.  Some have been on lavender; others on sunflowers.  This particular one was enjoying a tall giant sunflower in West Union Gardens in Hillsboro, Oregon.   (I just realized that I have posted 3 sunflower images in this year's P52.)

P52 - Week #32

My "neighbors"  just two short blocks away.... four new babies, fuzzy little "teddy bear" creatures that are really Highland cattle.

P52 - Week #33

I live in Indian Valley, just north of the massive Grande Ronde Valley.  The Grande Ronde Valley is surrounded by mountains, 3 of which are named.  Closest to my home is Mt. Harris, on the east side.  I've photographed it in all seasons and under a variety of conditions, even from a point halfway up the south side of the mountain.  This time, I found a different perspective--a dirt road between wheat fields.