Category: Uncategorized

Auntie Bridgett’s Birthday!!

Dear Liza,

Tuesday was your Auntie Bridgett’s Birthday, and we had a fine time.

After a quiet morning of breakfast and language practice, she opened her presents, including tee shirts, sketchbooks, and a fabulous Snoopy quilt her Momma Donna made for her. Isn’t it amazing?

Once Bridgett had her celebratory red Converse high tops on, we caught the #20 bus downtown to Powell’s City of Books, which we haven’t visited in far too long.

Just being in the space makes me happy!

They have a new café inside, called The Guilder Café (after a country in The Princess Bride). The food was good and not very expensive, and the seating area has regular tables along with some arena type seating and comfy chairs. We spent more than an hour eating, reading, and browsing. It was delightful.

Then, after taking pictures of one of Coraline’s Curious Cats in her lovely urban environment, we caught the #20, connected to the #6, and headed up to the McMenamin’s Coffee Roastery. Considering how many McMenamin’s venues there are, I was amazed at how small the facility was! This one room, one giant roaster, and one guy named Chris.

Chris gave us all the lowdown on coffee… where it’s sourced from, how long you roast it for, and some of the dangers. Did you know that Auntie Bridgett’s favorite dark roast needs to get to 500 F, and will burst into flames at just 700 F? Dangerous work!

After we heard all that Chris had to say, we caught the #6 and then the #15 to get home, where we all had a nice rest. Birthdays are exhausting!

At dinner time, Grandpa Nelson was still pooped, so he stayed home and I walked the Birthday Girl up to Dov Vivi pizza. We love their cornbread based crust and Quattro Fromagio (Four Cheese) pizza.

We ate out on the patio and watched the world go by. Moms with strollers, kids on skateboards, old dudes getting off the bus… busy city life going on all around us.

We needed to bring half the pizza home, but it will make a lovely lunch tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Bridgett!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dopamine Menu

Dear Liza,

Every once in a while, I find a magazine article that doesn’t just speak to me, it calls my name and chases me down. Abbi Henderson, writing for Stylist Magazine, has written such an article. She talked to neuroscientist Nicole Vignola and got some great ideas for helping us feel better on days when peace and happiness feel out of reach.

She calls this list her Dopamine Menu, after the chemical in our brain that gives us joy. Doing these activities releases dopamine and can lead to happier, calmer moods.

I do most of these things, and now that I know WHY they make me feel better and have a convenient list, I can make joy whenever I feel blue, stuck, or just flattened out.

Stretching

Playing with a pet

Enjoying a coffee

Grabbing a snack

Doing a short burst of exercise

Putting clean laundry away

Cooking a meal

Working on a hobby

Exercising

Being creative (painting, drawing, writing, for example)

Listening to music

Listening to a podcast

I have been fortunate to fill my life with Dopamine-enhancing people. Ruthie Inman and Auntie Bridgett Spicer encourage my arts, which gives me courage at my crafts, and everyone loves a walk in Laurelhurst Park!

Maybe people who seem “naturally happy” have, consciously or unconsciously, found their own way to their Dopamine fix.
Maybe this list can help you.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Making My Moves

Dear Liza,

I am still obsessing about our trip to France next year; being careful about discretionary purchases, staring at maps, comparing train routes. I am still stitching in the map quilt.

And now, I am playing a different sort of game.

Since board games are all about moving through space, I am working up a board game that will let me ‘play’ the trip before we go.

I am using an old Chutes and Ladders game board and spinner, and my player’s tokens and rewards are from Trivial Pursuit. I have labeled the spaces with things we hope to experience on the trip, like “Lunch with a View” and “Wine Tasting”.

For challenges along the way, I have made cards with the names of cities, oceans and rivers, with cardinal directions, and “alike” and “different”. These can be used during the game to create lots of different questions (or memory-joggers) like “How is Angouleme like Paris?” Or “Is Lyon north of Bayonne?”. Players get a piece in their token for right answers.

There are false starts, as always happens in any creative process. My first layout wasn’t visually interesting, and the numbers were too big. I also haven’t figured out how to balance the “getting home first” goal with the “enjoying the experience” goal. But fixing these things is part of the fun.

I have run through it a few times, adjusting the number of questions, trying to make it fun to play. When it is better, I’ll bribe Grandpa Nelson and Auntie Bridgett to play with me to test it.

I’ll let you know how it works out.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Signs of the Times

Dear Liza,

You have started back to school there in Denmark, and your cousins (and all the other kids) have, too. Fall is here for certain. All the signs say so.

The tiny library at Sunnyside School is full of older books taken off the shelves to make room for the new ones.

The leaves are changing all over the place.

Apples and pears are being offered right off the tree (or sidewalk) by overwhelmed home owners.


Sunflowers are growing up to the second floor windows…

And homemade signs are sprouting up, proclaiming faith in the democratic process.

Ready or not, here comes Fall!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Acres and Acres of Stitches

Dear Liza,

As I stitch more on my map of France, adding dozens of icons for row crops, vineyards and wheat fields, I feel like I’m looking backward and forward at the same time.

I am remembering the shining wheat fields and castle gardens in the countryside, where our GPS stopped working and we got delightfully lost.

I am remembering the awe of walking along the Seine and seeing history standing before me.

And, looking at maps and train lines, I am planning our next journey, from Paris to Lyon, then winding around to Orléans and up to Rouen. What will we see on our way? How will it let me see the country differently?

Screenshot

Honestly, I never thought embroidery could make me philosophical. But here we are.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Finishing Ruthie’s Dragonfly

Dear Liza,

A few weeks ago I started a new mixed media project with Ruthie Inman’s Zoom Art group. This week, I finished it up.

We were all aiming for a dragonfly of some sort, but we were using different materials. Ruthie debated between rickrack and an old bracelet, Vimi used paper and napkins, and I went with buttons. A hot glue gun did the trick.

For the wings, I went with plain paper painted with yellow acrylic and lines drawn in dark blue. I realized too late that I had used a water soluble pencil for the lines, which meant I risked smudging with any dampness.

I was very sparing with the Mod Podge and got the wings attached with no damage. Here it is in front of my monitor, with Ruthie’s hands working on hers.

I wanted a bit more depth to the wings because they seemed flat compared to the textures of the background and body. Thin shreds of tissue paper did the trick!

Not a masterpiece, perhaps, but very nice, and better than I thought I could do. Thanks, Ruthie!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Hops? Or Oatmilkers?

Dear Liza,

Our local Minor League Baseball team is called the Hillsboro Hops. And last week, they were also “The Malmö Oatmilkers!” Here’s how it worked.

Major League Baseball teams have minor league ‘farm teams’, where their newest players get trained up to professional level. These teams are located all over the country. Our local Hillsboro Hops are a farm team for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And the newest, 121st Minor League team, is …. The Malmö Oatmilkers, from Malmö, Sweden! Yes, that’s right. Sweden. I haven’t been able to learn if there are actual players on the team or if it is just a really interesting marketing idea of the Oatly Oatmilk Company.

With you and your family living in Denmark (just next door, in a manner of speaking), we had to go see. This week, they were playing the Vancouver Canadians.

Well, there wasn’t as much to see as we had hoped, but it was fun, anyway. The Oatmilkers were our own Hops players, wearing the Oatmilkers’ uniforms. As fitting to oatmilk, the uniforms are a creamy white with dark brown lettering. The uniforms had numbers on the back but instead of the player’s name, it said “Baseball Player”. It was goofy and kind of sweet.

Of course, what Auntie Bridgett was after was some merchandise. A Tee shirt, maybe, or a coffee cup. But no such luck. Nothing.

But, as I said, you have to work hard NOT to have fun at a Hops game. Along with baseball, there are snacks, kids, costumes, tire races, trivia games, and this week, the first-ever drone show over Ron Tonkin Field.

So we didn’t come home with goodies, but a good time was had by all.

Love,

Grandma Judy

River Beach on Sauvie Island

Dear Liza,

We drove up to Sauvie Island this week to see what sort of fruit and veggies we could find. All the farms are finishing up their harvest and getting ready for the very busy Pumpkin and Corn maze season.

We bought some enormous corn, an acorn squash, a cucumber, a big head of lettuce (since my late planting is growing very slowly) and lots of kettle corn for Grandpa Nelson. We will eat very well this week!

After visiting with the goats and chickens, we drove around to the River side of the island. Most of that side’s properties are people’s houses and farms, but we found these stairs, and went exploring.

And there it was, the Columbia River, flowing right at my feet! We live close to the Willamette, but here, just five miles down river, the Willamette has joined (and become) the Columbia.

Washington is on the other side, and I just stood and marveled at the size and power of the mighty Columbia. It is wide and deep but flows along with just a few light ripples.

I wonder how long ago this log was pushed up onto the beach, and how big the wave was that did it!

What a lovely accidental discovery. Now, when I want to get my feet wet, I know where to go.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Other Downtown Delights

Dear Liza,

While we were wandering downtown, of course, there were lots of incidental, accidental, goodies to see.

We re-discovered Ira’s Fountain, a magnificent man-made series of waterfalls that thunders and crashes and almost makes you forget you are in a city. It had been closed for repairs, and then the pandemic, and then the riots, but is now being enjoyed by picnickers and all everyone else!

We found an old church, St. Michael the Archangel, and got to visit with the fellow who takes care of it. There is too much history to tell, but the church was built in 1901 and was almost torn down in the urban renewal craze of the 1960’s. I’m glad it is still here! It has three masses on Sundays and quite a busy calendar.

And speaking of churches, we noticed that the First Congregational Church on Broadway has a tiny church on top!

All sorts of things to see!

After all our walking and finding, we stopped at our favorite Café Umbria, for lunch. Fruit, cheese, and a quiche gave us the energy to get home!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Hunting Cats Downtown

Dear Liza,

There is another fun reason to explore downtown Portland!

The city has teamed up with Laika, (the film company that made the stop-motion masterpiece ‘Coraline’) and local artists to create “Coraline’s Cat Trail.”

This series of 31 cat sculptures, all based on the Cat character in ‘Coraline’, has each been painted by a local artist and installed in public areas around town. Most of them are near downtown, but some are by OMSI or the Rose Garden.

Auntie Bridgett and I caught the #15 last Sunday, to see what we could find.

There is a website with good directions, but we used the more easily available, but less accurate, map. So there was a certain amount of guesswork.

We only managed to find 6, but it was so fun chatting with other cat-hunting folks and seeing our lovely downtown come back to life, that we didn’t mind.
There will be lots of Sundays to find more.

Love,

Grandma Judy