Hoyt Arboretum – Riveted

Hiking in our Backyard

Laura Domela — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 14:23:39 +0000

One of the nice things about being home in Portland is how close we are to miles and miles of hiking trails. And by close, I mean roughly 200 yards from the nearest trail.

Fall is a great time on the trails because, well, trees! Look at the richness of color in this one shot:

When the petals from the flowers on a Magnolia tree drop, the center of the bloom transforms into a giant fuzzy seed pod.

Magnolia leaves:

The Magnolia leaves are huge. Here's a shot with my muddy trail shoe in it for scale:

I've got a few photo shoots at my studio in town over the next week or two and then we'll be heading up to the boat for a bit. Yay winter cruising!!

Hiking and Cooking at Home

Laura Domela — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 16:58:39 +0000

We've gotten back into our morning hike routine while at home and we love it. Our normal route is just under 4 miles in about an hour and it is gorgeous! We feel pretty lucky to live this close to so many miles of beautiful trails.

We also replaced our Fitbit Force fitness tracking bands. Kevin lost his sometime on a trip, and mine was starting to give me a little skin irritation so I returned it for their voluntary recall/refund offer and we picked up a couple of these Withings Pulse O2 trackers instead. I love having all my data again! This new one also does heart rate and blood oxygen level, comes with a black wristband and a clip and so far, I dig it! The wrist band is a standard 18mm watch band with the springy things so you can use whatever style of watch band you like.

Oh yeah, and the other day on our hike, we came around a bend on the trail and surprised a pair of woodpeckers on a tree, right about at eye level. It was so cool! We stopped and tried to move around the tree to see them after they'd scooted around it and out of sight, but they kept going around and around as we went around…like playing hide and seek with a little kid! The male had a really bright red feathered head, and the female's was kind of dusty rose colored. They were cool! And we saw a bunny! Today though, no woodpeckers and no bunnies. Just trees.

Anyway, we got home and I made us a frittata for brunch.

Here's what I did:

One bunch of kale, chopped
About a cup and a half of baby shiitake mushrooms, chopped
5 slices of cooked bacon, chopped
Some leftover cooked chicken breast, chopped
A few tablespoons of salsa
A dozen eggs
Fresh Oregon Star tomatoes
Super Greens
1/2 an Avocado

Cook the bacon, set aside to cool. In the same pan with a bit of bacon grease, saute the kale and shiitakes until soft. Chop the bacon and in a large bowl throw in the bacon, kale, shiitakes, salsa and chopped chicken. In another bowl, crack eggs and whisk together with some salt and pepper, then add that to the other mixture of veggies and meat. Pour this all into a greased glass dish. I use a rectangular 9x13ish one, because the frittata normally tends to cook more evenly.

Today I cooked this one at 350 for maybe 20 minutes, but the outside was too dry by the time the inside was cooked, so I'll try maybe 300 or 325 next time and see how long it takes. Or maybe I'll look at another frittata recipe to see what they do.

I served a piece of this frittata on top of some Organic Girl Super Greens with some sliced tomato and topped it with a tablespoon of salsa and a couple of avocado slices. Super yum (and will be for a few more breakfasts!)

And now, time to get back to work!

Springtime in Portland

Laura Domela — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:16:40 +0000

This is the park that's 30 seconds from our house in Portland (and basically what our "yard" looks like). We're really enjoying the spring (feeling like summer) in Portland this month. Bike rides, hikes, grilling outside on our deck…we love all of it! (And yet, I'm still so excited about being out in the Airstream again in a week or so!)

Since we returned home from Italy (a week ago??) we have started 3x/week morning spinning classes (at Revocycle in Portland) and plan to continue doing our morning hike (3.5-4 miles) in the Arboretum on the days we don't spin. The hike is such a good way to start the day before settling in to work, and the spinning should just help contribute to our overall cycling shape and fitness. And while the weather's nice in the Pacific Northwest, it's best to take full advantage of the outdoor time!

Another Snow Day!

Laura Domela — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 20:19:21 +0000

(I know, "Yawn" from all you people in the North/Northeast…sorry. It's rare here in Portland.)

The road inside the arboretum where we hike most mornings:

We went on our hike before breakfast today — four and a half miles this time (in my Bogs!). The main road from our house to the park is all snowy and has hardly any traffic right now, so we've been just walking down to the trailhead straight from the house. (Usually it's a bit dangerous to walk…no sidewalk, and you have to walk in a ditch right next to fast-moving traffic, so we normally drive the 30 seconds down the hill.)

This is our driveway yesterday (there has been another 4 or 5 inches of snow since then):

It snowed during most our hike today but we were bundled up and it was not annoying, just pretty:

There were a few people on the trail…dog walking, running, snowshoeing, skiing, sledding…we're so glad we live so close to this beautiful place!

Snowy branches:

Me being arty in the front yard:

After our hike we put the chains on the truck and headed down the hill (driveway was pretty squirrely) to get some brunch and some groceries.

Besaw's down on NW 23rd was bustling and cozy:

Heading back up the hill to our house:

We're all stocked up with groceries now (more snow and ice on the way) and Kevin's reading up on sous vide techniques for the various proteins we picked up at the store, so we'll keep ourselves busy cooking, reading, watching movies, and probably another hike in the snow tomorrow morning. Love it!

More hiking, more gorgeous trees

Laura Domela — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:50:51 +0000

So fortunate to live so close to these trails!

You Are Totally Not Here

Laura Domela — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:37:21 +0000

I mentioned we've been hiking (and occasionally running) the trails near our house every morning while we're at home (and how stupid we feel that we haven't been doing this every day for the last 15 years…30 seconds from our door, etc….). Anyway. They've been installing new signage around the park and as we stopped to check out one of them, realized the red "You Are Here" star was WAY off.

This one for the Redwoods isn't even on the same trail. At all.

See the red star? See where I'm pointing? I'm pointing to where we ACTUALLY are.

Ooops.

So we started checking out the other new signs, and there are several that are completely wrong.

This sign is on the Wildwood Trail NEAR an elm (the Camperdown Elm, that looks like a fairy tale character's little enchanted home), but it's on the wrong side of the road, and tells us we're on the Fir Trail. Nope.

The Maple signage is the least wrong one we found. It's at least ON the Maple trail.

But the sign is actually where I'm pointing, not where the red star is.

I wonder if they know. I guess I could call and try to tell someone.

In the meantime, I feel sorry for the tourists. We frequently come across people holding maps looking confused, asking how to get to some specific place from where they are and we happily help them find their way. If they rely on any of these new signs, however, they're kinda screwed.

Maybe when we do our next hike we should bring along some gold stars and do a little helpful sticker vandalism.

Close to Home Wanderings

Laura Domela — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 19:34:35 +0000

While we've been home we've been taking advantage of the giant system of trails about 30 seconds from our house at the Hoyt Arboretum and Forest Park. This morning instead of our normal (daily) 4 miles, we branched off and headed over to the Portland Japanese Garden.

Makes me want to go back to Japan!

After the Japanese Garden we continued down the hill to the Rose Garden at Washington Park. Gorgeous day, tons of blooming roses (why are we usually here in the winter when there are hardly any flowers blooming?)

The smell from this photo is incredible.

After the Rose Garden we continued back up the hill to rejoin our trail and did the rest of our normal route. All in all we hiked over 6 miles, went to two parks, and were back home by noon. Not bad!