We have had a very dry, hot summer, like most of the country. Day after day in the high 90s and weeks of dry, dry days and unnaturally warm nights.
This drying trend is taking its toll on some of our parks in Portland. The trees are getting ready for Fall earlier than usual and the grass is crackly in the sunny spots.
But today, we woke up to rain! Sweet, cool, life restoring rain! The ground smells of petrichore (that first rain smell) and the trees are sighing with relief.
And when we go out later for our adventure, there will be umbrellas! And proper hats!
As summer is winding down, the activities are ramping up! Sunday was a busy, exhausting, happy, musical day. First our friends John, Jennifer, Amy and Phil came by for lunch. We got caught up on everyone’s news, adventures, children and grandchildren. It was wonderful.
After lunch, I asked our friends to sign my tablecloth. They did, with John (the tall handsome fellow on the left) giving me a real challenge. His self-portrait sure makes things interesting!
When all the shenanigans were done, our guests headed off and we packed some leftovers and went to Laurelhurst Park for some music.
The Providence Stage Band is a very talented group of doctors from our local hospital, and they were performing a concert. We love their Big Band and Jazz era music, and the vocals were classic. “Ain’t that a Kick in the Head?” and “Queen Bee”, “Too Darn Hot” and other songs from the 40s and 50s bounced among the Douglas Firs and picnickers.
As usual, though, the real joy was watching the people! Youngsters dancing by the stage made their own show and got just as much applause as the band.
Couples dancing under the trees had romance, music, and conversation.
There were Dads carrying infants while supervising young stick-collectors.
And of course, everyone brought their dogs!
The air got cooler as the sun went down behind the trees, and the band ended with “In the Mood”, my favorite Big Band piece of all time. We packed up the chairs and walked the three blocks back home, worn to very happy nubbins by the day.
I took the bus out to the Nordic House again this week, to get practice in Danish conversation and to see something that didn’t even exist until last month!
This is “Curious Troll and the Trollstua”, a wooden sculpture created by Thomas Dambo and a team of volunteers in the woods by the Nordic House in Southwest Portland. The site-specific installation is part of Dambo’s NorthwestTroll: TrailoftheBirdKing, part of his Trail of a Thousand Trolls. Like all Dambo’s work, it is made of recycled pallets and repurposed lumber, as part of his philosophy of making beauty out of things once considered dirty and useless.
When you stand off from the piece, the troll seems almost child-like. But as you walk into the little house you get this ominous feeling of being watched by something very big. Not dangerous, especially, but BIG.
Of course, what has brought the Troll to the house is right there in the table, a pretty cake and basket full of pastries resting in a beautifully embroidered tablecloth.
A poem is posted on the wall, telling us what the Troll is thinking.
“There’s something in the air, that something makes my belly rumble,
Something smells so strong, it hits me almost makes me stumble
Could it be the little people cooking something smelly
In the big red cookie jar, so I can put them in my belly.”
So, it seems, the troll thinks the house is his cookie jar!
I love this mixture of whimsy and danger, adorability and slightly menacing. My conversation group compatriots Char and ElseMarie posed close by to give some scale. Char told me that the troll is 15 feet tall!
I hope this whimsical troll will be here for a long time. I can imagine that weather and rain will only make him more beautiful.
We moved to Portland, six years ago now, for many reasons. One of the main ones was the quirky, artsy, never-know-what’s-next culture.
For example, this delightful tie-dye inspired picnic table at the Short Box food court by Books with Pictures. Isn’t it pretty?
Up the road, these hard working city employees were laying down some new sidewalks to keep the kids heading to Abernethy Elementary next week nice and safe. I never knew road paint got sealed with a blow torch! It’s hot work on these August days.
At the South Rose garden in Ladd’s Addition, the roses are getting near the end of their season. I love how their whole life cycle can be seen in a small cluster of flowers. The intense pinks are newly bloomed; the paler ones, middle aged; and the white ones, ready to lose their petals. C’est la vie en rose, for sure.
Here’s a twist on the “Make Love, Not War” protests of my teenage years. This one seems to aimed at social media. Make Love, Not Content.
And, getting back to art, this newly painted plaque was installed high on a power pole. The artist, who goes by @mizchaos, has a way with color that I really like. They also use bits of glass for texture, like a made-up mosaic. Nice.
In case you are wondering, yes, I still love Portland!
This time of year, fresh produce is all over the place! We have even enjoyed apples, figs and Asian pears from front yard boxes labeled “Free”. It is marvelous!
My neighbor Jason has a garden plot, as well, and made us a present of one of his yellow squash. Here is the giant veggie with Mouse for comparison.
Squashes this size tend to be a bit woody, so I decided to chop this one up, freeze it, and use it for some yummy pumpkin-y soup when the colder weather gets here.
Step 1: Peel it. It got really slippery once the skin was off!
Step 2: Seed it. I know I could have kept the seeds, but I didn’t. Into the compost with them.
Step 3: Chop it. About 1 inch chunks, for quick freezing. This squash filled two baking sheets!
Step 4: Freeze it. I put the chunks on a baking sheet lined with silicon pad, annd froze until each piece is hard like a rock.
Step 5: Bag it! I scooped the frozen chunks into freezer bags to save until the evenings get chilly. Roast it, pan fry it, or make it into a nice, creamy soup.
One of my recent sewing projects is a new decoration for Auntie Bridgett’s booth where she sells her Auntie Beeswax books, buttons, and artwork.
We chose fabrics in colors that Auntie Beeswax wears… orange, green, and blue. Some of these were fabrics I’d had for years. The orange cat print had been kitchen curtains in our house in Salinas, and I made the stripes out of scraps from other projects. We did buy a few new fabrics at Bolt, and added them to the collection.
Once we chose the fabrics, they needed to be cut into triangles, sewn, turned, and pressed to make nice sharp flags.
I love the way all the colors work together!
Next, all the flags needed to be sewn to a length of seam binding to make a long banner. This got tricky! The seam binding was so narrow, it took some careful maneuvering and pinning to get it put together.
But now it is done and ready for het next art fair, which is the Art Picnic on September 16th.
It is still very warm most days, but Fall is coming. Some leaves are turning annd falling, and the mornings are cool.
The garden is showing signs of summer ending, as well. The lettuces, which have been giving us free salads every day since May 26th are finally done, pulled, and composted. We will miss them!
All four varieties of tomatoes are bearing fruit, enough to eat, share with the neighbors, and make tasty relish. Isis Candy is the biggest cherry tomato, and bright yellow and orange. Purple bumblebee is purple with orange flecks. Chocolate cherry is almost brown, and Sweet Millions are bright red and tiny.
Our dahlias, Laverne and Shirley, continue blooming giants.
And Ribsy and Picky-Picky (named after the pets in Beverly Cleary’s stories) are still with us. Ribsy is turning orange and seems to have stopped growing, but Picky-Picky just keeps getting bigger. I love this time of year!
Making any kind of quilt takes a long time. My latest baby quilt has taken about two weeks, working a few hours every day.
Once the top was pieced, I decided to quilt the whole thing by machine. This would keep the look of the quilt modern, with straight lines that looked like window panes.
It is important, on a quilt, that it looks good from the back as well as the front. I like how the pink lines show up so clearly in the black and grey backing.
So now the quilt is done, washed, dried, and wrapped up, waiting to get sent to its new owner, little Emily.
Auntie Bridgett and I took the number 15 bus down to the warehouse district last Friday to visit an art space called Creative Variables. This is a renovated industrial space that Mary Hlastala (yes, the H is silent) has turned into a gallery, creative meet-up and retail space.
The space is light and cheerful, thanks to open shelving, white walls and murals by Chemisa Kellogg.
The show we went to see was called Between the Pages, which featured about 15 artists. Each artist displayed a sketchbook and a finished piece of art, which was for sale.
Each sketchbook was so different from the others, and led so clearly to the finished art piece, that I spent a long time just staring, comparing, and getting inspired.
Sadly, I didn’t make note of all the artist’s names, but those shown here are my favorites. Mandy Arroyo’s gouache sketches of our old stomping grounds of Carmel and Big Sur were so well done they made us homesick.
I kept falling into the pages and seeing new ways of drawing things. This one reminded me of Cousin Kestrel’s characters, a sort of faerie fashion show.
Our friend Brian Johnson, who does a cartoon called “Robot of the Day” had his sketchbook there, and I got to see the development of his very human robots in Copic markers and micron pens. We bought this darling picture of a robot visiting a bookshop. Because, you know, bookshops.
On the other side of the space, tables were set up with markers, colored pencils and pens, and suggestions for drawing. I joined a fellow named Butter, who drew a wonderfully melty pizza. It was so much fun to draw and chat!
Auntie Bridgett added her pizza character and we drew until it was time to head off.
We walked the two miles home, enjoying the warm summer evening and the cafes and restaurants with people, music and conversation. It reminded me of all the reasons we moved to Portland, and of how lucky we are to be here.
Our visit to Eugene reminded me of how much I enjoyed living in that city, many years ago. Your daddy and Auntie Katie were born there!
There always seems to be new public art sprouting up. This enormous “Rooster on a Stump” is a bronze chicken on an actual (extremely tall) stump, and pays tribute to the poultry plant that has been converted to the 5th Street Public Market.
We had lunch in this pleasant plaza populated by some delightful food trucks and a statue of Ken Kesey (local author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”) reading to some people.
It is by Peter Helzer and is called “The Storyteller.”
This blue crane by Jud Turner is about 16 feet high and built of bicycle parts! It stands in the middle of the road at 15th and Alder and looks magnificent.
And as you can see, even the bus stops are adorable. On that hot day, anything with shade and a bench was appreciated.
Dear Liza 