The Portland Heritage Tree Quest: a coda

November 1, 2020

Rachael and I were both stunned (not that surprising, really - we were already half-stunned by jet lag and loss of sleep) at how beautiful Portland was when we arrived. If you looked up and away from the seemingly unending string of homeless encampments and storefront windows boarded over with plywood, the trees were astonishing. It was especially surprising after just walking through a similar scene in the hills outside of Bologna the day before. It looks like both cities are in just about the same point in the autumn transition. Looking at the map this morning, I see that it’s not that surprising - both cities are at nearly the same latitude, with Bologna just a bit further south - about the same latitude as Corvallis. No wonder we felt so comfortable and at home there!

It’s colorful everywhere we look, but it seems especially so in our new neighborhood in the Northwest District.

The view this morning from the window of our apartment for the next month.

The Bike Fridays are still boxed up from the flight this morning, so before coffee I drive over to our bike storage unit to liberate Rodriguez and the Straggler. Rachael and the Straggler leave for a 42 mile sprint out the Springwater Corrider soon after I return home. Roddy and I leave not long after, for a much less ambitious ramble past a dozen nearby heritage trees. I forgot to take along the GPS so I’m not sure of the distance, but I imagine I was pretty close to 42 miles also. Or perhaps 10. Somewhere in that range anyway.

We’ve seen all of these heritage trees before - or at least these or others of their same species - so I won’t say anything further about them. It didn’t take me long though to realize that this was the wrong concept for an autumn tree outing. They’re all impressive trees of course, but few of them are at their peak at the moment. The most impressive sights were other spectacular trees we just happened to pass on the way.

As you can imagine, all of this starting, stopping, pulling out the camera, and starting up again is hard work and takes its toll - especially on a jet-lagged body and an out of shape steel frame that’s been locked away in the dark for a few months. Fortunately, by chance our return to the apartment takes us right past Lucky Lab. It’s open, inviting, and we’re easily seduced. We wheel in the door for a pint and a slice before heading home for a well earned nap.

Odds and ends

Unrelated, but here are a few other photos I wanted to drop in.

I felt badly for not finding the gumption to take a photo of the blue moon, so I went out the next morning. Does it still count as a blue moon if it’s the next morning?

This is my friend Frank’s Halloween Covid-safe candy cannon. Ingenious, but a bit intimidating. I’m not sure what the message is here. Get off my lawn?

This is an image I promised Bill, from our hike in Bologna. Bill, this is the plant that was the backdrop for the rose hip photo.

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