//Collinsview

The birds in Collinsview sing not to give the false impression of paradise but to celebrate the reality thereof. Two weeks ago, though, they were silenced, for a welcome blanket of snow enveloped every last facet of the neighborhood, and left nothing to its ordinary appearance. The once-proud laurel hedges slumped, the fresh pavement and vibrant lines disappeared beneath a thick flow of what is infrequently thought of as our very sustenance and salvation – ice!

Portlanders aren't familiar with the quality of frozen water when coupled with fresh pavement and the undulating hills of the Willamette Valley, so it's not a surprise that the cars on the side of the road, probably having run into a telephone pole, were abandoned and consequently almost entirely shrouded by the snow's accumulation. My section of Boones Ferry could be considered a wind tunnel, with the way drifts moved about and collected in the most inconvenient of places. The plows, all fifty in charge of covering the entirety of the Portland Metropolitan area, had little time to thoughtfully reorganize these drifts and instead heap it at the bottom of each driveway.

But we speak of infrequent circumstances – the real neighborhood, the one hidden beneath this odd manifestation of Mother Nature is vivacious and full of colors to match. A healthy combination of evergreen and deciduous flora have established themselves along the winding section of road and given the air and light a unique, soothing quality, much like that of a coastal town constantly serenaded by the crashing of waves filtered by the next rise. The fauna are equally abundant, and it is not at all uncommon to have the recycling robbed in the middle of the night by some hungry scavengers emerging from the gully across the way. It's a treat, though, to wake up and find deer tracks in the garden.

To blindly categorize our street into one era would be a mistake. The variance in architecture and style is apparent throughout the entire neighborhood – we are not universally victorian, nor is there a bias towards ranch-style homes. Collinsview is lucky enough to have been developed over a long period of time, across many stylistic periods, resulting in a pleasant mish-mashed persona. It's got spunk, but it's reserved.

Collinsview is nestled in what some of the upper-class folk of Lake Oswego might call the "ass-crack of Dunthorpe," but we benefit from being a part of the beautiful greater Portland area, not a pretentious unincorporated plot of land patrolled by a rent-a-cop. We are a healthy community. Our streets are safe at night, the open spaces nearly endless, and always there is a gem to be discovered.

The sun is shining in my neighborhood today. The winter breeze is still bracing. But it's idea for some frisbee. THe folks at Lewis 

RJD2 - Chicken Bone Circuit