My last Outdoor Mom post was way back at the end of August! I think my life hit the accelerator in September and is just now easing up as we enter the winter season here in Central Oregon. Our autumn was a little warmer and longer than normal and we took full advantage of it with hiking, kayaking, gardening, and birdwatching.
I kept telling the family that we needed to take advantage of the weather and get outside! We made some sweet Autumn 2020 memories.
During our outdoor time, we went…
We’ve been on several new hikes since August, thanks to my new hiking guide that I bought featuring local trails. We found a beautiful park in Bend, Oregon (Shevlin Park) that goes along Tumalo Creek. The aspens were in the peak of their autumn color and we enjoyed the sound of them blowing in the breeze. We sat for awhile on a log near the creek and just took in the sounds and sights of a perfect autumn day.
We also hiked to the top of Bessie Butte on a day after a snow shower. Our son often hikes to the top of this particular butte to think and refresh himself after work. It makes my heart happy that he sees being outdoors in nature as a way to balance his busy life. We made it to the top of the butte where the wind was howling in our ears. It was cold but so incredibly beautiful!
One morning I woke up and just had an itch to go to the beach and put my feet in the sand. My amazing husband loaded me up in the car and we took the 3 hour drive to the coast! We brought our picnic lunch and enjoyed it in the sunshine while sitting in the sand. We walked the shoreline for a long way and just took in the salt air as we did a little beachcombing. I feel so very blessed to live where I do and that I’m able to indulge my heart from time to time with a spontaneous trip to the seaside.
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
We had a crazy COVID influenced wedding in our flower garden in September. My son ended up marrying his best friend among my sunflowers in a simple, socially distanced wedding with a few family members and friends. One of my favorite moments of the day was when a chickadee landed on the sunflower right over their heads as they said their wedding vows. It was a beautiful way to celebrate the beginning of their life together.
In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting…I am dreaming about…
We spent a few days pruning, weeding, and cutting things down in our garden spaces. One week of below freezing temperatures at night really hurried the process along. We saved seeds and cut flower heads and then tucked it all in for the winter.
As planned, we put over 120 bulbs in the ground for spring flowering. This is our first time planting bulbs in Central Oregon, so it’s a bit of an experiment to see how successful we are with bulbs making it through the winter. Hopefully we’ll see some crocus, grape hyacinth, and daffodils next spring. I’ll be thinking good thoughts all winter as I think of the bulbs all cozy under the ground awaiting the spring warmth and sunshine to wake them up.
One last image…
It was a wonderful summer with my daughter living here with us. Spending time outdoors with her will be my fondest memories of the summer. She has since moved back to California and she’ll be getting married very soon. I hope she will come back next summer and spend time with me on the trails and on the river…probably with her sweetheart along as well. She’s starting a new adventure, but I know she loves it here as much as I do!
You can follow me on Instagram to see more of our outdoor life here in gorgeous Central Oregon.
Want to join in the Outdoor Mom post?
Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.
- During our outdoor time this month we went…
- The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
- Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about) …
- In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting…
- I added nature journal pages about…
- One last image…