Peaceful. Serene. THWACK!

This is my 13th blog post for the Blaugust 2026 community blogging project. Join me all this month for more blogging. I just returned from a long weekend in Ashland, Oregon. Ashland is a beautiful town in the Rogue Valley, a half hour north of the California border. It is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which is what brought us there for a long weekend. The main business district is full of shops and galleries and restaurants – a nice stroll. That area butts into the head of Lithia Park, running about 1.2 miles along Ashland Creek. Walking through the park, away from town, about a half mile down, you’ll run into the Ashland Japanese Garden. We discovered the Ashland Japanese Garden last year, on our first visit to the area. We are members of the Portland Japanese Garden. It’s a lovely place and it reminds us of our wonderful visits to Japan. When we learned that Ashland had a Japanese Garden too, we were excited to see it. It is, as you might expect, much smaller than its…