hall house through the seasons

no, it doesn't rain all the time

Yes, we actually have seasons. Four of them. No snow, unfortunately, or thunder or lightning, but lots of sunshine, lots of clouds, lots of warm days and cool days and everything in between. The tulips bloom, the trees blossom, the leaves fall, the rains come.

It's like most any other place that you love, beautiful at any time of year.

autumn

From left to right:

#1 -- the house from the sidewalk

#2 -- the sidewalk in front of the house; the house is at the left

#3 -- what remains of the cherry tree we had taken down in October 2002;

the stump measures over three feet in diameter

#4 -- the little tree we planted just after we moved in; it's a red-leaf Japanese Maple called 'Firestorm'

winter

From left to right:

#1 -- this is our view when the leaves have fallen...we get a clear view of the western arch of the St. Johns Bridge

#2 -- since we're only a few blocks from the Willamette River, we often get fog; in fact, this is usually what it looks like every morning from late fall to late winter/early spring (for reference, in clear weather you're able to see the bridge and Forest Park behind the three houses)

#3 -- sometimes it burns off, sometimes it doesn't...this particular day was foggy from morning until late afternoon

#4 -- this is the Railroad Bridge, just a little way south of us down the river, on another particularly foggy day

and sometimes, it even snows

Well, we lived here through three winters before we finally saw a decent snowstorm. The following pictures are from the (sure to be famous around here) New Years' Day Storm. They were taken earlier in the day, when there was about 6 inches on the ground, and in the time it's taken to format and post them, we've received another 3 inches. Not a big deal where we're from, sure, but a very, very big deal in the Willamette Valley.

...and snows...

Lucky us...we're here for "the worst storm in 10 years". It's not so much the snow, but the ice. Egad, this is not cool.

from left to right

#1-- that's ice coating those branches

#2 -- and those branches

#3 -- and those bushes

#4 -- and those bushes

#5 -- and our car

#6 -- Sal used the pick ax to break through the snow...and it cracked

#7 -- still more ice

#8 -- this is how Hobbes has chosen to cope

Day # 3 and Counting...

from left to right

#1 -- one of many icy-covered trees in the neighborhood

#2 -- a perfect ice mold of a leaf

#3 -- the east entrance to the St. John's Bridge

#4 -- the lee side of a holly tree

#5 -- taken from the front porch; those are power lines sagging with ice

#6 -- our view of the bridge for the last three days

#7 -- Baltimore Woods (across the street)

#8 -- our camellia bush, which normally stands over 15 feet tall and covers the window behind it (see springtime pictures of it below)

#9 -- some of our other poor bushes and shrubs that are being squashed by all the ice

#10 -- taken from our back porch (through the screen)

#11 -- our lovely Japanese maple

#12 -- Extreme Close-Up of the Japanese maple

spring

From left to right:

#1 -- this is our Japanese maple after it leafed out in the spring; it's grown noticeably

#2 -- in January and February, the heather and tulips suddenly started to bloom; although we knew the heather was there, we had no idea the tulips were...can you see the first of the lilacs starting to bud in the background?

#3 -- the tulips lasted for about six weeks, from late January to early March; the red ones were the last to bloom

#4 -- this is the first of the two lilacs we planted our first summer in the house; the second one (behind the camera) began to bloom about 3 weeks later so we had lilacs from late March to mid-June

#5 -- this is a red camellia bush at the corner of the neighbor's yard that borders the corner of ours; it's about 12, maybe 13 feet high

#6 -- this is our own camellia bush (yes, the one in the story), also about 12 feet high, that sits right outside the dining room window; it bloomed from late March till mid-May; don't they look like roses?

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hall house through the seasons