Ashland Revisited... Twice!

This year has seen my all time record number of trips to Ashland. In June, grandson Ian and I stopped in Ashland on our way to and from visiting grandkids Kestrel and Cedrus in California. We saw plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival going and coming back. That story and photos in an earlier blog.https://lindafink.blogspot.com/2019/07/my-whirlwind-trip-south-with-ian.html

 In September, I returned for my usual September visit with friend Ruth and saw three more plays at OSF. This blog reports on that trip: Part Two of the Ashland trilogy.

On my first full day, I took my customary early morning hike. Sixteen turkeys were also hiking... in the cemetery very near our bnb...

...and on the road bordering the cemetery.

I hiked the bike and pedestrian trail that I always hike, eager to see if the padlock lady had added anything more to her fence since last year. She had.

 

In the photo below, you can see the padlocks around the corner from her new fence decor.

 

 She had also rearranged the broken pottery somewhat and now had wine glasses pouring from one to the other.

Her begonias were beautiful...

Walking farther southward than usual, I came upon the Southern Oregon University's
Sustainable Garden area with large greenhouse full of vegetable plants...

 ...and a large outdoor garden with more plants. On my return trip, I saw grade school students harvesting vegetables in both indoor and outdoor gardens, with college students directing.

I passed a mysterious leaning tower beyond the college garden as I headed down that street, intending to make a great circle back to the walking trail.

I did not go in to investigate as there were students milling around and I thought perhaps they were on a field trip to whatever that tower was.

The next road I came to was a main drag with a picturesque old barn beyond.

 As I walked back north on Main St., I came to a sign for ScienceWorks, an interactive science museum which we had visited last year.

 I turned at the road behind the sign thinking I would go back to the walking trail as it is much quieter than Main St. But the road only went to the ScienceWorks parking area. However, there was a walkway from there back to the road with the weird tower so I took that... and arrived at the weird tower, which turned out to house The World Peace Flame... which I had never heard of.

 The long walk back brought me past the cemetery again. No turkeys this time, but two fawns were asleep among the headstones. No mother in sight so she must consider the cemetery a safe place to leave her children.

Then it was Play time. We had seen As You Like It the night before, but I didn't like it as well as the version we saw with Steve and family in August performed outdoors, on a winery lawn, by Willamette Shakespeare company. Those plays, performed every summer for free, are always family oriented and lots of fun. The OSF version was much more serious... odd for the comedy that is said to be Shakespeare's silliest and funniest. I guess that depends on the director's direction...

The afternoon after my hike we saw Indecent, a play about a play. It was beautifully written and performed, but heartbreaking. That night we saw All's Well that End's Well, a Shakespeare comedy that was, happily, performed as a comedy.  A good way to end my trip. Ruth stayed for several more days and more plays (mostly the ones I had already seen with Ian in June) with other friends and family joining her.

I drove home on Thursday, Sept. 19, stopping as always at Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge on my way home for lunch, to stretch my legs, and to take photos of pretty white egrets and upside down mallards.