Moving to Eugene Oregon

Amanda, a friend of mine who is in my dance troupe, the DAC Nooners, recently went to India. There she met a group of classical Indian dancers who are visiting Eugene now!

On Tuesday at the Tango Center they will be giving a lesson in classical Indian dance and performing for us. I’ll be there for sure! Here’s the schedule:

Tuesday at the Tango Center (Broadway at Charnelton):
7:30 p.m. A lesson in classical Indian dance
8:00 p.m. A lesson in beginning Argentine Tango
9:00 p.m. A demonstration of Indian dance
Followed by: The milonga (social tango dance) starts
With live music: Guitar and Flute duet

Filed under: Argentine Tango, Indoor Activities on May 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »

My daughter Loreen and I spent the afternoon touring the eight private native plant gardens and one of the four public native plant gardens in Eugene Sunday. It was hosted by the Emerald Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon (NPSO).

The homes all had impressive gardens made up of mostly, if not entirely, plants native to our area. All the plants were labeled, so I took this opportunity to photograph the plants and their labels.

Here are a few of the plants, with their labels, that I photographed. The last picture is our last stop, inside my daughter’s mother-in-law’s yurt.

Candy Flower

Baneberry

False Solomon’s Seal

Tall Bluebells

Oregon Geranium

Hall’s Lomantium

Sticky Cinquefoil

Straggly Current

Red Flowering Currant

Smith’s Fairybells

Kinnikinnick

Cooley’s Hedge Nettle

Fringecup

Fawn Lily

Tea, Anyone?

Filed under: Gardening, Outdoor Activities on May 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Yesterday our bees arrived!

Tom put the hive facing south just outside of our woods.

They were pretty sleepy when we transferred them to the hive.

Here’s Tom dumping them into the hive:

We didn’t get stung, but Tom tucked his long beard into his shirt just in case. I took a look at the hive this morning, and there were eight dead bees on the threshold. Not to worry, the bees kick out any dead ones. The loss of only eight is not bad!

When we moved into our home in 1985 there was an ancient oak tree at the edge of our deck, full of honey bees. About five years later the tree fell in a storm. We were able to move the swarm into a hive where they lived happily for several years until the bee mites finally got them. The fallen tree had many, many pounds of honey in it that we enjoyed for a couple of years.

All that’s left of that oak now is the hollow end. After we chain sawed the last piece, it rolled down the hill and landed upright. Here it is with our cat (Ogopogo) sunning herself on it:

Filed under: Gardening, Outdoor Activities on May 9th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

It’s April 27 and the new poison oak leaves are just coming out, some red, some orange, some green.

The leaves look a lot like blackberry leaves, but poison oak is shiney and smooth and blackberry leaves are a bit hairy or fuzzy and not smooth or shiney.

Poison oak likes to form ropes and climb trees. We have cut all the ropes climbing our trees on our property, which has greatly reduced the amount of poison oak we have. I took these pictures on our neighbor’s property.

Climbing trees is the primary way it spreads. The climbing poison oak fruits and the birds eat and drop the fruit. On the ground below a tree with poison oak you’ll find lots of poison oak plants on the ground. It’s not always easy to spot the plants on the ground, as you can see in the picture below:

If you hike where there is poison oak, wear clothes that cover you up as much as possible. If you touch it, you have about 10 minutes to wash it off. Use soap and hot water. Also wash the clothes you were wearing in hot water.

Here’s some more pictures:

Filed under: Outdoor Activities, Poison Oak on April 27th, 2009 | No Comments »

I noticed that a lot of you are searching my site for pictures of poison oak. I have one on my Mt. Pisgah blog. I went out today to see if there is any leafed out yet, but the leaves are just barely out, too small for a picture. I’ll try again in a week or so and post new pictures.

Filed under: Hikes, Outdoor Activities on April 4th, 2009 | No Comments »

I just listed a townhome at 2564 Brittania. I’m having an open house tomorrow, April 5th 1 to 4 p.m. Stop by and say hello! Directions: West on 18th, left on Hawkins, right on 25th, left on Brittany, 1/2 block to Brittania.

Filed under: West Eugene on April 4th, 2009 | No Comments »

Well, things are happening! I’m hopeful. Here’s an e-mail to the Tango Center mailing list I received today from Andrew Royal Dugas. He’s working with Tom Kamis of Davis Restaurant on Broadway & Olive, one block from the Tango Center.

=======================
Hello All,

My name is Andrew Royal Dugas and I moved here with my fiance Andria Miguez in September. I teach tango and yoga and am the co-founder and organizer for the very successful Houston Tango Festival. I am writing you to share my vision for the possibilities I see for the Tango Center and to make a request.

I have volunteered to lead a group of teachers, organizers and committed tango folks to create something new at the Tango Center. With the help of Tom Kamis, a well respected entrepreneur in downtown, our vision is to create in reality the possibility of a great, well functioning and world renowned tango venue. We have a chance to not only keep the facility, but help make it beautiful, make it comfortable and make its potential a reality. Tom is in negotiation with the owners and, though there are still many variables and nothing is guaranteed, he is on track to become the new lessee, with a new business model that creates more revenue sources such as a stage, a classroom, a kitchen and a bar.

To create this and keep the space open for the month of March, Tom Kamis negotiated with the owners a way to clear the space for this new vision. Before March 15th, if we pay the back-rent, the owners will agree for us to continue to hold events in the space. The amount is $5000 and once paid, will cover everything till April 1st. At this moment we have amounted $1,400 in pledges and money’s from last Saturday’s milonga. We have 11 days to accrue the remaining $3,600 to continue operating through the end of the month and I ask each of you to give what you can at any Tango Center events in the upcoming weeks. As of today, I have become the functional director of the space and the non-profit and I make this commitment to you: Every dime this community gives towards this effort will be accounted for and be taken care of by me personally.

Please join me, your organizers and your community in creating a new Tango Center by pledging and donating at our Saturday, March 7th and 14th milongas or any other Tango Center event.

My email is: royaltango@gmail.com
I want to hear from you! Please contact me with questions, comments, stories, concerns and ideas. Thank you to each and every one of you for you part in creating and sustaining this
vision for so many years.

Sincerely and With Excitement,
Andrew

Filed under: downtown on March 5th, 2009 | No Comments »

There were about a dozen people who spoke in support of the Tango Center to the mayor and city council. There is some hope that it can be saved, but it will be closed for now. Tomorrow we are removing everything, and we must be out by Saturday.

The Register Guard quoted me near the end of
this article.

Filed under: Argentine Tango, Indoor Activities on February 25th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Last night may have been the last dance at the Tango Center on Broadway by Charnelton. The place was packed with about 150 dancers.

The owners of the historic 1929 building, Conner and Woolley, gave us notice to be out by the end of the month!

The non-profit Tango Center opened in 2003 and has attracted thousands of people downtown. Not just for tango, there are dances and classes in other styles as well.

Many hours of volunteer effort and donated money has greatly improved the space. When the Tango Center acquired the space, the walls were painted with black and white stripes. It took a lot of primer and paint to repaint the walls! The next project was to install a huge dance floor..

The old drop acoustic ceiling was removed, exposing the original high ceiling. Because slats could be seen in the damaged plaster ceiling, the fire department required it to be repaired, at great expense.

Tomorrow night the public can speak to the City Council at their meeting:

Meeting begins at City Hall at 7:30.
Doors open at 7:15
Get there (at least) by 7:15 to get a “ticket” to speak to the City Council.
You cannot get a ticket to speak 5 minutes after meeting starts.
You will have a total of 3 minutes to speak.

The contact person is Beth Forrest, 682-5882, beth.l.forrest@ci.eugene.or.us

Here’s a link to a Register Guard article.

Filed under: Argentine Tango, Indoor Activities on February 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »

It was a partly sunny January day, and Tom and I decided to walk the west portion of the Amazon off road bike trail that follows Amazon Creek.

Amazon Creek starts in east Eugene at end of East and West Amazon Streets, and empties into Fern Ridge Lake, about four miles from the west end of Eugene.  An off road bike path follows the creek with a portion on the streets going through downtown.

Tom and I took a walk on the West Eugene portion, a walk of about five miles. We started at City View, where I have recently listed a condominium at 1357 City View, bordering the Gudu-kut Natural Area.

This portion of the trail is very open and sunny.  It was a mostly clear January day with a few clouds - beautiful!

The first half of the walk is parallel to 13th and 11th Streets where there are many businesses.  Some are right on the trail, such as Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life

and Euphoria Chocolate Company

I was in need of a pit stop and went into a gas station mini-mart.  The staff was very friendly when I asked if they had a public bathroom, which was sparkling clean.  They even have a paved path from the bike path to the mini-mart.

The Richardson Bridge, crossing Amazon Creek is interesting.
This historic steel diamond truss design bridge was built in 1912. Its original location was near Prineville where it crossed the Crooked River. In 1956 it was relocated between Walton and Mapleton on the Siuslaw River. The bridge was moved here in 1986 to carry bicycle traffic when it could no longer support heavy loads.

West of the Beltline the path runs through the Wildlife Scantuary.  There are numerous viewing areas.  There are some newish subdivisions bordering it that have the advantage of access to the path.

Bird watching is fun!

The path ends (or begins) on Greenhill Road, across the street from Greenhill Animal Shelter.

And for your pit stop pleasure, there are two porta-potties.

Filed under: Bicycling, Hikes, Neighborhoods, Outdoor Activities, West Eugene on January 19th, 2009 | 1 Comment »