Typical Astoria

I've been wanting to find some representative views of Astoria, and I concluded that there are a lot of them! This is a pretty typical residential area on the north (Columbia River) side of the hill. It's also typically overcast and the ground is typically wet! Other typical aspects are green growing things (with 70 to 90 inches of rain per year and not much snow, they just grow and grow), flowers, the older houses (charming and interesting but not ostentatious), hills sloping several directions in a two-block area, and the forest within the town. This isn't the edge of town, and that's not someone's private tract - there are houses and streets on the other side of it. The trees are growing on part of a block that's too steep to build on. I've seen deer right where I was standing to take the photo, just walking down the street or into a back yard. Once there was a mother and two fawns that would come day after day. Are they following old trails, or did they come for the apple trees? I took this photo on Harrison Ave. where it crosses 11th Street. That's seven blocks uphill from the river and three blocks up from downtown. Also typical is that many people can walk just about anywhere in the downtown area and some walk quite a ways just because it's nice. Unfortunately, the power lines are also typical, and they mar what would be many, many picture postcard views. It will be one of my challenges to take photos where wires and poles don't get in the way. And we have so many lovely and interesting places to practice!

Today I'm taking part in Think Green Thursday. I've never lived anyplace where green things thrive the way they do here. In addition, people walk a lot in this town. The trend for health is growing everywhere, but this is one place people walk just because there's something to see everywhere you go - or at least, that works for me! And the town is small enough that many of us do errands on foot or by bike that we might have done by car in another town.