Pontevedra, once choked with cars, is a laboratory for how smaller cities can implement a few simple tricks to reduce driving dramatically.

From Reasons To Be Cheerful by Will Doig

Wherever you find advocates for saner transportation, their dream scenario usually hinges on the same outcome: making cities blissfully free of cars.

To this end, the Spanish city of Pontevedra, population 84,000, has done something remarkable: it has reduced car use in its historic core by 90 percent, and citywide by half. And it has done it without blanket fees or bans, instead using clever engineering and some gentle nudging to get people out of their cars and onto the street.

Pontevedra proves that you don’t need the economic clout…

At this time of year with short days and long nights we thought this article would be a nice refreshing walk through Monet’s gardens to appreciate. Enjoy your Sunday Backyardbend.

From Artsy by Casey Lesser

Each year, from late March to early November, more than 500,000 people travel to Giverny, France, to visit a place they’ve primarily seen in paintings.

They arrive to find a charming pink farmhouse with emerald-green shutters, set among brilliant flowerbeds that overflow with tulips, lavender, or sunflowers, depending on the season. They follow signs to a tunnel, and are led to an oasis of weeping willows and bamboo shoots, where they can amble along a pond packed with waterlilies, before crossing a familiar Japanese footbridge…

Positive developments for so many families and seeing a shift toward brighter days ahead. Stay vigilant for a few more months so we can get the kids back in school and look forward to a spring where things start to normalize again.

From OPB By Lauren Dake

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is easing the statewide restrictions placed on school districts with the goal of seeing more students return to in-person instruction by February; the governor’s latest announcement comes despite a continued surge in the number of people being diagnosed with coronavirus in the state.

Starting the first of the year, the governor’s instructions for returning to school will be “advisory rather than mandatory,” according to information from Brown’s office.

“Moving forward, the decision…

January 1st is the annual Oregon State Parks FREE First Day Hikes. This includes Central Oregon parks; Tumalo State Park, Cline Falls State Park, and Smith Rock State Park.

This Story is from our friends at KTVZ.

The parking fee for the 25 parks that normally require a parking permit will be waived for First Day Hikes on Jan. 1, 2021.

This year’s winter whale-watching and the 2021 First Day Hikes will go on, but volunteers won’t be stationed at whale watching sites and hikes won’t be led by rangers or volunteers.

“Oregonians love these traditions, but with the pandemic continuing to affect our communities we encourage everyone to visit the whale watching sites and hike or explore a state…

A very ‘Positive Development’ as Richland astronaut Kayla Barron named to NASA’s “Artemis Team”.

From the Tacoma News Tribune by Cameron Probert.

A Richland astronaut is getting the chance to make a giant leap for women, and land on the moon.

Kayla Barron was one of 18 astronauts named Thursday to NASA’s “Artemis Team” to train on hardware that will be used for future missions to the moon.

She is one of nine women named to the team — two from Washington state. The other is Spokane native Anne McClain who has served six months aboard the International Space Station and done two spacewalks.

Barron was named to the astronaut corps in 2017. While she hasn’t been in space yet,…

The Bend Park and Recreation District is hosting its first ever Drive-Thru Holiday Food Drive on Saturday, to help fill the shelves at the NeighborImpact Food Bank.

Community members are invited to bring food donations to one of two BPRD locations from noon to 3 p.m. this Saturday. The event will be held outdoors, and for the safety of donors and staff, face coverings and distancing are required.

Saturday, Dec. 19 – Noon to 3 p.m.

Bend Senior Center (1600 SE Reed Market Rd.)
The parking lot across from The Pavilion (1001 SW Bradbury Dr.)
Food Bank donation items needed most include:

Canned proteins (chicken, tuna, etc.)
Soups and stews
Canned vegetables and fruit
Dried…

Concerts and live music will likely return in the summer of 2021 and that is something ‘Positive’ that we are stoked about. Les Schwab Amphitheater announced improvements to the venue yesterday.

From Central Oregon Daily – READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE. 

Construction started Monday to renovate Bend’s Les Schwab Amphitheater, part of a project aimed at attracting more and bigger acts to the region’s signature live music venue.

The first phase of construction is expected to be finished by June next year, ahead of the concert season.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer the structural capacity necessary to host all of the amazing artists interested in making Bend a stop on their tour,” says Marney Smith, Les…

Good Monday to you Backyardbend. A nice story of finding new species on this big blue marble to kick start the week.

(CNN) By Jack Guy — Scientists working off the western coast of Mexico say they have found a previously unknown species of whale. Watch the short video HERE.

Three beaked whales were spotted last month by a team of scientists working with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society near the San Benito Islands, some 300 miles from the US border, according to a press release published Tuesday.

he team had set out to try to find out what kind of whales were making an unidentified acoustic signal previously recorded in the area.

Beaked whale experts working alongside Sea…

An Article From BrainPickings on this snowy December Sunday in BackyardBend.

In May of 2013, celebrated author and MacArthur “genius” George Saunders took the podium at Syracuse University and delivered a masterpiece of that singular modern package of bequeathable wisdom, the commencement address. A year later, his speech was adapted in Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness (public library), delicately designed and hand-lettered by Chelsea Cardinal. It follows in the footsteps of other commencement-addresses-turned-books, such as Neil Gaiman on the resilience of the creative spirit, Ann Patchett on storytelling and belonging, David Foster Wallaceon the meaning of life, Anna Quindlen on the essentials of a happy life, and the recent compendium of Kurt Vonnegut’s magnificent commencement addresses.

With…

Is expansion positive – we think so. Okay, this article is a little on the astronomy geek side, but it is kinda cool to think that something so big as the universe just keeps expanding. Now we want to know what it is expanding into? Enjoy the read backyardbend.

From National Geographic By MICHAEL GRESHKO

FRESH EVIDENCE SUGGESTS that the universe is expanding faster today than it did in its infancy, a difference that has set off a search to understand what cosmic forces could be at play. If confirmed, the changing rate—which is nine percent faster than had been projected—would force us to reconsider a fundamental aspect of the cosmos.

The result, announced in a new report publishing…