UPDATE, with a video - Some soothing photos that I decided to share with you.

UPDATE: Here you have it, my latest hat to cover my easily chilled, stubble-covered head. Plus my newest cup to use when I enjoy Twinings English Breakfast Tea. I lucked into it on Saturday at the Albertina Kerr thrift shop, known as Albertina's Closet.



Click on the video and you'll go to my Flickr account, then click on it again to watch. Enjoy!

Slept plenty last night, woke up right before 4 a.m. and stayed up because I didn't feel sleepy any longer. Tomorrow by this time I will have had blood drawn for the pre-chemo Round Two tests. Then on Wednesday morning, I have an 8 a.m. appointment with my chemo doctor which is scheduled prior to Round Two Chemotherapy.



Ginkgo tree leaves and April sunshine, taken at Lownsdale Park, downtown Portland.



Blossoms in the spring sunshine. I don't remember for sure where I took this photo because I see so many beautiful blooming trees in Portland. It's a lovely place in the spring.



My favorite shadows, these undulating along the sidewalk. I lucked into this photo in August, 2007, as I walked to the bus stop. We used to live in the Alphabet District in Northwest Portland, so my early morning work commute took me eastward.

UPDATE - Sunshine and shadow at the Portland Farmers Market at the Portland State University in the South Park Blocks, downtown Portland, June 6, 2015.

UPDATE: Fell sleep during the 3rd quarter of the Seahawks' game. Woke up after it was over to find out they'd been beat by Denver. Shoot. I finally went back to sleep around 1:45 a.m. and woke up at 6 a.m. Better than no rest.

Yesterday after I had posted a video of some of the hair that came off my head when I washed it, my sweet friend and hairdresser Rosa and I texted back and forth about the next step in dealing with it. I realized I needed to take Rosa up on her offer to come cut my hair again, this time with clippers. She'll be here at 10 am. Portland time.

Once I saw some of it blowing off my head yesterday evening when the wind gusted, hairs catching the sunshine as they flew away from me--I had walked the 400 steps to the Blue Diamond's back door to pick up some food I had ordered because I needed a break from what I have here--I thought to myself, "Just in time!"



Lovely flowers.



Juicy berries.



Can't resist sharing this closeup of the flowers, y'all.



Man-made shade aids produce shoppers. How's that for a caption for this one?



Can't resist sharing this closeup of the peonies, y'all.

Sight I saw, out and about a little while ago

Talk about your moment in time, when the sun shines right where you want it, when you're able to hold your breath and your hand so that your iPhone 5 is steady.

Thanks to Albertina Kerr--an organization which maintains a lovely building across the street and is a leading provider of services to children, adults and families with emotional or mental health challenges and developmental disabilities--I am not all that sad that I don't have a yard or a lawn or a garden of my own. They willingly share theirs with the entire neighborhood.

I think this is the prettiest photo I have ever taken with an iPhone camera. Still feeling shocked as I look at it again while proofreading. Can't help but whisper to myself, "Wow."

For your Easter Sunday.

May your Easter Sunday be filled with warmth and light as you reflect on your faith in and  understanding of your God's love.



Today, several photos I recently took while out walking during my lunch hour.



The light and color changes with the location of these blossoms, all on the same tree.



The first photo, a closer view of its center.

Along the west bank of the Willamette River, No. 6

Wait! There in the distance past the in-focus single Benson Bubbler I couldn't resist photographing because the plume of water resembled a giant cut diamond. Is that someone squatted beside the redhead in the gray hat?



Yep, he's checking out the screen on his phone. She's turned towards him. He photographed her at the same time I did, from a straight-on perspective, I imagine. He's wearing a darker gray hat and has a red fu manchu mustache and goatee. Serendipity!

Along the west bank of the Willamette River, No. 5

Surely someone is taking her photo, other than me. Surely. In this perspective, sunshine and shadow treated her just right. I think her red hair peeking out from the brim of her gray hat and catching the sunlight next to her cheek make this photo special. What do you think? I'm very curious to know your opinion. I took this photo at 6:21 p.m. on Friday, March 21. Right above her head, cherry blossoms. But, I'm happy that I zoomed in and got this photo.

Busy Sidewalk, No. 1

A family of four, out for a stroll on a Friday evening. Sunny, cold in the shadows, thus the jackets, those thick boots on the older daughter, and Dad's hands in his pockets. I imagine that the shopping bag with the red design on it came from the City Target, not too many blocks west and south of the intersection where they crossed West Burnside. You can see a portion of a sign there above the top of the red umbrella. Berbati's, where Lamont first worked when he moved to Portland in September, 2000. I'm not sure if it was this corner or another one; back then the establishment took up more square footage than it does today.

I took this photo on March 21 at 6:45 p.m., then I caught the bus on home. I had lasted as long as I could at Tom McCall Waterfront Park among the blooming cherry trees and folks out enjoying them. Nature called, don't you know.

Altered with Picnik, Basic Edits: Exposure, Sharpened, Cropped; and Effects: Advanced/Cloned, No. 4

Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland's living room. I cloned the young man's backpack out of the photo and a small round object which was in front of him on the bricks. Normally I wouldn't do such cloning, I'd try cropping it out. However, I decided, "Why not?" I've got little more than two months left with my beloved Picnik, so I'm going to go for it. I really like the results, too. I like the sunshine, especially below his right knee and the sort of glow around him on the bricks; the shadows following the concrete forms along the curve; and the glistening, rain-wet bricks in both patterns.

I took this photo on an unusually sunny winter day in Portland, January 21, 2012, downtown. It would have been my dearly departed husband LeRoy's 65th birthday. I was out and about after that morning's top-knotch lecture at the Architectural Heritage Center--one of the best lectures I've attended:
Real Estate Development and the Re-Shaping of Old Portland
Focusing on the early days of Portland, Dr. Tracy Prince, author of Portland’s Goose Hollow, presented a slide show of historic photos and maps to demonstrate how dramatically different the terrain of Old Portland (the west side—from the Willamette River to the West Hills) was from today’s terrain. This changed terrain includes: building the Great Plank Road which ran through the narrow and dark Tanner Creek Canyon; burying Tanner Creek, Johnson Creek, and Balch Creek; filling Couch Lake and Guild’s Lake; filling the 20-block long, 50-feet deep Tanner Creek Gulch; building streets upon 30-50 foot pilings in areas that today’s residents would describe as flatlands; and 1870s Oregonian stories about 25-foot deep cuts required when B Street (Burnside) was graded beyond the gulch. Such incredible alterations to Portland’s natural landscape were seen as necessary for growing a young frontier city and to accommodate real estate development.


The photo as it came out of the Nikon D50.

Providing protection and a shadow

On this brick wall, a mundane metal cage protects the caution light while, thanks to the bright sunshine, it also provides an intriguing shadow.