Ashland, OR: bear, deer & Shakespeare

[oregon]

Last evening, two doors down from the inlaws, a young bear eating the lawn:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160928.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160899.jpg

This AM, young buck cuts the corner, within two feet of me, as five other deer keep to the street behind me:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160951.jpg

A great town to visit, sunny, dry, in the Siskyou Mtns, about 1800 ft elev., friendly people, college town, Shakespeare festival and mill creek runs thru it clean enough to drink or so it looks.

oregon

[dialex]

Looks like a great place to spend your life, even the bear doesn't seem so threatening...

[oregon]

You couldn't be more right dialex.

My father-in-law, an Army brat raised in the Philippines, married my mother-in-law, a farm girl from the lonely eastern high-country of Oregon and moved to Ashland to live. They have been here for 60 years in a house they had built on the hill overlooking the small town. He retired from his law practice at 80 years of age. She still does volunteer work at various organizations.

Folks here are friendly, articulate and rich with the joy of life.

I am walking into town today and I'll get some more pics.

Thanks for looking.

oregon

[oregon]

The old hacienda and a look around out front, Mt. Ashland:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160971.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160969.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160968.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160964.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160965.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160967.jpg

more to follow:

[oregon]

Back road to town, mistletoe growing in a scrub oak, deer, Shakspeare complex:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160974.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160976.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160978.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160982.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160983.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160988.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160989.jpg

more to follow:

[vampyrewolf]

clear a spot at the table, I'm moving in.

[oregon]

Lithia Park, Mill creek, downtown Ashland, coffee stop:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160992.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1160995.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170002.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170003.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170011.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170012.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170015.jpg

more in a bit:

[oregon]

Almonds growing overhead at the coffee stop, a corner of the Mark Anthony hotel (tallest building in town).

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170018.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170019.jpg

Thank you for looking.

oregon

[oregon]

Link to video of bear eating grass:

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/?action=view&current=P1160841.flv

oregon

[oregon]

clear a spot at the table, I'm moving in.

There is a place for you already set!

I knew that I liked this place when I was watching Terminator, years ago, in a tiny main street theatre. You could listen to the actors discussing Arnold's acting and it was erudite and enjoyable to hear their insider reactions.

A toast to Spyderco forumites tonight at cocktails. What a great forum. Thank you members.

oregon

[vampyrewolf]

It sure beats the hell out of our scenery here. By the riverbank we have a nice area, and around the zoo. But the rest of the city is turning into a concrete jungle. Head 5min out of the city limits and it's wide open fields.

[oregon]

Your neck of the woods looks like a terrific place for wind turbines. There isn't much to block the breeze.

You would enjoy the open, no roof, Elizabethan theatre pictured above. Not stuffy. Watch Mid Summer Nights Dream acted out before you, smell the flowers from the park next door, enjoy the night sky and catch a beer at the break.

You literally bump into the actors at the market. They walk by the in-laws house studying their lines on printed pages.

My lovely wife is from here. She was a flower in one of the plays, Mid Summer Nights Dream I think, when she was a small child.

oregon

[oregon]

Over coffee this AM I cut open, easy to do with the Endura, an almond seed for your amusement. Here it is:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170033-2.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/oregun/P1170033-3.jpg

Update on bear pictured above: It was taken into custody by the police per word of mouth. Not sure whether dead or alive. Probably alive since there was an uproar over the public shooting/killing of a cougar in town not so long ago.

Perhaps there will be a piece in the local paper, Ashland Tidings, so I can get to the bottom of it. I would speculate that the young bear was relocated to a less populated area. However, this was done in Yellowstone Park with the final result being killing the vast majority of bears there as they simply returned to mix with visitors and eat human foods.

oregon

[nuubee]

Oregon,
It is indeed beautiful here. I live right below Siskiyou boulevard. I'm in my 50's and recently decided to go back to school here at S.O.U., in order to have an actual career eventually. I rent a Victorian 'dive' that hasn't had much work done on it since completion in 1910, mainly because it is close to both downtown and campus, and there aren't many rentals here that would allow me to keep my beloved dog on the premises. My fiancee raised her son here in town (Ashland high school is supposedly one of the 10 best in the country), and now that he is close to graduating from college, she is getting a little antsy to move on. Down here in town, I see plenty of deer, but no bear yet. It looks like your in-laws live just a little above Lithia Park?

[oregon]

Hi nuubee,

I really enjoy my time in this terrific, paradise with pavement, town.

Ridge Road, you are correct, right above the park.

Do you know what happened to the cutlery shop, with the large semitar on the sign, just before Medford on hwy 99? It is closed, gated and locked.

You picked a terrific school. My father-in-law taught the law there. Best wishes for the career. I'm still looking for what I want to do...

oregon

[nuubee]

Oregon,

Please don't drink the water from the creek. Notwithstanding giardia, they occasionally get some pretty bad e. coli bacteria blooms during the warmer months.

I don't know what happened to the cutlery shop (Mel something...).

With the exception of the perpetually-highest-housing-prices in southern oregon, it's a nice place to be. If your in-laws have been here for about 60 years, holy cow, I can't imagine how much this town must have changed. I've only been here since late 1998, and even I have seen some of the last remaining open spaces in town get gobbled up for housing.

If you like old establishments, there is a place in Eagle Point (a bit of a drive), that has the oldest continously operating grain mill west of the Mississippi. Also, I have discovered what seems to be the only place around here that can clean the vintage men's hats I occasionally buy on Ebay. It's 'the horse blanket' on main street in Central Point.

Have you done most of your bird photography in the Klamath Falls area?

[oregon]

Bear update: Per the local paper the small bear, perhaps one year old and 40-50 pounds, was tranqualized while in a tree in town and transported to wilderness.

oregon

[oregon]

Oregon,
Have you done most of your bird photography in the Klamath Falls area?

Much of it yes. Burns and area south to the Klamath Basin and Northern California. The Western flyway in spring and fall. I love the wide open spaces, elbow room, and loneliness aplenty.

However, I am lucky enough to have had a national refuge created about a mile from my home in Sherwood. I can get in a great walk there and see many birds. There are Bald Eagles nesting in the area, migrating ducks, geese, shore birds, song birds and various water-oreinted mammals. It is called the Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge.

I've seen buzzards, red-tailed hawk and western Jays while here. A few years back I was tickled to find a whole family of small owls lined up on the phone line on Ridge Road during a night walk. The whole tribe and only a dozen feet away. No camera, unfortunately.

oregon