June 7, 2021 Salem, Oregon

 High o f 63, cloudy and some rain. 

A field of rapeseed. Canola oil is made from it. We are now parked at Springtime Alpaca Farm. 

Some of the alpacas 36 alpacas that live here.  The black one was sheared on Saturday. Bull Pasture Park in Salem, Oregon. This stand of white oak trees is the last original stand in the valley. It was once all like this, but most has been cleared for farming and towns. 

Baby inch long pears at the farm. We had chickens running around the bus. Creeping St John's wort flower. It was about 3 inches wide and a large amount of calla lilies. Another forest, not oak  at Bush Pasture Park. 

Mr and Mrs Bush lived in this historic house which is now a museum and their conservatory. Part of he rose garden at Bush pasture park. 

Foxgloves. The cat and cow sculpture by the playground.  A couple of the roses from the rose garden and a white flowering plant.

John in the rhododendron cave. Dog wood tree blooms. 

Chestnuts, rhododendron, and pink dogwood. A view of the dogwoods and buttercups.  

In River Park along the Willamette river has this giant globe. It was a container for acid when this area was a paper plant. It is now tiled as the globe, the Willamette Queen paddle boat, and the carousel. The carousel was close or I would have ridden on it, I love the old wooden carrousels. Back at the farm some of their goats. 

Maple leaves from Bush Pasture Park, mural downtown, impatient and soft alpaca fleece. These items are made from the alpaca fleece and for sale. 

The sun came out just at sunset and we had this great rainbow.  Sunset was spectacular. 

I finished the row of big beads around the edge. It is now 9 x 8 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches.

June 5-6, 2021 Philomath to Monmouth , Oregon

 High of 61, partly cloudy, rainy and windy.

Black berry bushes and grass seed farms behind them. Grass seed farms on both sides of the road and a tree farm in front of us. 

We are parked at Cardwell Hill Vineyards. It is chilly windy and rainy when we arrived. We have a nice view out the front window of the vineyards. 

The deck outside the tasting room in the rain. John with our wine tender Katrina in the tasting room. This winery won the best winery of 2021 this year. 

Vines and the owners home. Caught the clock at 3:33:33! 

The sun was in and out all afternoon. Rainy vineyards out the front window. 

I started this lovely basket yesterday. The center is amethyst and quartz, made by my friend Pam. It is 7 x 7 inches here.  The clouds parted and we had dinner at the tasting room veranda. We finished off our bottle of Money wine from the vineyard with dinner. It won a platinum award this year. 

High of 66 today, mostly cloudy and rainy. We moved to Emerson Winery today. We have a nice camping spot near a huge field of grass, oaks and vineyards. The two winery black labs joined us for most of the day. They loved to play. 

We could see the rainstorms approaching across the valley. There were periods of sun and the light was lovely. 

I got this far on the masterpiece today. It is very purple and looking good so far. It is now 8 x 9 x 1 inches. After the rain storms there were rainbows. We saw three different ones. This one was very bright and a double. Rainbow over the vineyards. 

It stopped raining long enough for us to have a nice dinner outside watching sunset. A field of daisies. 

Sunset tonight. 

May 31- June 4, 2021, Eugene to Cheshire, Oregon

 High of 87 and sunny. We ran our AC to see if we could get it to fail, but it must not be hot enough or they fixed it. Tomorrow is supposed to be 93. Will try again tomorrow. 

Finished the adding pine needles part and am not adding the bling. I added pine cone bracts first, then there will beads. Scott and Leslie came over for dinner tonight. Here is Leslie helping John cook. 

John is cooking 4 steaks, He has a probe in each one so he can monitor the temps in each one on his fancy BBQ thermometer. 10 years ago this weekend we had our spiritual wedding ceremony. Scott and Leslie were there, Leslie was on of the brides maids. So this is our 10 years later photo,

This one is a better 10 years later. Leslie serving up cheese cake. We ate way too much. Was a yummy dinner. 

Sunset tonight. 92 degrees today. We ran the AC all day and it worked fine, I think they fixed it. Still waiting for one more part. I spent the whole day adding beads to the masterpiece. 5-6 hours. Still need to take care of the loose thread ends and it will be done!!

High temperature of 91 and sunny. We went with Leslie to Clear Creek park and swam in the river. It was lovely. More flowers for today. Some purple ones, queen anne's lace and foxglove. 

John skipping stones on the river. Leslie and John walking back to the car in a field of ox eye daisies. 

The basket is done! 10 x 8 1/2 x 3 inches. Made with natural and dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass and copper beads. The center is a piece of mookaite. It came out beautiful! Today they installed the two parts they ordered. The horn now works and the electric hot water heater, but another part of the 12 volt part of the water is on order and should be in tomorrow. Glen and John capping a pipe where the washer used to be. The washer needed parts, and it was pretty expensive and we don't use it much so it was removed. We now have a nice big cupboard. Nickie working on the hot water heater. 

Finished this little guy this afternoon. It is 6 3/4 x 7 1/4 x 2 inches. It is made with natural and dyed pine needles, polyester thread and glass beads. The center is a piece of dichroic glass I fused. This morning the electric  hot water heater was not working. So Glen came over and found a loose wire and reconnected it. Later in the day the thermostat for the battery/propane  water heater came in and Glen and Matt installed it. This is what the water heater looks like on the outside. No idea where the thermostat is. We are done!!

We are now happily parked at Bennett Vineyard for the night. Nice quiet place in the country. Leslie Bennett is pouring our wine tasting. The wine was good and it was interesting talking to the owner. 

Some of the vineyards. It gets damp here, this is moss growing on the side of a building. 

Vineyards and barn. Dinner tonight was in the grass viewing  vineyards. Much nicer than the parking lot we have been in. 

Sunset colored up nice at 9 pm. I love the long evenings of summer.