For the second year, grandson Ian came with me to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. I took few photos of people, but here is Ian having just arrived in Salem by Amtrak with Johnny, who stayed home to do the farm chores while I was gone.
This time Ian, now 16, had his learner's permit and drove part way to Ashland. Hooray! As always we stayed at an airbnb within walking distance to everything. Ian's inflatable bed that we took with us did not stay inflated well.
Every morning I woke early, as always, and took a hike while the others slept. At home I get up and go out to feed chickens, llamas, dogs and horses and clean the horse barn first thing in the morning before breakfast and goat milking. So hiking to North Mountain Park each morning in Ashland was a good substitute.
The second morning, I happened to walk a little later down the bike path... when it was light out. Usually it was pitch dark and I walked with a flashlight. Looking across the railroad tracks that the bike path follows, I saw an enormous statue of a polar bear with her cub... out in the middle of nowhere. I crossed the tracks to see it. There was no plaque and nothing but a parking lot leading up to it.
On the way home, I walked along North Mountain Road to where I could see the statue at the end of a long wide driveway by this sign:
At the end of the driveway in the distance, I could see the white polar bear statue. The railroad tracks with "my" bike path on the far side of them were beyond the statue.
I told Ian about the statue so he researched on google for me and learned that it had been built in 1976 by Ashland sculptor Leo Vait for the Lithia Springs Inn but when they remodeled it no longer fit with their theme. They offered it to any organization that wanted it and would put it somewhere accessible to the public. Both ScienceWorks and this Jewish organization expressed interest. It sounds like ScienceWorks was a bit afraid of kids getting scratched up climbing the rough concrete whereas the congregation of Havurah Shir Hadash expressed delight at having the statue. So that's where it went. Here is an article written in 2012 telling the story: http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20120322/NEWS/203220311
Ian always says I love taking photos of signs. After uploading my photos from this trip, I realized he is right. Here is North Mountain Park in photos:
An exercise area is near the huge ball fields. It seems to be a sort of mini parcourse.
There are lots of interpretive signs on the ethnobotany trail. I didn't take photos of *all* of them.... just most...
There was no need to look for "signs" of black tail deer. They are everywhere. And they don't move for hikers. I had to walk around them.
I liked these signs showing an animal's print. When you lift the lid, it tells you the animal.
A pretty creek flows through and beside the park.
Many trees and shrubs and flowers are identified with signs. I restrained myself and only took a photo of this one.
I did not know what these tracks were from...
I thought this structure was very cool and I'd like to make one here on our farm. As if we need more projects...
Another "structure" was a collaborative one...
And more animal identification signs...
The turtles' pond was covered in algae. It was last year, too, when I was here.
Another part of the park I like is the Demonstration Garden. It has lots of signs.
By the time I left North Mountain park and walked back to the bnb each morning, everyone was up. Everyone being my friend Ruth, her sister-in-law Cay, and Ian.
Steve and Munazza and Kestrel and Cedrus arrived Wednesday night from California. Ian and I met them at ScienceWorks the next morning. We all had fun together there, (but Munazza and I took a needed, short, Qi Gong break away from the excitement). (Ian sent me photos he took several weeks after this blog was written. I have posted them here: http://lindafink.blogspot.com/2017/10/science-works-in-ashland.html
Although we spent most of our time going to plays, we did spend a little time in beautiful Lithia Park. Munazza and I and Cay and Ruth did Qi Gong in the park one day while the kids and Steve played in the playground. Too bad I didn't take any photos of people until the last day, when Munazza, Ian, Kestrel, Cedrus and Steve posed for me in a pavilion in Lithia park.
But, of course, I did take pictures of "nature" as Ian calls it.
The creek was low that flows through Lithia Park.
Trees were just starting to turn colorful...
In our explorations one day, Ian and I found a fountain I have missed in the past.
After the Friday play and supper, we all went our separate ways to drive or fly (in Cay's case) to our various locales. Ian and I drove to friends', Judy and Don's, beautiful home near Jacksonville where we spent the night. Early in the morning, I joined Judy and Don for their daily long walk to get the paper with their wonderful dog Rusty, who carries the paper all the way home... or most of the way.
Then Ian and I drove back to our farm, stopping at a rest area that has the concrete picnic table stands that gave me the idea, when I saw them a couple years ago, for concrete benches in our arboretum. I haven't yet convinced Johnny that we need yet another project... so I took another photo...
Again we stopped at Ankeny Wildlife Refuge for lunch, as we had on our way down to Ashland. We saw lots of waterfowl and a raptor on a dead fallen tree in the middle of the water.
Once home, Ian and I began researching next year's plays and discussing when to go. Ian left for home the following day, Sunday.
Oh, yeah, the plays. They were great. We saw 7 in 4 days, plus a backstage tour. Ian's favorite was UniSon, a modern sort-of musical inspired by August Wilson's poetry. My favorite was Shakespeare in Love, much better than the movie. Four plays were by Shakespeare, appropriately enough. Ian is determined to see the entire canon of 37 plays. So is Ruth. That's a lot of plays. I'll let them hit all the Shakespeare together next year while I spend a little more time in "nature".
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