I know I will have lots of Christmas pictures to share with you, but they will come tomorrow. Auntie Bridgett and I went for a walk to the market (who knew we didn’t have any tomato paste?) and saw some lovely things. A friendly cat came out to check our credentials.
We saw another cat in a window, looking very warm and cozy, while this hummingbird mocked her from the top of a very bare tree. There was also n early blooming azalea making the world pretty.
Hummingbird being still
We talked to a man about the tree by his door, which is blooming, in mid-winter. He said it is called a viburnum, and that he planted it precisely because in the cold dark, it would bloom and smell sweetly. There is also a Daphne bush, which we have by our front door! I look forward to all the lovely scents coming soon.
Viburnum
And by Sunnyside School, we found this posting of neighborhood friendliness. We just took one, because we already feel pretty full of love, with family, friends, home and hearth so close.
Merry Christmas!! I hope you and your Mommy and Daddy have a fun day with Baba Alla and lots of presents and good food. I will be spending the day with Cousins Kyle, Jasper and Kestrel, and Auntie Christy and Bridgett, and Grandpa Nelson.
Last night we took Auntie Christy and cousin Kyle to Zoolights. We went with Katie and the cousins last year, but Katie still has a cold and it was going to be a wet night.
First, Christy and I went to the movies downtown to see “Welcome to Marwen”, a movie that looks really sad but is really very hopeful. Steve Carell, who does the voice of Gru in the Despicable Me movies, was the star and did a very good job of making us believe an unbelievable story.
Portland’s Living Room
When the movie was over, I showed Christy around our pretty downtown…the trees wrapped in lights, and Pioneer Square (which Portlanders call ‘The Living Room’) with its giant Christmas tree.
Grandpa Nelson, cousin Kyle and Auntie Bridgett met us there and we got on the train to the zoo. It was cold and damp, but not raining…..yet.
Before the Rain
As we got into the zoo, it began, and kept raining all night. We had brought umbrellas and hats, gloves and coats, but I could feel my feet getting wetter and wetter as I enjoyed the lights and dealt with crowds.
We stopped for food at the Africafe, where we usually watch the birds darting around their aviary. But they were all asleep. It was odd, being at the zoo when all the animals were not active, sort of like sneaking into someone’s house when they are away. Along with a few hundred other folks.
When we had walked the route and gotten just about as wet as we could, we caught the train back downtown….and then the rain really kicked in! Fifth Street was a river that happened to have streetcar tracks in it. Thanks goodness for Portland’s covered bus stops, or we would have been miserable.
The Zoo Train racing with dinosaurs
We were home around 7, but we were all exhausted. We changed into dry clothes, hung up the wet ones, and watched Graham Norton until we got sleepy, around 9:00. Falling asleep, I thought about how good it is to get wet and cold, get warm and dry again, and be with family.
Grandpa Nelson and I got married 44 years ago, on the Winter Solstice in 1974. We had been dating almost four years, and I had graduated high school just six months earlier. We were on winter break from the California State University at Long Beach.
The wedding was at the church I had gone to as a child, and the reception was at Great Grandma Billie’s house in Manhattan Beach. The caterer was her best friend, Millie Meyer, who ran a sandwich shop and owned a meat slicer. We acted very grown up.
When you get married at 18, acting grown up feels important.
Here in Portland yesterday, I walked the mile down to Auntie Katie’s house. She is suffering from a cold and needed a little help. I took the makings of chicken soup, got it going, did some dishes, gave Katie her lunch, and went to the market for groceries. Then I walked home and helped Auntie Bridgett clean the house.
I AM the grown up now, so pretending I am one is less important.
So, for our big anniversary celebration this evening, we will walk down to Bread and Ink for dinner and then over to the Bagdad Theater to watch the new Mary Poppins movie. The child in me will delight in Disney joy while appreciating the man who married me all those years ago, when we were so young our friends gave us giant candles and houseplants for wedding gifts because they were kids, too.
There is always something going on in our city! Just down the block, where a Zupan’s Market used to be (it closed before we moved in), a new H Mart is going in. This is a Korean chain of markets known for fresh vegetables and fresh fish, including hand rolled sushi ! When it opens, weekly shopping will go from being a car trip to a short walk. That will be amazing.
On Belmont, there are lots of fun shops and places to eat and drink. A nice clothing shop (which carries pretty clothes that just don’t fit me) is called Twill. Yesterday as I sat waiting for the bus, it was getting its front door repaired. The fellow had his ladder and power screwdriver and kept adjusting and re- adjusting, I imagine trying to get it done before the rain started again.
I spent a few hours on the fourth floor of the Oregon Historical Society, reading about Chinatown and ice cream stores in 1903 Portland.
When I went outside to eat some of Auntie Bridgett’s Aunt Chris’s Christmas cookies for snack, I saw a fellow up on a scaffold, doing some work above the brick patio in front of the History Museum. He was carving letters into the concrete building, (which was noisy, but really cool to see) declaring the brick area in front the Jin and Juliann Park Plaza. I don’t know who the Parks are, but they must have given a lot of money to the Historical Society, for which I am grateful.
One way you can tell a really good Museum is when you can go several times in just a few months and keep seeing new things. Today I took cousins Jasper and Kestrel to OMSI, and I had so much fun! I picked the kids up at Books with Pictures and we hopped on the Orange Line train.
This huge locomotive was venting steam into the chilly air. The cloud was enormous! But what caught our eye was this fellow standing in the middle of the cloud of steam, apparently keeping an eye on things up there.
We got tickets for the regular Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the King Tut exhibit, too. I had seen King Tut at the museum’s Halloween gala, but it’s always fun seeing things with kidlets…you see things through their eyes, and everything looks different.
Watching the reveal of the tomb
For example, cousin Jasper was very taken with how Mr. Carter must have felt when he discovered the undisturbed tomb, and how exciting it is to discover new things. He was also pleased to actually see things that he had only read about.
I know I have told you before how much Jasper doesn’t like posing for pictures, so you will forgive me for having mostly Kestrel photos. Both kids were fascinated, listening to the commentary on the audio guides and staring at the artifacts. Kestrel was intrigued by the sarcophagus but hurried by the replica of King Tut’s actual mummy, but I can’t blame her. He’s been dead over 3,500 years and doesn’t look very well.
After we had looked, listened and read everything and were headed down for lunch, we saw a new thing which held our attention for another hour: The World of Animation. This well designed, hands on, kid friendly exhibit allows kids (and their lucky adults) to create stop motion animation, make sound effects for cartoons, and act in short movies of their own. It was wonderful!
Concentration
By the time we were done, I was really ready for some lunch. I pried the kids away and we went downstairs to Theory, the museum’s cafe, for pizza on the terrace. It was chilly but not yet raining, and we had coats, so we enjoyed the fresh air. The terrace faces the Tilikum, Marquam, and Hawthorne Bridges as well as the beautiful Willamette, so we had a great view as we nibbled.
By then, it was two o’clock and we needed to leave by three, so I gave the kids one hour in the big Hall. There are so many hands on activities, I never want to leave. Kestrel launched a water rocket which flew straight up to the ceiling of the huge room and Jasper spent his time figuring out some Tangram style puzzles and playing with the orbit table.
Making things happen
On our way out of the museum, we stopped by a room where some amazing gingerbread creations were on display. A talented group of artists had made funny gingerbread art, using the King Tut exhibit as inspiration. Some had Minions, some had mice, and they were all beautiful, silly, and edible!
Sphinx cat catching some mice
Finally, I had to pull the plug on the day so we could get home before we all melted down. We read comic books borrowed from Auntie Katie’s shop at the train stop and got back to Books with Pictures just as the rain started.
Art at Books with Pictures
By the time I got myself home, it was raining for real and I was wet and cold, having forgotten my Indiana Jones hat at home. Oh well, hot tea and dinner put me right again.
Last night we visited something I hadn’t even known existed: A Night Market. Down on SE 9th and Main, two warehouses and the street between them were closed to traffic and open for business.
Hundreds of vendors of food, wine, spirits, ceramics, jewelry, and handmade gifts of all sorts were packed side by side, filling the space. And filling in the space between the hundreds of booths were thousands of people!
Lovely people at Pip’s Doughnuts
Outside, we enjoyed Pip’s doughnuts, a Chop Chop Chicken Sundae (no ice cream but a very tasty dinner), Greek yogurt, and samples of all sorts of goodies.
Amazing historical industrial remnants
Inside, I enjoyed looking at the old fixtures from when the building was a factory of some sort and delighting in the contrast of cast iron and silver balloons. The mezzanine loft also held booths selling paper goods, handbags, and plants of all sorts.
Decor!
We smelled some lovely perfumes (and a few stinkers) , picked up cards from a few local publishers for future reference, and realized that we had seen all there was to see. It was time to go home.
Our first house in Portland was at the corner of SE 29th and Pine Street. One block up the hill stands a building that was clearly built as a small church…. steeply peaked roof, one main room, high pitched ceiling. It seemed deserted, with no one going in or out, the only lights coming on with timers.
We wondered about this little church. Who had built it? How old was it? Who owned it now and what were their plans for it?
Well, yesterday, we got some (only some) of our questions answered. Auntie Bridgett was walking home from the SideStreet Arts Gallery and sent me a text. “The little church is open! Wanna come?” Of course I did!
Outside, I found a sign advertising an Eclectica Sale. Inside, I found Auntie Bridgett chatting with artist Catherine Rondthaler. She told us what she knew about the church, and it goes like this.
Up until five years ago, she says, it was an operational church, although Catherine doesn’t know what it was called. The attendance at the church was dwindling, and the building was sold. The young man who bought it planned, with his girlfriend, to refurbish the building as a home and live there. But the relationship fell apart and he lost interest. He is out of town a great deal and was having trouble getting anything done.
Artist Catherine Rondthaler
Catherine stepped up, volunteering to get the building to a point where it could be used for community events, but in the meantime, using it as a studio. Towards those ends, she is selling lots of delightful trinkets she has collected over the years, as well as some of her prints and other folks’ paintings.
We found all sorts of little things for Christmas stockings, and while I was taking photos, Auntie Bridgett found my prize! A vintage top hat that folds flat and springs up when you hit the brim, just like in the old movies! It fit me perfectly and…well, let’s just say it came home with us! She also found a wonderful orange briefcase for herself, into which we put all our treasures.
Classy dissident me in front of Catherine’s dissident flags
We walked home to rest up for our next adventure. More about that tomorrow.
My history story about Portland is coming along very well. I actually printed a copy out and had Grandpa Nelson read it! He reads so much that he is a good judge of when a story works, when it doesn’t, and what it needs to make it better.
My story, under construction
He asks good questions, too, questions that I don’t know the answers to…yet.
As usual when I have questions I need answered, I headed downtown to the Oregon Historical Society. Auntie Bridgett came along, but went to the Portland Art Museum.
I spent a few hours reading books about the streetcars that used to run all over the city, and found some really interesting things to use in my story. Did you know there were streetcars that ran on steam engines until 1903? I didn’t!
First Congregational Church and other lights
At 5:00, the library closed and I went to fetch Auntie Bridgett at the Museum. They have so many beautiful things in their gift shop, it was hard to pull ourselves away. We bundled up and walked down the dark, Christmas-lit streets of Portland. The weather was clear and cold, and everything looked so pretty!
We got to Kenny and Zuke’s, our favorite deli, and Grandpa Nelson came downtown to meet us for dinner. When we were full of chicken soup, pastrami and French fries, we walked over to Powell’s bookstore.
Urban Christmas
The author of Lost Portland Oregon, Val C. Ballestrem, was giving a talk about his book. It is a history of a dozen or so important buildings that are no longer standing in Portland, and it is fascinating (of course we bought a copy!)
Some buildings, like the Temple Beth Israel Synagogue , were burned by an arsonist. Another, the Marquam Building and Opera, collapsed while being repaired. And still others, the ones that make me the saddest, were torn down in the interest of urban renewal….. to make room for a parking lot.
There were photographs of the buildings and the lots they stood on, which give a hint of how the city landscape has been molded and changed over the century and a half going from a cabin by the Willamette to urban metropolis.
It is interesting, sometimes sad, always amazing, and I am so glad I get to be here to learn about it!
For the past year or so, we have been watching a new building go up on Belmont Street. In a small vacant lot between two buildings from the 1890s, fences went up, foundations were poured, and walls were built. Sometimes weeks would go by with no change, then a whole flurry of trucks would come go, and, presto, the lights were on, or the flooring was in.
The people in the neighborhood had mixed feelings about this. Some were happy to see the ugly lot go away. Older residents mourned the business that had been there 20 years ago and bemoaned the modernization of our lovely neighborhood. I was just interested in what would come next.
Bright and friendly
Turns out, it is a Pub, and it opened this week. We went over for dinner last night to give it a try. The going home traffic along Belmont made the dark, rainy street very loud and splashy. It was nice to step into the bright new place.
Drew behind the counter
The cement floors, red walls and shiny wooden tables made the pub very bright and welcoming. Drew, the fellow behind the counter, took our orders for beer and cider and we had a seat. My Chocolate stout was really rich and comforting and the ciders, from Excelsior, were sharp and refreshing.
Grandpa Nelson had fries, of course. They are the thick cut kind, which the Brits call “chips”, and very good. Auntie Bridgett had a bean and cheese burrito, which was tasty and a generous size. I had a chicken pot pie, which seemed small for the twelve dollar price and was very bland. The menu has a wide variety of choices and we will come back, hunting for our favorites.
The owner of this new place, Valerie, stopped by to say hello, and we wished her luck with her Pub.
Valerie, the owner
Along the back wall are games for kids, and a large chalkboard, which Bridgett could not resist.
Auntie Bridgett at play
We enjoyed the space, which was friendly and welcoming, and a few other people did, too. I hope The Belmont Pub finds its feet and has good business through the holiday season.
Well, our new Christmas tree is up and decorated. It looks so pretty, sitting by the window of our new home. But I love it mostly for the memories it is decorated with.
Auntie Bridgett has ornaments from her childhood in Eureka, California. Her first Snoopy ornament, along with two ceramic angels she painted with her mom when she was seven, hold precious memories for her.
Auntie Bridgett’s Angels
I have some ornaments that belonged to great-grandma Billie. The pine cone is so fragile, I am surprised it has lasted the sixty-or-so years it has, and her love of birds is shown in all the feathered friends now perched on my tree.
Great Grandma Billie’s Pine cone and birds
We have bought ornaments on our travels, too. Admiral Nelson is from our trip to London. He is no relation to Grandpa Nelson.
Admiral Horatio Charles Nelson (No relation)
Sometimes, the connection is harder to see. These tiny gnomes are from Cologne, Germany.
When we were there, we heard a tale that hundreds of years ago, a bunch of little men would come every night and do people’s chores….clean the house, milk the cows, stuff like that. The story continues that a young housewife became curious, and wanted to see the little men for herself.
When she surprised the gnomes at their work, they got mad and left, never to return. Needless to say, the town was very angry with her and even built a statue of her, to warn against investigating magical things too closely.
I love that so many stories play out in my head when I look at our tree. I love that we get tell the stories again, every year.
Dear Liza 