I started this week of gratitude with photographs from Portland, and so I will end it. But this time the views are the object of my gratitude: the fact that I live in a city with a river. The Willamette draws me out even on days when I really just want to hide under the covers. I don’t know what it is about water, but for me it is restorative. Any explanatory attempts sounds so clicheed that I will spare you – but deep down to me they all sound right.

The images are from a morning walk last week, on these winter days when the sun rises late, but once up puts out a clear light. since the rainy nights wash away air pollution.

The city built a promenade around the river down town, you can cross on one of the many bridges to walk a loop that fits your stamina. The West side is bordering downtown, the East side loops under the highway and is noise, but affords great views of the city. And reflects the tinted light coming across the river from Big Pink, one of Portland’s landmark towers.

I walked South to North on the Westside that day, from the Hawthorne Bridge with the yacht harbor to the Steel Bridge with a view of the industrial harbor. The geese were out in full force, on the lawns which house music festivals and fairs in the summer. So were the homeless, who seek shelter under the many bridges that cross the water.

Many of the bridges either draw up or unfold to accommodate big ship traffic.

Maybe I should turn to airB&B for stints on the water…

Here is another river, captured in sound….