Portland – Dear Liza

No King’s Collage

October 22, 2025

Dear Liza,

Once I had rested and recovered from the long, crowded No King’s March, I wanted to capture the spirit of it for my Journal. I mean, how often does one get to be part of such a gathering? I wrote about it, of course, but words were missing what I was looking for.

Gathering bits from the collage box and junk mail, I found lots of ideas, from the silly to the civic. Scooby Doo certainly captured the goofy spirit of the day, and a Liberty torch seemed appropriate. The random animals represent all the costumes and pets that were on display.

I needed The Willamette River, of course, and green grass of Tom McCall Waterfront Park. But this was definitely a CITY march…

So, skyscrapers cut from the recent voter’s pamphlet got added. But now the sky looked too empty! I tried a cool tissue paper Gelli print, but it was just too much. And where should that bicycle go?

I finally settled on a dot-printed sky of teal blue, made using a piece of plastic shelf liner Ruthie Inman gave me years ago. I like how it fills the space but doesn’t overpower the scene. The long blue wisps in the sky are slivers cut from the same magazine page as the river.

I like how the collage captures the urban, goofy, joyous feel of the city and the crowd. and I am grateful to have been there.

Love,

Grandma Judy

No Kings March 2.0

October 19, 2025

Dear Liza,

Yesterday was the second country-wide No Kings March here in the U.S. Auntie Bridgett and I got to participate while Grandpa Nelson stayed home with the kittens.

A lot of what made this demonstration special was the silly costumes! I didn’t have my phone where I could get at it easily, so I didn’t take any pictures. But they are all over the Internet if you want to see. Here is me in my bright yellow Lala the Teletubby suit. Happy shout out to Buffalo Exchange for the joy!

Once we were properly costumed, we took a Standing Room Only full #15 bus downtown. The route had been altered because of the march, which put us even closer to the Battleship Oregon Monument, where the crowd was gathering to hear speakers.

There were so many happy, dressed up, smiling people! The signs were wonderful, too. My favorite so far is, “If we don’t fix the timeline, Spock gets a beard!” Ask your Dad about that one.

Once the march started (and it takes a really long time to get thousands of people pointed in the same direction) we walked East on Pine to 3rd, then south to the Hawthorne Bridge, then to the East side, where we just kept on walking home.

The Unpresidented (yes, that’s right) marching band made us all dance as we went along, and some drones took pictures of the crowd. The one above shows about a one block area….

And in this one, zoomed in quite a bit, you can just spot me in my yellow suit with a big round head. See? Just to the right of center?

Crazy to see myself in that throng, but so happy to have been there!

Love,

Grandma Judy

PS. I am still trying to figure out how I changed fonts and how to go back. No worries.

Fall Approaches

August 31, 2025

Dear Liza,

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!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Tuba Christmas and More!

Dear Liza,

The day after our anniversary celebration, we headed downtown to see all the pretties and hustle and bustle. Our first target was the Tuba Christmas at Pioneer Square, which is called The Living Room. This concert involves more than a hundred folks, ages 11 to 89, playing low brass instruments, like tuba, sousaphone, baritone, and euphonium.

This concert is so popular, we could only find spots to stand on the level above and hear the concert, rather than see it. Still, it was lovely. The music swells up and bounces off the buildings as pigeons fly around.

Around the corner and down the block we found some Dickensian carolers. Beautiful costumes and sweet four part harmonies made it really feel like Christmas, with smiling crowds and busy traffic.

Further along, we found Director Park. During the summer, the fountain here is great for splashing, but today it is better for running and climbing. Also at the park were cozy fire pits,

our old friend Jay Ringer playing music on his pocket trumpet and melodium,

and some young men making s’mores with Graham crackers, marshmallows and blow torches. Not surprisingly, they were exactly what we needed on this chilly day.

In the small building in the park was a whole shop of goodies from our local artist Mike Bennett. Stuffties, stickers, glasses, and lots of other delightful things were selling very well.

About this time, we realized that, even with the s’mores, we were pooped and ready to head home. We walked down Alder to the bus stop to catch the magic 15.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Grandma Judy

The New PDX Part 1

Dear Liza,

Auntie Bridgett flew down to visit her family in San Diego this week. This gave us the perfect excuse to see the newly remodeled Portland Airport Terminal.

Our airport here in Portland has been under construction for years, and I have always found it to be a bit of tangle. But the signs all over the terminals told me it was going to be wonderful, organic, and local. And they weren’t wrong.

I was pleased, amazed, and delighted. The first thing you will notice (and keep staring at, from every angle) is the ceiling. It is an enormous waving sea of timber that floats over the giant open space of the Main Terminal.

The ceiling is made of glulam, a light weight, super strong material made from wood all harvested within a hundred miles of Portland. It is supported by giant, tree-like Y supports.

The floor is delightfully flow-y but low-key, as if it doesn’t want to detract from that ceiling.

The place was pretty busy when we were there, but the noise was minimal. The wavy, open ceiling seems to soak up the sounds of rolling suitcases and crying children and the inevitable echoes. We sat comfortably on a beautifully designed set of bleachers for quite a while and could whisper to each other.

There is so much more I want to tell you about the new airport! See you tomorrow!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Rainy Afternoon

Dear Liza,

We have a lot of rainy days in our forecast, so we have decided to just go for walks, knowing we are going to get wet. The grey cloudy light makes the pictures darker than usual, so they look almost magical.

We walked around the park, amazed at the carpet of leaves and the thousands yet to fall. The giant ginkgo tree stays yellow for a week or so, and will drop all its leaves almost overnight.

It was so dark at 1 o’clock in the afternoon that the park lights had come on.

Bridgett got very engrossed in looking at a pair of squirrels chasing each other around the trees. I’m not sure if they were fighting or flirting, but they were so busy they didn’t even notice us.

This tall oak will hold onto its fall leaves for months, until it is ready to spout the green leaves of spring.

Knowing that spring is many long wet months away, I may need to carry the sunshine inside me.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Downtown to the Sixties

Dear Liza,

My buddy Cynthia and I headed downtown last week to our Portland Art Museum. The remodeling work is still going on, so floor space is limited, but what they have on display is really interesting.

Upstairs, there is a collection called Psychedelic. Mostly, these are posters for rock concerts in San Francisco in the mid to late 1960s, when I was too young to go to rock concerts. Still, I knew the posters were cool even then.

Groups like The Byrds, Moby Grape and The Jefferson Airplane gave concerts at the Filmore Theater, and posters like these made sure everyone knew this was The Happening Place. We enjoyed the incredible colors, and wondered how they would react under black light.

There were also mannequins with fashions from the era standing about. Mini skirts in metallics and wild colors took me right back my days as a wanting-to-be-cool pre-teen.

Downstairs was a collection of photos taken by a very young Paul McCartney when the Beatles were on their first tour of America.

Since I was all of eight years old, I remember the mood of the time very well. Any news about the group was BIG news, and their music was in all of our ears.

Considering the frenzied energy that went wherever the Beatles did, Paul’s photos capture a more playful, relaxed mood.

Cynthia and I chatted about all sorts of things (as we always do), as we looked and remembered our own 60s journeys.

And when our tummies were empty and our feet were tired, we headed past a leafy church for lunch at McMenamin’s.

Days out with friends are good for the soul.

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

Teens at the Zoo

Dear Liza,

I got to spend the other day with Cousins Jasper and Kestrel. We took the train to the Oregon Zoo and spent a few hours, and it was a wonderful day on so many levels.

Spending time with these smart, funny young people is always a joy for me. At the incredible ages of 14 and 12, they bring different music and movie references, and always teach me something.

But mostly, we just walk around and play with whatever comes handy.

The eagle exhibit has a nest to be silly in,

And Jim Gion’s lion statues become set designs for more hanging out.

As you can see, Kestrel is now officially one bronze lioness long.

When we had seen all the animals, had lunch and were just about done, we caught the train back downtown and then home.

Kestrel remembered taking pictures at certain places, so we took new ones, to compare.

The one with Kestrel’s white dress was taken just last year. Here’s the same pose now.

I cannot believe how quickly everyone is growing! Everyone gets older, except me, I guess. I’m still the biggest kid in the place.

What a great day!

Love,

Grandma Judy