We are well and happy here, enjoying the change from summer into fall.
Raindrops on roses…
Auntie Bridgett has painted a new sandwich board to help bring folks into The SideStreet Arts Gallery where she is a member. It is so cute!
Walking in the park yesterday, we noticed that the huge maple tree that lost a big branch last summer has dropped another one. This time it did a surprising amount of damage to a stainless steel structure and sign. We wondered if this happened during our big rain storm the other night, or just in the clear blue skies of mid-day, like the last time.
Ouch!
Leaves are starting to change, but it feels odd. The ground is littered with “leaf slime” but the trees above are still green and full. It’s like these leaves have come from somewhere else. Weird.
Broken branch
We are looking forward to our upcoming adventure, which I will tell you about as it happens.
The Belmont Street Fair is always scheduled as the close of the summer street fair season. It is also the one closest to us, just a block down the street.
We got over early, because overcast skies are cooler to walk around under. We found Stitch guarding the west end of the fair, chatting with a person from Dick’s Kitchen. They had a bunch of tables set out on the street, which were empty.
Delightful recycled jewelry
Further along were jewelers, poets, second hand clothing booths.
Then came political parties and alternative energy companies, massage therapists and tarot readers.
Finally, the food!! Two Wahine’s Shave Ice is always a favorite of Grandpa Nelson, I had a dish that I am sure is NOT called an Ethiopian Taco (but was delicious, anyway). And Auntie Bridgett had a burrito from Laughing Planet.
One issue politics
Of course, what I really love to watch are the folks to come to see the fair. Young families enjoying chalk art in the middle of the street and out of town grandparents taking the kids out for a spin in their rented bikes make it all very Portland.
Art in the cityBrave Grandparents!Shopping for the perfect helium pet…
By this time, Dick’s Kitchen’s tables were bustling and Stitch had moved on. The sun had come out and it was getting too warm. I found myself longing for the predicted rain, and we headed home.
I don’t have anything to write about today. I have been busy, but it’s the in-my-head, working-on-the-story kind of busy that doesn’t make for an interesting blog post.
Clock in a downtown diner
My characters are getting more complicated and intense, which is good, but I am constantly amazed at how long it is taking me to see really obvious flaws. My second story, if I live to write it, has got to be easier.
Jasper getting the hang of things at the Echo Theater
But enough of that for now. On a more visual level, I have realized that I really like circles. They are complete, powerful, calming symbols for me, and I find that I take a lot of pictures of them.
Symbolic sculpture at Providence Park Stadium
Here are some of my favorites. More news next week!
This week we got to celebrate Auntie Bridgett’s Birthday, and it was fun! It was also the first really rainy day of the Fall.
We unwrapped presents at the house after breakfast, and Mouse helped. Gift cards for Dick Blick art supplies, a big box of very stylish postcards, and a book on color started the day right.
Mouse helps unwrap
Then she and I headed toward downtown. We stopped at two shops in the Fairhaired Dumbell, a very unusual, oddly placed building on Burnside by the river. It is built on a small lot in the middle of traffic, so you need to step quickly to get there without getting run over.
The Fairhaired Dumbell
The shops are 11:11, a high end stationary, office supplies and organizational shop. Next door was Crema, a small coffee shop, where we enjoyed a pain au chocolat to hold us until lunch.
J’accuse!!
We walked across the Burnside Bridge and caught the bus to Scrap, a second-hand art supply store that is an artist’s, mom’s, and teacher’s dream come true!
I’m going in!!!
So many wonderful, recycled materials like Scrabble letters, old piano keys and tiles, and fabrics, could make for some fabulous, and very affordable, art projects.
So many tiny things…
Science would be easier, and cheaper, to teach with new, donated vials, tweezers, and microscope slides. For just a moment I wished I was still teaching….
So many projects!!
Grandpa Nelson met us and we headed for lunch at a new place just across the street from Scrap, the Boise Fry Company, who specialize in Grandpa Nelson’s favorite food! Ironically, their turkey burger and Fun-Guy Burger (70% beef, 30% mushroom) were delicious, but their French Fries were soggy and disappointing. We met a nice server, though. Nice folks make things better.
They are serious about fries!! Just not very good at them….
We watched the pouring rain outside the shop form wide puddles around the equipment that is there to re-do the drainage system, and imagined someone saying, “I told you guys we shoulda got this done in August!”
First flooding
When the rain slowed, we took the bus home for a rest before our next adventure….Dinner at La Moule. We got dressed up and took a Lyft car south to the Clinton neighborhood. We enjoyed some nice local wines, absinthe (of course) , mussels, halibut and some REALLY good fries for Grandpa Nelson.
Auntie Bridgett with Debbie Harry and David Bowie
Sadly, Auntie Bridgett realized she had left her umbrella in the Lyft, but we will find her a new one soon.
We got home after watching a great sunset, watched baseball (Yay, Giants!) and fell asleep. What a day!!
It is still a week until Fall, but the weather is starting to change. The awful heat seemed to have passed, though I expect there will be one last Indian Summer heat wave before we kiss summer completely goodbye.
The summer flowers are still blooming…. wisteria, roses, and dahlias.
Summer fruits are reaching their peak… apples, tomatoes, and grapes.
And yet, we are getting rain, lots of rain, cooler temperatures, and it’s dark by seven o’clock. Fall is on its way.
Pumpkins are ripening in the Sunnyside School garden, reminding me that we need to use up the frozen pumpkin purée from LAST fall so we can go get more pumpkins!!
When I grew up in Southern California, all my relatives there lamented the lack of “seasons”. A friend from Oregon once said the bright blue skies of Salinas were “obscene” in January. I had no idea what she was talking about.
Now I do. The seasons changing are like breathing out after breathing in, or hearing the splash after you throw the rock into the pond.
While we were visiting the city of Bend, we walked to the Deschutes River, whose bend the city is built on. It is a wonderfully smooth river, at least through town. The surface doesn’t let you know how fast it is moving, but play a game of Pooh Sticks from the foot bridge and watch them scoot away!
Perfect venue for Pooh Sticks
The river, of course, is why the city is here. There was water for crops and people, power for a lumber mill, and transportation to get the lumber to the Columbia River markets. It is historically the heart of the city.
A “High Wheel”, used for hauling trees to the mill
Now, the river is mostly recreational and decorative. In drier weather, there would be hundreds of folks out on kayaks or stand up boards. Today, because of the intermittent storms, there were mostly ducks and reflections.
Duck Weather!
It was getting late, and we still had the four hour drive back to Portland, so we waved goodbye to Bend and drove past the tiny town of Sisters, through more great weather, past pointy Mount Washington, and home to a happy Mouse-cat.
I’ve told you about my Aunt Bea. She is one of my Dad’s two surviving sisters, and the one I am closest to. She was living in Corvallis when I got to visit her at Easter, and has now moved to an assisted living apartment in Bend. So, you know what that means….
Road Trip!!
Volcanic geology in eastern Oregon
The trip around Mount Hood was delightfully foresty, reminding me of all those summer vacations I spent camping with my parents. We drove hours through maples, then pines, then entered the layered volcanic plateau and lost almost all the trees. As we gained elevation we found lodgepole pines and junipers, and when we got out of the car in Bend, the air smelled of gin and tonic!
Our reservations were at a McMenamin’s Hotel, the first such establishment we have ever slept at. It was magical.
We never did learn the story behind this one!
The Old St. Francis School started life as the first Catholic School in Central Oregon. Founded by Fathers Luke and Dominic in 1936, it was St. Francis School until 2000, when the growing student population needed more space out of town.
Honoring St. Francis
Brothers Brian and Mike, the McMenamins, bought the property, added their magic, and opened for business in 2004, with a major renovation in 2016.
All the elements we love about the McMenamin’s style were there.
Our host, Ed Danahy
The history of the place was celebrated everywhere, even the names of the rooms. We stayed in the Ed Danahy room, named for the janitor of the St. Francis School, and remembered by many students as their favorite adult there. He had a sense of humor and was a good listener. We were honored to be in his smiling presence.
Father Luke in glass
Art was everywhere, framed on the walls, but also in unexpected portraits over doorways and a stained glass portrait of Brother Luke. The orbs that are a featured motif were everywhere, all hand painted and wonderful.
Hand painted loveliness everywhere
Finally, it was quirky. In the newest building, called The Art building, there were hidden rooms. When you would see a blue light in the ceiling, you needed to start pushing on the walls to find the hidden room! It was so much fun!
Hidden rooms!
We had been told of a bar called The Broom Closet. When we found it, we realized that these weren’t sweeping brooms, these were flying brooms! But the bar was there, just the same. We were amazed.
Not so much a closet as a broom parking lot!
There is a lot more to tell, and we DID get to have a long visit with Aunt Bea, but I will end here and continue next week.
Old Warehouses share the skyline with newer buildings
While we were in the Pearl District, we wandered around, got some coffee, and shopped a little. I was delighted with what we found!
Beautiful brick!
Just off the North Park Blocks we found Barista Coffee, housed in one of the dozens of old brick warehouses that were built in the 1890s. Since Portland was (and still is) a PORT city, there needed to be places to house the lumber, dried fish, tanned cowhides And other things on their way out, and fabrics, machine parts and other “fancy” goods on their way in.
Showing its history
I love seeing the layers of old paint on the bricks, the hints of old signs and logos, like seeing into a building’s past.
Historic relic? Nope, family vehicle!
We saw this truck parked across the street. From the strikingly awful condition of the paint and the business name “Snider Bros. Body and Paint”, assumed it was a prop, a display for the sake of historic flair. But then two fellows came out, started it up, and drove away!
Auntie Bridgett’s pictures always make me look good…
We found “Oblation”, a shop that seemed to feature high end stationary and paper goods, which of course, Auntie Bridgett had to step into. I am so glad we did!
A new adventure…
Besides pens, papers, maps, and other such treasures, we found …typewriters!!! Old, mechanical, click-clacky typewriters! They worked, they typed, they smelled just like high school, and I spent way too much time enjoying them. At one time, we owned three of these lovely beauties, but we let them go when we were lightening our load to move. I miss my old Smith- Corona.
Russian typewriter…so cool!And the tag makes it even cooler!
Just behind the typewriters was a real, old fashioned print shop, with half a dozen platen printing presses. They weren’t running when we were there, but I can imagine it would be mighty impressive when they are.
Power of the press, laying wait
We finally got tired and head home, catching the streetcar to the Magic 15 bus. Another lovely day on the books.
The Pearl is a part of downtown Portland that has seen a lot of ups and downs. In the 1890s it was an important business district, with posh offices and beautifully built brick warehouses. Henry Weinhard’s Brewery operated here for over fifty years. But things changed.
When we visited here in the 1980s, The Pearl was the scary part of town…. you just didn’t go there. Abandoned buildings became home to illegal activities and legitimate businesses fled the neighborhood.
The First Regiment Armory built in 1890, surrounded by shining towers
Folks determined to change that, though, and gave the area the nickname The Pearl to help sell it to investors. Tall shining condos have replaced many of the burned out buildings, and even a few parks have been established to give some light and airflow to the place. New businesses, restaurants, and art galleries inhabit the old warehouses and are bringing people and cash into this corner of town.
On Sunday, we went to the 22nd annual Art in the Pearl festival in The North Park Blocks. Dozens of art and crafts booths lined one part of the park, and dozens of food booths lined the other. There was a river of people looking, eating, chatting, and enjoying the shady venue.
River of folks at the North Park Blocks
As always seems to happen, we got hungry as soon as we arrived! The food booths were very crowded, so Grandpa Nelson found us Fuller’s Coffee Shop, which has been on the corner of NW Davis and 9th since 1947, and looks like it hasn’t changed much in decor since opening day. However, the burger, grilled cheese sandwich and French fries were delicious and very affordable. Sixteen dollars for a three person lunch is a bargain in town!
Lunch at Fuller’s
Once we were fed, the Art-ing began. We walked past most of the booths, but were occasionally drawn in. We chatted with Marjolyn van der Hart, from Toronto, about her painterly collages.
Sheet music, wallpaper, old advertisements and artistry…
Dona Reed, from Anacortes, Washington, does wonderfully evocative linoleum prints of ravens and loons, with just a touch of red. Her booth was very crowded and she was beaming! This one reminded me of our three person household. Grandpa Nelson is in back, saying “Look what I found!” Auntie Bridgett says, “I like this one!” and I am saying “Oops! I dropped mine…”
Linoleum print of ravens
As we continued, I found a booth that reminded me of your Great Grandpa Lowell. Anthony Hansen uses old metal, from cars, factories and license plates to make metal ‘quilts’. They are welded and grommeted together in interesting ways while keeping the original colors.
At another booth featuring metal, Auntie Bridgett recognized the work of an artist that shows at SideStreetArts, but whom she had never met. Amy Ruedinger is a metalworker and they had a nice getting-to-know-each- other conversation.
We stopped by Kim Murton’s booth because of the whimsical ceramics but stayed for the fabric prints and conversation. Kim has been part of the Art Fairs in Portland for about six years, she said, and is finally getting her booth the way she likes it. She was very modest, not mentioning that she had designed the tee shirts being sold this year by the Fair. We got the very last one in our size from the Information booth!
The last artist we visited with was Josh, of Pacific Northwest Sculptors. He works in my own favorite medium, paper mache! He uses flour and paper for the outside and all sorts of things for the armature, even creating a unicorn strong enough for children to sit on! He made this for his daughter, because, he says, “I am not a monster. If I make a unicorn, my daughter should be able to sit on it!” We saw him working on a series of tentacles that just cracks me up.
We found more in the Pearl, but that’s all for now!
Rusty Tennant as ‘Lady’ Jacques and Jacquelle David as Phebe
This is a post about gender. Gender means being a boy or a girl. For a long time, girls had to dress in ruffles and pink, they were supposed to like dolls and be afraid of spiders. Boys were supposed to dress and act a different way, like wearing jeans and boots and playing rough, and never showing their feelings.
Rusty Tennant again, as Touchstone, and Evan Tait as Audrey
Also for a long time, people thought you had to be a girl OR a boy. There was no neither, and no in between. Now there are. I have friends who have taught me about it, and plays like As You Like It help me see it more clearly.
Many people are saying we should be able to decide how we want to act and dress, no matter what gender we are born with. There are lots of words for this, but the one I used when I first learned about it was “gender-bending”.
Cat Miller as Rosalind, pretending to be Gannymede
I like this idea, and this word. I was always the girl in jeans and thirty feet up a tree, or under the car learning about engines. I wasn’t very good at being a ‘girl’.
Paul Bright as Duke Senior, admitting that he is fifty years old
This weekend we went to see As You Like It, a Shakespeare play, at Reed College. It is a play about gender, and gender-bending, and it was written 420 years ago! So you see, this gender thing isn’t new.
Alex Blesi as Orlando
The play was really interesting because in addition to Mr. Shakespeare’s gender bending characters falling in love, some of the actors who played men were played by women, and the other way ’round. You had to pay attention to keep things clear… but it was worth it!
Kate Cummings as Olive and Evan Tait, again, as Le Beu
The actors from the Portland Actor’s Ensemble are incredibly talented. As well as being great actors, they are comics, singers, boxers, and sword fighters. Many actors played two or three roles, sometimes switching costumes and roles while walking across the stage. It was a amazing to see. The staging was fun, too, with lots of making faces and playing with the audience.
Counting out the kinds of Courtly Lies
The basic story of the play is that some people from a noble castle are exiled to the forest, meet and fall in love with people there, then return home. There are three or four sets of people in love with other people, and it all gets confusing and funny. There are beautiful music, bad poetry, goats, speeches, and tantrums.
Sofia Molina as a tree, which has been hung with odes to Rosalind by the lovesick Orlando
It is all of human nature… but louder. I loved it.
Dear Liza 