Judy – Page 29 – Dear Liza

Dealin’ with Camellias

Dear Liza,

We are expecting our lovely Easter weather to turn to rain overnight, so I headed out to the garden plot to do some spring cleaning.

The camellia tree next door always blooms like a lunatic and drops hundreds of blossoms on my plot! I don’t mind much, because nothing is growing yet. But they need to get picked up or they get slimy and invite the slugs in.

Two years ago, you were here and helped out!

But rather than get melancholy about you being far away, I went to work and got the plot cleaned up.

Back home just in time for lunch, Auntie Bridgett suggested a picnic (two picnics in two days!! I am so spoiled!!)

We packed some leftovers from Easter, found a table by the dog park, and enjoyed just BEING. Smelling the blossoms, hearing the people, watching the dogs, tasting the blueberries.

We walked around the park and talked to all the new trees, giving them encouragement and welcoming them to the neighborhood. And anll the way home, the azaleas are beginning to bloom.

What a perfect day.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Easter Day

Dear Liza,

We had fun on Easter, but not much of it shows in pictures. I’ll show what I have and tell the rest.

Easter Day was sunny and warm (almost too warm, for some), and we got everything packed into the wagon and headed for Laurelhurst Park.

We found a table in the sun just above Firwood Lake. Someone had recently drawn a cute cartoon of a bunny jumping over an egg, with the words “In the name of the moon”. Very nice.

We enjoyed the sunshine and people watching until everyone else showed up.

Then the food came out, and we all had good bread Katie brought from Grand Central Bakery, turkey, cheeses, fruits, veggies and cookies.

We met some nice folks who name the ducks at the park, just like we name the trees! We may all get together and make a map of the park with all our silly information….wouldn’t that be fun?

As we were walking home, Jasper and Kestrel taught all the adults about a new kind of music, called “Vocaloid”. It is made with synthetically generated voices and sounds, mostly, like a video game. But I am always happy to learn something new, so we listened and chatted while I worked on the CrazyQuilt.

Having clever grandkids is like having clever kids! Always keeping me on my toes.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Easter Preparations

Dear Liza,

Grandpa Nelson, Auntie Bridgett and I have an Easter picnic planned at Laurelhurst Park with Auntie Katie, Cousins Jasper and Kestrel, and Katie’s pal Douglas. We are providing most of the food, so there was a lot to do!

First, of course, was cookies. Donna Spicer’s sugar cookies always turn out delicious, so I made a double batch.

As you can see, I have included the “traditional” Easter dinosaur. (Maybe it is traditional somewhere…)

Once the cookies were baked and cooled, I iced them with plain white frosting and painted them with food coloring.

The colors are sort of Easter-ish, even if there are no bunny cookies. Cats, yes, and flowers, and a happy face.

But you can’t have a picnic of just cookies, so we made some deviled eggs.

We sliced the eggs a little differently, mixed the yolks with spices and mayonnaise, and filled the eggs back up.

Then Auntie Bridgett put on the tops and gave them little eyes made of peppercorns.
Little chicks hatching from their shells! Aren’t they cute?

So now, the night before Easter, I feel ready for the picnic. We have cookies, deviled eggs, fruits, veggies, meat and spreads, pickles and other goodies. Auntie Katie will bring lots of bread, and we’ll be fed!

So now I can watch Yul Brynner give in to Charleton Heston in “The Ten Commandments” and head off to bed.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Barely Spring at the Japanese Garden

Dear Liza,

We got lucky for the last few days, as the clouds scooted east and the sun came out for the Easter weekend.

Cynthia drove us up to the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park. The cherry blossoms, these lovely dangling pink flowers, and a few brave camellias were blooming, but most of the flowers were still napping.

Fortunately, this is a garden that doesn’t depend on blooms for its beauty. Trees, bridges, and even the paths are so strong and peaceful, just sitting there.

The stream flowing through the garden, under a variety of bridges and koi ponds, lets everything be quiet but alive, as well.

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And the view of downtown and Mount Hood from the Pavilion Garden was striking.

I wonder, if this time, spring is here to stay?

Love,

Grandma Judy

Quilting the Crazy

Dear Liza,

It seems weird to say, but most of the Crazy Quilt isn’t about the quilting. I’ve been at it since October and am just NOW doing the quilting.

The piecing and embroidering have taken a long time. The quilting, the step that holds the top, middle and backing together, the part that makes it a QUILT, goes the fastest. And it’s exhausting!

First, the quilt is heavy, and moving it around is a challenge. It is big, at five by seven feet, and the edges are bulky and floppy. Our living room is too small for a free-standing quilting frame, so I needed to find another way.

I tried working in my lap, but got a neck sprain. Using the biggest hand-held quilting hoop kept the quilt stretched, but was still unwieldy.

While watching Katharine Hepburn’s Eleanor of Aquitaine do needlework in “Lion in Winter”, I saw the answer. I needed something to support the heavy quilt at a good angle to work on, while keeping it stretched.

Turns out, two kitchen chairs work just fine! I sit on one, lean towards the other one, and can work for quite a while before I get worn out.

If I can work a little everyday, I should have the whole thing quilted and edged before Cousin Kestrel’s school year is over. I promised her she could take it to her Textiles Class for show and tell.

Love,

Grandma Judy

New Story, New Pictures

Dear Liza,

A few years ago, I wrote a story about our cat, Mouse. In the story, Mouse steps out of her comfortable routine of napping and lap-sitting to help solve a mystery.

I found it the other day and liked it enough that I want to share it with folks. For me, that means printing it out, putting on a cover, and of course, illustrations.

I started sketching, and once again realized I was way over my head. But I kept at it. Turns out, if you do something long enough, you get better. I drew one piece of the drawing at a time, cut it out, and then traced it where I wanted it to go.

The dog in the picture is our neighbor, Trevor, who is a main character in the story. But of course, once I had the characters cut out, they wandered elsewhere, as well.

For a while they were part of a bizarre pet-juggling story…

Then they all seemed to be on a hamster wheel.

Eventually, it got drawn, colored, and some text got added.

I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Figuring Things Out, Again

Dear Liza,

Once I got the hang of making these three-dimensional paper sculptures, I couldn’t stop! The Zoom Art Group I do with Ruthie Inman was still working on theirs, so I started a second one.

This time, I wanted to play with interlocking shapes. I chose the yin/yang symbol. It was tricky to get the shapes right, but with some tracing and flipping, it all worked out.

The supplies aren’t sophisticated… just cardboard from cracker and cereal boxes, paper headed for the recycling bin, and Elmer’s glue.

I kept making shapes! A big circle became two halves, and then a bunch of medium and smaller circles got assembled and dried. Tiny blocks kept them together while they dried.

Covering the curvy shapes is tricky, but clipping the curves and going slowly makes it more successful.

I used Mod Podge as the adhesive for this part because it is less slippery than Elmer’s. I tried a bit of flour paste, but it takes too long to dry and I am impatient.

Here are my shapes. Next step: Color and assembly!!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Busy Saturday

Dear Liza,

After our technically glitchy zoom call, this past Saturday kept being busy.

I started a mosaic to cover the second three dimensional paper sculpture. I think it is going to be very nifty, once it’s done.

We had lunch and walked up to Music Millenium, our local music store, for a concert by a family friendly group called Ants Ants Ants. They are very good! Nice harmonies, good guitar work, and delightfully silly lyrics. We were by far the oldest folks in the place.

Walking home, we saw spring blooms that look like they jumped off an Easter card.

I got more mosaic done, then we headed north to the Mississippi neighborhood. There was a fundraiser for the proposed Northwest Museum of Cartoon Art (NWMOCA) and the opening of a bar themed on our local baseball team, the Portland Pickles.

We stopped in at Gifty Kitty to say hi and see their pretty things. This painting would make a fine quilt!

The fundraiser was at Bridge City Comics, which is decorated as you would expect. It is nice, but I prefer Auntie Katie’s Books with Pictures.

The new Pickles Bar was so packed and noisy we couldn’t get in the door, and barbar, down the street, was way too raucous for us. We like to talk our conversations, not YELL them.

We headed to an old favorite, McMenamin’s Chapel Pub, and had soups, salads, and a nice Black Rabbit Red. We were all pretty wiped out.

We got home, curled up in the sofa like hamsters, and watched an episode of The Repair Shop.

Goodnight!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Happy Birthday to Me

Dear Liza,

Last week was my birthday. The celebration was spread out over a few days, which is always nicer than one, fat, overwhelming day.

Sunday, we headed to the Kennedy School for dinner at the Boiler Room and a St. Patrick’s Day concert of traditional Irish music by Katie Jane. Besides being a fine musician and singer, she is a local music teacher, and many of her students were in the concert. It was raucous and delightful.

On Monday, Grandpa Nelson and I had a long walk to Ladd’s Addition, where I introduced him to Floyd’s Coffee Bar. We had delicious snacks and coffee and enjoyed the people watching. We also took a cookie to Auntie Katie, who gave us a ride home on her way to fetch Kestrel from school.

My actual birthday started off with a text from your Daddy, since Denmark is hours ahead of us. Such a nice surprise!

After breakfast, I opened my presents. Auntie Bridgett and Grandpa gave me books on Sister Corita Kent, an artist and nun whose “Ten Rules” have inspired me to keep doing art. Donna, Auntie Bridgett’s mom, send me a big package of embroidery floss to replace all the floss I’ve used up in the crazy quilt.

Once the sun came up, the weather was so bright that I wanted to be out in it! We had a Nutella and cracker picnic at Laurelhurst Park and played the first badminton game of the year.

Our form wasn’t great, but we sure had fun!

At dinner, it was time for pizza at Straight from New York, down on Belmont. We walked across the street to Belmont’s Inn for pinball. Our new favorite game is Medieval Madness. It is amazing how much fun can be had for six dollars’ worth of quarters.

Turning 68 isn’t so bad when you have the right folks to celebrate with.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Naming the New Trees

Dear Liza,

The city of Portland has planted over a dozen new trees in Laurelhurst Park, just a few blocks from us. These are to replace trees that have fallen in the last few years, victims of storms, heavy winds, and in some cases, just old age.

As we get to know the new trees, we entertain ourselves by giving them names and backstories.

For example, the three Katsuras along the path by the Pine Street entrance are named for The Three Caballeros; Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Chevy Chase. They lead right up to Ken the oak tree, who is now called Just Ken.

A well-established tree that we have admired for years has been given the name Mama Rose, after the main character in the play “Gypsy”. She is strong, a flamboyant pink, and always the first to bloom.

A new Douglas fir by the Wallosaurus (a stone wall with a spiky top) along Cesar Chavez Boulevard has been given the named Dougasaurus, for obvious reasons.

A new Dove tree, a variety of dogwood, will go by the name Dove, to honor my friend Dove, a strong and wonderful educator, mother, and supporter of the world. Dove is planted overlooking Firwood Lake.

A new Linden tree will go by Hal, for Hal Linden, the actor and star of the old Barney Miller tv series, who is amazingly still with us in his 90’s. His character was always kind in an often unkind world. He made me smile.

Artful Dodger, a new tree by our old friend Oliver, is planted in the Cesar Chavez/Ankeny corner. He was named so that these two Charles Dickens characters will always be together.

So now, when I go to the park, it’s like visiting friends!

Love,

Grandma Judy