Camping at Clear Lake

I spent the weekend camping at Cold Water Cove Campground on Clear Lake with my friend Ben from college, my friends Katie and Phil in Corvallis, and several people I didn't know from Eugene. The style: luxury car camping. I slept with a full-size pillow and we dined on steaks, scrambled eggs with sausage and mushrooms, cherry cobbler (we tried making it with ice cream but even rolling the device downhill several times didn't solidify it, so we had it in liquid form), and other such luxury items. The lake was gorgeous -- lava rocks during the day perfect for basking, bats at dusk, and star-gazing at night. We also managed to hike to a good number of waterfalls, including my favorite, Proxie Falls:

All in all, an awesome weekend. I even felt moderately clean afterward since we stopped at Cougar Hot Springs to soak.

And although I came home to find this on my third-floor balcony:

I also found this:

My artichoke has sprouted three tiny buds! I need to pick up some fertilizer to ensure they grow to maximum size. Awesome weekend, new friends, and artichokes on the way -- all is good in Oregon!

Happy Easter!

Easter is here, but it's still too early to plant my artichoke. I tried to grow artichokes last summer in Connecticut, but had no success. Four plants survived, but none formed buds. This year, I've chosen the Imperial Star variety again since it produces during its first season. We'll see how it goes; hopefully Corvallis is kinder to artichokes.
This year we only have space for a few plants on our deck (our apartment is on the third floor) so a lot is depending on the success of this artichoke! If all goes well, there will be artichokes with truffle butter later in the year, with much rejoicing.