Judy – Page 50 – Dear Liza

Happy Birthday, Nelson!

Dear Liza,

Your Grandpa Nelson had his 68th birthday Wednesday, and we had a wonderful time.

We drove south down the Willamette Valley to Salem, the capital of Oregon. It is much smaller than Portland, even smaller than where we used to live in Salinas! But it is a very pretty city.

First, we stopped for lunch at a McMenamin’s restaurant that we had never been to, the historic Boone’s Treasury, just north of Salem. It was charming and delicious, with a nice patio. We had a lovely ceiling of maple leaves just coming out in their spring colors.

After lunch we drove into town and to the Riverfront City Park, 23 acres of lawns, trees, statues, an amphitheater, a nature preserve, a bridge over the Willamette Slough, and miles of waking and biking trails.

The biggest surprise was this larger-than-life statue of Tom McCall, a former governor of Oregon who was ferocious about protecting Oregon’s natural resources. Two of Mr. McCall’s projects were keeping our beaches open to everyone and a bill to make recycling become law in Oregon. It makes sense that his statue would be in this lovely natural area, and that it shows him fishing.

This enormous mosaic covered globe caught my eye. It needs some repair, but it is beautiful.

We walked across the pedestrian bridge onto Minta Brown Island along with dozens of other folks out enjoying the day. Bikes, dogs, kids and folks even older than us were all out and about.

Our last stop in the park was the beautiful carousel, which was hand-carved and hand-painted by dozens of volunteers and craftsmen. It was a true labor of love.

We walked into town and had ice cream at Momma Dulce’s. Silly Bridgett had a lick of mine and we were much refreshed.

When we had seen all we could see, braved the highway traffic and gotten home, Grandpa opened his present from Bridgett’s Mom Donna, which was some bottles of tasty wine. We had a small glass each and settled into couch for a relaxing birthday evening.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Oscar Howe, Salmon Springs, and the Willamette

Dear Liza,

Last Friday was Member Appreciation Day at our Portland Art Museum, called PAM. Since we are members, we went and got appreciated! Besides getting free, we got tote bags, buttons, and an extra 10% discount at the shop.

Quite a few galleries were closed, as PAM is getting ready for a huge construction project that will join their Main Building to the lovely old Masonic Temple Building, which was acquired in 1992.

Still, we were delighted with the Oscar Howe exhibit, Dakota Modern. Oscar Howe was a Yanktonai Dakota artist, born on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation in South Dakota in 1915. The main works shown at PAM were painted in the 1950s and 1960s, but felt very contemporary.

With great talent and study, he proved that Native American art was not just pictures of buffalo hunts. We spent a long time enjoying the swirls of blues and oranges and powerful lines of his work.

But snack time called! We left the air-conditioned comfort of PAM and walked the block to Umbria for coffee and pastries, and then decided to wander a bit.

Heading toward the river, we were rewarded with this view:

Traffic lights, chatting people, the enormous and engaging Salmon Springs Fountain, and Mount Hood looming over everything.

Portland, for sure.

And just past the fountain was our Willamette, turned into a playground by the sunny weather. Motorboats, jet skies, and kayaks zipped along on the first of many play days.

We walked a few blocks and caught the Magic Number 15 bus back home, grateful for Spring, sunshine, and living in Portland.

alive,

Grandma Judy

Belated Travel Journaling

Dear Liza,

Your Auntie Bridgett Spicer is an amazing artist. Not only can she create delightful comics like her “Auntie Beeswax” and wonderful paintings and collages, but she can draw and vacation at the same time. Here is a page from her sketchbook of our trip.

Her brain works like that.

Mine does not. I made a really cool cover for my travel journal for our last trip to Europe,

but am only now (three weeks after we got home) finishing up my account of our journey. Here is a page showing our train ride from Amsterdam to Utrecht.

I started with good intentions, but then it just got away from me.

I happily sacrificed journaling time for time spent with family in wondrous operas, delightful museums, and fabulous gardens.

So now I’m catching up, and I’m glad I waited. Not only is my Journal a more interesting synthesis of the journey, with my own sketches and all the sorts of paper you collect on a trip, but I am getting to re-live the whole experience!

It’s like watching my favorite movie all over again.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Walking Out for Dinner

Dear Liza,

One of the great joys of a Sunnyside Portland summer is walking out to find lovely places to eat. In any direction from our house, there are at least a dozen places within a mile.

You can walk west through Ladd’s Addition for Central American food at Teote House, north to Helen Bernhardt’s for bakery goods, or east to the Bipartisan Cafe for pie and sandwiches, just to name a few. There are also half a dozen food cart pods.

Last week, on a bright afternoon, we walked down to Division to try the newest, The Farmhouse Carts.

This arrangement of food trucks is in the former parking lot of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, a locally made yummy drink based on apples and other fruits. (There is some fermentation involved.)

But aside from being able to buy yummy cold drinks, there are trucks for Thai food, hamburgers and fries, Lebanese Saj, hand-held sushi rolls, and boba tea. There is also a large covered area with family sized tables, which will be much appreciated on our long, warm summer evenings.

We enjoyed the food and drinks, but mostly the theater of humanity that we have missed during the winter (and since the 2020 shutdown)…. Kids finding other kids to play with, moms chatting, dogs nosing around under tables.

It’s good to be out with our species!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Springtime Whimsy

Dear Liza,

After months of being mostly stuck inside, people in Portland go a little silly when warm weather comes.

For example, the Laurelhurst neighborhood flamingos are out again! This plastic flock comes out to support local football teams, celebrate Mother’s Day, and lots of other times. This spring day they are taking a more serious stand, reminding us of their support for Ukraine in its war against Russian oppression.

And as we are spending more time out walking, we see more front yard silliness just down the block. Near one of the city’s tiny free libraries is this tiny tyrannosaurus scene, which might be more terrifying without the tiny cow and frog.

And speaking of tiny libraries, more are sprouting up! Different designs keep the neighborhood interesting and the books safe, and I always enjoy borrowing a new story to read.

I hope spring is lovely where you are, too.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Heading to Auntie Katie’s

Dear Liza,

Our weather has gotten so pretty! Almost 70 F, sunny, and just a tiny breeze. Today I got to appreciate it all as I walked down to Auntie Katie’s house.
I was there for difficult reasons, but the view was wonderful. The garden at Books with Pictures is looking good, and Nick, Kitty and the staff are keeping the shop open and running well.

There is a mighty strain of strep throat racing through Cousin Jasper’s Middle School. He caught it from his best friend’s sister, and gave it to Katie. Jasper is currently staying a few nights at Randall’s Children’s hospital getting treatment, and Auntie Katie is home on antibiotics. We hope for a good recovery for all.

I took chicken soup and made sure Katie had food and a clean kitchen to live with until she recovered. Then I got some lunch for myself from Tori’s Underbite food truck (roasted cauliflower soup, yummy!)

I headed home past the East Rose Garden of Ladd’s Addition. They are all looking good, at a uniform level of new-red- leafiness. Give them another few weeks and they will they explode with color.

The neighborhood between Ladd’s and Sunnyside is always so pretty, with the yards well-tended and explosions of color! This colorful rock garden just tumbles down the side yard of this old craftsman style house, with tall red tulips standing happily above.

Sending love to you and hope you all stay well!

Grandma Judy

A Spring Walk in the Park

Dear Liza,

It was warm and sunny all day yesterday! Grandpa Nelson went to the zoo, I got some ground eggshells worked into the soil in the vegetable garden, and Auntie Bridgett and I went for a walk in Laurelhurst Park.

All our favorite things were there.

Lovely pink magnolias were blooming right over the path, making a fine summery arbor.

A fellow was playing banjo and singing, and lots of folks were enjoying the day.

This sunny and shadowy view of the ravine never gets old.

Even the dandelions are looking good!

On the way home, we ran into this lavender bush that was absolutely alive with bees! Go, bees, go!

And, of course, it’s kitten season. This little guy was pouncing on everything from seeds to bugs to his own shadow, and finally just flumped down on the sidewalk. We are a pretty trio of shadows, aren’t we?

Love,

Grandma Judy

2023 Garden Journal

Dear Liza,

Well, a new year in the garden means a new garden journal.

This year, I am using a calendar book that Auntie Bridgett had laying around. After making my journal from scratch two years running, it was time for something new.

I painted the front with acrylics and have decorated the inside with acrylic color scraping (with an old credit card) and writing, using yellow, blue, sea foam green, and some metallic silver. And watercolor.

And a little collage for fun.

I wrote the first page on March 15, knowing it was too early, too cold and too wet to plant. Besides, we were heading out for our big vacation.

Two weeks later, when we returned from cold, dry, windy Denmark, we found cold, wet and windy Portland waiting for us. The dark blue page is hard to read, but really showed my mood. The cartoon is from a Dutch magazine, and asks if it is STILL raining, or raining AGAIN.

On April 20, my Spring Fever could wait no longer. I pulled out the wagon, bundled up, and slogged through some real rain to Portland Nursery.

I’ve decided to keep the receipts from things I buy for the garden, so I can see how much my “free” veggies are costing me.

And fittingly enough, Saturday was Earth Day! So after we chatted, I put the red oak leaf lettuces and dahlias in the ground.

Here’s the reality and my watercolor interpretation of the lettuce bed.

Love,

Grandma Judy

A Soggy Start

Dear Liza,

Well, I finally gave in. Even though it is still very rainy, and more than a little chilly, I took my little red wagon and walked down to Portland Nursery to get some starts for my vegetable garden.

I wore my coat, scarf, hat and gloves just as I have all winter. But I wanted to get started!

The nursery still had their tomatoes in the greenhouse, so I let them wait until later. I got a small set of red oak leaf lettuce from Planetwise. Their green oak leaf did very well for me last year. I also picked up some Early Yellow Prolific squash and Sweetie Pie pumpkin seed packets.

I saved the receipt from the nursery. I’ll try and keep a running total of what all the ‘free’ veggies cost! The seed packets got wet in my soggy pocket, so I pulled out a long plastic trough, planted them , and put them out by the side of the garage. They’ll have a week or so to sprout before going in the plot.

Once I walked back to the Blair Community Garden, I set the red lettuce in the shelter of the Camellia next door to wait for some drier weather (predicted for Sunday).

I noticed that the lady next to me, who has taken over the badly neglected plot, is already taking steps to make it perfect. I am very impressed.

Other folks are preparing in their own ways…. Some have cover crops still doing well, and others are beginning to turn back the burlap. Spring is soggy, but summer is coming!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Rainbow Season

Dear Liza,

The world has exploded with color here in Portland! We are still getting some rain, but temperatures are up and it looks like I will be able to get some things planted in my garden plot early next week.

Meanwhile, here is a song, written by dear Laurel Bloombaum years ago, about rainbows.

When sun shines through raindrops,

an arc of hope is seen.

Red on top, orange , yellow

and green.

Indigo blue

and violet too.

Down come the colors of promise to you.

Happy birthday, dear Liza, and happy spring!

Love,

Grandma Judy