Seen on West Burnside after work Friday, November 4, 2011

I am waiting for the bus home. I took a side trip to Pioneer Courthouse Square for a few minutes, then rode the MAX down to the Big Pink, got off and walked to the bus stop at SW 6th and West Burnside. Plenty of action all around, vehicles going east and west, pedestrians crossing at intersections. Fun for a person who loves to take photos.


I saw the little dog, remembered by darling miniature dachshund Duncan, put the camera to my eye. Click. Captured the taut leash that represents one aspect of a dachshund on a walk--full tilt boogie. The other aspect, meandering and smelling everything invisible to the human eye. Love those personable little dogs!

A primary color, blue, lots and lots of blues

The various blues of the lap quilt made by Mama's Aunt Eva and adored by our Duncan, the darlin' dachshund.


The powder blues of a summertime hydrangea.


The blue of the fireboat water spray, Rose Festival, 2008, when the fleet came in to dock.


Blue wildflower at the Festival of Flowers, Pioneer Courthouse Square, downtown Portland.

A very special portrait of Duncan, our darlin' dachshund

The glorious portrait of Duncan stands beside our television, near the box that holds his ashes, beside a favorite photo. The beautiful potted azalea came to Mama on Valentine's Day, 2008, by way of our dear friend Fred Washburn. Covered with blossoms for a very long time when it first arrived, the little azalea has now bloomed two more times in the past two years.


Karina Riebel of Painted Dog Studios completed the portrait from a photo that I had e-mailed to our friend Leslie Rosella. She and Chris Cooley gave the painting to us--sweethearts that they are.

Say good-bye to Duncan

Today I made one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life, to say good-bye to Duncan, the darlin' dachshund, who has been a part of our lives for 16 and one half years.

I want to share some photos of him with you in the next few days, as I become able to look at them and post them. Here he is on October 20, 2007, sitting on Mama's bed and wearing his "girly" hounds-tooth-checked coat--at least that's what the guys' thought of the coat. Mama and I adored seeing him in it.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers and expressions of concern for that sweet little dog and all of us, his humans.

He is already missed.

Around town with Mama

I don’t want y’all thinking that I’m the only member of my Mississippi-to-Oregon-transplanted family out and about in Portland. My 81-year-old Mama gets her licks in.

Periodically I plan to post photos of her enjoying Portland. Sometimes she’ll have her sidekick with her, Duncan the darling dachshund—he’s a miniature, almost 14 years old.

Here she is, earlier this summer, downtown at the corner of SW Broadway and Washington, talking with two men who work at the Marriott. Like a lot of us Southerners, she’s talking with her hands as well as her mouth!