A New Tradition

On April 10th, we were reminded that it had been one year since we first set foot in Bend. I was so excited about our new hometown that I took this picture and posted it:

April 10, 2014

We decided to start a new tradition for our new town, and we went back down to Drake Park and took the exact same picture:

April 10, 2015

While it was a bit overcast, and the pond looks a little murky without all that gorgeous blue sky reflected in it, it was still a crisp spring day, and a great way to mark the passage of one sporadically frenzied, life-changing year. And thus, a new tradition is born!

We've definitely been doing a lot more wandering since it's been warm lately. It's just so refreshing and beautiful outside. Everyone seems to have fruit trees, and the streets are popping with color.

our plum tree in full bloom

We took Morty out for a little spin, down some farm roads, with no particular destination in mind. The sun was shining, we passed sheep and cows, horses and goats, a few llamas, and finally ended up at Tumalo Reservoir. You can just barely see the Cascade mountains peeking out in the background. They're still completely snow covered, but this year our snow pack was only about 30% as deep as normal. This means it will melt off too quickly - the trout and salmon will suffer, because the rivers won't be as cold, which equals less oxygen. A hot, dry summer is in the forecast.

Morty at Tumalo Reservoir

Note to self - shooting into the sun sucks.

It's getting harder and harder to stay inside and finish fixing up the house, but like homework, it hangs over our heads every day. Some days, I just unpack a box or two (we're close to done, only about 10 boxes left) and consider that "remodeling." It does help, though! This day, we got two art boxes unpacked and hung up some of our Audrey Kawasaki favorites on the living room wall.

maybe the art will distract from the fact the trim's not done...

And while the kitchen cabinets are still a pain to open since I didn't put the handles on yet, the kitchen is fully functional and I've been cooking up a storm! I made butter poached, local wild caught rockfish with saffron sauce, a deconstructed pastichio (it's sort of a Greek eggplant lasagna), consommé, and completely-from-scratch-pierogis. I also made stuff Mike could eat, like chili. Ha! 

not all cooking goes right! eggplant explosion on the grill.

Life has been quieter these last couple weeks, as we've gotten into a groove of just living here in Bend. It's a nice thing to enjoy, since looking down the summer pipeline, we've got a lot of plans. Time to get motivated to finish our list! While there's tons more to do, if we could only get this stuff done, we could relax for a bit. Let's see if writing it here helps us get it done before the next post (wishful thinking...).

Things to Do:

finish replacing all electric receptacles

finish trim

hook up kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans

reframe all windows and kitchen sliding glass door

hook up hallway pendant light

hook up office light

install bathroom door

paint office

finish unpacking/storing away all boxes