When I was a kid growing up I could hear the train out my bedroom window every evening and morning. I loved the sound of the distant train. When we moved to Ashland in 2000 I was happy to hear the sound of the train in the distance once again. However, we soon upgraded our windows to the double-pane variety which meant no more train sounds except in the summer when we left our windows open. Now we don’t even get that as the trains have stopped rolling through town for the past few years. I don’t know why but it has been a long time since a train came through Ashland.

As I was riding my bike over the overpass in town I saw a guy walking on the train tracks playing (or pretending to anyway) an electric flying V guitar. I quickly stopped and pulled out my camera. However, I hadn’t reloaded my SD card and by the time I did so he was already under me. So I was left with the above view of empty tracks instead. No train, no guitarist. No one is even on the bike path that runs along the tracks on the left side of this photograph.

The way my camera is pointing leads to Medford, Oregon (followed by Eugene, Portland, Seattle, etc.). The way the guitarist was walking is California, which if he followed the tracks he would have ended up in about 15 miles later.

Posted on May 8th, 2009 under only in ashland, places. Tags: spring, trains, valley. Comments: 3

A cow grazed in this pasture until last year when the old heifer died. The American flag in the center is in front of Premier West Bank. The building to the left is the Apple Cellar Bakery & Cafe. The mountains in the back are the Siskiyous. And the cherry blossoms are now gone. But they were at their peak last month when I took today’s photograph.

Posted on May 6th, 2009 under only in ashland, places. Tags: buildings, clouds, mountains, skywatch, spring, trees. Comments: 1

I took today’s photograph from the Computing Services building on the Southern Oregon University campus early last month. This is my view as I walk to class (from Central Hall to Taylor Hall) most days.

Posted on May 4th, 2009 under nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: buildings, grizzly peak, Southern Oregon University, spring. Comments Off on Grizzly Peak from the SOU campus

Southern Oregon University’s Plunkett Center sits on the corner of Mountain and Siskiyou. The building serves as the home of the foundation and alumni relations. A beautiful building in any season, my favorite is April when one of the two trees in front of it is always in bloom. The tree on the right of the building (center of this photograph) had yet to bloom when I took this picture in early April.

Posted on May 2nd, 2009 under nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: buildings, campus, Southern Oregon University, spring. Comments: 4

Posted on April 30th, 2009 under only in ashland, places. Tags: buildings, clouds, spring. Comments: 1

My daughter’s soccer team was getting beat pretty badly a couple Saturday’s ago. The weather was perfect though, and I started taking more pictures of the scenery than the game. This is from the lower soccer field at Ashland Middle School.

A different angle on the same field and same goal can be seen here.

Posted on April 28th, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: mountains, nature, sports, trees. Comments: 3

Last year my wife planted these flowers (six different kinds–only two and a bit of a third can be seen in this photograph) in the planter box on our deck. After a month or two they died, as flowers do, which was good actually. Normally we plant something and the deer eat them by the next morning. The deer didn’t touch these.

We did nothing to the planter box over the winter. The dead flowers remained. This spring they have all come back to life and have been giving us great visual pleasure for the past month plus. Incredible flowers these are–to be able to bounce back like this after sitting under snow and freezing temperatures all winter and at the same time not be tempting to the deer.

Posted on April 26th, 2009 under nature, places. Tags: flowers, home. Comments: 4

On the side of Lithia Park away from the plaza there exists a swimming reservoir that mostly just locals know about. The water is extremely cold, but it’s a nice place on a hot day. Nude sunbathers are out on occasion too.

I took this picture about a month ago when no one was there. Last time I rode by, on a warmer day, there were kids swinging on a rope into the water. That would have made for a better picture, but I didn’t have my camera with me.

Posted on April 25th, 2009 under lithia park, only in ashland, places. Tags: lithia park, spring, water. Comments: 3

I probably should have waited another week or two to take this one as the leaves are just beginning to appear. In a few weeks this tree will be really green. Oh well. Here is what it looked like last fall.

Even the cemeteries are screaming new life at this time of year.

Posted on April 24th, 2009 under nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: cemetery, national register of historic places, spring, trees. Comments Off on Same tree, different season