a nature walk

Nature. The cure all. Really, whenever one is feeling down, bored, sad, or stir crazy, it's best to find a bit of nature and get into it. Look around. Smell things. Walk. I remember many a time as a young girl going out with my family and taking it all in, feeling my worries melt away, seeing things in perspective. Chickadees calling, the occasional deer sprinting off through the forest, the hollow wooden sound of our boots on the boardwalk, watching the different seasons come upon the park. And always, my grandma packing tasty snacks to eat along the way or back at the car: cheese cubes, buttery crackers, homemade cookies, summer sausage, little tins of grapefruit juice...

We woke up today to some sunshine so this in itself was reason to get out as well as the above mentioned. We ended up at a different destination than the one I had planned to visit (we'll save that one for another day). Just a little speck of woods by the Tualatin Parks & Rec Center, surrounded by roads and suburban life. Even that was enough to lift spirits and get some energy out of the boy who took to collecting sticks and digging, smacking and poking with them.

We saw signs of spring:

  
Jacob enjoyed playing in the dirt while I enjoyed a "picture walk", as Jacob called it:

And, because he was feeling.... unusually photogenic I guess, he asked me (yes, asked me!) to take these pictures:

There you have it, folks. Just another day in Portland.... or the suburbs of.