Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

It's time to plan for Santa's visit and Toledo's Hometown Holiday celebration!
This year we'll be at the Main Street Galleries, 305 North Main, on Saturday, December 12 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

There will be lots of fun activities all over town, and don't forget about the lighted parade at 5:30!

See you there!

Extraordinary

I joined the Oregon Coast Chapter of Sweet Adelines in the summer of 1994, just after my first divorce... because I was ready to do something just for me, and over the years it has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.

The chorus is made up of some of the most diverse and extraordinary women I've had the pleasure of calling my friends, and I treasure them. Like many other members, I've come and gone from the chorus over the years, and have always been welcomed back with open arms whenever I was able to attend performances and other functions they have put on - they throw the most amazing holiday parties - and have competed with the chorus and in a quartet several times. These ladies know how to have a good time.

The whole chorus traveled to Washington, DC over the July 4th holiday in 2001 as part of a Music Celebrations event, and my quartet 'High Hopes' sang our swan song, "God Bless the USA" - after an amazing 6-year run - on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. That was a very memorable trip.

Recently, one of our long-time members lost her husband of 56 years. The memorial service was today, and she requested that the chorus sing at the service. So 25 of us showed up to support our sweet Betty. It was something the ladies just do because we care, and the relationships behind the scenes are extraordinary.

Our members have ranged in age from 16 all the way up to Miss Jo, who will be 90 in February. She was one of the charter members when the group formed in 1989. There are a few who are still dedicated members after more than 20 years of singing barbershop and other acappella arrangements together. Plenty of members have come and gone over the years, but as you can see on the website, it is a family of ladies who share a love of singing.

I am privileged to be a part of this group of wonderful women, and I have appreciated the friendships over the years more than I can say. I have learned so much and grown so much as a person because of my affiliation, and I am thankful to all of them for being such amazing women.

Director Carol Duvall is retiring at the end of the year, so things will change again for the chorus. Check out their performance calendar and catch one of their holiday shows if you can, you will be greatly rewarded. Especially the one on December 13th at the Ark in Newport, I know that one will be exceptionally awesome. And I'll see you there!

Halloween Costume Pics

The 5th Annual Halloween Costume Portraits Event will run 2 days this year, Friday the 30th and Saturday the 31st from 2:00 til 7:00, at the Main Street Galleries, 305 North Main. See you there!!

Gorge-ous!

A recent roadtrip along the Oregon backroads to see some stunning fall color yielded some of these interesting sights...

A flock of wild turkeys - they were headed for the cover of the woods, making all kinds of interesting noises...

A beautiful wooded path...

Interesting fungi... And at a stop along the road to overlook the Columbia River Gorge, a raven stopped for a moment... it was dizzying just to watch him fly from so high up...

The view from up there... the drop off at my feet was several hundred feet and very unnerving to get too close to the guardrail...

The fall colors were just stunning...

And a surprise along the way, a herd of bison grazing on the hillside...

A parting shot before the sun went down, a highway bridge alongside a railway bridge... beautiful!!

Been down with the flu all week... ugh. Starting to feel better today I think, just in time for Halloween!!

I'll be doing costume pictures for Trick-or-Treat Toledo on Main Street on Friday and Saturday in the building newly known as Main Street Galleries, 305 North Main, across 2nd Street from Main Street Cafe. Hope to see you there!

Interesting Day

I had a nice lunch date with Mayor Rod today, our conversations are always interesting, enlightening and enjoyable. Thank you, Your Honor. ;)

This afternoon I attended the Newport Chamber's Business After Hours, hosted by Bateman Funeral Homes. I knew it would be a fun and interesting event, they always are, this one especially because the catering was by Oregon Coast Catering, they always do such an awesome job, and live music by Coin of the Realm, which is always awesome as well. It was interesting to see the funeral home facilities in that context, rather than the circumstances under which I've been there in the past, that I'd lost someone near and dear. The Newport Chamber members are always so friendly and welcoming, it is a joy to attend their functions. I won a nice Harry and David snacky package in the raffle too... always a nice bonus.

I skipped out of there and headed north to Gleneden Beach to attend a class on the "Master Key System" - which I found to be very interesting and enlightening. I'd seen an ad for the class in the local paper and made a mental note... I even had to dig the paper out of the recycle bin when I remembered it was being held tonite... funny how sometimes the Universe just nudges you to do something... you may not really know why you feel compelled... but you do none-the-less. And it ends up being just what you needed...

I received a warm welcome there too... and during the break chit-chat, got the celebrity treatment that always tickles me so and lets me know that my marketing and advertising efforts have been working... "you're THE Nancy Lynne??" I always smile when I hear that... and I'm always grateful. They were a very kind group of ladies (and one man...) and I look forward to meeting with them again next week.

Looks like a possible road trip to Coos Bay tomorrow to ride along with a friend delivering tuna and salmon down there. Should be fun, hope the weather is nice. I'll be sure to pack the camera...

Back to the Beach

Miss Freckles and I took a nice long walk on our favorite beach today... the weather was warm and a little windy, but no rain. It is so nice to have our 'private' beach back, where I can just let her run off-leash because there is no one else around. A nice long trip to this beach really rejuvenates my soul, and gives us both some much-needed fresh air and exercise. There was a lot of washed-up mussel shells and kelp today. I think it's beautiful. This mussel shell was about 6 inches long.
Lots of interesting colors and textures to be found.

Miss Freckles the mountain goat - she really loves it at the beach.

We saw lots of seagulls, pelicans and some chirping oyster catchers.

More pretty flotsam...

Last week the weather was perfect for a road trip down south, with some trekking thru the woods to find a bagfull of chanterelle mushrooms. The scenery is just stunning.

A short stop to check out the fly-eating plants at Darlingtonia Botanical Wayside... very interesting plants, and there were hundreds of them.

Another short stop at beautiful Cape Creek. Very tranquil and serene.

And along the way, another stop to watch this elk herd graze. Beautiful!!

I sure do love living here on the beautiful Oregon coast. :) No shortage of photo ops here!

All-American Girl

I had the pleasure of capturing some beautiful images this week of a lovely, spunky and all-around awesome high school senior. We were out in the country near her home, and so we got some portraits of her in her mom's sorority dress under one of her favorite walnut trees.

She has two beautiful dogs, who were pros at posing for me.

And she has one very agreeable horse. He was fun, and pretty much took whatever we dished out to him. Plus he's gorgeous!

I also got to go fishing again, the ocean was nice when we got out there and I got some pics of these 4 female sea lions resting on the marker buoy.

Then the wind came up and the chop made it rough out there so we headed back into the bay for some crabbing. We did catch one fish before we came back in, and a few dungeness crabs in the bay... so fresh fish and crab for dinner. Yahoo!

A busy weekend coming up with weddings and singing at the local fire department fund-raiser... will be a blast. The weather has just been stupendous. Hope you have a an awesome weekend too!