My trip to Portland, the far-flung corner of civilization, is over and profitably so. I visited my sister and her partner, I went to one of the great bookselling meccas, I ate excellent foods, toured Oregonian wine country, kayaked across a lamentably nigh-birdless lake, saw a handful of impressive waterfalls, and finally experienced some cool and rainy weather.

Pictures to follow, no time to do anything about it at the moment as *someone* "organized" all my stuff so I can no longer find the flash-card adapter for my computer. Darned house elves!