No, I didn’t make a typographical mistake. This adventure took place on Going Street in Northeast Portland. It all started when Auntie Bridgett and I needed some fabric for various upcoming projects and arrived an hour early at Bolt Fabric Boutique.
Wanting to make good use of our time, we took a walk in the neighborhood. We admired the gardens decorations and beautiful, intelligent and inspiring artwork that had been planted, painted and installed.
It was like an art gallery! I like the words ( too big to fit in one photo) “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance”. It is not often that yard decor, political commentary and up cycled road signs come together so beautifully.
There were also more mainstream, but still clever instillations. Decorated poles, flowers made from old tableware,
And this watering-can ivy planter made the neighborhood pretty and interesting.
And of course, Auntie Bridgett never met a sunflower she didn’t like!
We also met a really interesting fellow, but I’ll you about him next time!
Summer means a lot of picnics, shows and concerts, and other good reasons to be outside. And, usually, this involves our camp chairs.
We have had them for years and they are very light to carry and sturdy to sit in. Their weakest part is the bags they come in, so every now and then I need to make a new one. It was Auntie Bridgett’s turn and she got to choose her fabric from my scrap box.
She chose these curtains we made years ago for her Seaside apartment. They were fashionably striped and even lined, so the bag will last longer.
I used the old bag for a pattern, then cut the curtains to fit and added a bit of other fabric to make sure the bag would be long enough. The straps and bottom panel were reused from the original.
With reinforcing bits below the slit and the drawstring in place, it is ready for our next outing.
One of our favorite local businesses, the McMenamin brothers, helped us celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday this past weekend. The party was at The Kennedy School.
We started with lunch on the Cypress Room patio and Zach took good care of us. There was a special menu of food and drink to honor our favorite boy Wizard, and we took advantage. I had the Leaky Cauldron Shepherd’s Pie and Bridgett enjoyed the Chamber of Secrets pizza in a gluten free crust. Our drinks were a butter beer for Grandpa Nelson, Felix Felicius for me, and Pumpkin Juice for Bridgett.
Once we were fed, it was time to shop! The classrooms of the School were filled with vendors of candy, books, art, and all sorts of Wizarding goodies. Honeydukes sold me some delicious peanut butter fudge. I passed on the “Cornelius Fudge”, which a fellow shopper guessed might taste of cowardice and bad management. (Don’t you just love clever smart guys?)
I met Christie Quinn, The BookMobile Babe, at her Banned Books booth. She knows Auntie Katie and BookswithPictures and loves them almost as much as I do! In the world of “Folks Who Get Books to Kids”, these two are best buddies.
As always at McMenamin’s, we took time to appreciate the design and decoration of the place. We stepped into The Detention Bar for a refresher cocktail (and to get Bridgett the special stamp in her McMenamin’s Passport) and enjoyed the Oriental details as the The Chamber of Secrets played in the overhead screen.
Just down the hall was this lovely, ornate door, labeled Kennedy Night School. Our waiter, Zach, walked past as I was taking this picture. “It doesn’t go anywhere and is just nailed up there,” he said, “but doesn’t it look neat?” Yes, it does.
When we had seen everything there was to see and gotten Auntie Bridgett a few more stamps, we headed home. I love that Harry and the McMenamin’s get together.
Saturday evening was warm and pleasant, so we headed out for a walk around Laurelhurst. We found a totally new (to us) group of actors putting on Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
This is not the Original Practice Shakespeare, or the Portland Repertoire, or the Reed College Theater. Apparently we live in a city with FOUR Shakespeare theater troupes!
We chatted with the director, Eleanor Johnson, and decided to pull up a piece of lawn and enjoy the show. And, even as the evening got cooler and the ground got damper, we stayed. And, after years of studying Shakespeare, I understood Julius Caesar as I never have before.
Oregon Adventure Theater rehearses extensively and works to understand and present the relationships between the characters. In this production, Brutus and Cassius do not just yell at each other; they disagree, hurt each other, cry, and make up. They are human beings, doing human things for human reasons.
Julius Caesar is not an evil person, but a flawed leader who has become dangerous because he is caught up in his own image of himself. The emotions and motives felt very real in these post January 6 times.
As the sun went down and the lanterns were lit, the drama became more dramatic and everything felt wonderful and magical.
When the final bows were taken, I was stunned to see that the entire play (with a cast list of dozens) had been performed by EIGHT actors. This shows great dedication and talent. Hooray for Oregon Adventure Theatre!
For the past few weeks, Auntie Bridgett has been taking Improvisation Comedy classes at a place called Kickstand Comedy and Improv. She is having a great time and meeting lots of nice folks.
On Friday, we walked over to Laurelhurst for a Comedy in the Park evening. It was sponsored by Kickstand Comedy, and featured local and out of town comics. As we approached the park, we noticed that every inch of street parking was taken. Were all these people going to the comedy?
Yes, they were!
The nice folks from Laughing Planet, one of our favorite locals cafes, were giving away stuff. We got a turntable cover with their logo… and immediately put it so silly use.
The park was full when we got there, but we found a place off to the side for our chairs. The crowd kept growing and by the end of the evening, the official estimate of attendance was over 3,000! That is a record for a show at Laurelhurst, apparently.
Kickstand folks were walking through the crowd with donation buckets, because the show itself was free and they are saving up money buy their own building in order to survive Portland’s increasing rents.
Since it was a family-friendly show, the jokes were funny without being vulgar or foul-mouthed. One fellow told of his search for a pet dog at the shelter. “This dog was listed as a gentle lab mix,” he began. “I told the guy, that’s not a lab mix! It’s 150 pounds… and carrying a gun! That …. is a murder dog.” Even the dogs in the crowd were chuckling.
Another told about his visit to his bank. “I got recognized! Yeah, the teller said, Oh, I know you! You do comedy! How’s that going? I told her, “Don’t be mean, lady, you’re looking at my account balance.”
When our picnic was all eaten and the last Comic stepped down, the crowd of 3,000 applauded, packed up, and headed off. I was very glad we only needed to walk a few blocks… people with cars were going to be waiting a while.
Here we are in almost- August. Summer has been full of big events, most of which I have written about. But it’s also been full of smaller things that make life delicious and serendipitous.
The variety of summer squash I planted this year is called Early Yellow Prolific. I chose its bright yellow color so I could see them ripening more easily, but the real benefit is the sweet flavor and how wonderfully they pan fry with garlic and olive oil.
With all our summer salad eating, Auntie Bridgett and I were wishing for a salad spinner, but were too cheap to pay for one. This week, one magically appeared as a gift of the sidewalk when lady down the block was cleaning out her kitchen. We gave it a good wash and now use it whenever I harvest lettuce from the garden, about four times a week.
Going for long walks has always been one of Grandpa Nelson’s and my favorite things. When we were dating we would walk for miles along the beach in Southern California, talking about our future. Now that our future is here, we are more aware of how far from home we are and what spaces are available for rest and re-hydration.
You know I love flowers and gardens. I got this love from my Momma Billie who was a gardener just about every minute she was alive. Today I will share some stories about remarkable blooms.
If you look closely, you can see that this is a rose in Lompoc, California. It grew, and just kept growing, in Momma’s garden. It grew up from under her orange tree, through the orange tree, and right out the top! She didn’t notice it until one of her visitors on the Garden Tour pointed it out. “Well, how about that?” she said.
We saw this giant bunch of lilies get on the funicular train going up the bluff of Montmartre in Paris. The lady carrying them walked with assurance that she and her flowers were making the world more beautiful.
We found this astonishing field of sunflowers on Sauvie Island, just north of Portland. Every summer the farms let the public in to explore, shop, eat barbecue, and celebrate the beauty of the countryside. Auntie Bridgett never wanted to leave!
And this year, we have Laverne. She and Shirley, her sister dahlia, are growing in my community garden plot. Laverne opened up first and we were very impressed!
Our friend Lynn called this a dinner-plate dahlia, which I didn’t know existed. But there she is, all right!
I have been trying to learn Danish for almost a year now, since you moved to Horsens. Duolingo has been my morning language buddy as I have drawn my own illustrated Danish dictionary. I was ready to try Danish with real Danish speaking people. Or so I thought.
The trip to the Nordic House was cool and pleasant, since our weather made a welcome shift to clouds and drizzle.
I arrived early because it is better than being late, and had some veggies and tea in the Broder Cafe inside the House. There were about twenty other folks enjoying the ambiance, yummy food and cool sunshine.
I spent some time with the Icelandic art exhibit. There, I met a lady named Charlotte who was also there for the conversation group. We hit it off right away, having crafting and language interests in common, as well as a certain lefty political bent.
Nine women and one man were at the group, with levels of Danish from absolute beginners to fluent native speakers. It was odd not to have my usual social tools of word-play and jokes to make myself comfortable. I listened hard and was only able to make three on-topic comments in the ninety minutes, which for me is like taking a vow of silence.
I didn’t take any photos of the group, because it felt rude. That hour and a half was enough to let me know several things.
I have miles to go in Danish before I can participate in basic conversation.
It is going to be a multi-level challenge of brain power and social skills that I haven’t used in a long time.
I really want to succeed in this.
Charlotte and I exchanged phone numbers, and we’ll try and get together soon. Maybe we can have some Danish practice combined with coffee, fun, and crafting.
I would say “Wish me luck” but luck isn’t going to get this done. So I will say “Wish me stubbornness!”
A while back I showed you the start of a collage book in whichI will try and illustrate all the stages of life. For whatever reason, the first page I did was close to the end…
So I decided to go back to the beginning.
Choosing what to call the stages was my first challenge, but I went with my first inspirations. From Preconsciousness through Puberty to Oblivion and Joy, I printed them out and put them on the inside cover. Because I was sloppy, the page didn’t come out quite like I wanted, but it will do for now. The beauty of collage is that I can paper it over and do it again.
For my first stage of life, I started with Preconsciouness, when we are growing but not aware of anything yet. I got the images from a Time Life book called The Body from the 1960s and added some tissue paper and paint speckles.
I haven’t done “Comfort” or “Cognition” because I can’t see them in my mind yet, so the next one I have is “Organization”, when we are figuring out how people and things are the same and different..
As you can see, babies can get some things wrong. They might think butterflies are flowers, or that a stuffed dog is a real dog.
The next page is about learning to talk, with jumbles of words overlapping each other.
The next page I have (almost) finished is Mobility. I imagine this is what it must have felt like, balancing on our own two feet for the first time. A precarious, dangerous step that we all needed to take.
Those are all the pages I have done for now. This is a long term project and I work on it as ideas come to me.
A few months ago we visited our friend Jack Kent while he had a table at an Art Picnic at Colonel Summers Park, and it looked like such fun that Auntie Bridgett signed up for one this month. This time, we packed up the car and drove north to Alberta Park.
Art Picnics are unique in that they are not organized by any club or group. A lady named Lucia went on line and asked “who wants to do this?” and people signed up. Everyone who wants to shows up, sets up, and sells their art. Folks are helpful and friendly. It feels like the best of Portland.
It was predicted to be very warm, so we made sure to get a spot in the shade. With dappled tree shade protecting our tent shade, we we comfortable for most of the day. People coming by to see Bridgett’s work were comfortable, too. There was a lot of delightful conversation.
Alberta Park is a park that just keeps giving. There are basketball courts under a shelter, tennis courts, roller hockey courts, climbing toys and lots of trees. Music from boomboxes made fine background music. It was fun to have so many activities overlapping.
We met some creators of comics, too. A young man named Christopher stopped by and told us about his digital comic, “Korina Trials of Shadow (WIP)”. He struggles with social anxiety and says he often asks himself, “Who am I to think I can tell this important story?” Of course the answer is that no one else BUT him could tell it, because it’s HIS story.
We met a very young artist named Sky (she is too short to show over the table display) who came by with her mom. She was interested in learning about how to make her own comics, and Auntie Bridgett gave her contact info so she could write and ask! Maybe Sky will be selling her comics in a few years.
We also had some non-human visitors. The usual Portland compliment of dogs came by, a lady bug settled on my hat and a bee kept buzzing around.
At 3:00 it was just getting uncomfortably hot, and it was time to pack up. Once again, my little red wagon proved its worth as we schlepped tent, table, and boxes of art back to the car.
We were feeling the effects long day and stopped by Nico’s Ice Cream (this used to be a food truck at Books with Pictures and is now a brick and mortar store) for a life-saving refreshment of blueberry soft serve. Thanks, Nico’s!
We got home, had pizza and wine for dinner, and slept like dead people. What a day!
Dear Liza 