I’ve been told that after a few months into the Oregon rain season everyone basically turns into ducks. I have heard from a lot of people that the rain seriously never goes away until May or June. This scares me in a way. But, on the other hand, I’ve lived in wet climates previous to Portland. They haven’t been as wet as Portland, but I’ve experienced the duck-syndrome.
I am commited to seeing the silver lining during this season. Cuz, I’ve got to tell you the Spring and Summer here are friggen fabulous!
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Tags: climate, duck, ducks, june, may, months, oregon, portland, rain, season, spring, summer, syndrome, windshield
I can’t get enough of the skyline these days. This storm passing through has been incredible to watch. If you didn’t already know, I have a fascination with the sky; the clouds and the shapes that it creates. I think this bike scene is the epitome of the lifestyle and culture that Portland embraces.
I think I’ve made a real storm chaser of myself.
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Tags: bike, clouds, culture, lifestyle, oregon, passing, portland, scene, shapes, sky, skyline, storm, storm chaser, through, watch
I’ve been trying to capture this storm that is passing through the west coast. This shot was taken looking east fom the city of portland, oregon. Just about mid-center of this photo is Mt. Hood. By the looks of the clouds over Mt. Hood, it’s getting some serious weathering over there!
This shot was taken looking west – into the city of portland – over Hawthorne. 
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Tags: 2009, autumn, capture, clouds, cty, east, fall, hawthorne, Mt. Hood, october, oregon, photo, photography, portland, rain, season, shot, sky, storm, west, west coast, wind, windy, wintery
The acorn squash that I made last night turned out pretty good. I do have to say that if you’re looking to make a meal that is *packed* with fiber, then I’d highly recommend acorn squash.
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Tags: acorn, acorn squash, fiber, flower, last, meal, night, photography, photos, pumpkin patch, recommend, squash, stars, sun, sunflower
Wish me luck. Cuz I need it. I am baking acorn squash for tonight’s dinner. It’s actually pretty easy to make. I used a hefty knife to cut that mother in half. I gutted the seeds and goop. I scored the bottom of each mouth. I sprinkled brown sugar inside each of the mouths. It called for butter, but I don’t have butter in my fridge. I know. My mom would be so disappointed about this. I decided to squeeze some honey inside each mouth to add to the sweetness of them. I’m not sure how this will taste. I poured water in the bottom of the glass pan and heated the oven to 400degrees.
And there you have it. Acorn Squash. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
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Tags: 400, acorn, acorn squash, autumn, baking, butter, cook, degrees, dinner, disappointed, fall, food, fridge, glass, goop, honey, knife, luck, mother, mouth, pan, poured, seeds, squash, squeeze, sweetness, taste, water
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Tags: bar, bars, booze, bottles, composition, life, lighting, lights, liquor, new life, photography, photos, re-use, reuse
In September, while touring my mom throughout Portland we stumbled upon two monks from the Mangyal Monastery (home of the Dalai Lama) – who were creating a Compassion sand mandala for 2 days at a store in the pearl district called Cargo. The Venerable Ngawang Chojor (on the left), is a senior monk who apparently was in Seven Years In Tibet with Brad Pitt. What I found most amazing is that once this mandala was finished, there was going to be a dismantling ceremony as a metaphor for impermanence of all things. It is believed that witnessing the creation of a mandala develops ties within the people in attendance and that it also strengthens community.
Have you ever witnessed a mandala being created?
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Tags: autumn, brad pitt, cargo, cargoinc.com, ceremony, color, community, compassion, creat, dalai lama, develop, dismantling, fall, impermanence, mandala, mangyal monastery, metaphor, mom, monk, monks, ngawang chojor, oregon, pearl, photography, portland, sand, sand mandala, senior, seven years in tibet, strengthens, things, witnessing
I stumbled upon this sweet neighborhood rose garden yesterday. The garden had almost every color and variety of roses planted. All were in perfect bloom. It’s no wonder the city of roses is so serious about the flowers. They are truly gorgeous!
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Tags: autumn, city of roses, color, fall, flower, flowers, gorgeous, neighborhood, oregon, photography, portland, rose, roses, variety
I am thankful for all of this free time that I have right now. I feel like my life has transformed once again; doing yoga, volunteering my skills to a local non profit, click click clicking at everything I see. This time has given me the chance to slow down. I look for and appreciate the beauty in every moment I breathe. Kinda like witnessing the sunrise this morning after dropping Kari off at work.
I am thankful that I have the opportunity to make smart decisions for myself without being so hasty all the time.
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Tags: autumn, breathe, click, decisions, east, fall, hasty, Kari, life, local, my, non profit, opportunity, oregon, photography, portland, skills, slow down, smart, sunrise, thank, thankful, transformed, volunteering, yoga
The Sapphire Hotel on SE 50th and SE Hawthorne in Portland, was once known to be a hotel frequented by sailors, lovely ladies looking for a good time, and common folk stumbling in to pay those ladies a good visit. Most of them would rent rooms at an hourly rate, over night, or by the week as a gathering place to hang their hats.
Today, the hotel has been converted into what I call a swanky lounge where people still gather for swirly drinks, chatty conversation, and tantalizing food. In this photo, I was trying to capture the paper lights, amber lighting, and the overall ambience of the lounge.
This is what I captured.
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Tags: amber, amber lighting, capture, chatty, city folks, drink, east, east side, food, glass, hawthorne, hotel, hourly, light, lounge, men, mt tabor, oregon, paper, paper lights, photo, photography, platter, portland, rate, rent, rooms, sailors, sapphire, sapphire hotel, seedy, stumbling, swirl, swirly, tantalizing, wine, women
And there I was with Sprina and her mom hitching a ride across town to where my car was parked at the Step It Up, Inc. office. Just as we turned the corner – just a couple of blocks from the parking lot we drove over a metal plate and Sprina’s left front tire busted flat. We carefully pulled over to an open parking lot. The three of us women got out of the car to check the tire. Yep, it’s flat. As if we all knew how to change a tire we walked to the trunk and started to pull out the spare and the flat kit. As if we had any idea how to prop the car up or to use the jack – we sure tried. As if there was anyone else in sight to help – there wasn’t. We each took turns trying to prop up the front end, crank it up. Crank it up. Nope. We sure didn’t know how. I heard Sprina’s mom call to someone in what seemed to be the darkness of the night. “Excuse me, honey. Can you help us here. You see, we’ve got a flat and we’re trying to fix it. Can you help?”
I looked over and this little ole man – a security guard for the tall building we were parked next to had walked around from the other side of the building. His name was Dean. He confidently explained that he was the last person to try-n-fix a flat tire but he was sure he’d try. Dean was able to crank the car up half way until the jack fell over and the car rolled out from under. “This is going to be a long night.” I thought to myself. With all of his might and confidence Dean was finally able to jack the car up, pop off the old tire and swiftly assemble the new tire to the car. Phew. We all stood up and sung his praise, “You’re an angel! You’re an Angel!” Dean looked at the three of us with an awww shucks kind of expression and said, “I’m still working at my age. I aint gonna retire until the day someone throws dirt over my face.”
What a moving experience I had being part of a team like that and witnessing someone helping at the time of need.
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Tags: angel, blog, dean, flat tire, help, hitching, jack, kit, man, metal plate, mom, mother, parking lot, photography, portland, ride, security guard, sprina, Step It Up, tire, trunk, women, wordpress, wordpress.com
It seems that there are iron rings tied to the sidewalks in certain neighborhoods throughout Portland. On any given block you could see up to 10 rings placed along the edges of the sidewalks in Portland. During a walk through a Mt. Tabor neighborhood this summer in Portland, I met an ol man who explained that back in the days city folk would use the rings to tie up their horses so they could patronize the local businesses. He even went to explain that during a recent street construction project – a neighborhood group rallied around all of the iron rings and demanded that if the city construction crews removed them that they would have to replace the rings in order to preserve the history of them – in Portland.
Could all of this be true in Portland? Either way, I love the humor and style that Portlanders have.
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Tags: alberta street, brown, cement, hawthorne, horse, iron, iron tie, man, mt tabor, old man, pony, portland, ring, sidewalk, street construction project, tie, walk
I went to the pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island in search of the perfect pumpkin. Okay, maybe two pumpkin patches. One just wasn’t enough. The day turned out to be the most spectacular Northwest Fall afternoon. The sky was perfectly blue. It had Portland-swooshing clouds. And, the color palate of the farms was incredible from juicy orange to foliage green to sunshine yellows. Yum. I had another sensation today of wanting to eat it all up in one captured moment.
When are you going to find your perfect pumpkin?
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Tags: cinderella, cinderella pumpkins, farm, gourds, green, kruger farm market, lush, orange, pumpkins, sauvie island, suavie island
Last weekend was the opening for my sister’s summer public art project in Seattle. She was hired by the City of Seattle’s Arts and Cultural Affairs office to be a resident artist on the Fremont Bridge. The requirement was that she had all summer to create an art piece that would be temporarily displayed on the bridge. During her summer residency, one of the bridge operator towers was converted into her art studio where she integrated a “sound” art piece as the display. It was quite an incredible experience to participate as a volunteer or an Ambassadors of the Fremont Bridge Talks Back project. You see, the art piece that she developed was a sound piece that integrated and orchestrated all of the day-to-day sounds one would hear while crossing the bridge. For the next eight months (until April 2010), anytime the bridge opens for ships to pass through you will be able to hear the sound piece that she created. You can also call a toll free number to listen to this sound and a few heart felt stories from people who called in earlier this summer and spoke about their feelings or memories about the bridge (1-800-761-9941).
During the event on Saturday, Kristen recruited 100 volunteers to come out for 3 hours to participate as ambassadors of the bridge. Each volunteer wore an event t-shirt, an orange handkerchief, and processioned on one of 4 corners of the bridge while holding a sign. The bridge was decorated with colorful flags to incorporate all of the colors that the bridge had once been painted. Each time the bridge would open, horn players would come out of each tower to toot toot toot, the sound piece would play along the bridge, and all the volunteers would procession in a celebratory manner. One volunteer who I enjoyed getting to know during the 3-hour celebration was Mrs. Noble. She was very proud to explain to me that she was a member of the Fremont Neighborhood Council and was participating that day as a representative. She told me that she was disappointed that no other members came out to participate, but that despite her age she was determined to procession for the entire event. I quickly decided for myself that she was going to be one of those types of volunteers that I would have to handle with kid gloves. Throughout the event, I would always be sure to say hello to Mrs. Noble when I passed her and to ask how she was doing. She would simply say, “I’m fine. Doing fine.” as she would almost look away as a gesture to scurry me off.
As the day came to a close, I joined several other volunteers to help remove the flags that were hung along the sides of the bridge. I again stumbled upon Mrs. Noble standing along one side of the bridge with a proud look on her face that read, “I did it!” She stopped me in my tracks and said, “I didn’t know you were Kristen’s sister?!! That’s so wonderful that you and your family came up to help Kristen.” We continued to talk about the fun experience we all had celebrating the history of the bridge. Before I hustled off to remove some of the last strings of flags, I asked Mrs. Noble if I could take her picture. I wasn’t sure if she’d be offended by my request, but she allowed me to go ahead and click click click. As I stood up to review the photo that I captured, I showed it to her and became concerned from hearing her huge GASP! I said, “Oh no! You don’t like it!?” She answered with huge emotion, “I love it! It’s wonderful! Can I get a copy of that?” My day was complete.
One of the best parts of that day, was when my family went to a local McMeniman’s pub all dressed in our tshirts and kerchiefs with huge smiles on our sunkissed faces hungry for burgers, fries, and of course a few pitchers of frosty beers. I was tickled as I walked inside the pub and passed the bar to find Mrs. Noble sitting by herself at the bar enjoying a huge burger and a pint of beer. I thought, “Now that’s my kind of lady!”
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Tags: arts and cultural affairs office, bridge talks back, flags, fremont bridge, fremont neighborhood council, mrs noble, procession, sailboat, seattle, ships, signs, volunteers
Yesterday had to have been one of the most gorgeous days ever. I was only about a block away from my house when I urgently pulled the car over so I could get out to capture a few click, click, clicks of that sky. I couldn’t get enough of the beauty and decided to walk up to Mt. Tabor Park to take it all in. Each step I took from my doorstep to the top of Mt. Tabor was full of delight. I couldn’t get enough of that perfect blue sky, the sun shining through those white puffy clouds, the feeling of the crisp, fresh air on my cheeks, and the sounds of nature singing. It’s days like this that I want to capture the perfect image and perhaps place it in my hands and eat it all up! What an amazing experience it was for me to finally capture this new season in my new home. The entire time on my walk I kept thinking to myself, “Thank you, Universe! Thank you! What a truly gorgeous day it is!”
I had once been resistant to the thought of summertime coming to a screeching halt. I changed my mind after yesterday.
This photo got “Photo of the Week” via Portland’s Neighborhood online network: http://community.portlandneighborhood.com/profiles/blogs/portland-blog-this-week-in-23
Again, I am humbled.
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Tags: autumn, crisp, fall, leaves, mt tabor park, northwest, park, pdx, portland
