Picture Day reveals the harsh Portland winter!

Usually Portland winters aren't that bad. It rains a lot, and it's overcast the rest of the time, and it's always damp, but the temperatures don't get too low and you never get that really painful cold that I used to endure in Pennsylvania (although I do miss snow and those bright, crisp sunny days that follow a good snowstorm). Every so often, though, it snows in Portland. When I say "snow" I mean at least a good inch! This paralyzes the city, because no one knows how to deal with it. We once got almost 2 inches and they closed the Interstate outside of town. Dear God! And then, occasionally, we got an ice storm. In January of 1998 we were hit with one, and we were trapped inside our apartment. Except when I went out to take pictures, of course!

I actually managed to get some good pictures close up to the various ice-encrusted leaves and such. I'm not a professional photographer (I know, shocking) and so I don't have a fancy camera, and occasionally extreme close-ups are blurry. Here are some neat pictures of ice on leaves and berries. I don't know what kind of leaves are in the middle picture. I think it might have been a frozen alien, though.






This next picture is right out our front door. What a nice view - and this is, technically, inside the city limits! To the left are the steps down to the parking lot in the apartment complex. By "steps" I mean 52 of them. Yes, it was fun living on the side of a big hill, but it was no fun bringing groceries up from the car ... in the rain. We had a nice place, but were happy to move.


Finally, it's the hard life of a kitty. How, oh how do they endure????


Sorry for the lack of exotic locales this time. Next week, we're off to Lake Tahoe and we'll see jumping frogs. I kid you not!