This week, our temperatures have started moving step by step from the low 40s toward the 50s! Because of the time change, it is even light in the evening, and we went for a walk after dinner last night and I didn’t need gloves or a scarf. Auntie Bridgett even wore her sunglasses.
And just as I am getting more confident in the warmth, so are the flowers. Crocus, jonquils, and even some trees are budding. I keep waiting for Willie, the baby dawn redwood that was planted in Laurelhurst Park, to sprout his first new leaves.
And, yes, romance is in the air on Firwood Lake. Robins and ducks are chasing each other around, flapping and acting like misguided missiles. We keep creating dialogue for them…
“Edna! I love you!”
“Leave me alone, Sheldon, for goodness sakes!”
“But I love you!”
“Stop splashing me, Sheldon!”
I hope the weather stays nice and warm for this weekend, so we can all have some adventures while you are in town.
This weekend, two of Grandpa Nelson’s Cousins came to Portland to visit. Cousin Ann is a massage therapist in Kent, Washington, and her sister Carol does the same job in Oxnard, California.
Of course, they wanted to see our new home, so we dusted and tidied up, and had nice long chats catching up on their lives and those of their five brothers and sisters and their parents, Grandpa Nelson’s Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul. Then we headed down a block down on Belmont to Suzette, our local crepe place… actually, one of our local crepe places…but it’s the closest. The food was tasty and the atmosphere, as always, was friendly and comfortable. We stayed long after we had finished eating, just chatting away.
But we did need to get moving, because the cousins also wanted to see Auntie Katie’s bookstore, Books with Pictures, and her NEW, gonna-be bookstore, which, for now, is called “Building for Books” to differentiate it from the actual shop. Auntie Katie hopes to open it and give it its proper name by mid-May.
When we got there, we found six people, plus Katie, doing all sorts of work. A mother and daughter team were taping and masking windows so the walls could be painted. A burly fellow was trying to pick the lock of a door (from the inside) that had been locked years ago and the key lost. Another man was spackling holes and all sorts of gouges in the walls, also to be ready for painting.
I know this building will get done, because Auntie Katie DOES things. And I know that once it is done that it will be successful, as well. She has great books, wonderful service and love of her customers, and her new shop is actually across the street from an elementary school! Customers just walking by, every day! Hooray!!
After seeing all the progress being made (and all that is yet to be done) we sent the cousins off to the new part of the Jupiter Hotel, up on Burnside, so they could rest and shower. This new part is called Jupiter Next and we actually visited, but did not stay here, this past summer when it was new. It is very modern and hip, and the crowd and music in the bar sort of make the whole building vibrate. Even the art in the mirrored hallways is cool.
We met them for dinner in the Doug Fir, the log-cabiny looking restaurant that is part of the hotel. It was chatty but not deafening, and the food, beer, and wine were very good. Hours more of conversation and we hugged goodbye and headed home.
What a family! What a visit! Looking forward to seeing you this weekend, Liza McGeeza.
It has been a weird few days. Exciting, but weird.
First, we had blooms…lots of blooms. Jonquils, crocus, Daphnes, and jasmines, looking like they came off a Hallmark card and smelling like a perfume factory. Bright yellows and purples, in bizarre combinations, just all over the place.
Then we had snow…drifting flakes that match the lyrics to the song we used to sing in Kinderbloom, “It snowed last night, it snowed last night, the sky bears had a pillow fight!”
Then the temperature went up two degrees, and it all melted away, except for the little lake in Laurelhurst Park, half of which stayed frozen. Sticks tossed on it bounced. Frozen weeds looked like trapped Inferi. Confused ducks walked on it.
Spring is coming, and I’m sure that in the hot weather of July, I will remember this cold weather fondly.
Last year for my birthday, Auntie Katie and I went to see the play, “Hamilton” in downtown Portland. It was amazing, but incredibly expensive. Last night, Grandpa Nelson, Auntie Bridgett and I all went to the Alberta Rose Theater to see “Rise Up”, the Hamilton tribute band. It was wonderful, fun, and not expensive. The evening was cold, dry, and windy, so we bundled up and ducked inside shops… a lot.
Distraction!
First, we stopped by the Guardino art gallery to see the new show there. You know I don’t take pictures in galleries, so you will have to take my word for it, the felted creatures of Karen Thurman are whimsical and delightful. They are cute, in an alien-invasion sort of way, and make you smile while wondering what, exactly, you are smiling at.
John Brodie of Monograph Bookwerks
We wandered down the street, enjoying donuts from Angel’s and stopping in at Monograph Bookwerks, run by John Brodie. Auntie Bridgett fell in love with the collection of books on art and design, bringing home the catalogue of a Jean-Michael Basquiat show we just missed seeing years ago in Paris. She also succumbed to the charms of walnut ink made from a heritage walnut tree that grows in the southwest part of town. I had fun looking at the “ephemera” collection, which included radical political pamphlets from the 1960s and advertisements for non-standard schools of the 1970s.
Auntie Bridgett’s splurge: Walnut Ink!
Crossing the street, we found “&”. Yes, “&” is the name of the shop, pronounced “Ampersand”. They carry books about artists and had on display some intriguingly fun plays with song lyrics, including The Beatles “A Day in the Life”.
Lyrics as art at &
Handsome Grandpa and Distraction!
We had a tasty dinner of clam chowder, Shepherd’s Jacket, Guinness and cider, at T. C. O’Leary’s Pub, then braved the cold once again to wait in line for the show, just across the street at the 1925 Alberta Rose Theater.
“Rise Up” is two female and three male vocalists backed by a piano, drums, bass, synthesizer and electric violin. Because of copyright and licensing rules, they do not perform the songs from Hamilton in order, nor do they do only Hamilton songs, nor all the Hamilton songs. Of the forty-six (twenty three in each act) songs, they did about seventeen. But they did them so well, with such style and strength, joy and energy and vocal power, that it was a great show.
At one point, the cast invited Bridging Voices, a local choir of LGBTQ folks from age 13 to 19, on stage. Bridging Voices gives these at-risk people a place to shine as well as hone their musical skills, and they performed “My Shot”, an incredibly difficult song, very well.
After singing an encore of “The Battle of Yorktown”, the band received a standing ovation and we all dashed off to our freezing cars to head home. It had been a great night, but it was late and cold, and we were ready for time on the couch with Mousekin the cat.
Auntie Bridgett got a lovely offer last month to display her art in Moonstruck Chocolate, a pretty candy shop in a fancy shopping neighborhood. It is on 23rd Street in the northwest part of Portland, and is nicknamed The Trendy-Third. We visited it a few weeks ago and she knew there was a lot of wall space, so she took a lot of pieces!
The walls were bare when we got there. Jennifer, the lady in charge of the place, was very friendly and offered coffee and chocolates to keep our spirits up.
Friendly, busy Jennifer
Since I have helped Bridgett hang art many times, we work well together, and the morning went smoothly. Deciding on placement, measuring, measuring again, putting in nails, leveling and labeling each of the twenty or so pieces took all morning and by lunch, we were hungry!
Bridgett and the artworkOne grouping on the wall
We walked down to The Fireside, where we had dinner last year. Sadly, they had been vandalized, with big windows broken, but they were open for business as charming and delicious as ever. Auntie Bridgett enjoyed their Delicata squash salad, and I had a grilled cheese sandwich ( with cheese outside as well as inside). So yummy!
The marquee says “Yes, We are open!”
We finished up at Moonstruck and headed for home, and I realized how tired I was. I stretched out in the couch and napped, being lazy for the rest of the day.
Auntie Katie has had her bookshop, called Books with Pictures, near the corner of 12th and Division for two and a half years now. And she has lived at Tamarack and Hickory Streets, about four blocks away, for much longer. That’s a nice, short commute to work.
Now, her commute is going to be even shorter! She has just bought a building, at the corner of Division and Orange, that will have her shop on the ground floor and an apartment for her and the cousins to live in on the second floor! To get to work, she just needs to head downstairs. (She could even go in her jammies!)
This building, which was built in 1926, started out as a grocery store. It then changed to a butcher shop. But it has been a bookstore for about fifty years, under the names Serendipity Corner, Pegasus, and more recently, Longfellow’s Books. People in the neighborhood were sad to see the old shop close, and are very happy and supportive of Katie in her work to keep this lovely building healthy and prosperous.
Piano upstairs in the apartment!
Since the building is so old, it has some problems that need solving. The plumbing needs work, the electrical system is not enough for modern living, and the roof (probably) leaks a little.
But it has a basement that is dry and has space for a (planned) record shop and music venue. It has street front windows that will invite people to stop in, chat, and buy some books. It has a two bedroom apartment upstairs that came complete with an old, sweet-sounding piano. And most important, it has Auntie Katie, Jasper and Kestrel, who will turn it into a home.
The Pittock Grandchildren who grew up in the Mansion
Mr. and Mrs. Pittock raised several daughters, who married and had children, and also adopted some nieces when the girls became orphaned. So the Mansion couldn’t just be elegant, it had to be fun.
Puppet Theater
The children must have spent summer days running in the woods and gardens, and there was also a tennis court. For inside play, there was a playroom filled with all sorts of fancy toys…..a puppet theater, rocking chair, and toy elephant. These toys were made of wood and metal, and have been well cared for, so we can see them today.
Down in the caretaker’s house, we saw toys for children of the servant class… lovely, but not as elaborate. The beds and furniture were kid-sized to leave more room in the small rooms for play.
Caretaker’s daughter’s bed
I enjoyed imagining the children running up and down the grand staircase, maybe bouncing balls along the marble hall, their voices echoing out over the gardens. And maybe, on quiet evenings, playing piano or learning to embroider.
Embroidered table linens
I know we can’t live in the past, but I do love to visit!
Upstairs from the public rooms at the Pittock Mansion are the private rooms. These include bedrooms, bathrooms, a sewing room, and playrooms for the children.
The Grand Staircase
Mr. and Mrs. Pittock had separate bedrooms, as was the style of the time. His was more “masculine”, with darker colors, and had a more elaborate bathroom attached to it.
Mr. Pittock’s Fascinating Shower
The guide who was telling us about the room, Guy, was a man of about forty, and had a personal story to tell about the room. He told us that when he was a child, his family came to visit the Mansion, which had been reopened to the public. Young Guy, his parents having wandered away, found himself alone in Mr. Pittock’s bathroom and was fascinated by the complicated brass shower. He stepped in and started flipping switches, and soon found himself being blasted with water from all sides!
Guy, the Shower Flooder
Terrified and soaking wet, he burst out of the shower and ran to find his mother. Embarrassed by this obvious infraction, his mother pulled him by the ear out of the Mansion and into the car. His father thought the whole thing was very funny.
To make things worse, Guy had left the water running, and no one was aware that the shower had filled up and overflowed into the rest of the suite until quite a bit of damage was done.
Fast forward to a few years ago, when Guy had moved back to Portland and become a docent, or guide, at the very same Pittock Mansion. One evening, out with friends and fellow docents, Guy told his story of the shower, asking them not to tell their supervisor. No such luck.
A few days later the supervisor came to let Guy know she knew his past. She told him that the flooding caused by his shenanigans had made such a mess that the water in the house was no longer turned on, for fear of a repeat of the disaster. She also told him he had to continue being a docent, and telling this story, until the end of time. He agreed.
Once we were inside the Pittock Mansion, we were able to walk around with a map and look at the public and private rooms. They were all furnished with proper period furniture, but few of the actual Pittock family things, due to roof leaks and water damage. The furniture we saw was mostly donated by wealthy Portland families anxious to play a part in this celebration of history.
In the Music Room stood a grand piano and harp, with comfy furniture and magnificent views of the garden and city beyond. I can imagine the Pittock daughters playing for friends and family here. The Library was nearby, which seemed to be used for family card games as well as study.
Formal Dining Room
On the same floor was the formal dining room, furnished in dark wood, along with a heavy Chinese screen. Close by, smaller and brighter, was the breakfast room, which was where I would like to eat.
Sunny Breakfast Room
The formal entrance was a small round foyer, which seemed almost undersized for such a fine house. Mirroring that small round room was another, far more ornate one, labeled “The Turkish Smoking Room.” This carved and painted room was where the gentlemen of the day could close the door to the house, open the door to the outside, and enjoy their cigars without stinking the house up. This elaborate room was only used by guests; Mr. Pittock didn’t smoke.
Ceiling of the Turkish Smoking Room
I especially enjoyed looking at the kitchen, where the finest 1915 appliances were on display. The wood burning stove looked like an iron and ceramic altar to the worship of food preparation. The sink had a suspended dish drainer that was ingenious, but seemed small for the number of dishes that would have been washed, with nearly a dozen people living in the house.
1915 altar to food preparation
Of course, I took note of many of the things because I need to know what sorts of stoves, sinks, and such I can use in my story. None of my characters were as rich as the Pittocks, but I got to feel, for a while, that I was walking through my 1903 Portland.
I will tell you about the family’s private rooms tomorrow!
On Saturday, we drove back up into the West Hills above Portland, this time to visit the most famous house in the city, The Pittock Mansion. This finely handcrafted, but not overly grandiose house was built by Henry Pittock, the Editor and owner of the biggest newspaper in town, The Oregonian. Like Mr. Hearst, who built the Hearst Castle in California, Mr. Pittock made a lot of money publishing newspapers and then used that money to make more money.
Even though they were very rich, Mr. Pittock and his wife, Georgianna, had lived most of their lives in much simpler houses in downtown Portland. They had raised kids and adopted orphan nieces. Mrs. Pittock did a lot of work for charities and cultural development. But near the end of their lives, in 1915, they created the Mansion they are known for and moved up the hill, living in it for only four years before they passed away.
View of the House
Theirs was the first house this far up the hill. They had to build the roads, lay the pipes, and run the electric lines. It was an incredibly expensive undertaking.
We knew that by going in February, we would not be seeing the grounds at their blooming best, but that there would be lots to see, anyway. We were right. The road to the Mansion was winding and not very steep, because it had been designed for horses to pull carriages up.
View of the City
The house is built in the style of a French Chateau, and both the house and the gardens around it were designed to take advantage of views of the city, the views of the garden, and the natural light that is to be had above the low fog that sometimes hangs over the Willamette River below.
Mrs. Pittock was known in town for her Rose parties, and she is widely credited with working to advance the rose culture of the 1890s. Sadly, none of her original roses have survived, but the caretakers have planted hundreds of roses, lilacs, azaleas, rhododendrons, and other plants that we will enjoy when we return in summer.
I will tell you more about the inside of the house tomorrow!
Dear Liza 