Judy – Page 58 – Dear Liza

Dungeons, Dragons, Sword fighting and Cake

Dear Liza,

Cousin Kestrel turned 11 on Friday, and there was a lovely party to celebrate.

We all met at the gazebo at Anerbethy School because the weather was gorgeous and there is lots of room to horse around.

The main organized activity was a game of Dungeons and Dragons. I was happy to see the playing board I made for Cousin Jasper is getting used! I don’t know much about the game, but Kestrel’s Daddy Dave explained it to me as organized story-telling. It was sure fun to watch! Auntie Katie was the ”Dungeon Master” (the person who is running the adventure) and, fabulous storyteller that she is, made it all fun and interesting.

In between moves, some impromptu swordplay broke out. One of the guests had brought these nifty swords made of hard rubber. Though they would certainly hurt if they hit you, they were mostly safe for reasonable kids. And that’s good enough.

Character creation is part of the game, and can take a long time, but everyone enjoyed the process. And there were snacks.

Birthday cake and presents rounded out the afternoon. Kestrel used the old tray storage shelves in the gazebo as a present opening space, with help from her friends.

It was a delightful, exhausting, entertaining party!

Happy Birthday Kestrel!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Creating Postcards Part 2

Dear Liza,

I have been making postcards again! This is sort of a new thing for me, and I am not consistent about it. I will go weeks doing all sorts of other projects, and then make three or four in an afternoon.

For the base, I use those annoying junk mail postcards that sell everything from candidates to wheel alignment.

For the images, I use Portal magazine from the Portland Art Museum, Better Homes and Gardens, Via from AAA, and old magazines, postcards and greeting cards I pick up at garage sales and give away boxes. There are also bits from Ruthie Inman and daubs of acrylic paint.

I mix them together my weird brain and trim, paint and glue. Then I decide which friend is best suited to the card. Yes, I do have some weird friends.

The images can be cute or disturbing, artsy or just silly.

I’m glad that art lets me take the weird out of my head and send it to the ones I love!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Old Pal

Dear Liza,

When you were here in April, we couldn’t take you to our local HobNob because they had closed. The business-killing Pandemic and the owner’s own fight with Covid caused this fun local favorite to close up shop.

But now a new place has opened up in the same building. It is called Old Pal, and is run by Jeremy Larter and Emily Bixler. According to the website, they have an environmental approach to food, using low-carbon footprint, local, organic ingredients.

Last week, we got to attend their opening. It was delightful and delicious.

The interior has been redecorated to be more modern, with deep blue walls for accent and white ceilings for brightness. The ping pong table is gone, and there is a check-in desk right by the door to eliminate the awkward entrance.

The furnishings have cleaner lines with smaller tables. There are no booths, which makes the space feel bigger, but also creates some echo. The art is very earthy and woodsy, adding to the ’land-friendly’ vibe.

Since we are three, we were seated at “The Godfather Table”which seats four. We were served by Marika, who brought some wine and answered our questions.

I had a Narragansett barratta, which is a creamy cheese wrapped up in mozzarellas, set in a tasty splash of strawberry and basil with pickled rhubarb. Eaten little by little with the crusty bread from Ken’s Artisanal bakery, it was like a very rich cheese sandwich with touches of jam and pesto.

Grandpa Nelson had wine and Auntie Bridgett had a big salad, and we chatted with neighbors as they came and went, eager to hear news and their opinions of the place.

Old Pal is a new friend, and I’m sure we will spend many happy hours there, eating and chatting and watching the world go by.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The Day After BwiP Con

Dear Liza,

On Saturday, Books with Pictures was FULL of people for their first annual comic con. Hundreds of people came, shopped, drew, and had a great time. The day after, however, was another matter.

The bookshop was open, but the scene was quiet and peaceful. Auntie Bridgett was by to help clean some new graffiti off the mural.

Some kids made chalk art while their Momma shopped.

I filled up the watering cans and gave all the little live things a drink.

Amarette Gregor opened up her shop, Pup Tent Flowers and Gifts, and made lovely things.

And Auntie Katie finally got to read in the peace and quiet of her own garden.

I love Books with Pictures, whatever is happening!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Finding the Silly at BwiP Con

Dear Liza,

When I was growing up, a “Convention” didn’t sound like very much fun. A big room full of businessmen talking about business. Ugh.

Comic Conventions helped change that. The Stumptown Comics Festival, in 2004, included a Comic Art Battle which was described as a “combination of Pictionary and wrestling”.

BwiPCon at Books with Pictures had lots of silly, as well.

Since it was an outside event, there were bubbles. Really big bubbles. Seeing a hundred people through the lens of a giant bubble is something I never even knew I was missing!

There were dogs.

Since it was comics, there were costumes.

There were trees, and a garden.

And sometimes there were bubbles and dogs and trees all at once!

I look forward to BwiP 2!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Comic con at Books with Pictures

Dear Liza,

This weekend, Auntie Katie’s Books with Pictures was not only full of people, but surrounded by people! Hundreds of them! It was amazing.

It was the First Annual BwP (say it BWIP) Comic Con. There were thirty artist vendors (including Auntie Bridgett).

There was a book signing by comic artist Steve Lieber and a comics trivia game run by Douglas Wolk.

And finally, a wonderful talk, Q and A and book signing by comic artists Kelley Sue DeConnick, David F. Walker, and Brian Michael Bendis.

Hundreds of people shopped, played, listened, talked, and had a wonderful time.

Adding to the fun were Rob Courage, who played music on his guitar to start the day; April, who makes giant bubbles,

Paulette, who runs a digital photo booth,

Maia doing face painting, and Cousin Kestrel giving people temporary tattooes.

The vendor tables were set up around the three sides of the shop. There were all sorts of things for sale. Books, clothes, jewelry, stickers, and original art.
I will tell you more about BwiP Con in tomorrow’s blog.

What a day!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Riley

Dear Liza,

Grandpa Nelson visits his favorite lunch place, Zach’s Hot Dog Shack, a few times a week. It is about a mile walk away, has great french fries, and everyone there is friendly. They also have a ping pong table and a corn hole game.

Sometimes I go along, too. I like the Chicago dog, and now that I am limiting my meat intake, I have all the spicy goodness on a soy based dog. Very tasty!

And there is Zach’s pet Corgi, Riley. She is a delightful dog. She is friendly, hardly ever barks, and has a sweet, subtle way of letting you know she likes french fries.

In fact, she likes them so much that she is getting a bit chunky, even for a Corgi. Since Zach is a conscientious owner, he has decided to help her stay healthy by putting her on a one-french fry-per customer diet. Grandpa Nelson and I do our part to keep Riley well. We eat all the fries ourselves!

So far, it is up to the customers to limit Riley’s intake, because she has no self control and can’t count very well. I hope the other customers help too, because I would like to enjoy Riley’s company for many years to come.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Almost-July Garden Journal

Dear Liza,

Summer, which dawdled like a kid going to the dentist, has now arrived and has taken off like a freight train. I am in the garden everyday, making sure everything is watered and rejoicing in every new sprout or blossom.

And I am recording it all in my garden journal. When I started my first illustrated journal last spring, I was not confident in my ability to draw anything and make it look right, much less pretty or enjoyable.

But Auntie Bridgett and Ruthie Inman gave me courage and support, and I have really enjoyed both the process and the product!

To be honest, I don’t write or illustrate my garden journal while I am IN the garden. There is nowhere to sit and I don’t like sitting in the sun for very long.

I take pictures and notes on my phone and then use the images to draw in pencil, then watercolor, then outline with a micron pen.

It is like writing an illustrated story, but one where I am IN the story, snd I don’t know the ending yet. Good times.

Love,
Grandma Judy

Lunch in St. John’s

Dear Liza,

Portland is one big city that used to be a lot of smaller cities. Our own neighborhood of Sunnyside used to be part of a town called East Portland.

Ten miles north of downtown Portland was the town of St. John’s. It was a separate city from its founding in 1902 until 1915, when citizens of St. John’s and Portland voted to combine the cities. Because it is separated by a large industrial park along the river, St. Johns has kept its own flavor and style. It is quirky, with a mixture of country clunk and wry humor that is very different from the hipper, slicker style of Downtown.

Crossing several bridges over our magnificent river just because we can, we drove to this lovely outpost for lunch the other day, and stepped into McMenamin’s St. John’s Pub. It has the magic garden-y feel of most of McMenamin’s properties, with lots of plantings, smaller spaces within the big space, and art in unexpected corners.

We had cold drinks to take the edge off the 90 degree heat and just took some time out from 2022. We watched the cottonwood seeds drift by like fairy dandruff and heard Steller jays mentioning that they would like some fries, please.

When we were relaxed and sated, we took a slow walk around the ‘downtown’ of St. John’s. We enjoyed seeing how the old has become new. An extinct Signal gas station sells pizza, an old book shop sells second hand records.

Everywhere, the past which could have been lost has been kept and re-purposed.

We started to get very warm as the day heated up, and decided it was time to head home. Getting delightfully lost as we often do, we saw parts of the city we have never visited, and realized there is still a lot of Portland we haven’t seen.

More to explore for later!

Love,
Grandma Judy

Veggie Garden Update

Dear Liza,

All this crazy June sunshine has sure woken up my veggie allotment at Blair Community Garden! The main challenge now is keeping everything wet enough.

The legacy strawberries that grow at the edge of my allotment have made a lovely snack for me.

My row of radishes, started from seed on May 19, have finally started getting fat. For more than a month they have just been sitting there; not dead, but not thriving, either. Now the row is filling up and looking like a tiny red forest.

Bizarrely, the lettuce seeds I put in just six days ago are already sticking their heads up!

The organic cherry tomato transplants are taller than their cages and some have tiny yellow blossoms.

And my catnip is growing like mad, creating the delightful problem of having too much cat-druggy goodness for Mouse to share with Maggie, Hopey, BK, Ash, Richard and Doug, and all our other kitten friends.

Summer has arrived! All I can do now is chase it until fall.

Love,

Grandma Judy