Rummage

Thirsty mind wanders,

seeking love, life, truth, unknown-

needle in haystack.

******************************************

Wistful eyes, warm heart,

rummaging through life's pages-

time seems to stand still.

****************************************** 

This post is shared with Haikuheights and the prompt is RUMMAGE

Fall colors.

 For a couple of weeks now the weather has been near perfect here in Portland. In the morning, sunlight trickles through layers of fog that soon melts away to unveil clear blue skies. For most part Clear blue skies and tall green trees interspersed with colorful trees make this place look like a postcard. The pavements have begun to resemble patterned carpets for they are dotted with colored leaves. Oh yes, it is autumn (पतझड़) or fall as it is popularly known here. It is that time of the year when the nature begins her preparation for the cold winter that follows.There is even an old weather proverb that states, "If autumn leaves are slow to fall, prepare for a cold winter". While spring has fresh and tender blossoms to add to its beauty, in autumn, the usually green leaves decide to dabble in color. You have leaves in hues of yellow and gold, foliage in a whole wide palette of pink and red vying for your attention. The beauty of trees resembling bouquets is something that words cannot describe fully.
  
It is only the deciduous trees that are color crazy, the conifers stay green as you can notice in the second image. Apparently oak leaves turn orange while big leaf maples, birch, ash, aspen and alder turn yellow. For those who like vibrant red, you can choose between dogwoods that turn burgundy and vine maples and huckleberries that sport the color red. Even the shrubs and bushes sport the colored look. Fall colors are a major tourist attraction too, with some regions pulling in more visitors during this season, after all rich color always presents nice photo-opportunities. Alas nothing lasts for ever and soon all trees will shed their colorful foliage that will decorate the pathways for a few more days. Whenever we take a walk these days, we find a carpet of colored leaves laid down in our path. The air has a leafy scent and as we walk we hear the unmistakeable sound of leaves crumbling. Although late September is when the season of fall begins officially, mid October up-to early November is supposed to offer the best view of fall colors. In a couple of weeks, most trees will wear a barren look making us wait for spring eagerly. Until then it is nature's color-fest all the way.

 

Click on the photos to see enlarged images.

Grey matters.

Pots of coffee, tea
rouse grey cells from deep slumber;
midnight oil burns bright.
**************************************
Darkness dispels gloom,
messengers of rain gather,
earth eager to bloom.
**************************************
Grey thoughts thunder, pour;
spirits renewed, smiles restored,

life glows, spouts rainbow.

**************************************

This post is shared with Haikuheights and the prompt is GREY

Clouds

Sun plays hide and seek,

cotton ball with golden glow-

mystical skylight.

Mystical skylight

casting dreamy silver spells-

moon nestled in clouds.

************************************

 This post is shared with Haikuheights and the prompt is CLOUDS

Windows to the soul

A thousand words they speak

a million answers they seek.

Gleaming with thoughts impish

or glazing with dreamy glimmer,

screaming out loud in anger 

or sobbing silently in anguish,

radiant while basking in love,

barren when forsaken by hope.

At times they allege with a glare,

they even silence you with a stare.

comforting you with their warmth,

enlivening you with their smile;

In vain, hurt they try to conceal

behind veils of glistening crystals.

Barrage of emotions they show-

disdain to delight, confusion to content.

Wordless displays of thoughts in fragments,

windows to the soul, world fails to see.

Picture is  from Google images

Portland- City of roses

Portland is known as the "City of roses" or "Rose city" apparently since as long as 1888. According to wikipedia, the origin of this epithet is the introduction of a french rose variety. In years to come, thousands of rose bushes were planted along the streets of the city and soon Portland started hosting annual rose festival. During the first world war, rose hobbyists rallied to start a Rose test Garden to protect hybrid roses grown in Europe and before long rose enthusiasts began sending roses to Portland for conservation. The initiative has grown stronger over the years and now it is a center that experiments on roses and keeps growing a varieties of roses.

A week after we arrived in Portland, we decided to head to the International Rose Test Garden that is nestled in the Washington Park right in the heart of downtown Portland. The word "park" can be misleading as we soon found out. The tall trees that adorn the hilly climb of Washington park made us feel we were entering a forest and not a park. It also houses other attractions namely an Arboretum, a forestry museum, a children's museum, Oregon zoo and a Japanese garden apart from a war memorial but since this city is now our home we decided we would get plenty of opportunities to explore it in a detailed manner. So we drove to the park hoping to spend a fabulous afternoon with nature. But Portland is synonymous with rains and the usual drizzle turned into a shower and so we had to cut our trip short. We sought respite from the rain in the Forestry museum(a post for another day) and then decided to take a quick look at the rose garden before returning home. Needless to say, the garden is a visual treat  and we got to see roses of almost all colors and sizes. There are a host of hybrid tea roses, some of the varieties are named after the region of origin and some are named after their creators, and if they are still under test, the variety just has a number in place of a name. It was a lovely walk in the rose garden in the drizzle with the fragrance of roses wafting around. It was a dream stroll although the steady drizzle meant we couldn't really browse through the garden as much as we wanted and the photographs were all quick clicks.

The annual rose festival and floral parade take place around Memorial Day which means during the late May and early June. This event is something I'm looking forward to savor the next year. For now, these are glimpses of the floral feast that we relished during our visit to Portland's rose garden, you can click on the image to view full sized version.

                           

                                                     

                                                     

We walked back to the car hoping that our next visit would be under blue skies and not the gray overcast kind captured below.

PS: For more details, you can check the link : http://www.rosegardenstore.org/international-rose-test-garden.cfm

Click on the photos to see enlarged images.

Babbling from our new home.

It is good to be back to blogosphere after a hiatus of nearly a month. It has been an eventful month so far. With S accepting an offer from a chip-maker in Portland just days after our first wedding anniversary and a year of happy home-making, it was time to bid adieu to sunny San Diego and head to the very green Portland. And so during the week of our birthdays, incidentally they fall just a day apart, hubby and me were busy with boxes. Instead of unwrapping gift boxes, we were busy packing our year old home into cartons that would carry some wonderful memories into our new home. The excitement of looking up apartments on the internet, calling in and enquiring about the rent and amenities, the curiosity of trying to know all we could about the new neighborhood meant my visits to fellow blogger's posts became sporadic and my own posts went to pause mode. What's more I even missed my first blog-o-versary, sorry dear blog, I'm sure you understand. I have been babbling all along, but just not on the blog. I hope to catch up with the posts of the blogs I regularly visit within a few days, do bear with me.

After a string of farewell dinners and good-bye sessions with friends including one to the car that I learnt to drive here in the US of A, we flew into Portland on a saturday morning that was exceptionally bright and sunny almost making us feel that we were still in San Diego. The tall green trees that seemed to kiss the blue skies told us we were in the region also known as the "Silicon forest". We drove straight from the airport to our new apartment we had leased out over phone calls and emails. The apartment complex itself was quite different from the one we had left behind in San Diego. The absence of elevators meant we had to haul our suitcases up three flights of stairs. But the excitement of new home in a new place meant we hardly felt any strain. Portland welcomed us with gentle showers the next morning that decided to turn into rain by the evening thus giving us a taste of the uniquely wet and green Portland. In the days to come, I'll share more about this "City of roses" or "City of bridges" that is known as Portland on the globe.