Fighting The Winter Blues

Or the Calm Before the Flower Storm

There is always this downtime after the holidays, but before spring starts nipping at the door, things can get a little glum. The hustle and bustle and purpose of the Holidays have passed, some new diet is either working or not working, and you are trying to decide if those resolutions are really going to stick. Normally this time of year, I'm spending almost every weekend exploring some new cross country ski trail, but as luck would have it this year has turned out to be a bit of  bust as far as snow is concerned. So I thought I would spice things up a bit with a little winter getaway, this would chase away some of those mid-winter blues and let the budded Narcissus species in the greenhouse finally open up. This past long weekend, the kiddo and I headed up to Astoria to where the Columbia River meets the sea in a rather dramatic fashion. Below are some highlights to kill time before the onslaught of flower pics that are just around the corner.

Anya checking out a herd of Elk at Jewell Meadows

Some really cool metal art in the Garden of Surging Waves, Astoria Oregon.

Really old drawing of a Monkey Flower at the Cape Dissapointment Museum.

Where illahe comes from

The weather was in the mid 60's! At the beach in January!!This is looking up the long beach Peninsula from Cape Disapointment.

The people that know me the best, know I have a thing for early botanical exploration. If I could have I would have ridden with William Dampier on his voyages around the world. Wouldn't think twice about joining up on that one if I could have had the chance. I still feel I was born at least 200 years too late. Seeing old stuff always reminds me of this.

Lot's of flowers are starting to emerge now and especially with this mild weather we have had, I expect it to be a pretty early year. I suppose time will tell. It won't be long i'm sure before Winter blues are giving way to the rebirth of Spring.

Heavy rains moving in tonight, but still a mild mid 50's day.

Cheers,

Mark