HOUSEWORK

October 23, 2026October 19, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 2 Comments

The algorithms have figured out I am a perfectly sensible woman with self respect and a functioning brain. i.e. a feminist. As a result, I find a lot of reels about gendered injustice. Women’s health hasn’t been properly studied, ever; men don’t do their fair share of work in the home.

I live with a man who has always done his share in our partnership. Gary does ALL the laundry, most of the dishes, most of the yard work, and I never have to ask. This week he emptied my sewing corner (the bins are now in the middle of the space and stacked over my head) and scrubbed the floors. My turn to sort and choose what to get rid of. Have I mentioned that Gary should be cloned?

This photo was taken last week and you’ll note that her flight feathers seem a little ragged—she’s growing a new set. This eagle is one of the local nesting pair. She might be male, but the females are larger and I suspect this is the she. I had to crouch on the sand with my phone zoomed all the way out for over ten minutes while she ate the crab [in the sand at left]. I was at a respectful distance, and she didn’t seem to mind me, though she looked up when a seagull flew overhead, and acknowledged other interruptions. When she was done, she flew up onto a tree at the headland. Maybe that long crouch was what injured my foot?

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ADHD

October 9, 2026October 10, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 5 Comments

I was inserviced about ADHD. I recognized the behavior in my family and students. It was always male students. I was told that was because it was nearly always the boys who had ADHD and were often on meds. I’d seen it in my life among those I love. My husband might wake at 2am, drink a cup of coffee or two, and be able to get back to sleep. Think about that. He drank coffee to manage his overactive head—the stimulant allowed him to focus. That’s what Ritalin does—it seems a sort of backwards response to find that a stimulant allows the mind to slow down. [The way that the appearance of being laid back by smoking dope is countered by the reality that blood pressure rises with use. Yes, really.]

This flying goose is one of four we first saw a little over a week ago. Two pairs, we thought, smaller than the Canada geese. Then just two. Those two fed in our neighbor’s garden—no one was home. Then we found the remains of what we think was one of them, and geese mate for life. Since then, the other seems to fly north and south along the shore. Back and forth several times a day.

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ALWAYS SOMETIMES RARELY

October 2, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 5 Comments

When we’re at the beach we always try to go out in the morning; we’re not always at th beach but when we are we rarely miss a day. I usually run every other day, but sometimes, I skip a run or run short. Rarely, we stay indoor because the weather is punishing.

Visitors and even some locals most often praise the clear blue skies and mid-day. Gary and I prefer clouds. This many, at least, makes the sky more interesting. It’s the other reason we like to go out at dawn. The main reason is to avoid tourists. At dawn we are often the first to mark the sand with our footprints. Earlier than that, there might be elk, which are beautiful, sure, but not tame or predictable. Early morning is when I saw the black bear, the otter, the baby seal. Raccoons and deer leave tracks on the sand, but weasels and rabbits and chipmunks appear only in our front yard. Many songbirds, garter snakes, lizards, ***mice and shrews***, ***and the imported red squirrels and the rats.***

People who don’t live here year around rarely understand about the weather or wildlife. We might get only a handful of rainy days in summer, but we’ll get five or eight feet of rain during the rest of the year. There is always wildlife.

In addition to the deer, I’ve seen black bears and raccoons and weasels. Word is there are cougar in the hills, but I’m not in any hurry to verify that story. Recent encroachment by bull elk means I check the beach before going out for my runs. Bull elk are maybe a little insane during the rut. There are signs up all over Cannon Beach warning that the bull elk are dangerous this time of year. Tourists walk too close to get their photos. It makes us cringe.

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MEAN GREENIES

July 15, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 9 Comments

Yeti, our last dog’s favorite treat was a Greenie, a green starchy chewable bone-shaped object she could chew into bits and swallow in a minute of two. Green meanies are something else and they hurt my hand to hold, as I am in this photo. I wish people would pick them up so I didn’t have to.

I call them “green meanies” because I stepped on one once barefoot. Though I didn’t bleed, it was painful. They are the remains of fireworks of some kind and difficult to spot amongst bits of seaweed on the tideline. I search for them every day, plucked a couple dozen from the sand this morning, and I will still be finding them in January.

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BUSY DAYS

June 19, 2026June 19, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 3 Comments

June is ridiculously busy, which is not something I can say about most months. Most months my busy is entirely self-inflicted. I read, sew, knit, run, post online. Scrub floors. Gary and I drive to Portland and home from Portland, we walk across the city or walk five miles north on the beach. [We did this recently. Once. Ten miles round trip. Probably not again.]

This is the hollow in sandstone facing the ocean that I call “The Little Altar.” Usually by this time of year there is a circle of green algae on the back. This year, there are three green penguins. Can you see them? Two looking south, a youngster flapping and pointed north? (And yes, there is a Big Altar a few feet north. No penguins.)

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CAT POPULATION

May 29, 2026May 29, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 5 Comments

I was reading an upbeat story about a species of dove native to a Pacific island that had become extinct in the wild since 1972 due to human activity and human-introduced species. Cats are often cited as the cause of the birds’ extinction, but the real damage to the birds’ survival had been domestic sheep that destroyed their habitat, explained a scientist with Mexico’s Institute of Ecology who is leading habitat restoration efforts on the island. The cats merely finished off an already decimated population. What is missing may be another cause, too often ignored: human-introduced rats.

“I hear you have an opening?” Leakey invited herself into our home a couple of weeks after Zora Neale Hurston Cougar Cat, “Zora,” died at age 19. It was January and we learned that Leakey with two other cats had been dumped the previous late summer. There had been sitings, but the cats were shy. My theory was that the cats had managed well enough, feasting on wild rodents until winter when the chipmunks were estivating. By the time she showed up at our door, Leakey was starving, weighing less than half what she should. She quickly put on weight with us, but never lost the habit of hunting. Leakey had a small meow and a loud purr and developed a love/hate relationship with our Saluki, Yeti. She was gentle and sweet-tempered but also had the longest and sharpest claws I have ever seen on a domestic cat. Rodents were her prey of choice and like Zora before her, she often ate her catch, but not the rats laid out for Gary to dispose of. [I did try to coax the other abandoned cats to join the family, but no. Only Leakey.]

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BABY SAND DOLLARS

May 5, 2026May 7, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 1 Comment

Coming back from my run on this morning, I saw a crow standing well out on the shore in about an inch of water. I gave the bird a bad time about that. “What are you doing out there? That’s not your place. You don’t belong there.” The crow was indifferent to my chiding, but I went on a bit more. “Get in here!” Then the crow turned her head and I saw her red beak and realized she was a black oystercatcher. I had to apologize.

I arranged my finds on the railing of what we call “The Cat Deck” though we no longer have a cat. Most of what I found this morning plus four spices of limpet, scallops of two kinds, a round button of rust (iron, rusted clear through), “Ugly clams,” and the back shells and one head shell of chitons that we call “butterflies.”

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SAFETY

May 1, 2026May 1, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 4 Comments

The white lacecap hydrangea, above, was near where we entered the south end of massive Forest Park in Portland (more than 5,100 acres). The Rose Garden is within Forest Park and the extensive Japanese Garden, the zoo, second growth and old growth forest trees, and more than 80 miles of trails. A former coastal neighbor has a bronze plaque in the Rose Garden. Sometimes I run up to the roses—a hard uphill route, run loops up and down through the garden ***past thousands. of roses.***

It’s May Day. I hope you find an opportunity to walk near a garden, into a garden, a place a little bit untamed, wild, and a place to find a quiet place to feel safe.

When I was a teenager, I used to sneak out of the house at night. I suppose a lot of teens did that back in the day. Maybe some still do. I didn’t sneak out to be with a boyfriend or any friend. I didn’t go to parties or score drugs. I walked to be alone and think. I went walking in the dark entirely by myself because I was miserable most of my high school years and walking in the dark was a comfort. I’d walk a few miles on the gravel shoulders of suburban roads and go home to bed.

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LET THE BUCKET GO

February 22, 2026February 24, 2026 / janpriddyoregon / 12 Comments

This is not my day to post, but today, just now, a frighting event.

That is a young bull Roosevelt elk on the sand, what is called locally a spike because he has his first antlers. The orange object to person’s left (your right) is a bucket belonging to the woman. The elk is interested in that bucket. Whether she was aware of it or not, she challenged that elk. The person is texting and taking photos. Do I need to explain that getting this close to an elk, even one that is on the low end of 700 to 1100 pounds, is what we would call “dangerous.” Stupid comes to mind.

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HOLIDAY

December 19, 2025December 19, 2025 / janpriddyoregon / 2 Comments

Like last week, this post is late. I mean to write early, but it’s been a week of strong wind, heavy rain, an 18-hour power outage, some baking and planning and writing, and exhausting work on our rental. A friend sent me notes on the novella version of my book and I began a new draft. Good stuff. It sounds like I’m complaining, but I have no business doing that.