
The tallest building in town, the Ashland Springs Hotel (formerly known as the Mark Antony and before that as the Lithia Hotel) is moving into its 85th year. Tomorrow thousands will gather in front of or near the hotel from all over Oregon and Northern California to participate in Ashland’s Fourth of July festivities.
July 3rd, 2009 | Tags: buildings, clouds, skywatch | Category: only in ashland, places | Comments (1)

Looking at Grizzly Peak from town you wouldn’t think that at the top lies a large, mostly flat meadow, but that is what you will find.
If you plan to hike other “peaks” in the area like Mt. Ashland, Mt. McLaughlin, or Pilot Rock you will find no such surprises on the top of them.
July 1st, 2009 | Tags: clouds, grizzly peak | Category: nature, only in ashland, places | Leave a comment

I have shown you the reverse angle view of this spot many times before. But this is the first time you get to see Ashland from Grizzly Peak instead of vice versa. The rain was coming down hard and heavy when I took this or it could have turned out much better.
For one of my favorite shots of this location looking in the opposite direction from town click here.
June 30th, 2009 | Tags: clouds, grizzly peak, mountains, skywatch, trees | Category: places | Comments (1)

A typical Ashland scene this time of year…
Notice the California plates. I guess I can’t complain without being a hypocrite given that I feel in love with Ashland on a tourist visit from California myself.
June 29th, 2009 | Tags: funky cars, lithia park, summer | Category: lithia park, only in ashland | Leave a comment

If the trees look dead in this picture that is because they mostly are. A fire burned everything on top of Grizzly Peak several years back. To tell you the truth, I find the hike on Grizzly to be much more interesting now after the fire. Not only is the dead wood beautiful but life is springing up like crazy at the base of the trees.
You can’t really see it in this photo, but I risked my camera’s life by taking this and a few other photos as we got caught it a hail and rain storm. I was soaked and so was my camera, but it is still working fine.
The bit of town you can see is probably Medford. I think I was pointed northwest when I took this photograph. This picture looks much better on a big screen, with your browser maximized, after clicking on the image.
June 27th, 2009 | Tags: clouds, grizzly peak, mountains, skywatch, trees | Category: nature, only in ashland, places | Leave a comment

Before the evening plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival there has been a long tradition of a free Green Show. Today’s picture is from the Green Show a couple nights back.
Until last year, a group of dancers performed in front of live music nightly. Beginning last year the dancers are gone and every night is something different. The dancers were consistently good. Now you never know what you will get. Sometimes great, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. The starting time for the OSF Green Show is 7:15 after Memorial Day until mid-August. From mid-August until early October the Green Show starts at 6:45. If you want a good seat you should arrive at least 20 minutes early.
Here is a schedule of this year’s OSF Green Show performances.
June 26th, 2009 | Tags: music, oregon shakespeare festival | Category: only in ashland, people | Leave a comment

For Father’s Day we rode bikes from Lake of the Woods to Fish Lake. The weather wasn’t great and the kids weren’t up for all 15+ miles so I rode back from Fish Lake to Lake of the Woods by myself to get the car. Near the car was this scene. This is actually across the rode (near Aspen Point) from Lake of the Woods. It isn’t a year-round lake at all I imagine–just a swamp of sorts that happened to look pretty good on this day.
June 24th, 2009 | Tags: clouds, lake of the woods, skywatch, water | Category: nature, places | Comments (2)



I was playing around with the modes on my LX3 on my bike ride the other day around Lithia Park. By flipping the switch to SCN and then choosing “Hi Speed Burst” I was able to take six pictures per second. You lose a lot of quality in so doing, but the pictures aren’t bad if you are in good lighting and close to your target. In this series I wasn’t close enough.
Check out the fun you can have with putting these pictures together backwards with a program like Windows Movie Maker.
Reverse motion movie
June 23rd, 2009 | Tags: lithia park, lx3, people, video, water | Category: lithia park, only in ashland, people | Comments (1)

This is the fourth time I’ve shown you Mt. McLaughlin, each time from a very different angle. I think I like this one the best due to my love of clouds.
June 21st, 2009 | Tags: clouds, mountains, Mt. McLaughlin, skywatch | Category: nature, places | Comments (2)

A few weeks ago, on my way home, I notice what looked like a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion in the southeast portion of the sky. It wasn’t quite as pronounced by the time I got home and took this picture, but it still looked a bit out of the ordinary.
June 20th, 2009 | Tags: clouds, home, skywatch | Category: nature | Comments (1)