Bend, Oregon, USA

We spent a night in Bend, Oregon during the nine days the children had off for thanks giving. The drive over was beautiful. It made me smile and I thought of my young nephew Cody, who saw snow for the first time as a five year old. He would have delighted in the scene. The fresh snow looked like icing sugar had been sprinkled over all the trees landing in soft clumps. Reminiscent of a christmas card from my childhood.

Bend has a lot of outdoor sports on offer. It was voted top mountain biking destination in the USA, there is plenty of skiing, fishing and rock hounding areas to be found, plus great walks to go on. Brent and the children walked up Pilot Butte and were rewarded with great views. Around the mountain in summer there are beautiful lakes and streams, with wonderful camping. So for our family there are many attractions. Bend is also handy to an airport for Brent, and it is a city so has all the city shops on offer as well. As for the weather, it is high desert, so drier and a little colder in winter and hotter in summer with plenty of sunshine either way.

We just feel it would be a good place to live, so had a look around at about 15 houses that were for sale in the Northwest and Southwest. Out of those we narrowed it down to three houses of which only one was still available. It was a duplex and we hadn't been able to have a good look from the road. Brent was not interested in it once we got inside. One side was bleak, the other better and brighter, the entire thing needed work. Although he is incredibly talented, it wasn't something that Brent wanted to dedicate himself to. So in the end, none of the houses we looked at were of much use.

The realestate agent put us on her automated list so that we would get updates as they came to hand. On Monday night a new house came up and we were alerted. It was a short sale, so the owners were looking for offers to purchase their house and would take one to the bank or as in this case the banks (being two of them) to see if they would accept the highest offer they had come up with.

Brent went over Tuesday morning and put in an offer by Tuesday afternoon before coming home. The house is a 3 bed 2 bath, on a small lot. It is in good condition, you would be able to live in it without doing anything. It is on a good street and would rent easily enough. The price is right for us. So as of this afternoon we were the only ones who had put in an offer, the listing agent is putting offers to the owners tomorrow and we should know by 1.30pm if they are interested etc. Exciting!

I trust the sun is shining in your slice of paradise!

Desray

Mist embraced tree, is an original 12 inch by 6 inch
original painting by Desray. I loved the way themist
swirled around and enveloped the tree while the pasture
in the foreground stood bright and uncovered in contrast.
See more of my work at desray.etsy.com