Keep Portland Weird: A note from my doctor regarding my writing hiatus

My dearest readers, what can I say about my recent prolonged absence from Mind Your Dirt other than I am sorry? You most likely fall under one of two categories; either you’ve been chomping at the bit for another post, or didn’t even realize I was gone. If it’s the latter, then disregard this post. If it’s the former, a thousand apologies.

You see, I took a small vacation with my lovely lady, her twin sister and her twin sisters’ boyfriend to sunny, warm Portland, Oregon. It actually was both of those things, on the day we arrived it was a blazing 102° with cloudless skies. Not the cool relief from SoCal that I was hoping for. At all.

In fact, I was a bit pissed off by the whole affair and am of the right mind to write Portland a scathing letter! Another shocking discovery was the fact that everything was brown, dry and dead all over the city. It appears that this gods forsaken drought will follow me everywhere I go.

I was assured (by the friends that we were visiting) that it was abnormal and seasonal, but it left a bad taste in my mouth and I found myself, once again, face to face with my inner monologue of “unsustainable!”

I was hoping to find a moist and lush garden oasis to cool my scorched soul a bit before the real heat of the summer hit San Diego. But those first few days afforded me no such luxury. Look how happy we are about it!

Lovely huh? We decided the best plan of action would be to walk around downtown during the hottest days while our skin blistered and wept; and then save the cooler days walking on forest trails and dipping toes in cool waters. Smart huh? No. It wasn’t. here’s a few lovely city sights…

One thing of note about the progressive thinking in Portland is these amazing storm water collection gardens scattered throughout the city. I adore this simple yet effective form of conservation and clean filtration.

Simply genius! There is huge organic sustainable living movement going on in Portland that Mind Your Dirt can really dig y’all. It was a force to contend with that has given me pause about continued living in SoCal, which sports a climate similar to the surface of the sun. Not cool for a gardener. The friends I was visiting have been pressuring me to relocate for years now. And my lady is equally interested in the locale. Time will tell, there’s still so much more to do on my current homestead first. Plus, gotta build that equity yo.

Once we got out of the city for a spell, I was finally able to see some lush mossy green green that tickled my fancy. I also finally had the chance to hunt down that elusive sasquatch while under the guise of a nature enthusiast. Alas, I did not find it anywhere. I did, however, find my inner sasquatch. So that’s worth something right?

I have a million more photos, but I don’t want to bore you to tears. This post is basically my excuse for such a long absence from my blogging duties. The amount of preparation that was needed before leaving combined with the amount of relaxation required after my return had left me bereft of time or energy and you, dear reader, were the ones to suffer (or rejoice) as a result. Again, apologies.

I’ve also been working on a hefty post about one of my favorite trees, the coastal coral, and while I am almost near completion, I couldn’t leave you in silence any longer. So please, chew on this meager post for a day or two while I put the finishing touches on a much more stellar article!

In the interim, keep it weird people!