Multnomah Village … and a Troll

Dear Liza,

With all this sunny weather, however temporary it may be, comes the need to be out in the world; so Auntie Bridgett and I had a short road trip to Multnomah Village.

This is a charming “Village in the center of Portland”, full of small shops, yummy cafes, and friendly people. To me, it feels far from ‘real’ Portland, even though it is less than 20 minute’s drive from our place.

We visited “Peggy Sunday”, a beautifully decorated shop of soaps, dishes, art, and toys, everything looking and smelling wonderful. We chatted with Judy Leach, who was running the shop, and learned that she loves France as much as we do.

As we walked down the street, we realized that despite the bright sunlight, it was very chilly. We stepped into Annie Bloom’s books to warm up, and I found a new collection of short stories called “Marple”. Think of it as fan fiction, if you will. Stories starring Miss Jane Marple, Agatha Christie’s geriatric British sleuth, but written by contemporary female authors. I have already finished one and am enjoying it immensely.

We continued to The Down to Earth Cafe for lunch, enjoying the delicious smells and the friendly hubbub of lunchtime. Delicious split pea soup, salads and sandwiches gave us the strength to carry on.

Having walked up and down the main drag of the Village, it was time for our next adventure. I realized that we were just minutes from The Nordic House, and that Auntie Bridgett hadn’t seen the Troll yet. Once we found parking (lots of people like this place!) we walked up the Troll Path and paid a visit to Ole Bolle.

This 30 foot high troll by Thomas Dambo is part of a series of trolls he has created in the Northwest. This one is shown opening a small red house as though it were a cookie jar to get at the goodies inside. It is so sweet and charming, with lovely details. It definitely brings out the kid in me.

We visited the Sauna Culture display in the Nordic House, then headed towards home. The sparkling clear skies gave us stunning views of the totally snow-covered Mt. Hood, just 90 miles east.

A pretty darn perfect day, I’d say.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Saturdays are for Fabric, Coffee, and Art

Dear Liza,

After we had our usual ZOOM chat with you and your folks Saturday morning, Auntie Bridgett and I headed off for an adventure. We drove up to Bolt Fabric. I needed to have my scissors sharpened and to pick up some new fabric for the ongoing crazy quilt.

The store has moved since November, and it took a while to find it! The new shop is at Alberta and 29th, and is a larger store, with lots more selection and fun displays. I left my scissors with Sharpener Marc Matis, who has a shop on Sandy called Sharpening 4 U, and we looked around a bit.

I was feeling a little light headed, so we found The Great North for coffee and pastries across the street. This place is also new, and very bright and sunny. And delicious!

We found the fabric I needed, along with some thread, since I have been going though a lot of it with the quilt, and picked up the nicely sharpened scissors from Marc. I love that his business sticker is on a bandaid!

On the way back to the car, we found a tiny new art gallery called The Blind Insect. Pepe Moscosos displays his art as well as other artists’ work. I like Pepe’s work, though they were hard to photograph because of the strong afternoon sunlight. He has traveled to photograph deserted places in the U.S.and then uses the photos as the basis for story-evoking multi-media art. I enjoyed making up stories about them.

When we are done, and done in, we drove home and I washed the new fabrics.

Some will work for the Crazy Quilt and some won’t, but they are all pretty… and certainly won’t go to waste!

Have fun, dear Liza!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Friday Evening on 28th Avenue

Dear Liza,

Last week, Auntie Bridgett and I headed out for First Friday. We kissed Grandpa Nelson goodbye just as the sun was just going down and the clouds were bright and extravagant.

We walked over to the Side Street Gallery for their First Friday Member Show. It was so delightful! Many artists that I enjoy all the time had their works showcased. Anna Macgruder’s whimsical portraits always make me chuckle.

After visiting with the artists and getting a few cards to send to … ahem…. Denmark, we wandered up 28th Avenue looking for dinner.

We read The Sudra’s plant-based menu and were intrigued. There wasn’t a crowd, so we headed in.

We liked it right away. The staff is small and the clientele is quiet, with no loud voices or blustery movies or sports on TV. There was a large screen with a movie on mute, but it was turned off just after we got there. The music was an interesting, low key mix of Eagles, Styx, The Cars, and Cream from the 60s and 70s.

The decor was mostly movie posters from India, which complemented the vegan food selections. We ordered a Peacock Salad and Lentil Kofta Curry, with veggies and sauces on the side. The curry was spicy, the ginger carrots nice and sweet, and the pickled cucumbers snappy. It was a fun, different, satisfying, delicious meal.

We chatted and listened and just basically enjoyed being out together. It has been a hard winter for us and a few hard years for our city. We vowed to get out more and “fall in love with Portland again!”

I hope you love where you live, too.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The First False Spring of 2024

Dear Liza,

Our weather has warmed up, and boy, is it nice outside! The sun is bright and the only clouds are teeny fluffy things that look like leftover streamers from a party. The temperature was mid to high 60s, no wind, and absolutely lovely.

There was even a juggler person out in front of the Mix Tape shop on Belmont, smiling and chatting while tossing and catching their rings.

It was also the day I pick up Kestrel from school, so I got to walk through the neighborhood to the Da Vinci school, where I sat on the delightful cement dragon that is in the schoolyard.

Even the restaurant patios along 28th Avenue are set up and ready for guests. This delightful sign reminds us that we should appreciate the good weather when we have it.

It says “It’s a good time to be outside.” And it is right!

I hope you have lots of wonderful things to be grateful for.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Facelift for the Belmont Market!

Dear Liza,

There are so many little businesses in our Sunnyside neighborhood, it is hard to keep up with them all. Our closest Mini mart, Belmont Market, was bought by Genevieve and her family in the spring of 2021. Here is the mural they had done a few years ago.

I stopped in the other day, and saw all sorts of new work being done!

Genevieve and her newest little one were working, and she told me all the news of our local go-get-it market.

They have been doing well enough to finance some renovations, so they are taking out old shelving and updating the flooring. They aren’t allowed to pull up the patchwork of old flooring (I’m guessing it is asbestos tile… it looks like what I grew up with) so they are leveling all the layers as best they can before laying some new flooring down.

They are also taking down years of old, cluttered advertising to give the place a fresher look. Last weeks’ ice storm put them behind on painting and a whole week short on income, but Genevieve continues to smile and be hopeful.

The inventory will also be elevated, with an eye to what will do well in our diverse neighborhood. I put in a good word for Grandpa Nelson’s favorite, Neccos! They will be offering coffee by the cup, with beans from Equal Exchange coffee roasters, who provide beans for Trader Joe’s markets.

When you come to visit, I’ll take you by and we’ll get some snacks.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Finishing Up, Looking Back

Dear Liza,

I finally got Auntie Katie’s curtains done! The last step, which I had thought would take about an hour, took a whole day. It turns out that the nifty velvet fabric, when put together in several layers, was just too much for my sewing machine. It was so thick, I had to use a rubber band to help me pull the needle through.

As I was threading my needle, I saw that I was coming to the end of the spool.

I realized that this thread was bought to sew one of Auntie Katie’s prom dresses back in the 1990s. This led to an hour or so of hunting in old photo albums, and I found this lovely picture.

I love that all these years later, she still loves this particular shade of green. And velvet.

Isn’t she beautiful?

Love,

Grandma Judy

Afternoon of Rock

Dear Liza,

On Sunday afternoon, I went to my first rock concert in about 40 years. And I knew one of the musicians!

Cousin Jasper has been taking drumming classes at our local School of Rock, and he loves it. The classes are not just about playing the music (keyboard, guitar, drums and vocals) but about musicianship…. How to be a musician and to play with other musicians. Music, social awareness, self expression and fun, all in one place.

It is perfect for Jasper, and he has flourished.

Our afternoon at the Get Down had a lot of things I remember from rock concerts… disorienting darkness with occasional bright flashes, and way too much volume with bass notes that rumbled the floorboards.

But this show was also amazingly family friendly, with at least four generations in attendance. The young musicians (as young as 7, as far as I could tell, with the oldest being 14 or so) performed covers of rock standards by groups like the Cranberries, Weezer and the Ramones. They were well-rehearsed, earnest, and pretty darn fearless.

When the show was over, I got to hug Jasper and tell him how well he had done, and then Auntie Bridgett and I needed to escape the crowd and noise. We had a refreshing walk up to the number 15 and home, realizing how tired we were.

Rock and Roll is not for sissies!

Love,

Grandma Judy

It’s Curtains for You!

Dear Liza,

One of the nice things about living close to Auntie Katie and the Cousins is getting to help out in fun ways. Sometimes that means feeding cats or watering the garden, but this week, I am helping with curtains.

Katie’s bathroom has a window that is old and a bit drafty (not surprising, the building is over 100 years old!) Fortunately, Katie found this gorgeous fabric in a friend’s fabric stash, and asked if I could make it into some pretty curtains.

”Easy Peasy,” I said.

Well, so I thought. The fabric is beautiful and fuzzy on one side, but the back is slippery and needed lots of pinning to stay put while I cut and then sewed it. I said some bad words. Quite a few, actually.

The style of curtain Katie asked for has loops along the top of the curtain to hang on a rod. These are easy…. But I managed to forget what I was doing and needed to cut twice because I had only measured once.
There were more words.

Still, I am making progress. Here is the ‘rough draft’, laid out on the floor with the bits just set together.

I will double check the measurements, pin and sew them tomorrow, and then on to the next project!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Storm Damage

Dear Liza,

We went for a walk between the last storm and the next one, and saw what all that wind, ice and rain had wrought on some of our wonderful trees.

Sunnyside neighborhood was built around 1895, and I can believe that some of these trees have been here that long. The enormous trees are what gives this part of town its charm. But huge trees planted in skinny parkways aren’t always a good idea. There just isn’t enough root ball to support the tree, and disaster can result.

This tree apparently gave a great lean, but stopped before hitting anything. The urban arborists were called, and a quick chain saw saved several houses and power lines.

This wonderful giant fell all at once, probably when it was coated with ice and blustered by winds. It fell across the street, taking down part of a roof and power lines and ripping up a chunk of sidewalk.

I imagine amidst all the crashing and blowing, the lights went out, as well. A terrifying night.

And finally, this power pole came down across from the bank.

Our next rainstorm has just started, and it is really coming down.
Stay strong, trees! We love you!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Stills from Home Movies Part 2

Dear Liza,

Seeing scenes from my childhood has me cracking up. Look at this home movie sequence of my Dad (your Great-grandpa Lowell) encouraging three -year-old me to help with some construction around the house.

He is working on what will become my brothers’ room and I have somehow climbed to the top of the ladder. He sees me (probably given the heads up by my Mom, who must have been running the camera).

So he hands me a hammer! I love the look on my blurry face as I realize how heavy it is, and how he grabs hold to support me.

Many of the movies are full of this sort of situation, things that seem horribly dangerous, but were just life as usual back then. Kids on roofs, shooting bows and arrows, climbing up and down cliffs, and (yep) riding cows.

The hammer sequence ends with Dad taking the tool back and me working my own way back down the ladder (which is missing a step, as you can see). I was not rescued , but allowed to retreat under my own steam. Thanks, Dad.

Love,

Grandma Judy