Archive for May, 2012
Rainy End of May
Posted by nbdog in Around the house, Weather on 31-May-2012
It’s a typical rainy spring morning but ever so beautiful. Here’s our house framed by a cloud-shrouded Mt. Si…
… and a view of a small area of our little garden that I began work on when I retired in February of 2010.
Spring in the Back Yard
Posted by nbdog in Around the house on 30-May-2012
It’s so peaceful sitting in the area of the back yard we re-landscaped last year. The rhododendrons and azaleas are still smallish but everything is so lush and nearly always there’s a serenade of scores of birds feeding in the nearby maple. Life is good.
Druid’s Glen Reprise; 89 again
It was back to Druid’s Glen again this morning. This time I began the round on the back nine and once again got off to a feeble start going double bogey, bogey, double bogey. Despite getting par on both par 5s I added two more double bogeys to hit the turn at 47. But I hung in there finally scoring four consecutive pars on holes 5 through 8 to finish the front nine in 42. So in spite of mediocre ball-striking and so-so putting I still managed 89–a big moral victory.
And I got to see lots of ducklings, especially at the par 3 3rd hole.
Druid’s Glen 3rd hole
Beautiful Golf Morning
Three of my former Microsoft golf team buddies suggested we get together for a round to celebrate my birthday. So I was up early for a 7:06 tee time at Druid’s Glen. What a spectacular morning. A light fog still hovered over the various ponds, deer bounded across the practice range and Mount Rainier loomed impossibly clear.
Me, Michel Cote and Julian Benjamin on the ninth green
After a shaky start –six over par after three holes– I settled down, finishing the front nine with a 34-foot birdie putt. I ended the morning with a satisfying 89, my best score at Druid’s with it’s 134 slope rating. It’s the first time I’ve broken 90 on a course with a slope rating of 130 of higher.
Quiet Birthday
My 65th year began with an hour massage at the Sage Springs Spa in Sunriver after which I baked in the steam room and soaked in the gigantic whirlpool tub. We had planned to drive to Crater Lake for the day but the north entrance is still closed with winter snow. With the Sunday forecast for rain we decided to head home this afternoon instead of tomorrow morning and enjoy the mountain scenery between Bend and Salem in the sunshine. En route we scoped out Black Butte Ranch for a possible fall visit and stopped briefly in Sisters.
Sunriver Golf, Day Two
A very chilly morning led to a 45-minute frost delay. However, that worked out because I cajoled Trisha into riding along for the first nine holes. It was another spectacular morning and with Trisha’s excellent coaching I shot a very steady 42 on the front nine. After that, I have no idea what happened. I couldn’t do anything with any club and ballooned to a 55 on the back, my worst nine-hole score in over 100 rounds.
At the Meadows Golf Course
We took an afternoon drive up the the Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort then had dinner at Greg’s Grill in Bend (very good). I’m looking forward to a luxurious massage tomorrow morning at the Spa.
Meadows Course at Sunriver, OR
17th green with Mt. Bachelor in the background
I was anxious to test a new course, one slightly more difficult than my home track at Mt. Si. The Meadows course at Sunriver wasn’t in great shape yet since the last snow had melted just a couple of weeks ago. But it was a delicious morning; perfect really. I had pretty much the best of High Desert golf: snow-capped mountains in the background, hard fairways and thin air at 4,300 feet elevation. I had a steady albeit unspectacular round ending with an 87.
Birthday Trip to Sunriver, Oregon
Trisha and I had visited the area near Bend, Oregon way back in 1992 and I never forgot the beauty of the mountains and high desert. So for a 65th birthday celebration we decided to spend a few days in a rented home at the Sunriver Resort just south of Bend. The drive from North Bend was a little tedious but the time went fast. We checked out the rental: a very nice two-bedroom unit overlooking the ninth fairway of the Resort’s Meadows golf course. One of the first scenes awaiting us was several families of geese with their young in the small wetlands just off the back deck. We made a quick trip to Whole Foods to pick up a dinner and by 8:30 or so we were sipping a local rosé wine and admiring the sun setting behind Mt. Bachelor and the adjacent Cascade peaks. Life it good, even as birthday 65 nears.
View from our back deck.
New Fence Behind the Garage
Posted by nbdog in Around the house on 13-May-2012
OK, I know, it’s just utilitarian storage space but the area behind our garage has always been if not an eyesore, at least homely. When we first moved in it has this little gray cedar fence enclosure with a bunch of rocks and construction rubble and weeds next to it. Over the years I managed to get grass to grow, we added shrubs and perennials, bark mulch and –finally– replaced the very ugly and not very squared up cedar fence. It’s still a bit skewed thanks to the massive concrete slab that has settled off level. But with the new wood and natural stain it’s a huge upgrade from what we’ve had and it nicely hides the heat pump and back-up generator.
Rope Rider Golf
I joined one of my regular golf buddies, Ron Hillis, for a quick trip over the mountains to the Suncadia Resort to play the Rope Rider course. It was named the Best New Course in the U.S. for 2011 and I played it once last fall. I played a really steady round, recording 44+43 for an 87, including five pars over the final seven holes.
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