Homegrown

 

We’re wrapping up the Homegrown Gallery with this last upload, and there’s lots to look at, featuring six contributors–Phil, Lorraine, Craig, Herman and Mike+Margie Kinch.

From Phil — “There is something about magnolia buds that just gets my attention.”

 

From Lorraine– neighborhood curiosities

From Mike Kinch — a collection of home and garden guardians espied on his walks around the neighborhood.

 

From Margie — a collection of birds in her neighborhood, including a very grumpy bluebird

 

From Craig — portraits of his daughters, three-year-old Maya and seven-year-old Ariana, at local natural areas

 

From Herman– a collection of portraits of workers, shops and shoppers at the Oakway Mall, near his home in Eugene.

 

From Eric French —

 

From Bill G. down in sunny San Franciso

 

From John — “Here are some “twisted selfies”. These are made using facial choreography, strobes and light painting techniques.

From Margie –“Hellebore, or Lenten Roses, of different colors.  Some of the early blooming spring flowers. Enjoy the sunshine!!”

 

Al had his drone out over Cape Perpetua recently for a bird’s eye view of Thor’s Well and other features, and then flew south for an overview of Yaquina Head.

From Al– “Just back from a trip that included the American White Pelicans of Tule lake. Their preferred feeding method is cooperative, and they are often  accompanied by Cormorants or Grebes ready to share the feast. In flight they often  glide only a few feet above the water. The knob or bump on the bill signifies a breeding adult that disappears in the Fall”

 

From Craig:  “Madrone Tree with Mary’s Peak” taken at Chip Ross Park” and  “Cackling Geese”  captured at Finley.

 

From Vicky:  “This variation on a theme duet was taken yesterday at Peavy Arburetum on a walk with friends.  It was nice to see the sun”

 

From Shelley:  “Bamboo grass is not native to Oregon. However, many species grow prolifically throughout the Pacific Northwest. Bamboo grasses are among the fastest growing plants in the world. This leads to rhizomes jumping their boundaries and quickly invading other parts of the landscape. Many of the nearby neighborhood stands that I see, intended as property borders, now freely grow on both sides of the fence.”

From Herman:  “Here are some photos of neighborhood mailboxes.”

From Bill G. — No Comment. (Editor’s Note:  this is a study in visual relationships; read into them what you will!)

From Jeff — “Image 1 — Hard for non-foresters to see, but this image of a thinned forest stand in the Corvallis Forest shows tragic damage from the ice storm.  Look close and you see standing trees without their tops. This is a vulnerability of thinned Douglas-fir stands that we hope doesn’t happen — and it rarely does.  We got unlucky with this one.  Silver lining: these snags will make great homes for pileated woodpeckers, flickers and other woodpeckers, and then next year they will be great homes for swallows, martins, bluebirds, chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and even kestrels and owls.  

Image 2 and 3 — Ever since I started helping the City of Corvallis manage its municipal forest, on the east slope of Marys Peak, I have been impressed by the competence and willingness of the City’s Public Works workers.  I had to train these guys to be “loggers” in one day and they surpassed my expectations with salvaging logs that fell on roads during the ice storm.  Their primary limitation was lack of suitable heavy equipment.

Image 4 — My last image here is a look at the remaining stretch of road that needs to be cleared for typical operations (the Corvallis Forest is also the City’s primary drinking water supply during winter months).  To someone like me, this is a daunting image.”

From Al — “This Red Winged Blackbird in flight is arguably my best ever –taken last month at Albany Talking Waters. I’ve taken a lot of Eagle Pictures but I really like this recent  Bald Eagle in a Fir Tree on First Lake. Of my Wren collection this Self-Reflecting Marsh Wren is the most popular. There’s one remaining Apple tree with apples at EE Wilson and it’s a magnet for another favorite: Spotted Towhees. Ruby Crowned Kinglets only flash red when agitated. I Photographed my first Brown Creeper recently at Simpson Park in Albany. And two of my favorite Duck Take Offs this winter.”

 

From Mark —1. “The Youngun’s 1st Winter”    2. “Seven Butts – No Ifs or Ands”.  Both pictures shot in our backyard today during the weekly all-u-can-eat Arborvitae Buffet.

 

From Herman — Dogs and their owners.

Al got out quickly after the ice storm and returned with these sparkling beauties.

Lorraine sent in some arty snow shots from the Portland area, before the really bad stuff hit the city.

 

Craig, Jeff and Bill G. each contributed a solo image to the gallery — Craig shot the First United Methodist Church in Corvallis (perhaps on his way to work as the organist?); Bill G. didn’t have any snow to complain about down in sunny San Francisco, so he dug up an old image of Mr. DeFrosty in his Penthouse; and Jeff sent in one of his images documenting what he described as extensive tree damage from the ice storm in the Corvallis Municipal Forest, where he says “it’s hard to convey the number of trees that fell on the road, but I think it’s definitely thousands, in four miles.”

From Shelley — “Stands of bamboo around Corvallis liven neighborhoods with an exotic flair. Bamboo plants serve as privacy screens, property dividers, and wind breaks. These tall grasses have even more presence during our Northwest winters as they carry their foliage through the cold months when other plants in the urban landscapes take a seasonal rest.”

Craig offers a classic fall image of a maple tree, a heavily mossed tree along the Old Growth Trail on Lewisburg Saddle, and a waterfowl takeoff in the fog at Finley.

From Phil — “Spring is On Its Way – There are already signs of spring.  Daffodil shoots are up, the snowdrops are almost past their peak, our hellebores are going gang-busters, one golden crocus has shown itself in our garden, magnolia buds are getting plump.  So even now I need to keep my eyes open as I step outside.”

From Herman — “I generally go for a long walk every morning. It includes areas of the nearby Oakway Golf Course, where I try to avoid any golfers or squirrels. When I find a stray golf ball along the way, I drop it into the nearest hole. Here are four photos in regard to the golf course.”

We haven’t heard from Mike in a while, but that doesn’t mean he’s not making pictures. These are scenes seen while walking around the block in his new neighborhood.

From Phil — “Amongst the many surprises, good and bad, of this January, our unexpected snow Jan. 26 was a highlight.  And as the white stuff melted away, the snowdrops have started to put on their usual early year show.”

From Bill G. — “They were shot in-between destinations. The two Teeter-totter from a folio titled “f/stops on Market” (the F streetcar/trolley runs up and down Market and the N/W curve of the Embarcadero).  The other with the working title of “Noise”.  Forty years of bus riding made them as natural to us as wearing shoes, yet it’s been 11 months since we’ve been on one. As COVID 2021 mutates, its house slippers inside, and N95 galoshes out, that incorporates our near home, groan future.”

Lisa’s images are an extension of the walk-about photos she took in Southtown that were shared in the previous Homegrown Gallery.

From Mark — “I define home as where I hang out and spend most of my time, from Bellfountain on the west to Manning Rd. on the east, Albany on the north and Harrisburg on the south. The bubbles were not created by me. I opened the Takeout and there it was.”

From Jack–  “Rare Snow in Corvallis”.  They are all taken in Woodland Meadow Park (the Dog Park) or along Circle Trail across from the Park.

From Herman — Since he can’t get out with his camera lately, Herman offers a collection of garden and playground shots he did in earlier walks around his neighborhood. The are part of the series, “A Walk in my Neighborhood”, at http://members.efn.org/~hkrieger/oakway.htm

From Lisa –“This set of photos comes from a practice session in Southtown Corvallis near my house. I was testing the exposure of shaded places or things for a photoshoot that was coming up with a horse. Fill flash is not an option with a horse since they very well may react poorly to the flash and sound. So, this set was an exercise in how to expose for light shade without fill flash. As it turned out, the afternoon I photographed Yankee Bay, a thoroughbred, was hazy, but bright.”

From John M. — “How can I resist.  It is still snowing and piling up to over 6″ here at 660 ft in our yard.”

Phil on Fungi — “The forest near us, nominally a Christmas tree farm but never harvested, harbors some interesting life on the forest floor and clinging to the sides of dead or dying Douglas firs.  All these photos were taken within the last few months, all save the Trio used focus stacking.  Maybe someone can tell me what the fungi are?”

From Rich — “Okay, so Independence isn’t exactly in my backyard, but it’s a town I go to often (as a member of the River Gallery there, and as a devotee of the lemon iced cookies at Ovenbird Bakery, not necessarily in that order).  I took these pics of the sky over Indepencence last Friday on a beautiful winter’s day.

From Vicky — “It was a beautiful January day so we went up to the Caldwell Hill trail and hiked.  These are all along the Mary’s River.”

From Tom on Talking Waters — “Albany Talking Waters wetlands provide an attractive habitat for birds, and popular walking trails for the local non-flying residents.”  

From Tom on Finley — “Many of the trails and fields at Finley National Wildlife Refuge are closed to protect wintering wildlife (as the sign under the Kestrel clearly points out), but there are still many opportunities to photograph birds.”

From Craig — “My first shots with my new 50.6 megapixel Canon 5ds”

From Phil — “In a farmer’s field outside of Philomath, there is a lone tree that I find fascinating.  These 5 photos capture the tree and surrounding hay field in a range of weather conditions from under snow years ago, sunny with just mowed hay last summer, strangely colored in the weird orange light we had last September due to the smoke, and – just now – flooded by winter rain.  There is also a view of the sunny day but in the infrared.”

From John — “This winter I’m growing not only a cat, but also an artificial tree for him to climb in the back yard. It’s slow going because it’s a lot of work and the weather is bad, but Gatsby is already enjoying it and looking forward to its completion.”

From Eric– “These were taken at the confluence of Lamprey Creek and Dry Creek in NW Corvallis. Fortunately, I caught the scenes a day after strong rushes of runoff overwhelmed the long grasses, creating a strong opportunity for photography.”

 

From Phil — some winter scenes down on the farm.

 

From Rich —  Some curious shots around my neighborhood — the flooded Dixon Creek at Porter Park after last week’s heavy rains; a rising cirrus cloud from a walk around the block a few days before Christmas; and a gang of turkeys waiting for Jefferson School to open.

The two Bills send greetings from San Francisco (a Happy New Year view of Land’s End from Bill G.); and from Arizona from Bill L. (views over the Catalina Mountains behind his home, and an evening at aptly named Lake Pleasant.

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