by Arlin Brown and Cathy Schar

Distance:   A roundtrip walk of 2.2 miles from our North Pocket homes.

Walking on Schroeder, we get to see the progress on Phase 3 Schroeder Lofts. (If you pick a day when they pour concrete, there will be donuts available!) Every time we’re on Schroeder it reminds me of Schroedinger’s cat (the feline hero of a famous thought experiment in quantum physics). Apparently, others have confused Schroeder with Schroedinger: “Schroeder’s Cat were a two-piece indie rock band formed by Simon Kenny and Darragh O’Grady in Dublin, Ireland, whose influences included My Bloody Valentine.” Wikipedia (Click on the link to go to Wikipedia for more on this shoegazing music group.) This is an example of the stray thoughts encountered on our walks.

There are plenty of fauna and flowers to stimulate our minds as well as to help create a sense of awe. Objects of interest will vary from walker to walker:  some of us notice the architecture of houses, others the birds, others the number of cars over two in any one driveway, others new construction of ADU’s and other buildings, yard designs and so on.

There is considerable variability in the housing in the area. Cathy has pointed out the lack of zoning restrictions you would encounter in Portland, so we get to observe considerable diversity in the houses. On this walk just a few architectural observations were: A house on the west corner of Laurie and Courtney has added an attractive nicely done addition to their house in the last few months. It was interesting to note the progress and process of the construction.

1447 Laurie is a home that has two equal parts that appear to be separated by less than 6 feet, and to have a very small passageway connecting the two buildings. It struck us as strange, and we speculated that perhaps one of the buildings was where the teenagers were sent to dwell to protect the mental health of the parents. You would not know it now but after the ice storm one of the nearby trees split and crashed on the roofs of 2 neighboring houses.

 

 

 

On Oak Grove on the way to Karry there is an interesting gateway to a yard. The first part of Karry as you turn right looks like a dirt road driveway, but quickly leads to a paved street connecting to Dogwood.

 

 

 

 

 

There is a lot of creativity with a number of homes and yards on Karry and Dogwood. We have admired the second house on the right. It has two ornate brown doors dividing two equal parts of the front of the house.There is another part of the house hiding behind the front.

 

 

 

 

As we approach the corner of Karry and Dogwood, on the right there are stacks of various colored wooden containers which upon further inspection appear to be the supers, i.e., containers for the narrow frames that are stacked to house bees and provide a home for their broods and food storage. This is the neighborhood site of the Oregon Honey Company. (For those interested in learning more about bees, honey and apiaries, try this link to the Oregon Honey company:  www.raworegonhoney.com

Raw Oregon Honey is a family company run by three generations of Vollintines, with several apiaries along the Willamette River. Our honey bees harvest nectar from the local blooms in Oak Grove, Oregon, where we live. The honey we Vollintines harvest is RAW and LOCAL, filtered only once and never heated.

 

As we go farther on Dogwood, the road curves to the right, and there is a sign saying “Welcome to ourgarden” that hospitably invites you to take in the view of the owner’s garden. At 1012 a house with brown shingle siding has a metal heron sculpture attached to the side.

 

 

 

 

 

At River Forest Drive, as we walk to the right toward the lake, we note the houses tend towards the luxurious, and at 14825 on the right is an example of the beautiful  river and lake front houses farther along on River Forest Drive that are part of a walk we will write about in the future.