LaLa Land

Has anyone seen summer? I just had it RIGHT HERE...

What a blur! It was a great summer, full of friends, work, canvassing, weddings, festivals, and music.

These lovely trees are across the street from my house in a beautiful park.




I worked a plot in the Corvallis Community Garden and tried some Alabama favorites: purple-hull peas, okra (cow horn and dwarf red), and Dixie butterpeas. The okra did well when we had those few days of 106 degree heat but was otherwise the stunted plant I remember from the last time I tried to grow okra in Oregon. Those African vegetables just need more heat (but the flowers are so lovely). However, the purple-hull peas were a grand success and I managed to even freeze a few messes!




























There were some lovely weddings this summer:

Bruce and Jessica! Brussica! Juce!




































Peggy and Justin!


























I had a great birthday camping at Waldo Lake with Steve and the Riverstones. Our friends Anna and Abe came up for the day. We canoed, ate some wonderful brook trout that Mike caught, played music, read, and hung in the hammock -- it was a VERY successful birthday!




































In October I spent a week in Alabama visiting my family. It was too short a visit! I didn't get to see enough of everyone. Wiley and I had a few days at home together and passed the time eating snacks, singing "The Banana Boat Song," watching Alabama football, and taking walks on the pine loop. I visited my grandmother in Curry, Alabama (where I'm pretty sure no one cooks with curry) and she cooked one heckuva meal for me. Then my mother cooked me a mean meal of everything yummy and fried. I only gained 4 lbs. in 6 days -- not bad!





































Halloween was spent on a Trick or Vote canvass that Steve helped organize with the Bus Project. Earlier in the day there was a Democratic rally featuring our governor, Ted Kulongoski, and congressmen Pete DeFazio and Ron Wyden. We are really hoping for some change this Tuesday -- dare we hope????