Judy – Page 62 – Dear Liza

Friday in Mississippi

Dear Liza,

Auntie Bridgett and I got to drive north to the Mississippi neighborhood on Friday. GiftyKitty, Clody Cates’ shop, had sold nearly all of Auntie Bridgett’s pins, and needed more!

Business is important. But first, of course, was lunch. We stopped at Broder, where we had some carrot cake months ago, to check out their lunch menu. It is very Scandanavian forward, with rye bread, pickled herring, and ableskivvers. Auntie Bridgett ordered the roasted mushrooms, which looked delicious. I ordered the Nord Bord, which is like a smorgasbord on a platter.

There was a hard boiled egg, two slices of rye bread, thinned sliced ham, two kinds of cheese, pickled onions, roast potatoes in a spicy mustard sauce, and even a tiny apple tart for dessert. It was amazing. We ate until we were stuffed.

Then to business! I love visiting GiftyKitty. Clody and her business partner Larry have done a wonderful job creating the whimsical space full of art, pillows, and all sorts of kitty themed goodies.

Bridgett and Clody talked business while Larry and I swapped life stories and chatted about the beautiful kitten art done by local artists like Amelia Opie, Melody Bush, and Alicia Justice.

When it was time to head off, we got distracted by the Pistils Nursery. It is housed in this building that looks like something out of an old Western movie, but was actually built in 2001 to look like a piece of history.

The inside of the building houses a charming collection of indoor plants and terrarium supplies.

In the small side yard, outdoor plants are policed by two small chickens who seem to enjoy the company (and maybe the bugs!)

By this time, the rain was starting, we were worn out, and it was time to head for home.

Love,

Grandma Judy

More Spring Color

Dear Liza,

I finally felt like going out for a walk after being sick for a week, and the spring flowers did not disappoint.

I did a short turn around the neighborhood as the sun dipped below the clouds on its way down. There were so many dogs out walking their people, I wished you were here to pet all of them.

The azaleas and irises are teaming up for a one-two punch of pink and purple.

Yep, it is mighty nice to be out in the world again.

Love,

Grandma Judy

L’Hexagone

Dear Liza,

I am finding new ways to make maps into art for my Art Journal. Since we have loved our travels in France and hope to return someday, I have been looking at maps of that wonderful chunk of Europe.

I am not the first to notice that the map of France resembles a hexagon. In fact, people have been using the nickname ”L’hexagon” since 1949 and French school children are taught to draw the map of their country by using a hexagon as the basic shape.

So I thought I would make my map of France out of an actual, geometric hexagon. First, I had to figure out how to make one without a zillion math calculations, which would mess with my art joy.

Fortunately, I found the youtube channels of both Jenny W. Chan and a fellow named Sam. They both taught me what I needed to know. I was able to fold a sheet, cut it to fit, and then sketch in the map. Than I used that map as a pattern for my real one.

Since this is a personal map, I wanted to show the places we have visited. But I also wanted to show the feel of the place, of the geography. The French understand about ’terroir’, the importance of a sense of place.

I decided that I wanted to show what was grown where, so cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens got inked in with the orchards and vineyards.

And that’s how it looks for now. I may add some shading in the mountains, but I’ll leave that for tomorrow.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Mother’s Day with the Family

Dear Liza,

Sunday was Mother’s Day, and also my first day out of the house since I’ve been sick. Rain was predicted for most of the day. This did not discourage your Auntie Katie, however.

She let me know she and the Cousins would be by to fetch me so we could have a picnic. She brought a beautiful bouquet from Amarette Gregor’s tiny Pup Tent flower shop, which operates out of Auntie Katie’s garage.

After the inevitable snags of closed bakeries and Mother’s Day crowds, we acquired lunch and desserts from Piccone’s Corner and Le Petit Province, and were on our way.

We drove up to The Grotto, also known as The Sanctuary of the Sorrowful Mother. We bought tokens for the elevator ride to the top and were not disappointed. The rain stopped just as we arrived, and had painted every leaf with sparkle and every path with shine.

We found a perfect dry spot just across from the statue of St. Francis.

Fittingly, we were visited by a dozen robins and junkoes as we ate bread, pate and wonderful cheeses. Beautiful desserts topped of the perfect meal for the perfect day.

It was one of those precious three-generation afternoons that just melts my heart.

Cousin Jasper usually doesn’t like his picture being taken, but agreed to pose with his mighty umbrella/sword.

We shared stories and tiramisu and were very silly.

When the food was mostly gone, we walked around a bit and got back to the car just as the rain started up again.

What a miraculous, loving, exhausting outing.
Love,

Grandma Judy

All the Moms

Dear Liza,

I wanted to take today to acknowledge the Moms in the family.

This is my Momma. She lived for her family and her garden and had lots of adventures with my Dad; camping, traveling, helping people, and making friends. After Daddy passed, she continued her adventures for another 15 years.

Here is your Auntie Katie. She has had adventures in Europe, New York, at Burning Man, and here in Portland. She got to be a Momma herself and then opened her incredible book shop, Books with Pictures. She has built her life, and her community, as a place where everyone is welcome. She amazes me every day.

Here is your Momma, Olga. She started her adventures in Moscow, Russia, where she studied hard and became a doctor. She moved to the United States, then to California, and met your Daddy David. After tango-ing together they fell in love, got married, and had YOU. She continues her adventures as a fabulous teacher while getting ready for whatever-happens-next.

And then there is me. The oldest female in the family, Teddy Bear Picniker , and ready for the next adventure.

Love,

Grandma Judy

I Caught a Stupid Cold

Dear Liza,

After two years of wearing masks everywhere and washing my hands anytime I touch anything outside the house, I must have gotten careless this past week. I have caught a cold. Was it at Eb and Bean Sunday afternoon? We were wearing masks inside. On the bus, too, and the Orange line train.

It’s not Covid. I used the home test, and just don’t feel sick enough, honestly, to have the murderous bug. I am vaxxed and boosted. Nope, this is a cold.

A brain stupefying, drippy nose inducing, energy sucking cold. So I am sending pictures from the past that make me smile.

I hope that I am done with the cold by the time the cool rain turns to sunshine.

Love,

Grandma Judy.

Filling the New Art Journal

Dear Liza,

I showed you the new kind of Art Journal I was starting. It has fabric hinges and a binding you stitch up with the pages at the very end. Besides being something new for me to learn, it has a few advantages.

First, all the pages are made and decorated before they are put into the book. This means that when you are working on a page, it isn’t attached to the book yet. So if you mess it up, you haven’t got a big blot in your book, you simply set that page aside and try again. For nervous artists like me, this is very freeing.

Also, there is not a given number of pages to fill, with awkward blank bits if you run out of story or art. This flexibility is nice.

As to the content of the book, I have been thinking about the places I have lived and how I felt about them, and the places I may live in the future and the hopes I have for them.

Yep, it’s going to be a map book. Maps of houses, neighborhoods, bus routes, and imaginary places. This should come as no surprise. I love maps!

I have my first few pages finished. One is a collage of the world map, made from colored pencils, florist tissue and bits of the Portland map. I’m not sure if it will end up being Page 1 of the book, but it is the first one finished.

The second one is a watercolor of the neighborhood between our house and your favorite, the Slappycakes make-your-own-pancake restaurant.

The next page I am working on will use the Real Estate developer map of our old neighborhood in Salinas. When it is finished, it will get put in a folder and wait for the rest of the pages.

I will keep you posted!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris

Dear Liza,

My Momma, your great grandma Billie, was a librarian. This was not only her profession, but her personality. She loved to read books and tell people about them so they could read them, too. One that she told me about when I was little was a Paul Gallico story called “Mrs. ’Arris Goes to Paris.”

I liked Paul Gallico’s writing. He wrote the delightful “Silent Meow”, a guide ‘translated from the feline’; a sort of how-to book for cats on getting adopted. Later, he wrote the book and screenplay for “Thomasina”, about a cat who lives three very different lives. Good, imaginative stuff.

But somehow, I never got around to reading about Mrs. ’Arris. The other day it popped into my head, and not wanting to wait for the library, I searched IMDB and found that it had been made into a movie. Mr. Gallico had written the book in 1958 and had passed away before the movie was made in 1992, but his widow had been an advisor on the screenplay.

Grandpa Nelson found it on Youtube and we watched it. What a delightful movie! London housekeeper, Mrs. Harris, (played in 1992 by Angela Lansbury) gets it into her head to go to Paris and buy a Dior gown. She saves for three years, forgoing taking the bus and working extra jobs, and finally saves up enough to fulfill her dream.

While in Paris, she makes friends with people of all sorts, her good heart and sunny disposition overcoming social barriers. Omar Sharif and Diana Rigg play some of the people who help her, and more surprisingly, who she helps.

This is a feel-good movie of the first order, and not for the cynical. Though I know there are differences between the book and the movie, I can see why Momma loved it.

It has now been remade, with the delightful Lesley Manville as Mrs. ’arris, and I can’t wait to see it!

Looking forward to a cherry, optimistic evening soon!

Love,

Grandma Judy

May Day Walksies

Dear Liza,

According to the statistics, this past month was the wettest April in Portland’s history. Sunday was the first of May, and we went for a long walk to enjoy what we hope will be a sunnier month.

Our primary target was Eb & Bean frozen yogurt, down on Division Street. It’s about a mile and we enjoyed seeing the dogwoods and wisterias blooming like crazy.

The frozen treats were yummy, and gave us energy to think about our next goal, because none of us felt like heading home yet. We wandered south to Clinton Street and Auntie Bridgett wanted to go over the new-ish pedestrian railroad crossing. This is how your cousins gets from their Dad’s house to their Mom’s. It is impressive, and just a little intimidating. Very steampunk.

We climbed the stairs because the elevator is permanently out of order, and got some nice views of downtown to the west and Mt. Hood to the east.

It was an interesting perspective.

We enjoyed the bits of philosophy imprinted on the paving beside the train tracks.

Once we were headed west, the next goal was the Tillikum Crossing over the Willamette. We saw lots of folks out enjoying the day, and one of them took our picture!

We even got to see the Dragon Boat team out practicing for the races that will be happening later in the summer.

By the time we were across the bridge, we were pretty tired and decided that transit would be our way home. We caught the Orange Line train to downtown…

And then the number 15 home!

A wonderful hidden moss garden on a downtown tree

Grandpa Nelson’s and Auntie Bridgett’s fit watches said we had walked over five miles! Woohoo!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Au Revoir, Suzette Creperie!

Dear Liza,

I have sad news about another of our favorite places closing. Suzette, a delightfully French-feeling creperie just a block away on Belmont, is going out of business. We love this place so much, we take all our out of town visitors there.

I guess you could say they are going back to their roots. They started as a catering business and will be keeping that part. Still, we loved being in their space, enjoying the rich red walls and wonderfully eclectic bits of art and cookery.

The food, which is French pescatarian (vegetarian, except that they serve fish) is rich and savory (or rich and sweet, as you like) and not like anything we have found elsewhere.

For example, we stopped in Friday and had a gluten-free peanut butter and honey crepe, a warm ahi tuna and cannelini bean salad, and potatoes tartiflettes (roasted potatoes with mushrooms, cheese, and onions.) Basically, the whole meal was a double Parisian kiss on a plate.

A tiny bit of good news is that much of the decor that makes us so happy is going on sale, since it won’t be needed for catering.

And we brought some useful mementos home. Auntie Bridgett got one of the lamps made from Grand Marnier bottles and I picked up a heavy copper bowl. It took some rubbing with salt and lemon juice, but is now shiny enough to hang on the wall until I feel the need to make a meringue or something.

Wishing Jehnee Rains and her staff all the best. They gave this neighborhood many good years.

Love,

Grandma Judy