Fall is on the way. During our last weeks of hot weather, I got into the habit of going for walks early in the day to avoid the shingle-irritating bright sun and heat.
I noticed that Laurelhurst Park is very different early in the day. The cool damp of night is still in the air. Tai chi groups perform their slow dance among the trees.
Firwood Lake is a perfect mirror… until the ducks wake up! Then, somehow, the ripples make the mirror even more beautiful.
And passing the Blair Community Garden, I see the raspberries getting ripe.
I am happily awaiting the day when I will need a second layer to be comfortable. J’aime sweater weather!
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…
We had some lovely bright days this week, before the rain set in. On one of those days, Cynthia and I went to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. It was full of happy people and magnificent Rhodies and azaleas.
The forest-y design of the garden lets you wander aimlessly, finding little side trails with wonderful views.
Kids were out, enjoying the day. This fellow wanted to “go talk to the goose.” The goose had no comment, apparently.
And, of course, the bees were busy. This purple azalea was humming with activity!
There is so much peace and beauty to be had in this wonderful place. I have renewed my membership and will head back soon.
I’ve told you about the garden at Auntie Katie’s bookshop, Books with Pictures. It was created in the spring of 2022 by Katie and dozens of her friends out of an overgrown triangle just behind the shop.
A small backhoe, loads of topsoil and gravel, donated plants and months of faithful watering have created a wonderful oasis enjoyed by passers-by, Comic-con goers, readers, birds and bees.
And now this lovely spot is entering its second winter. The other evening, seeing it from the rooftop, I felt like a proud Garden Grandma. This little space has grown from dump to garden to welcoming haven, sunny in the daylight and glowing at night.
Once again, I am so grateful to be in a place where good people join together to make good things happen, and to be able to see them grow.
Love,
Grandma Judy
PS. Just to remind you, this is what it looked like this last July!
A year ago, Auntie Katie and her friends planted a garden in the skinny triangle of ground behind her bookshop, BooksWithPictures. Everyone helped with weeding and watering during the hot summer and fall, and the garden rested through our cold, wet winter.
And now that summer is on the way, everything is coming up roses!
And irises, lilacs and dahlias!
And lupines!
The Rhododendron that Katie bought on Mother’s Day has settled right in and started blooming. She named it Barney (for the big purple dinosaur) and he is showing his Barney colors.
This past year there have been story times, concerts, trivia contests, and book signings in the garden.
That little stage has seen a lot of talent.
Katie just put in some benches, so there is always a place to sit in the sun or the shade, whichever you like. They are good places to enjoy the flowers and watch the world go by.
Spring is really getting into gear here in Portland, even though it has been chilly and rainy. Friday was predicted to be our one sunny day between ten solid days of rain, so we headed out to see some pretty things.
Grandpa Nelson and I have walked the three miles to this lovely garden several times, but this time we needed to do grocery shopping on the way home, so Auntie Bridgett came along and we took the car.
The hellebores are still blooming all over the place, even though it is late spring and nicely warm in the sunshine. Their muted colors, which are so welcome in February, seem almost out of place in the bright sunshine.
The tulip magnolias are knocking themselves out, looking gorgeous against the bright blue sky.
Some spectacular late blooming daffodils were still around, bobbing in the breeze.
Grandpa Nelson is still recovering from jet lag and really enjoyed the peace and quiet of the garden.
Grape hyacinths and daffodils shone in the sunshine.
This was Bridgett’s first time at the garden, and she fell in love with it. Whenever we found a bench to relax on, she brought out her sketchbook and art bits and made adorable little sketches.
We loved the garden so much that we became members, so we can go for free anytime we want. It is just a short bike ride, and bit longer bus ride, or an hour walk from our house, the perfect distance for a picnic.
And the next time you are in town, we’ll go there.
Summer, which dawdled like a kid going to the dentist, has now arrived and has taken off like a freight train. I am in the garden everyday, making sure everything is watered and rejoicing in every new sprout or blossom.
And I am recording it all in my garden journal. When I started my first illustrated journal last spring, I was not confident in my ability to draw anything and make it look right, much less pretty or enjoyable.
But Auntie Bridgett and Ruthie Inman gave me courage and support, and I have really enjoyed both the process and the product!
To be honest, I don’t write or illustrate my garden journal while I am IN the garden. There is nowhere to sit and I don’t like sitting in the sun for very long.
I take pictures and notes on my phone and then use the images to draw in pencil, then watercolor, then outline with a micron pen.
It is like writing an illustrated story, but one where I am IN the story, snd I don’t know the ending yet. Good times.
When I was teaching, my favorite part of any day was story time. I loved holding my students captive by reading wonderful books aloud, doing all the voices and re-creating the exciting stories.
And on Friday, I got to do it again! The lovely lady who usually does storytime at Auntie Katie’s BookswithPictures took the day off, and Katie asked me to fill in. We met in the new garden, spreading out blankets to sit on. It was great fun.
There were four young children and their care people, dads or Moms or grandmas, and they were delightful. There were four pictures books about dragons, and my favorites were “Dough Knights and Dragons” and “Julia’s Hiuse for Lost Creatures.” The kids leaned in to see the pictures and were so focused on the characters, it was a joy to see. They offered opinions, talked to the characters, and explained why things happened.
The summer sun was getting fierce at just 10 in the morning, and I noticed the new plantings in the garden starting to wilt. So once everyone had packed up and headed for home, I got the watering can and made about a dozen trips to the faucet and back to give all the plants a deep drink.
After all, those lovely plants need water to thrive, and they aren’t used to all this sunshine. That’s okay. We’ll make sure they have enough water to get them to October, when the rain will take over. This garden is going to grow as surely as the kids!
It has been a weird spring of snow, sun, wind, hail, and rain. I have tried to reflect this in my garden journal.
This is my favorite two-page spread, with April 10 showing the garden as it was that day, and the dramatic change wrought by the overnight snowfall. As my accuracy improves, I am capturing the details better.
Illustrating transparent containers is hard, but they have been an important part of this spring’s garden, sheltering my sprouts from two inches of historic April snow. The bits of sunshine during the day allowed the soil to capture some heat.
And now that the freezing temperatures seem to be gone, we have rain and more rain. I am hoping for resilient sprouts and just a few peeks of sun for the next week.
After two sunny weeks of very unusual weather, we are back to the usual… rain, wind and cold. This is going to push my garden work back a week or so. But that’s okay, I have lots to keep me busy.
For this blog, I want to share some things I have found around town that are different, quirky, or just plain cool.
This beautiful pathway in a front garden is a combination of climate, pavers, and lots of time. The patterned concrete bricks were laid down flat to give traction on the gentle slope, where it can get slippery with our rains. To me, it looks almost like a green, fuzzy, stained glass window.
Here is another thing that is perfectly Portland. In this tiny free library down on Salmon Street, a box of Corn Flakes rests next to the books, ready to be taken by anyone who needs it. These little libraries are managed by the people who install them, who make sure they are stocked and kept in good condition.
While graffiti can be a nuisance in some places, these added words and letters on an electrical box in Laurelhurst Park made me smile. Delighting in my memories, and making new ones, is how I like to spend my time.
I hope you had a good day, and sleep well to have another one tomorrow.
Dear Liza 