Returning again to my trip to Portland…We took a drive on Highway 14 out of Vancouver one afternoon and accidentally discovered this old abandoned apple orchard. The orchard used to be part of a large estate along the river, but the land has been donated to the state. It was such a beautiful and peaceful place–so quiet and secluded. We discovered a colony of tiny brown bunnies living in the vines at the far edge of the orchard. I have never seen so many apples all at once in my life! Apples littered the ground–hundreds, if not thousands of them, and their fresh, delicious scent filled the air, until we were practically breathing in the essence of apples. We wanted to stay for hours, exploring all the old, overgrown paths and strolling beneath the arched boughs listening to the river. Discoveries like this always reinforce my longing to own property of my own where I can plant rambling orchards of my own and spend the majority of my days simply being among the trees, birds, flowers, clouds, and of course, wild bunnies. It’s the sort of thing that, if you stand still long enough and let the sound of leaves in the breeze soak in long enough, you can come out healed. I am so full of ideas these days that I don’t know how to contain them all, but most of them center around finding a place like this to claim as my own, and all the things I can do, can dream of doing and creating in that kind of peace. Which is not to say that I can’t dream and create here in the city–I do love ugly old buildings and brick so very much, and with the way Wendell Rue rips things out of the downtown landscape, there’s a neverending bounty of fascinating city photos to take around here. And I love that–I love finding something ugly or mundane and figuring out a way to look at it differently until it’s wonderful and new. But there are some dreams that just don’t work when you’re hemmed in with powerlines, commercialism, and city lights. Like owning a dairy, for instance.

Which brings me to the next spotlight in the pictures-of-Amy-holding-fruits-&-veggies tour: Green Bluff. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before–it’s one of my favorite things about autumn, and alot closer to home than Portland. Green Bluff is a farming community just north of Spokane. Mt. Spokane is visible from most, if not all, of the farms, and it’s just an absolutely gorgeous area. We’ve been going there every October for 4 or 5 years now to pick our own carving pumpkins, and just last year we began to discover that there is more stuff to do out there than you can possibly pack into one day! There will be more about Green Bluff in an upcoming post (sorry, I’m a little behind–I haven’t even finished my trip to Portland!), but Sean & I went up there Tuesday, and will be going again this Sunday to fit in everything. The thing is, neither of us like crowds, so we like to go during the week and take our time exploring everything at a nice, quiet pace. But there’s alot of stuff that happens only on the weekends, so we do the circuit twice to catch everything. Which is more than okay with us, since we love it so much. This is where the dairy idea came from–spending all day at Green Bluff on Tuesday, among all the farms that sell fresh produce, homemade jelly and jam and local honey and wine. It would be so wonderful to be a part of that community…For now, we’ll just settle for visiting as often as possible. And buying dozens of pumpkin donuts on the weekends.