In May, I spend a week at The Rice Place, an artist residency in Oregon. The Rice Place was named for novelist and memoirist Clyde Rice, who published his first book (the memoir A Heaven in the Eye) at eighty one.

The residency took place at Rice’s former home, a 1930s farm house situated within 10 acres of farmland along the Clackamas River, views of lush foliage from every window.

The land includes wildflower meadows, charmingly-overgrown hedges, and patches of forest along the Clackamas River, part of the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System.

The grounds were full of native and non-native flowers, including coastal manroot and trailing blackberry, along with patches of buttercups, periwinkles, and daisies.

It was a lovely place to dream, explore, and write, both relaxing and inspiring. Time moved differently there, each hour announced by the restless chatter of birds or the floating of cottonwood seeds. It reminded me of this quote from Walden:

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. 

–Henry David Thoreau

At the end of the week, I recorded wild soundscapes near the house and the Clackamas River. (I use them for research & writing.) You can listen to a few below.

For more information about The Rice Place (or Clyde Rice), check out the Friends of Clyde Rice website.