Family and Cookies in Horsens

Dear Jasper and Kestrel,

We have found the rest of the family!! Or rather, they found us, at the Billund Airport. There was lots of hugs, and Liza kept picking me up… like, off the ground! This is something her Dad David did when he got tall enough, so I guess I should have expected it.

Liza is tall, after all.

We went for lunch and talked about everything, then drove to Horsens and got tucked into our Air B and B, which is a delightful traditional Danish house just a few blocks from David and Olga’s place. It is made of brick which has been plastered over, so the white walls have a soft texture that is soft and comfy.

Hygge is the Danish word for cozy and comfortable. This place is hygge. We napped for a bit to catch up in sleep lost from the boat parade in Leiden, then
went to David and Olga’s.

Cheese, wine, fruit and crackers gave us energy to move on with our day.

Liza wanted to learn to make Snickerdoodle cookies, so there was a trip to Meny, a market nearby, and then Bilka, further away, when cream of tartar became problematic. It has a different name, of course! It took Google lens, a translation app and process of elimination, but Liza and I got it figured out.

Since this was a teaching- baking session, I gave an instruction, demonstrated, and walked away. Liza is a thorough creamer and careful measurer. All was well.

While the cookie dough chilled, we headed for the little beach at Alro.

All sorts of adventures were available!

Back home, we baked the cookies, and found just one flaw: the chemical composition of cream of tartar in Denmark is more concentrated, so the cookies had an odd, but not awful, lemony aftertaste. Rest assured, we will make them again while I am in town, adjusting the amount to get it just right.

Dinner was at Bones, a Danish clone of Bob’s Big Boy, an Americana themed steak and burgers place. The portions are enormous and we ate until we popped!

Then back to the apartment for a well deserved, well fed, happy sleep.

Tomorrow would be another day!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Finding the Unexpected in Leiden

Dear Jasper and Kestrel,

Walking through Leiden, we kept coming across wonderful quirks that reminded me of Portland. First, there were these little mosaics, each the size of one paving brick, in places around the city.

There were enough that I stopped taking pictures of them, yet never so close together as to be boring.

There was also a lot of public art, mostly in the form of bronze statues; a series of young men selling things, like flowers, fish, and fabric. I suppose this was a celebration of Leiden’s history as a market town.

Some of the statues are also draped with string, and one had a key placed at his feet! I wonder what the hidden message was, and for whom.

Some things, we may never know.

Another bronze statue, near the main entrance to the University, was designed to encourage public voices of dissent. This podium, with a little riser behind it, has “Protest” and other words carved on the front. Student challenges to the status quo is celebrated. Hooray for young ideas!

Finally, we happened to be in town for the annual Parade of Boats. It was described by our waitress as a yearly party where “drunk people in boats make a show for drunk people on land.”

A few dozen groups like dance classes, choirs, clubs, or just groups of friends, rode through the city’s canals in decorated boats, playing music and entertaining the crowd. It was clear that many of the paraders, as well as many of the audience, had had a few drinks. But, as far as I could tell, no harm done.
Our hotel room on the second floor gave us a front row seat.

And it was a magnificent party!

Well, that’s all I’m going to tell you about Leiden for now. Tomorrow is our flight to Billund!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Hortus Botanicus and Other Delights

Dear Jasper and Kestrel,

I am writing to you because I will be seeing Liza very soon. So, hello, Portland!


We woke up Friday in Leiden, hungry and ready to explore. The city center wakes up pretty slowly, but we found a shop, called Vooraf en Toe, that sold us coffee, juice, and the best apple pie I’ve ever had. Notice my restraint: I didn’t have the whipped cream!

Once we were fed, we walked through town and across canal bridges to the Hortus Botanicus, one of the oldest botanical gardens in Europe. It is in the grounds of the University and is a teaching facility for students as well as a delight for visitors of all ages.

There were tiny mulched trails through forests for a fern garden.

There were signs all over explaining about the really cool details of botany that my Momma got me interested in…. Spores and seeds and Linneaus, biomes and bees and calcium-rich soils.

And when we had looked and read and smelt everything, it was time for lunch. The cafe had a wonderful zucchini soup with fresh baked bread, which I slurped down like a starving woman (which I was!).

Grandpa Nelson is always good company in gardens, museums, and walking around cities. But like most of us, he’s happiest when he has a place to sit and a cup of coffee. Here he is, looking particularly handsome.

I’ll tell you more about Leiden tomorrow!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Into Leiden

Dear Liza,

After the usual disorientation of an overseas flight and time adjustment, we are in Leiden, the Netherlands, and seeing all sorts of lovely things.

We are staying at a hotel called CTY Books, which is a modern place built inside a really old book sellers (from the 1700s). In a perfect blending of new and old, it has super nifty electronic locks but traditional Dutch stairs; AC for the hot days but is perched on a centuries-old canal.


The parts of Leiden we have seen are busy, modern city businesses that work in a very canal laced geography. This giant windmill sits beside a canal on the way from the train station.

Canals are common in The Netherlands because the land is low and swampy, so for centuries the people have dug canals to drain the water away. The canals also make for nice transport, to and from the sea as well as around town.

Our first day, we found De Brucht, which is the remains of an old castle.

It was originally built up as a high place to escape flooding, but when foreign armies threatened, they put a castle on top.

in in the midafternoon we started drooping from jet lag, and went up for a nap. Three hours later we were fit for more site-seeing, and wandered the neighborhood. The old, well maintained buildings and canals make everything look like a fairy tale.

De Landstrader, the restaurant just below our hotel, serves wonderful French fries, as well as salads and dinners. We stopped for some food and wine before heading back in for the night. We ate inside as the canal side tables were getting noisy and we like our conversation un-shouted.

The sunset was stunning at almost 10 p.m. as we headed up to our cozy room.

Tomorrow will be another full day!

Love,

Grandma Judy

On My Way!

Dear Liza,

I can’t believe that I am on my way to you, and will be seeing you Saturday for lunch in Billund, Denmark!

This past week has been busy. I spent part of every day taking care of Maggie and Hopey, Auntie Katie’s cats, while she was in Chicago.

I also got to water her garden, which is always lovely and refreshing.

I had a nice walk around the Alberta neighborhood with Cynthia. I have never spent much time there, but it is green and interesting, with lots of history and quirkiness of its own.

It is an eclectic mix of urban and parks, with native plant gardens right next to apartments and tiny toy exchanges.

I even got to spend an afternoon with Cousins Jasper and Kestrel at the Portland Art Museum. Most of the museum is closed for a major renovation. However, along with the Post Impressionists exhibit, a few galleries upstairs are filled with a delightfully random collection of art from the museum’s collection.

Each Cousin picked a favorite piece to be photographed with. Jasper’s is a ‘quilt’ made from computer circuit boards, which makes perfect sense, him being a science and technology kind of guy.

Kestrel chose this enormous still life with incredibly realistic flowers and fruit. It looked so fresh, you could almost smell the strawberries!

And now I am all done packing for our trip. We will spend a few days in Leiden, the Netherlands, get over our jet lag, and then come see you and your folks. I don’t have any pictures of that, of course, but this gets the feeling across…


I am so excited!!!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Danish Travel Journal

Dear Liza,

Yep, there is a new travel journal, and it’s heading your way! I will be bringing it this week when Grandpa Nelson and I visit you in Denmark.

As usual, I started with a nice thick mixed media spiral bound sketchbook. Their paper is good for writing, collage, and even watercolors, if you don’t get too wet.

My front cover is frenetic and busy, like I am feeling about the trip. I used a weird polar map projection and a compass rose to show travel, a flag and color scheme for Denmark, and words to tell about the excitement of anticipation.

Since most of our travel once we get to Denmark will be by car, my inside cover shows a road trip. The background started as a celestial map, and you can still see some of wording under the grey acrylic. I wanted a grey and red color scheme, and found all those little figures in a magazine ad for Target. Posca marker let me write in WHITE.

Since the back cover represents the end of the journey, it has words like ‘exhausted’ and ‘I had an enormous breakfast’ as well as things I hope to see. And just because I had them, I included the Danish national anthem in Danish and English.

Since every trip is different, every travel journal is different, and I can’t promise anything special. But I’ll show you what I come up with. Heck, you’ll probably see some of what I’m drawing while I’m drawing it.

And I will like that very much.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Slow Stitching for the Adventure

Dear Liza,

Since I have starting drawing, painting, sewing, and generally crafting every day, I have decided that just SITTING on my long flight to Denmark this summer would be a real waste of creative time.

I started up hunting up new hand-sewing ideas and found videos on “Slow Stitching” which looked easy enough to do on a plane, but new and interesting enough to keep my brain busy.

The process is a sort of fabric collage, and some of the stitching is like the Kawandi stitching I learned a few years ago.

First, I chose my colors, which Auntie Bridgett calls “The Scooby-Doo Palette”. I made a sandwich of old sheeting, felt, and my purple background for a nice thick surface to work on.

I watched YouTubers Jo Peaceofpi and Daniela Mellen and got directions and inspiration, and am working on something that I hope, by the end of our trip, will be a gift for you. The piece is about 7 inches wide and 20 inches long.

I cut the colors into rectangles and starting laying them down, not being too fussy, but looking for a good balance. Some slow stitch pieces completely cover their background piece, and others let it show between the patches. For this one, I am going to let it show. I pinned, then basted, the pieces so they would stay where I put them.


I used some embroidery floss to stitch around the edges of each patch. These will all get done before the running stitches get put in. And yes, in Slow stitching, the edges are left raw. It will be fun to see how it turns out.

Then I took my first few rows of stitching, to make sure I knew what I was doing and liked how they looked. They looked like they were supposed to. Hooray!

I collected some buttons, bits of fabric, needles and embroidery floss, and little school scissors into a traveling pouch for the trip, and rolled up the piece into a nice-sized scroll.

Now I can put the whole thing away in my carry-on bag to be taken out somewhere over Canada! I feel like I am giving myself a present with a “Do Not Open Before Take-off” sign on it.

My brain is so happy! See you soon!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Practice Slow Stitching

Dear Liza,

I love learning new things, and this week I have been all about Slow Stiching. This is a new name for combining old hand sewing techniques like embroidery and quilting, and I am loving it.

I have got a project set up to do on my flight to Denmark, but I want to make sure I know the ins and outs before I start it at 30,000 feet.


So I am practicing! I am making a 30 inch long, 3 inch wide strip, quilted, appliquéd and embroidered. I am not sure what I will use it for, but something will come to me. Wall decoration? Head band? Ridiculously long book mark?

Anyway, I am enjoying the act of embroidering, playing with colors and patterns, and feeling the textures grow under my fingers. There may also be buttons, beads, and other goodies as I go along.

I am learning how this sort of project works. A few things I have learned:


*** Keep about half an inch of overlap so there are no gaps between patches.

*** Use a single strand of thread of a light color to sew patches down if you plan on adding more layers of stitching, so it doesn’t distract from the patch.

This is how it is looking so far, on the front….

And on the back.


Maybe I’ll bring this one along with me, and we’ll figure out what to do with it!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Only in Portland

Dear Liza,

I am looking forward to seeing things that can only be found in Denmark when I visit you next week! Here are some things that are unique to Portland.

This perfectly repurposed broken cherub statue, now mounted in a tall bush and oddly beautiful, makes me smile on the way to the market.

This skeleton in a tree, who seems to be haunting the bird feeder, is veeeery patient.

This cluttered collection of stickers on a “no pedestrian crossing” sign (where we crossed anyway). The center one says, in French, “This is not a sticker.”

And on the power pole just outside Books with Pictures, these delightful decorations make the world a little “Portlandier”.

I grant you, these bits of Portland weirdness are not historic like your castles or mechanical marvels like your giant wind turbines, but I like them a lot, anyway.

See you soon, sweetie!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Garden Update, June 2024

Dear Liza,

Wouldn’t you know it, just as I am coming to visit you for a few weeks, my garden is getting into high gear! Fortunately, Auntie Bridgett will be staying in town, so she can water and harvest.

The 24 lettuce starts I out in have all done well, giving us enough lettuce to have big salads every day. I only pick a few leaves from each plant every few days, so they just keep making more!

The Black Beauty zucchini plants are coming up, and may be bearing baby Zukes by the time I get back.

Our three cherry tomato plants, (Chocolate Cherry, Sweet Millions and Isis Candy) have doubled in size, and the Chocolate Cherry has three blossoms!

Laverne and Shirley, our dahlias, are two feet high and very fat and bunchy. They are going to give us some big blooms later in the summer.

And, of course, the lavender is big and blooming, smelling fabulous, and trying to take over the joint.

I hope Auntie Bridgett will enjoy watching the garden grow as much as I do, and share our harvest with our lovely neighbors!

Love,

Grandma Judy