Our 2022 slideshow is dedicated to dear Mary, Queen of Scots, who graced Georgia’s life for years, and who remained our determined four-legged Portland companion for this, her final year.
Greetings! We dedicate this 2022 slideshow to dear Mary, Queen of Scots, who graced us with her determined presence this final year of her life.
As the year moved into summer and Mary grew restless inside our tiny home, we made a little spot on the porch for her to sleep. Here, her adopted young sister Lita is keeping Mary company.
As summer moved closer to fall, we gifted Mary a wagon so she could still visit her favorite places, even getting out and running around a bit. Here she is in Irvington Park near our home, where she chased balls in circles so very many times.
Georgia with Mary the last night before Mary returned to her CA family...
...and right after we took Mary and Lita out for ice cream!...they loved it. The last verse of a song I recently wrote: "Mary keep running forever fast; go chase down the stars! You're free at last."
I guess we can keep talking about doggies: here's Lita on a hike with me in Portland.
Okay, I know there's no dog in this picture, but you'll get the connection...anyway, of course I continue to bike a lot (here on an overnight near town)...
...and I often biked with Lita in a trailer in the back! She loved it.
Here we are at Irving Park, where we run every morning. [This morning I was testing out the bike.] Well, all that biking with Lita in the back was fun!...until...
...mid-September, when she flipped us both while descending a hill. The trailer was totaled. Lita ended up with a tiny scrape on her chin. I, um, ended up with more, as the photo suggests!
My only good piece of advice from 2022: don't break seven ribs and your clavicle at once. I had to sleep on the ground level of our tiny home for about a month since I couldn't climb the ladder...and I had to pull myself up from sitting/reclining with a rope. [I'm much better now!...healing is such a wonderful thing, no?]
A few things about the other members of our extended clan: Joy and Elise made a long trip to southern Africa and Swaziland in spring, and had a wonderful reunion with their cousins.
Here they are with Bongie, and with close friends Siphiwe and Peter in Manzini.
Back in our big house, we had a lovely gathering of the clan in late October, including the Eisen-Proctors of Eugene, and the Marshall-Proctors of Tacoma and Seattle.
Georgia has had an adventurous 2022 as well! She briefly lived in the Sierras, working in conjunction with a massive fire recovery effort that wiped out a nearby community.
Then Georgia returned to Portland in summer. Here we are taking a hike to one of our clan's special places: Cliff Lake. [I think I have a photo of Elise on this log when she was a preschooler.]
As long as we've known Cliff Lake, there has been an old old ecosystem of a raft. It's still there!...and still old...and still sprouting green growth.
In late fall we welcomed Georgia's sister Roxy to Portland, where she now lives. They've been doing all sorts of things together: here are some samples from a day of lovely block printing.
So, yes, we all still live in Portland, where I get to cross the river daily en route to work. What a lovely ride!
But Portland, like other urban areas in the US, has struggled recently, with many unhoused. Here is the sad aftermath of an RV I routinely passed on the way home, after it burned down the previous night.
One of many tagged surfaces I pass on my ride to/from work. It remains an angry time for many people.
You may remember that Joy and Elise made their own contribution to these challenges a few years ago: Say Their Names Memorial. It was popular in Portland, and led to similar efforts elsewhere...then we stored it in the garage. This fall we moved it to Canyonville, where we hope to put it up again one day...
...and so that we can remodel the garage into a day studio for creative projects, including my music! Here's an early one: Georgia, her sister, and friends making beeswax candles...
Some of the fruits of the candlemaking weekend, which Lita was struggling to understand: "Am I supposed to eat all of them??"
I've been running with several groups in Portland. Here I am (yellow vest), after huffing and puffing my way up to the grand view from Pittock Mansion.
John and I have continued to teach a small Kojosho class at Lewis & Clark, even with the masking requirements of recent years.
And we made it to spring Kojosho Camp in Apple Valley, above Albuquerque, again! What a treasure the Abshers have shared with us for so many years.
West Coast Kojosho held a small, mostly black belt camp this fall. Here we are at dinner with our special guest Dona Absher.
Our fall 2022 Environmental Studies end of semester poster celebration. The ENVS Program has grown!...we now cannot even fit in Smith Hall. I'm proud to have helped with this growth...and I'm happy to have turned over the ENVS Director torch to my colleague Liz this fall...
...so that I can get back to the things I want to contribute to the field of environmental studies. One initiative I launched in 2017, EcoTypes (ecotypes.us), has had roughly 10,000 survey responses total, with nearly 2500 in 2022 alone. I received two book opportunities from Routledge way back in 2019, one involving EcoTypes; I finally have time to write them...especially given I'm on sabbatical in spring, hooray!
My music has, well, sort of gotten shuffled around and neglected in 2022, but there is hope! Elise and Georgia gave me pretty things to put up in my music studio, temporarily consigned to a corner of the basement...
...but just last month I moved it from the basement (getting packed up in this photo) down to Canyonville, where I hope to do regular recordings this spring. Some day it will live in our garage day studio!
Canyonville continues to be a special place for us, and our nonprofit, Alder Creek Community Forest, continues to serve the area. This year we have funding to support a listening/planning phase for future development, possibly as an outdoor school.
The orchard we planted in 2021 has somehow survived two harsh summers of heat and deer browse!...
It is always so lovely to see the blossoms come out in spring after such a long winter in Canyonville.
Mom used to love the wildflowers that sprout in unexpected places on our Canyonville forest.
Here is a school group gathering at the ACCF pavilion before heading out for educational activities.
Of all the contributors to ACCF, Phil and Bub Rich have done more, for longer, than about anyone. Here is Lita with Bub during one of the many times they fed me while I was down in Canyonville. Thank you, Bub and Phil!!
Our land in Canyonville is mostly a mixed coniferous forest, and is in need of management, for fire and other reasons. Here, Lyndia, who wrote a management plan for the forest in 2019, is meeting with contractors who are scheduled to take next steps with fuels reduction in 2023.
We are slowly building a place for the extended clan in Canyonville, and the bathhouse we completed several years ago is, well, tiny. Our goal is for this common house to be reasonably usable by summer.
You may remember, a few slideshows ago (2020), that I milled dead/dying black oak from Canyonville for our tiny home floor in Portland. It gave me the idea to mill madrone from the forest for the common house floor! Here are some madrone logs...
...and the rough milled madrone boards, which will be seasoned, kiln dried, then planed into flooring for the common house. I'm heading to Canyonville in a few days to get ready to haul them to the hardwood mill! Happy to connect the forest with the common house in this way.
Adventuring around town on New Year's Eve, just yesterday. We are healthy, our lives are rich (a bit over-rich?), and we have much to look forward to this coming year. We send each of you good wishes for an adventurous, productive 2023 as well.