Astoria: Part I

I love going to quaint little towns that have been around long enough to have a cute little Main Street.  Fishing towns hold particularly high appeal.  

Whenever I go to Astoria I want to go around taking pictures of all the lovely old architecture. . . which I usually do.  I got more pictures of commercial buildings this time.  I loved the faded blue and white of this one, and the detail in the molding.  

Water Freckles

I can never resist taking pictures as the sun goes down and sheds angular light at the back of my house.  Ask my girls.  They are often my subjects--particularly Sig.  She is very photogenic.  She accidentally sprayed herself with the sprinkler and I loved the watery freckle effect she created.  so I made her stand there while I captured it forever.  

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Lilacs

I need more lilacs in my yard. 

 I have this small white blossom bush and a smaller light purple one.

Lilacs always make me think of my dad.  He loves lilacs and we had several bushes in our yard growing up--white, lavender, dark purple. . .double and single blossoms.  He gained his love of lilacs from his mother.  She had beautiful flower gardens, or so I hear.  She died when he was 17 or 18.  When he got married and moved away he took starts from his mother's lilac and planted them wherever he moved (my uncle still owns the house they grew up in).  

He told me I could have a start for my yard.  It's a double blossom purple lilac.  I can't wait.

Visions of Summer

Chocolate Vine (Akebia)

Off the side of my back patio is a white pergola.  When we moved here, a year and a half ago, I found a plant in the side yard still in a pot.  The tag said Akebia--otherwise known as Chocolate Vine.  It was climbing up a pole stuck in the pot and listing to the side, nearly under a bow of one of the fur trees that line the property.  So I planted it next to the corner of my pergola.  I dream of a day when it covers more than the corner post. . .shading a little iron table and chairs on a summer day where I will sit and sip a diet Dew and read a book while the girls play in the yard.  

The only flaw with my dream is the fact that the lovely little purple flowers are blooming now.  Apart from the occasional warm day, warm sunny days--free of rain--won't arrive in force for at least another month.  Oh well.  I will take what I can get.