Hey, it’s the first post in 9 months! Check out this nice shot of a crimson red tulip grown here in Oregon. I used a Canon Rebel XTi with a fixed 100mm macro lens, and no Photoshopping.

Click to download the zipped 1920×1200 image.

What a treat! Fresh Oregon lamb, right off the farm – grazing Monday, on the grill Wednesday! I made this 4 pound leg of lamb in a very simple way – rubbed with plenty of olive oil, salt, hand-crushed pepper, fresh picked rosemary and a large handful of fresh garlic, then grilled to perfection. Whoa – good stuff!

Our friend Jerry has a huge farm where all kinds of goodies are grown. Codi and I were given a big assortment of fresh-picked, organic Oregon strawberries. We had a big block of Swiss chocolate in our pantry, so Codi got the bright idea to whip up a very large, high calorie batch of a-m-a-z-i-n-g chocolate covered strawberries. They only lasted 2 days. Frankly, it’s surprising they lasted that long! (I had some for breakfast!)

Someone actually bid on this item and paid $59.99 for it! Optional $3 shipping! Wow.

I love the safety line – “I will not scam you.”

I was checking some airline prices for a summer trip to Florida when I stumbled upon this doozy. What is Alaska Airlines thinking? A year ago, Codi and I headed back east for about $350 round trip – for the both of us! This represents a 2000% increase. Bull-honkey.

lu·di·crous
1 : amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration, or eccentricity
2 : meriting derisive laughter or scorn as absurdly inept, false, or foolish
3 : Alaska Airlines’ pricing scheme

It was a gorgeous pre-summer day, so Codi and I headed out to the Portland Rose Gardens to enjoy some outside time, take some photos, etc. The sun was extra bright, so pictures didn’t come out quite like I’d hoped. Some of them are pretty decent, though. Here are a few examples:

Codi and I went to the Allstate Festival of Balloons with four friends and their G-Force loving kids. Although there were no balloons at the festival while we were there, we had a great time going on some of the carnival rides. We took some good photos, but this quick and jerky video probably gives the best impression.

(The video was taken with a pocket-sized Vado camcorder made by Creative Labs. $99. Not bad. The original video is cleaner. Conversion to Flash dropped the quality quite a bit.)

I headed out to Argyle Winery yesterday to take some photos of the vines and grapes. It’s still pretty early in the growing season, but things are looking pretty nice. Here are a few shots (out of 70+). Most of the photos were of Chardonnay vines.

Codi and I recently visited the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in SE Portland. It’s 9 acres of rhododendrons and other flowers, but the most obvious attraction is the small lake and the hundreds of ducks and geese.

Betwen the two of us, we took about 300 photos. Here are a few samples – flowers to come soon.

Click for larger version (1920×1200, scales down to 1680×1050).

Click for larger version (1920×1200, scales down to 1680×1050).

Codi and I went to Sleighbells of Sherwood again to get our Christmas tree. This year, however, we got two trees – one for inside our house and a little one for the front porch. The tree on the porch is pretty cute.

Here are some photos that Codi took while we were at Sleighbells.

Mt. Hood from Sherwood

Nice angle on a pine tree.

Santa, of course!

Pine cones are everywhere.

Codi and I went to the lavender fields today with the GvL family. We picked an entire basket full of various types of fresh lavender, dodging hundreds of bees who were equally interested in the flowers. We’ll dry the lavender and hang it around the house.

Codi and I went to the Portland Rose Gardens to take some pictures. It’s one of our favorite spots for photos, so we look forward to it all winter and spring. Of course, when we got there, I snapped my first shot and realized I’d left my memory card at home.   #$%^&*!   So all these photos are courtesy of my very cute wife, Codi.

I took this one. =)