Category: All (-ish)

Postcards from Finland & Arlington, Virginia

This is from Katja who tells me she lives in a little city in the middle of nowhere, has two gorgeous children and a dog and loves her job as a photographer.

This is from regular commenter Sara, who tells me she say Bill Nye AND They Might Be Giants.  Also that there was a lot of DFTBA* merchandise on people, which does not surprise me at all.
*DFTBA means Don’t Forget To Be Awesome and is the rallying cry of Nerdfighters. Also see this post.

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.