Category: All (-ish)

A break from work: Lan Su Chinese Garden

I was done with work at 1:30 on Friday like usual, but I had to come back at 3:30 for a meeting.  What to do for two hours?  A coworker suggested I visit the Chinese Garden.  I’d never been, I’m ashamed to admit, so I thought that was a brilliant suggestion and took myself.
Beautiful stones in the courtyard.  

The garden is designed so you are constantly looking at different frames.

Beautiful carved wood.

Overlooking the water and the Moon Locking Pavilion.

More beautiful carving.

More beautiful paths.

Peeking out onto the city street.  The garden takes up one full block, but it seems much bigger, from the inside.

Nothing makes me want to enter like a “do not enter” sign.
A small courtyard with more great stonework.

The plastic horses in this arrangement amused me.

The fabulous roof tiles are shaped like bats.

Six panels carved from ginkgo wood.  The fourth one says “Most cherished in this mundane world is a place without traffic; truly in the midst of a city there can be mountain and forest.”  Wen Zhengming.

This floor pattern is called “plum blossoms on cracked ice.”  So pretty!

The scholar’s study.

The tea house.

Steps across the water.

A beautiful waterfall.

Though all of the materials came from China, the plants came from the US.  This tree came from a house in Southeast Portland. The men working on the garden found it and asked the owner if it could be transplanted to the garden because the trees take so long to grow.  The owner said if his neighbors (who also loved the tree) agreed it could move.  It did.

This is a Lake Tai rock which is formed underwater over many decades in Lake Tai.  These are meditative rocks and viewing it from bottom to top is akin to venturing up a mountain peak.  It is now not allowed to export Lake Tai rock, so the garden is very happy to have been created at at time when export was still possible.

Keyhole framing.

Our great tour guide.

Nice “oasis in the city” photo.  That’s Big Pink, the tallest building in downtown Portland, peering over the garden wall.

More oasis stuff.

Yet more “oasis in the city”.

Here I got to tell my fortune.  I shook the can of sticks until one presented itself to me.  Then I looked at the number and opened the corresponding drawer to find my fortune.

Mine was “a long sought position in life will soon be yours.”  Sounds good to me.

Beautiful entrance to the Scholar’s private garden.

Nice detail here.

Here is the upper floor of the tea house.  If I had more time I would have gotten some tea.

Overall, this was a great way to spend a few hours before returning to work.  It is peaceful and calm and really is an oasis in the middle of the city.

A walk through Southeast

I had a class at the Attic Institute, so I walked from the Pearl all the way there.  It was a great day for a walk.  Here’s what I saw.
Inappropriate use of an apostrophe. 

The approach to the Burnside Bridge.  When I lived downtown and Matt lived at 29th & Stark, I would walk this bridge often, going between our two places.

Boy playing in the fountain.

Nice chalk graffiti on the bridge.

This establishment which advertised low-cost legal services and did not advertise with words all the plants for sale.  But the display spoke for itself.

Nice tiny little house.

I swung past the shuttered Washington High School, built at a time when they knew how to make high schools look awesome.

Including quotes over the doors. Ahem, Oregon legislature.  Ahem.

I was intrigued by this roof which does not match the Victorian-style house at all.

And then discovered that the tiny building itself is something of interest.

I saw a sign painter plying her trade.

This part of town has some really great facades.

Don’t those columns inspire awe?  The other nice part about the neighborhood is that the lots are small, so you can get very close to these houses.  And the houses get very close to each other.

There was a little bit of painting.  Some craft (the bookshelf) some art (the canvas).

These type of houses, with the hipped roof, are fairly rare in Portland.  When you see them, they are almost always sideways in the lot, like these.

Nice stonework on this church.

There was a farmers market open.

A helpful sign.

An attempt to capture the rose and the colorful bush behind it.

A good paint job begun.  But not finished.

Trees removed.  I bet the light changed dramatically in these houses.

Should you want to purchase a “garden condo” this one is for sale. It’s one bedroom, one bath, 997 square feet.  No parking.  $245,900.  Yeah.  That’s why I don’t live in this neck of the woods.  Sorry people who used to live in complex when it was an apartment.  People with WAY more money than you are eager to move in.

It wouldn’t be a walk on Hawthorne without a picture of the Ecoroof on the Hostel.  

Sewing machine not working?  Why not use a few of them as weights to hold the awning for a food cart.?

The food cart in question.

Don’t forget that “Gift Certificates Always Fit.”

Once upon a time it was the Sunnyside Lodge.

Now?  The Hawthorne Theater.

This sign made me giggle.

Oregon Humanities Dear Stranger has a quick turn around.

I participated in Oregon Humanities first Dear Stranger project where you write a letter to a stranger (the theme was “me”) send it to Dear Stranger at Oregon Humanities with a SASE. They shuffle the letters and send you one, theoretically from another part of the state.  I got my letter in right before the May 5 deadline, but I was still surprised to find a letter in my mailbox on May 9.  
My letter was not from someone in Oregon, it was from a student in Wisconsin who was writing the letter as part of a college assignment.  She also did not include a return address, so that was unfortunate.  Still, I enjoyed the mail and hope that the person who got my letter will write me back.  I really need more pen pals.  
If you are interested in participating in Dear Stranger in August, sign up for the Oregon Humanities newsletter.

An after school walk

Home from Overlook Park, though Overlook, Arbor Lodge and Kenton neighborhoods.
Swirly parking strip.

Gnarly old trees in Overlook.
TARDIS
Gorgeous yard and cottage.
Precise hedge.
Telephone booth peeking over a hedge.
On the fence in that same yard is the “Poem Booth.”
My favorite secret way to cross a busy street.
Burning bush among the strawberries.
Stairs being overtaken.
Retaining wall overtaken.
A nice swoop and orange trim.
This home does not fit in at all, and is tremendously ugly, but I love it for those two reasons.
In the side yard of the tremendously ugly home are many wood crafted signs.
This bungalow went and grew a big backside in the Omaha woods.
Kind of looks like a dead cat, but was actually a very happy warm cat.

Victorian with a stellar paint job.
Check out the detail on the door.

Can I make it through this alleyway?

It was okay until I found myself completely surrounded by blackberry bushes.
I made it through, though can’t recommend it.

Requiem: dresses.

I think I found this dress at Savers, but I can’t be sure. It’s straight polyester of the late 60s/early 70s variety that is quite thick and sweaty and never breaks down.  The dress is SHORT.  I wore it ironically with bright green fishnet stockings and knee-high boots for “green and gold” spirit day my senior year of high school. I also had my longest false eyelashes on.  You can’t get a sense of scale when it’s laid out on the table like this, but looking at it today, I marveled that I had ever been that small.  It was one of the first dresses I wore when I was starting to get an idea of what powers my body had, if I dressed a certain way.

The label.
This dress was inherited from an Aunt (I can’t remember if it was Pat or Carol.  The length makes me think Aunt Carol had it first because she had the legs, but the lace around the collar makes me think it was Aunt Pat’s.)  It spent many years as a “dress up” dress in the dress up box.  I can remember wearing it when it came to my toes.  But I grew up and it was another high school discovery.  Also quite short.  I love the purple and orange pattern. It’s pretty worn out, which is too bad.

Another brown polyester dress probably bought at the same time that yellow one was.  I don’t ever remember wearing this, but I have a clear memory of H. wearing it, again ironically, for a spirit week dress up day.
Aside from the indestructible nature that comes with polyester, this has a great back zipper and, I discovered as I was searching around for a label, was homemade.
This came from the Salvation Army Thrift store and was my favorite dress for many years as a child.  I had a thing for old fashioned dresses so this was an incredible find.  I wore it for Halloween one year, and then any time I could after that.  Always for dress up.  I even fashioned hoop skirts from the circled bit of plastic that came with the lawn dart set.  This is homemade too, and still gorgeous.  If it was anywhere near fitting, I would have kept it, but someone else will get to be thrilled to find it.