tennis!

Liesl has decided that tennis is her new favorite sport. We played on Friday morning and again on Saturday, both times at Lost Park, and again today at Mitchell Park. We can walk to Lost Park along our local trails -- its about a mile - which adds to the charm. We were out so early on Saturday that we saw many birds just waking up.

                                            A red-headed woodpecker --

An owl perches on the horizontal branch, about the midpoint of the branch in the photo.

                                        A field of yellow-orange wild orchids --

I went for a long bike ride on Saturday afternoon, all through Beaverton and down into Hillsboro on the Rock Creek trail; Sebastian played knockout (basketball) with his friend Nick all afternoon. Steve and I made an amazing blueberry galette with the berries we picked on Thursday, and we all played basketball together after dinner. It was a sweet weekend day.

                                    Praying to the blueberry pie gods...

morning walk

We took advantage of the gorgeous early sunshine to go for a family walk - down to Mill Pond, across the shortcut by Lost Park, through the neighborhood and Jordan Woods, to Jackie Husen park.

In other news, Liesl stood outside on our balcony for 20 minutes with birdseed in her hand, and managed to get a tiny bird to first eat out of her hand and then submit to being gently pet. Seriously. A wild bird. I don't know where she gets that kind of patience and animal whisperer magic. I took this picture from inside our home, frozen into place, afraid that if I got closer to the sliding door to get a better photo I would scare the tiny thing away.

Photos of Liesl doing an LYS soccer workout over Zoom call, in our garage. They have them at 4 pm on Mondays with their coach, and she's been getting back into it.

book lists

Liesl is on a reading streak of kids classics, and it's been delightful to talk about the books with her and watch her fall into imaginary worlds. She read Harry Potter Books 1-3, and then semi-reluctantly agreed to take a break from the series. (There were nightmares, and things get dark in Book 4.) She turned immediately to the Narnia series, beginning with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She's on her third of that series now and I've been re-reading them along with her, delighting in her questions.

Of course, now Steve and I are plotting about which other classic adventure/fantasy series we can next introduce...  Lloyd Alexander's The Black Cauldron series. Wrinkle in Time. She tried Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie but didn't really take to it. The Borrowers. The Wizard of Oz (there are probably a dozen books in the series, but they get boring after the first 4-5)....  such fun. :)

Photos below of our first Doodle craft kit from Kiwi Co - Liesl has had so much fun with the tinker/engineering kits from the company, we decided to expand into their craft kits. The first project was a felt rock garden - she had to fold and stick the felt into various shapes, and then attach them to wires to go into the "rocks" of the garden. And then she fashioned a bird and birdbath from the included clay. It's beautiful, and it took her a day to create, and she had such fun.

Sauvie Island

We went blueberry and raspberry picking this morning at our favorite farm on Sauvie Island, Columbia Farms. The blueberries were perfect and abundant - huge bunches of ripe ones falling into our baskets. It felt almost too much, making me feel worried for the farm's income. The raspberries were not quite as ripe, so we'll have to return for more raspberries as well as marionberries.

Spot the blueberry flying through the air toward Liesl's mouth! :)

After that, we drove farther out onto Sauvie island to the Oak Island wildlife park, an area we hadn't previously explored. There was a grassy 2.5 mile loop trail running under old oaks, and access to Sturgeon Lake. The lake itself was gorgeous and clear, with views of Mt St Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams across the expanse. Jasper was in heaven, jumping into the water immediately and then swimming to fetch the sticks that Seb threw. We walked along the trail for a while but got too hot (and couldn't find another good swimming hole), so eventually turned around to head back to the car. It was a good morning adventure.