Elizabeth, the Oregon coast is very mild, has very little difference between seasons. You may find yourself outside in the middle of winter without even a sweater (like today), or wearing a heavy jacket in July. Even the Willamette Valley east of us rarely has snow--most often there's just enough to barely cover the grass and it melts within hours. Difference in the valley is that there are real seasons. You'd never be outside during the winter without a jacket there! I'm always shocked when I drive two hours to the Portland metro area to pick up 500 loaves of bread donated by Dave's Killer Bread: it's sooo cold in the winter, but so terribly hot in the summer! My pickup time is 9:00 a.m. Wednesdays, to avoid the Noon heat, but I'm hear to say that it really slows the job of picking bread off trays and putting the loaves into totes when you have to wear gloves! Daffodils are in bloom here, while in the valley that won't happen for about a month. The first patch that blooms here is in our lower yard, visible from my office window, in a place that gets morning sun. All the daffodils under the big trees along the driveway are still getting ready to bloom; they almost never see any sun, the downside of having so many trees! (If there is one.)

We're located a quarter-mile from the ocean, in the middle of hundreds of acres, mostly old-growth spruce. A few years ago someone extended a road to the hilltop across the valley from us, so there are three houses up there that we see at night--but that road comes in from the north, has no connection with our road. Although almost no one lives along our road, lots of people walk here, especially when it's windy on the beach. Our steep little valley is pretty protected from wind and the worst storms. We do fear fire as well as knowing that if a tsunami ever hits, it will race right up our creek and take our house.

The really special thing is that everyone here is so friendly, so willing to be helpful whenever they can. Although we have no neighbors, I knew lots of people who walk along our road long before we lived here full time. Today, I walked on the beach for a couple of hours with a fellow who just moved here from Texas and his sister from the Portland area. The beautiful weather meant that the beach was pretty crowded: our town of 8,000 has about 50,000 visitors most weekends. The fellow from Texas is looking forward to having been here long enough that he can gripe about all the tourists!

I confess that I've usually lived on acreage, and never where there's real snow in the winter. I can't imagine living where there are close neighbors. A wimp!