Squirrely

We returned home from our weekend at the beach yesterday to find this marauding marauder chowing down on the still green strawberries.

Check out his tail there...it looks like my permed hair when I get out in the rain. From the looks of things there at his feet, he's been having quite a feast. Release the cats!

This morning, Smitty invited him into the house for lunch. When I went down to the sewing room, I found Smitty camped out next to my cedar chest. I figured he had a mouse cornered, but I kept hearing a loud "Chip!" from said critter and realized it had too loud a voice for a tiny mouse. Getting down on hands and knees with a flashlight, I spied this guy hanging out with the dust bunnies.

Okay, well this isn't good. So I locked Smitty out of the room and chased the little fellow out the sliding glass door with a broom. Smitty was waiting at the door when the squirrel ran out and the two of them took off. Not sure what the squirrel's fate was, but it wasn't happening on the white carpet in my sewing room, that is for sure.

So backing way up, we got off to a late start on Friday afternoon. It's about three and a half hours to Winchester Bay from our place. Once one turns off of Interstate 5 onto Oregon SR 38, the view gets very pretty. We traveled alongside the Umpqua River a good part of the way.

We were trying to get to our campsite before the sun set, and we made it just in a nick of time. It would have been nice to stop and take some pictures of the river, but we didn't want to take the time. I did manage to get a few through my window as we sped by.

As we were unhitching and settling in for the night, a full moon was rising over our campsite. Nice.

The only other time Maggie has gone on a trailer trip with us, she was the new kid in town. We found her a little regressed back to that time, hiding in her previously staked out hidey holes, and generally pretty anxious. She had a short nap after we arrived, and awakened in a better mood.

Smitty, for his part, was a perfect gentleman on this trip. He seemed genuinely to want Maggie to feel comfortable and kept his distance, occasionally giving her a reassuring nose bump.

The weather was threatening Friday when we arrived, but it didn't rain. On Saturday, we had gorgeous weather and so decided to hike the Tahkenitch Creek Trail just north of where we were. Of course, I took pictures of every blooming thing, starting with these little daisies growing in a grass strip at the parking lot.

We saw lots of blooming rhododendrons along the way.

And some pretty hostas.

Stands of big Sitka Spruce.

Lots of ferns that would have been more than willing to take over the trail if people would just stop walking over it.

At the .4 mark, we came across this sign that completely confused us. I've filled in with a pink arrow there to show you where we ACTUALLY were. We kept looking at the pink "You are here" dot, and that made no sense whatsoever, until we saw the dot on the right side. Geez.

This hike could be several different lengths. We took the right fork there, thinking we'd see how we felt when we reached the next fork. At that point, we could continue on with the larger loop for a 2.5 mile hike, or we could head back along the shorter loop for a 1.5 mile hike. There was no way we were heading off on the 5-mile hike because it went across open sand dunes, and I had no illusions that my bum right knee would tolerate that well.

When we reached the second fork, we decided to continue on, taking the right fork, and expecting to get alongside the creek where we could see it.

We never actually saw the creek, but we did happen upon about a zillion voracious mosquitos. When we saw them rigging up a winch in order to haul our bodies back to their evil lair for consumption later in the day, we decided it was a good time to turn around. So we walked as fast as we could, hoping to keep at least one pint of blood flowing in our bodies, and took the shorter loop hike back. When we reached the sign, we inadvertantly headed off in the wrong direction.

Eventually, we came to this steep hill (which is much steeper than it appears in this image). We both wondered aloud if this looked familiar. We kind of thought it did until we reached the top and saw just a vast expanse of sand dunes.

So we turned back again, realizing our mistake. Along the way, we passed this little broken egg. I scanned the tree overhead looking for a nest, but saw nothing.

When we reached this fence, we were back in familiar territory, and we still had blood left in our bodies. Phew!

Just beyond that fence, you get a pretty view of the creek.

It was a nice hike, despite the mosquitos, and we were glad to have done it. Next time we'll know to take along some mosquito repellant.

When we arrived back at the trailer, all was well in cat land with naps in process above and below.

Later in the day, we went out for a walk along the breakwater adjacent to the RV park.

There's a nice paved walkway that takes you alongside the water. You get the feeling you're on the beach here, but this is actually where the Umpqua River flows into the ocean.

Looking back the other direction, you see this:

The walkway curves around to the bay and there is a pretty marina there. On previous visits, we've seen sea lions in these waters.

Of course our shadow selves walked along with us.

I managed to get in my 10k steps for the first time since falling ill last weekend.

When we checked into the park Saturday morning, I saw this. Cute...made me think of my quilt for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Sunday morning the rain had returned, and so we hitched up and headed for home. Along the way we saw this herd of elk grazing along the state highway.

 Arriving home, I was ready to do battle with the vegetables again. Last night, I made this One-pot Chicken and Rice with Swiss Chard. I love a dish that cooks in one pot and can be served in one dish. It was yummy, It's made with basmati rice, and it used up the bunch of swiss chard. Also, I threw in the remaining Hakurei turnips. It also gave me a chance to use some of the veggie stock left over from last year's share.

Although I haven't done any sewing for several days, I have been making progress on the Written in Thread piece. I'm more than half way around now.

I have a busy week ahead of me. Today I'm getting my monthly pedicure that had to be rescheduled from last week. Also, I need to get out and pull some weeds. They seem to have taken over the place this weekend, even though I've been working away at them all spring long. Tomorrow I'll pick up the 2nd share of CSA veggies, and that will mean a trip to the grocery store on Wednesday. Thursday I'm getting my sad, sad, sad hair cut and permed. Friday I walk with Sue, and then Saturday Mae and I are going shopping for plants. It's a very late birthday present for her May 1st birthday. 

So, you can see that there's something going on every day this week. Hopefully, I'll find some time to get the Yard Art quilt finished before the end of the month. And now that I've listed all of those to-do's out, it's time to get to-doing some of them. How was your weekend?