Sunset street

It's been another few weeks without many photo opportunities. So I delved into some older photos. This one's from last fall, when leaving Weston the sunset lit up parts of Main Street. If it wasn't for the power line in the foreground, this photo could have been taken 100 years ago, but in black and white, of course.

Brew time

My boyfriend has taken on a new hobby: brewing beer. He's working on his first batch and Monday he was very excited for "bottling day." The beer's not done yet, half will continue to brew in the bottle, the other half in the carboy.

To the left he's siphoning the beer into the bottles.

Below, he arranged the bottles inside the pot he used a few weeks ago to start the brew.

A visit from Jack Frost

Jack Frost visited Ashland on Christmas Day. I was down south visiting my Dad and snuck out for about 15 minutes to grab some photos before the sun melted all the ice away. I kept trying to get the small ice crystals in focus, while still having an interesting background. These two, at least, seemed to work.

Inner workings

This is the front of an old train in the Maxwell Siding Railroad Museum in Hermiston. Santa came for a visit Saturday, which brought me there as a reporter. Apparently the museum is open nearly every Saturday, run by two volunteers. The train cars and engines were filled with old machinery and train paraphernalia, a little more reminiscent of a ghost town than a straight-up museum. Interesting place, and great for kids who are into trains.

Warm thoughts ...

OK, I know it's December, but enough of this cold stuff!
After two weeks of cold weather and snow, it's warmed up. And after reviewing my blog, with lots of cold, cold and more cold, I decided to add something warm. When I thought of warm, I thought of this photo. It's in the apartment I first lived in when I moved to Pendleton more than three years ago. It was a nice cozy basement apartment with windows on one side and wood siding along most of the walls. Some people find wood siding cheesy, but I find the warm colors comforting. Adding to the warm colors of this photo is the table, the hot cup of tea, and the red in my violin bow. They blend together to remind me of slow afternoons in the small apartment, with simple pleasures like learning musical basics.

Winter's arrival

Even with the cold temperatures in early December, to me, winter didn't officially arrive until it snowed.

Before the freezing rain came in to ruin it all and threaten anyone driving or walking with imminent death from slipping, I went for a winter's walk on the river walkway in Pendleton.

These were taken on Monday, when temperatures started to climb and snow and ice in the Umatilla were starting to melt.

As you can see, I wasn't the only one out and about. I got a shot of this squirrel heading across the street.

More cold ...

While I'm posting, I'll add these shots of frozen circle pivots. As temperatures have stayed well below freezing this week, I've noticed these iced-over irrigators on my way to and past Athena.

As far as I can tell, they are the ones hooked to the city's wastewater treatment plant. The only reason I can think they are still running in these cold temperatures is because they must have to dispel some of the water to keep the system going.

These shots are taken from the highway, so I used a zoom and then cropped them, so the resolution won't be great. But since there's a discouraging "no trespassing" sign, these were the best I could do.