OAKLAND SEEN AS AMERICANA

 Norman Rockwell would  have loved this town in the spring.  The older buildings with so many beautiful established plants, trees and more give a bygone days kiind of feel.  It seems like there is a lilac in every yard and on every corner..........Here below you can see Ginny given homage to her favorite fragrance......The lilac pictured on top is closer to being a tree rather than a shrub.  I love that gorgeous old brick in the background, too.

 Lauren, Ginny and I had the usual good lunch at Tolly's.   I should have taken a couple of photos of that,too.  It's one of the more popular restaurants in this area.  There is one particular artist who places a lot of his paintings in Tolly's.   His work looked familiar but I thought it was just that I admired his style.  Everytime I go in there I have to take a few minutes to look at John Benjamin's newest (and older) works.  This time I spent a little bit more time and read the  bio on him,  There I saw how it was his work that I would seek out to study and look at for in 2nd St. Gallery in Bandon when I lived over on the Oregon coast.  The same gorgeous blue sky is what I remember.  The first painting of his that caught my admiration was a long and narrow canvas with just a little strip of land at the bottom but the emphasis was on that gorgeous blue sky with just a few puffy clouds......Absolutely beautiful!.....I just fell in love with it.  I've looked and hoped to see where he might have a website, but no.........I'm out of luck.  Good to know, though, that he lives in the area and much of his work is of various pastoral scenes from the Umpqua Basin that I find so inspiring......I can only imagine what beautiful works, Elaine Roemen could catch if she were here......

 After lunch we wandered with camera and every place reminded me of Norman Rockwell paintings....Americana, small town style.  Love it!

 And the flowers are so happy........tulips, scilia, wallflowers, roses getting ready to break open, lavender and iris.........Many, many more....

We hit a couple of antique shops on the way..........unfortunately there was one that was so overwhelming with the smell of cat that we just couldn't stay...I couldn't care how many bargains there were.  It was truly over the top.......They needed the lilac aroma badly.......

This Saturday, we're supposed to be going to the famous Steamboat Inn.  Hit a waterfall or two, also.......I'm really looking forward to it.  It's open for breakfast and lunch Saturdays and Sundays without a reservation.......dinner is a different story.  Guests that are staying there have first priority and reservations are required.  They have a different guest chef every so often.  I'm not sure if that changes every weekend or longer........but it's somewhere to go when you want something very special...........so I've been told.  I'll let you know about lunch and hopefully some good photos.
Have a great weekend!