Judy – Page 154 – Dear Liza

New Bookstores!!

Dear Liza,

**The Front of Backstory Books and Yarn**

You know how much I love books. The hardest things we gave away when we were moving were all those old friends between covers. But now I can see all my old friends and even make new ones: There are two new bookshops in the neighborhood!

I’ve mentioned Backstory Books and Yarn, on Hawthorne. This is a bookshop which has recently changed hands and re-opened. The former owner is in her 80s and has retired, selling the shop to Amanda, the new owner. The former owner still lives in the house in back of the shop, though. It must be rewarding to see the business she built with her late husband continue to grow and thrive.

I hope she can make it happen, since she is just a few blocks away from Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, which is a branch of the bigger Powell’s store downtown and very strong competition.

Closer to our house is Belmont Books, on Belmont Street, which is so new it doesn’t even have a sign yet. We visited the other day and met Joe, the proprietor, and Mitch, his friend and fellow book-scout. Belmont Books is smaller than Backstory, but the stock is very well-chosen. We chatted with Joe about his process of collecting books, and he mentioned the Belmont library “Friends of the Library” book sale, which sounds like something I will need to look for.

**Still waiting for a proper sign on Belmont**

Both these bookshops are independent, which means they aren’t part of any bigger company. They are run BY people who love books, FOR people who love books. You know, people like me!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Wondrous Finds

Dear Liza,

The other day, I was walking home from Auntie Katie’s house. It had just stopped raining and the sun had come out. I was walking up Belmont Street, keeping my eye on the ground since the fallen leaves can make the sidewalk slippery.

And I saw something shiny. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it unless I was looking straight down, because it isn’t very big, only about seven inches by twelve, and set flat into the sidewalk. It is a printing plate, a flat metal plate with raised letters. All the writing is backwards, as it would need to be to print properly.

I took a photo so I could remember it and looked it up when I got home. The poem is by an American writer named Joe Bruchac, who was born in 1942. He has written over 120 books of poetry, stories and history that reflect his Abenaki Indian ancestry. He has won awards, taught in prisons, and volunteered in Africa.

Here is his poem, Birdfoot’s Grampa, quoted from the printing plate on Southeast Belmont.

The old man

must have stopped our car

two dozen times to climb out

and gather into his hands

the small toads blinded

by our lights and leaping,

live drops of rain.

The rain was falling,

a mist about his white hair

and I kept saying

you can’t save them all

accept it, get back in

we’ve got places to go.

But, leather hands full

of wet brown life

knee deep in the summer

roadside grass

he just smiled and said

they have places to go too.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Lovely Damp

Dear Liza,

We are now getting into the part of Fall that is damp and grey. If it is isn’t raining at any given moment, it has recently stopped or will begin again soon. When we were thinking of moving to Portland, this is one thing I worried about….as a former Southern California beach girl and Salinas resident, how would I do in a fairly constant situation of damp?

So far, it suits me right down to the (rather soggy) ground. Granted, I am not working, so I don’t have damp students or muddy shoes to deal with, and we have a cozy warm house that keeps the chill away.

But even outside, there is so much life and beauty that it’s hard to be too fussy about it. At Laurelhurst Park there are mushrooms that spring like fairy lamp posts from the mud, and leaves that sparkle on the dark paths.

We have even found a sweet chestnut tree! We have named it Leila, after my aunt who had eleven children, because she is so prolific. Yesterday evening, when it was nearly dark, we foraged about eight pounds of chestnuts.The squirrels called us bad names, I think.

Walking through Ladd’s Addition, where Auntie Katie lives, is a joy, as well. The old trees and shady yards feel like a forest, with moss, ferns and earth that smells alive and happy. When the clouds part for a minute, the sunshine is so glorious that people stop and smile.

**Foresty front yard in Ladd’s Addition**

Meanwhile, inside, there is quilting and reading, split pea soup with bacon and movies.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The Pumpkin Patch

Dear Liza,

**In the Corn Maze ! Photo Credit, Bridgett Spicer**

On Sunday, we returned to Sauvie Island, just north of Portland. It was a chilly, rainy day, and as we drove over grey bridges and couldn’t even make out the dark Willamette below us, we had some second thoughts. We had boots and coats, and Auntie Bridgett even had her trusty umbrella…but going to a farm in the rain?

“At least it won’t be crowded on a day like this,” I thought. Obviously, I have a lot to learn about Portlanders. Every pumpkin farm on the island was busy, and The Pumpkin Patch’s huge gravel overflow parking lot was almost full. We were lucky to find a spot.

There was mud anyplace there wasn’t gravel, and we picked our way carefully to the main area. From the middle of the yard, we could see the food stalls, the Animal Barn with critters to pet, the Pumpkin Perk coffee trailer, the gift shop, and the line for Hay Rides. We ate (corn on the cob, a turkey sandwich and kettle corn), then felt ready to tackle the Corn Maze.

Corn Mazes can be pretty hit and miss, but this one was really well done. There were clues in the form of trivia questions (you got to choose your area of expertise….we chose Movies, Halloween, and Corn), and when you got to certain intersections, the trivia answers gave you directions.

There were also delightfully “corny” cartoons that were puns… it was fun to watch kids stare blankly while their parents cracked up! It rained quite a bit while we were in the maze, and the sound of the rain on the corn was magical to my country girl DNA.

The corn was still green and full, making it nearly impossible to see from one path to the next, and the stalks were about eleven feet high and still had fat green corn! There were bridges, too, not to go over anything, but to let us see the maze from above. From up there, it was just a vast sea of corn silks and green, with not a clue of how to get out.

We did a good deal of backtracking and walking in circles, but with intuition, listening for traffic noise, and splitting up long enough to check out ‘loops’, we got through.

We were sure tired, and no wonder. Auntie Bridgett’s fitness watch said we walked nearly 2 and a quarter miles! Our final duty was to buy some pumpkins…one for carving and looking at, and one for baking. Done!

We got home and I got dinner started while we got off our feet. Tonight, we watch “The Mummy” with Boris Karloff. Ooooooo…

Love, Grandma Judy

Art and Brunch

Dear Liza,

Last Friday I got to help Auntie Katie get her basement decorated so she can start using it as an Air Bed and Breakfast. It has nice new paint and furniture, but the walls are bare. So her friends Murray and Lurline, their tiny daughter Mary Helen and I, matted art, hammered nails and made funny faces (that was Mary Helen). We made good progress.

Then, because it was First Friday, we went to visit Auntie Bridgett at the SideStreet Arts Gallery. Bridgett’s art looks so good! I love her collages. Since she was busy hosting the First Friday event, Grandpa Nelson and I went over to Ankeny Tap and Table for dinner. The colder weather means they have their big glass door closed, but it is still friendly and has very tasty food! Their new menu has a beet salad that tastes very indulgent.

This morning, Auntie Bridgett was working at the gallery, so Grandpa and I walked down to Bread and Ink on Hawthorne Street for brunch. Weekend Brunch is a very big thing here in Portland, but there was only a short wait and the food was fabulous. Huckleberry pancakes, Kentucky sausage and fried eggs…all made me miss Great Grandpa Lowell, who cooked this on Sundays for years. Food, conversation, and nostalgia…who could ask for more?

After brunch we walked by a brand new used bookstore, also on Hawthorne. It is called Backstory Books and Yarn and just opened today! It has that delightful smell of used books and is so well organized. I’m sure we will spend many happy hours there.

The rest of today I will be researching Portland history and sewing on a practice quilt.

Yes, I know, I have a pretty sweet life.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Pizza and Kidlets

Dear Liza,

We finally got to have Auntie Katie and the Cousins over for dinner at OUR house last night. I’m not sure why I kept putting it off, I just really needed to feel I was home…and now I guess I do.

The day started with baking! Auntie Bridgett and I made a peanut butter and oatmeal candy I learned from a mentor teacher about 42 years ago. Her name was Joann, so I call them JoJos. We made them for First Friday at The SideStreet Arts Gallery this evening.

Once they were cooling, we started on tiny cupcakes for dessert with Katie and family. The kitchen sure got messy, with buttermilk flipping onto the counter and powdered sugar making little clouds, but we got them baked, cooled and frosted. The candy eyeballs Grandpa Nelson found at the market last week sure came in handy!

I made pizza dough from a Bobby Flay recipe and had a rest before our guests arrived. We made pizzas, played with Legos, chatted about everything and caught up on Cousin Jasper’s after school program of computer coding.

Cousin Kestrel taught me a game called “Exquisite Corpse”, which is not as gruesome as it sounds. It is a drawing game. You fold a piece of paper into three sections, one above the other. The first player draws the head of a creature, with the neck lines going just slightly below the old. This gives the second player a place to start. Without looking at what the first player drew, the second adds to the creature. This continues with the third player, who adds the legs, or bottom part.

When everyone is done, you open up the paper and see what you have created! Kestrel suggested I write a story for this one. I will try.

When Auntie Katie and the Cousins had to leave (bedtime!) we loaded the dishwasher and melted on the sofa for a while before going to bed.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Visiting the Dead People

Dear Liza,

**Lone Fir Cemetery in the afternoon light**

This afternoon Auntie Bridgett and I went for a walk to the Lone Fir Cemetery. We got sad news earlier this week, that the wonderful “Tour of Untimely Departures”, a rare night time, storied tour through our lovely pioneer cemetery, would not be held this year. It takes too much staff and too many resources. I am so glad we went last year or we would have missed it forever!

So we went to say hello to the dead people during the daytime. It was before dinner, and the sun was low, but still bright. I showed Auntie Bridgett where the sweet chestnut tree is, and while we were admiring the squirrels’ good work at cleaning out every single prickly shell, an elderly oriental man came by, gathering the horse chestnuts. He said they are good boiled or cooked over the grill, but I am still not convinced.

We wandered around, appreciating the stories the headstones tell. The art and symbols, some over 100 years old, are beautiful even in decay. Weeping willows show peaceful rest, a drape over a stone urn shows separation between the living and the dead. Clasped hands mean a final farewell.

There was a stone showing a couple, Doll and Elton Mack Phillips, with a charming line drawing of them between their names, with their “sunrise” and “sunset” dates. I would have liked to have known them, I think. They look like fun.

We saw a long narrow stone that had been there so long the letters were perfectly filled in with moss, but no dates or details. Just “Smallbone”. That will take some researching.

We saw the headstone of Victor Hugo O’Rourke, a cook in the 65th Regiment of the Coast Artillery Corps. He died in 1918. His name makes me think his mother was a French Literature teacher and his father an Irishman. But my imagination sometimes runs away with me.

And then this bronze marker caught our eye because it was so detailed and crowded with symbols. Mr. William Scott died in 1901 at the age of 46. According to his bronze marker, he was a Knight Templar. But the Knights Templar went inactive after most of them were massacred by Pope Clement V in 1312. On the other side of the marker was a large anchor and rope with a shield and the letters. A.O.U.W., which stand for The Ancient Order of United Workmen, a branch of the Masonic Organization. This man obviously had a full life and a community that must have mourned his passing.

As always, we came away from Lone Fir rested and with a sense of perspective that sometimes gets lost while staring at screens in research or learning to use new equipment. Knowing that we all will go someday allows us to see each day as a gift rather than a chore.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Too Early for Halloween?

Dear Liza,

Once Fall has fallen and October comes, ya know what’s next? Halloween!! The grocery stores have had candy and Jack-o-lanterns, skeletons and light- up ghosts on display for two weeks already! The air is cooler and it is getting dark earlier….just right for spooooky decorations.

**Spooooky comes early to Taylor Street**

Yesterday, however, started with a more ordinary quest: Printer ink. The closest place that carries it is Office Depot down at MLK Jr. Avenue and Stark, about mile and a half away….so I walked. I passed one of my favorite places, the Lone Fir Cemetery, where crows and squirrels are enjoying the glut of acorns, chestnuts and walnuts. The clever crows even use the headstones to crack open their treats. Thanks, dead people.

Closer to the river were industrial sorts of places, warehouses and art-making shops with delightfully quirky murals, as well as urban breweries and wine makers.

After I made the very quick stop at Office Depot and bought the ink, I strolled the aisles of Sheridan Fruit Company, a family business founded in 1916, enjoying the smells and sights. Besides a dizzying variety of bulk goods and exotic sausages, they have a lively deli section which was crowded with people buying lunch to go…which reminded me of how hungry I was. I caught the bus home for lunch.

**Bulk goods at Sheridan Fruit Company**

After an afternoon of reading and art, we had something new for dinner! I tried making pulled pork in the slow cooker and it was delicious! It is nice to know I can make Auntie Bridgett something she loves right here at home.

We walked through the neighborhood and saw the beginnings of Halloween decorations. Big and small, inflated and illuminated, they all make us giggly-happy.

So of course, once we got home, we moved the car, dragged the ladder, and pulled down the boxes of our own Halloween decorations!

Let the spooky silly begin!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dancing in the Leaves

Dear Liza,

(Another silly song. The original is “Singing in the Rain)

I’m singing in the leaves,

just singing in the leaves,

It’s finally cool and I’m wearing long sleeves.

The fat happy clouds,

Are up in the sky,

Just waiting for raindrops to plop in my eye.

The purple smell of grapes

And sweet Suzette crepes,

Make all of dear Portland a charming landscape

I’ll walk as I please

Through the fresh, chilly breeze

I’m dancing and singing in the leaves!

Return to the Quilt Show, Part 2

Dear Liza,

Yesterday I told you about my trip to the Northwest Quilting Expo and all the beautiful quilts I saw there. Today I want to tell you about some of the people!

All throughout the center were people showing sewing tools, kits, embroidery threads, and fabrics. We stopped at Marcia Derse’s booth because Auntie Bridgett was transfixed. Marcia, who lives in Freeland, Washington, designs and creates fabrics… with printing, dying, hand-painting and overlapping, she creates fabrics that are both a flashback to art history and incredibly modern and urban feeling.

We talked to Marcia for quite a while, because she and Bridgett speak the same languages: Art history and color. Marcia was a student of art history in Cleveland, Ohio, before she moved to Washington. She wanted to use motifs from that background to create new fabric prints, but not get bogged down in each time period, so she created what she calls “overviews”.

In each fabric you can see bits of Roman architecture, African prints, Matisse and Miro paintings, and bits that remind you of something you can’t quite put your finger on. They were fascinating and wonderful. She is an artist in her own right, as well as creating fabrics for quilt artists to use. It was amazing to talk with her.

Further along, I saw something that stopped ME in my tracks: A small, hand-applique quilt of the London Subway, called The Underground Tube. As we stared at it and remembered our visits to London, the quilter herself came up and we started chatting. CarolAnne Olson is a funny, energetic lady about my age. Making Underground Tube was her way of remembering her own trips to London, and we enjoyed sharing stories. She told us she had two other quilts in the show, so when we said goodbye to her, we kept a lookout for them.

**CarolAnne Olson and Underground Tube**

We walked, had lunch, looked some more, and found them: A self-portrait (that looks like CarolAnne, but also a bit like me!) in the garden with a glass of wine. Further along, was a busy, happy quilt of her first car, a Volkswagen bug. These two quilts were larger and used the raw-edge machine applique technique I am liking so much.

When our knees were sore and our heads full, we walked back across the parking lot and caught the train and bus back home. After a rest, we had dinner at Ankeny Tap and Table and then met Jack and Verity Kent for drinks and dessert at The Nerd Out.

What a day!

Love,

Grandma Judy