Merry Moosemas

Hard to believe, but another year has come and gone and the holiday season is upon us. So grab the remote, put on an old movie, grab a bag of fritos and kick back and get some quality couch time in with these great traditions we have all come to love over the years that make Moosemas such a beloved holiday. Read here about the centuries long traditions and history of this ancient festival that finds it's roots in Saturnalia and the feast of Sol Invictus .

Bridge Town

Looking north along the Willamette River on the hike and bike trail. The first bridge is the Broadway Bridge , built in 1912 . The bridge in the background is the the Fremont Bridge , built in 1973 .
The 630 foot wheat tanker BALTIMORE , loading up before leaving for it's destination of Singapore .
The steel bridge , built in 1912 . With the bow of the BALTIMORE just visible on the left , an Amtrak train is crossing , about to enter Union Station, the Romanesque brick railway station that is just a 1/4 mile to the right , which was built in 1896 .

Seen from left to right : a loading crane , the 2 towers of the Convention Center , the large grain silos , the BALTIMORE tanker, the Steel Bridge with the light rail MAX train just crossing and in the foreground, an old salvaged anchor at a lookout point on the hike and bike trail .

Portland Chinese Garden

Lan Su Chinese Garden in downtown Portland .
Bonsai in window sill of the Scholar's Study .
Black pine bonsai
Bonsai in front of 6 hand carved gingko wood panels titled Flowers Bathing In Spring Water .

The Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland , Oregon is the most authentic Chinese garden outside of China . Sitting on a 1 acre plot in downtown Portland, the garden had 65 artisans from her sister city of Suzhou , China stay in town for 10 months to complete the work . Most of the materials in the garden , including more than 500 tons of rock, came from China . Lan Su is a 2000 year old Chinese tradition that melds art , architecture , design and nature in perfect harmony .