A Cemetery Search

In November, our beloved cat went missing. Luckily for you, I wasn't blogging much at the time so you were spared the drama of my family's week of searching for him, only to find out that the poor fellow's dead body had been picked up by Animal Control the first night that he didn't come home. It was a rough week, and I still miss my furry buddy, but the reason I tell you this story is not to make you sad, but to explain why my boys and I were tromping through a nearby cemetery on a sunny November afternoon. Our cat, of course, we didn't find, but we did find some cool stuff.

We've walked through the cemetery before but never noticed this old delapidated garage/shed building. Here's Ben peering inside the closed garage door. There was an old bed in there and some other "treasures."

I had fun playing with filters on these--here's another photo of the shed with the Lomo-ish filter and museum matte. I really love how the filter emphasizes the way the sunlight plays on the brick walls.

This 1906 cemetery also contains a beautiful old Japanese cemetery within its grounds. I don't know much about the history of this cemetery-within-a-cemetery, but I'm so glad this spot outlasted a streak of post-WW2 vandalism to continue as a tribute to this group of Portland's ancestors, as well as the Japanese/American veterans of several U.S. wars.

It's interesting, looking back over these photos with the distance of three months. This walk through the cemetery now seems like a fitting tribute to the small soul we were searching for at the time. While my boys and I peered behind hedges and called for our kitty, our conversations ranged from him and his story, to Portland's history, to ways people remember their loved ones, the temporary nature of life on earth, and the fleeting passage of time.

Blackster may be gone, but he lives on in the many memories like this that our family created over the 7 years that we were lucky enough to have him in our midst.

Thanks for choosing us, little buddy

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy

Murals by Happenstance

I had an eye appointment that was inconveniently timed. Our family has one car (my husband commutes to work by bike year round) to serve not only the 3 drivers in our house but also Chris's parents, who are legally blind and (obviously) can't drive. On this particular Monday, we had to juggle my 8:10 eye appointment, my mother-in-law's 9:30 appointment across town, and a late morning appointment that Chris had.

Our solution was for Chris to drop me off, and when my appointment ended I would start walking the 4 miles home. We knew he'd be able to pick me up long before I got all the way home, but a walk through Portland's neighborhoods on a sunny morning sounded much better to me than sitting in a waiting room for an hour.

On my way home, I came across this mural, informally painted on the side of a garage that faces an alley way. This is the uncropped photo that I snapped from my cell phone. I like how the roughness of the photo matches the setting of this modest neighborhood and the mural's theme with the money flying off the tree.

I also came across a mural in progress. I can't find any information about it. The white spots are numbered, clearly waiting to be filled in. I'll go back in a couple of weeks to see if any progress has been made, or if this is an unofficial project destined to be painted over by Portland's graffiti abatement program. I doubt that's the case here in the upscale Alameda neighborhood, an unlikely spot for renegade street artists.

I ended up having a fantastic walk through Portland's diverse neighborhoods, then Chris picked me up and we had just enough time for coffee and fresh doughnuts at the fabulous Pips Original before I had to drop him off at home to prepare for his appointment, before I headed across town to pick up his mom at the end of hers.

Here's another brand new mural I came upon recently. A few months ago, Ben got his ears pierced, and I snapped a photo of this bee mural outside the tattoo/body art/piercing studio. As you can see, it was a little worn, with sections of paint flaking off.

When we went back a couple weeks ago for some follow-up care, we found that the bees had been replaced by pigs! I shot this photo with a smudge filter, straight into the sun for dramatic effect.

Translation: the light was terrible for a photo facing west and I had a smudge on my lens. In other words, this is a really bad photo that no self-respecting photographer would post on the internet. 

I love street art, but even more than that I love coming across it unexpectedly as I go about my day. Even if the lighting and the lens aren't perfect for capturing the moment.
______________________________________
See more photos, or add your own Saturday Snapshots, at West Metro Mommy.

Cruisin' Sherwood Snapshots

Last weekend I took Evan and his friend to Sherwood, Oregon, for their Classic and Custom Car Show. Evan loves this show because it takes place throughout the streets of this quaint small town. You wander through town, never knowing what you're going to find parked in front of the barber shop or the diner. Here are some of my favorite photos that he took.

The combination of the car detail with the reflection of the photographer really captures the mood of the day for me. Evan has a lot of friends, but very few who share (or even understand) his love and knowledge of all things automobile. It was so much fun to watch him and his buddy, both so enthusiastically finding the perfect positions to take pictures from. I tried to take a photo of the two of them taking photos. I ended up with a lot of shots of them walking away to the next vehicle. Stupid phone camera and its 5-second delay.

This classic VW bus was truncated to make it absolutely adorable. Evan quipped, "Oh, look, it's the first mini-van!" He cracks me up.

By the way, little tip if you're ever looking at cars with guys who love them: "Cute" and "adorable?" Not acceptable words to describe a vehicle.

It's just really not okay.

Unless you're the mom. Because the mom is not doing her job fully  if she doesn't provide opportunity for eye rolling.

I think this is a work in progress, but I just love this car's personality.

No, it's not "cute." Even I can see that. 

This fellow is a total bruiser.

For more Saturday Snapshots or to participate, go to West Metro Mommy.

Tidepooling at Seal Rock

We spent a few days on the coast as part of a field trip through the online charter school we use for homeschooling. It was a great trip, complete with a 2-hour educational boat tour, a lab at the Marine Science Center, and spending a night in the shark tunnel at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. What I want to show you today is some photos from exploring some of Oregon's amazing tide pools. My kids have grown up with this and take it for granted, but we still find something fascinating every time we go. If you're in Oregon, Seal Rock is a few miles south of Newport, and is a wonderful tidepooling spot.

Here's the view from the top of the trail that leads down to the beach.

Wednesday morning was one of the lowest tides of the year. At high tide that closest line of rocks and all of the wet sand would be under water.

Once you descend to the beach, you can explore the rocks that spend most of the time under the sea, and the many animals that call them home. Chris took the photo below, looking back toward shore. The white crusty looking stuff that you see on the rocks in the foreground is a living colony of barnacles. They hang out inside their shells waiting for the tide to come in.

So much life in this picture. See it? 

I count 7 starfish (no--8, if you count the purple legs on the left) and at least 4 sea anemones (they look like green or pink squishy circles when the water is gone). Countless baby barnacles (they look like crusty white dots) are stuck all over the rock). If you sit and watch a pool for a minute the little fish and crabs start emerging from their hidey-places.

Below, you can see how the anemones start to emerge when the water flows into their home. There's one opening out, and then to the right is a closed one. If you touch your finger to the bright green part, you can feel the stickiness that is toxic to smaller creatures. Then they pull away from you, because they know you're not food.

Evan found a long piece of kelp and was dragging it along the beach for a while before we noticed all the shells stuck to it. The kelp isn't unusual, but I've never seen one on the beach with shells on it.

In this picture, we're watching in morbid fascination as the clam-like creatures stick out their little feelers and probe around, probably wondering what the dickens happened to their fancy condo in the kelp forest. Homeschooling at its finest! I was tempted to fling the kelp back to sea, in hopes that some of the critters could find a new home, but Chris reminded me that would be stealing some nice nesting sea bird mama's dinner. Circle of life, and all that.

To participate in Snapshot Saturday, post a photo that you or a friend took, and post the link at West Metro Mommy.

Give to me your Leather

These photos are from the Experience Music Project Museum. My sister's conference had a reception there when we were in Seattle a couple of weeks ago, and my family was able to attend as guests. We'd been there before, so we didn't take many pictures, but I had to take some shots of these amazing jackets that were on display as part of the Leather Jacket exhibit.

So much personality in an item of clothing.

This jacket may not be as shiny,
but I like this shot because it shows the 2-story high sculpture in the background.
There are 500 musical instruments in the sculpture.

I was fascinated by the reflection of the bartender in the chrome ceiling. I wasn't able to capture it on film quite the way I wanted to -- I think it's kind of hard to tell what's what, if you don't know what you're looking at. Your eye is drawn to the people in the foreground, but I'm afraid if I crop them out you won't be able to tell that it's a reflection and not just a shot from above.

This is one of the crops suggested by my photo-editing program. Better?

Saturday Snapshot is now hosted by Melinda. (Thank you, Alyce, for the time and energy you put into making this such a fun weekly tradition.) To participate, post a photo that you or a friend took, and post the link at West Metro Mommy.

Snapshots: Gasworks park

On my family's last day in Seattle last week, we stopped at Gasworks Park on the north end of Lake Union. This park used to be an actual gas works plant, and when they converted it into a park they kept some of the old features.

Of course, people can't resist putting graffiti on the structures, even though it's fenced off. I'm sure the city of Seattle isn't crazy about these decorations. I think they're charming, though.

And, totally unrelated, here's a photo of my beloved boys and me (and my new bookshelves) on Mother's Day. It's rare that they dress up, so I had to have Chris capture the moment before they shed the nice clothes. Can you tell we're related?

Seattle snapshots

We took lots of photos of our wonderful trip to Seattle, but most of them are on my husband's computer. For now, I will share a few that were taken on my phone.

We concluded that if we had a kayak we'd just as soon haul it out of the water and portage, rather than hang with the big boats inside the Ballard locks. According to the worker I asked, though, the kayakers who go through the locks are not insane. "We take good care of them,"  he said. Aw.

This was not the most impressive vehicle in America's Car Museum in Tacoma, but it was definitely the funniest.

I didn't take any photos of the fish stall guys tossing fish around in Pike Place Market, but I did snap this shot of the friendly monkfish. 

I'll be writing more about my Seattle adventures when I write up my post for the Pin it and Do it Challenge . . . unless, of course, I fail my own personal Complete-a-Challenge-and-Write-Up-the-Post Challenge (There is no link. This challenge only exists inside my head).

You, too, can post a Saturday Snapshot! For details, or to view more participating photos, see At Home With Books.

Read-a-thon and a Spontaneous Wiener Roast

I'm an official cheerleader for Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon, which means I'll be visiting dozens of blogs, encouraging readers as they attempt to read for 24 hours straight. I didn't sign up for the Read-a-thon this year because I have a brunch to go to this morning, Ben has a sleepover guest, and Evan planned a bike ride for this afternoon. I did get some reading in this morning, though--I'm reading this:

Which definitely doesn't look like my usual choice in reading material but as a very tongue-in-cheek take-off on the Cinderella story told from the fairy godmother's point of view, it counts as a fairy tale for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

Here are my photos for Saturday Snapshot. Evan has been wishing for a fire pit, but at this point we don't have one. Ever the resourceful boy, on Thursday when the weather was absolutely summer-like, he asked if there was any reason why we couldn't pretend our Weber grill was a fire pit and roast some hot dogs. And so that's exactly what we did.

A terrible picture of me, but these boys: I adore them

I adore him, too

We had so much fun. I have no idea why we've never thought of this before.
After the hot dogs were cooked, Evan and I made a quick run to the store for marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, to make s'mores for dessert.

Well, I'm off to my brunch. Whether it's for 24 hours or 10 minutes, I hope you get some reading done today!

Portland Old Town/Chinatown Walking Tour

My boys and I took a guided walking tour of the oldest section of Portland yesterday. We've done several of these over the years, and with every one I learn more about and feel more connected to my chosen hometown.

 This tour started at the Chinese Garden, which is a profoundly amazing place that I highly recommend if you live in or visit in Portland. We didn't pay to go in this time, but Evan took this photo of one of the boulders at the entrance. He's always had a great eye for photography and is actually one of the people who most inspired me to take it up.

We made our way through Old Town--where Portland was originally settled back when it was the Wild West and mostly made up of men under 35 who lived in boarding houses and hotels and spent most of their time working and hanging out in saloons. (Some of the saloons had little troughs at the base of the bar, so the fellows wouldn't have to lose their stool when nature called. Classy, right?) The Merchant Hotel, below, was one of several built by lumber barons during this time.

In the 1890s, this part of town became known as Nihonmachi (Japantown). The Merchant Hotel housed the Japanese-language newspaper and a store that sold Japanese goods (Now there's a pizza place and a Japanese American History Museum).

During World War Two, when everyone of Japanese descent was forced out of their homes and sent to internment camps, these buildings were vacated and eventually re-inhabited, mostly by our Chinese American population. Now it's more of a nightclub hot spot and fairly seedy. Not many people live here anymore. The "China" part of our Chinatown consists of a really cool gate and a few hold-out Chinese restaurants that haven't moved to the outer southeast quadrant. The "Japan" part of Japantown was mostly erased during that tragic portion of our history, though we do have a lovely memorial garden nearby that pays tribute to the Americans who were interned and  who fought for the U.S. during the war.

The gate to Chinatown

I love this close-up of the Fu Dog guarding the gate--sorry that I couldn't keep the raindrops off the camera lens, though. 

Cherry blossoms

I couldn't resist this shot with the graffiti, the Chinese characters of the Chinese Language School, and the billboard stating "Rethink Possible" right next to the two flags, American and Taiwanese.

This last shot shows two fun facts that I learned at lunch at the Hollywood Burger Bar after the tour. See that white bottle to the left of the ketchup? I like malt vinegar and salt on my fries (a remnant from my time living in England), so I'm always happy when restaurants offer it.

I went to shake some on my fries, and...

• Fun fact #1: Malt vinegar and pancake syrup look more similar than you might expect.
• Fun fact #2: Pancake syrup on a french fry tastes exactly as bad as you might expect.

Luckily, I only ruined 3-4 fries before realizing that the viscosity was all wrong for malt vinegar. Quick and observant, that's me.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home With Books. To participate, post a picture that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member, and add your link. 

Say Cheese!

A few weeks ago I made cheese for the first time, in a class that a friend of mine was teaching. We made 30-minute mozzarella cheese, based on the recipe on the Cultures for Health website.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon salt
• One gallon of milk
• 1-1/4 cup filtered water
• 1-1/2 teaspoon citric acid
• 1/4 rennet tablet or 1/4 teaspoon liquid rennet
• Large bowl of water, placed in the refrigerator when you start
• Large bowl of water, placed in the freezer when you start

My teacher brought the first four ingredients to class already mixed up. We poured it all into a big pot and heated it to 90° F. Then we took the pot off the burner and added the rennet. Once the rennet is in there, you want to gently stir it with a wooden spoon for about 30 seconds, using an up-and-down motion. Then we let it sit there to solidify a bit.

After 5-10 minutes, there was a custard-like substance, which we sliced into squares with a knife. We put it back on the stove and heated it to 105° F, then took it back of the burner and stirred it for a few minutes. 

Next, we drained the whey off, and microwaved the curds for a minute, drained again and added salt, microwaved for another 30 seconds, and pulled it like taffy.

I think that was it? Below is the finished product, after I'd squished it into a ball and sliced a piece off. It was a little crumblier than the mozzarella I normally buy at the store (even the fresh kind), but delicious.

Say cheese!

This post is doing triple duty:' Saturday Snapshot, a Saturday Farmers Market post, and, at last, a Weekend Cooking post!

Snapshot: Urban Farming

We live in Portland proper, but with the growing urban homesteading trend, you never know what you might find in the city. Everyone seems to have raised beds with veggies growing in their front yard. I'm hoping to make this happen this summer at my house. So far my progress amounts to:

(a) writing my intentions down on a list of things to do, and
(b) pinning instructions for building raised beds to my Pinterest.

Baby steps.

Chicken coops are a common sight around here, too, even in smaller yards. I'd estimate that about 40% of my friends have chickens in their yard. As tasty as fresh eggs are, I won't be jumping on this particular bandwagon unless scientists come up with a poopless chicken.

The photo below is of one of my favorite yards to walk past in my neighborhood. I like to play "spot the goat" in these folks' double lot. Often they're huddled in their little shelter, or tucked away in the shed under the trees at the back of the property. It's a happy day for me when they come to the fence for a visit.

This girl was in a visiting mood when Ben and I stopped at the fence to do our goat-spotting. She came trotting over to say hello. She had a lot of goat news to tell us (mostly, "Mehhhhh!"), and she let us pet her before smiling for the camera. What a sweetheart.

What I'm reading: I am just about finished (hooray!) with Lavinia, which I'm reading for Tuesday's book club. Evan and I finished The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and have moved on to Wildwood. This book is set in Portland, which makes it extra fun for us, but aside from that it is a really nicely written fantasy adventure story. Evan had told me he was tired of fantasy, but he was delighted when the coyote soldiers appeared in the Impassable Wilderness. Both of these books should qualify for Carl's Once Upon a Time challenge, Wildwood as fantasy, and Lavinia as mythology. I have a fairytale-based book on my pile, so all I need is something that qualifies as folklore and I will have completed Quest the Second. I'm a little stumped on the folklore bit, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.


Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home With Books. To participate, post a picture that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member, and add your link. 

Also, new this week! Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made On has started a weekly Farmer's Market event--posts about gardens and local food can be linked up there.

Snapshot: A mural and a not-mural

Last fall I created a Portland murals walking tour for myself (I posted some photos of one of the murals here). I was hoping to offer public access to the route, but after walking it with my husband and son, I realized it was a bit too long for the average walker. I'm working on separating that walk into two, and also plotting out more for other Portland neighborhoods. I'm sure I'll be posting photos of those murals this spring.

Have you ever noticed how, once you start thinking about some specific little thing, it pops up everywhere? This has definitely happened to me with murals. I can't believe how many I used to drive right by without even seeing them.


Here's one I know I wouldn't have missed! A few weeks ago, Chris, Evan and I were walking in the northwest section of Portland. I was delighted to come across this mural along the way. Apparently it was just done in December, 2012.

I'd never heard of Mellow Mushroom but it seems to be prolific in the eastern part of the country. I have no idea what their pizza is like, but I sure like their mural. The artists are Travis Czekalski and Jon Stommel, who have done murals for two other Mellow Mushrooms in other states.



On the same walk, we passed a self-storage place.
It's not exactly a mural, because the decoration is made of metal instead of paint, but I think it's fabulous. It must be relatively new, because it doesn't show up on the pictures of the building from the company's website, but I can't find any information about the artist.

Just goes to show you, anything can be made beautiful with enough effort!



Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home With Books. To participate, post a picture that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member, and add your link. 

Snapshot: Blue Heron

My older son and I went for a walk next to the Columbia River a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd take a lot of pictures, but we were so deep in conversation that I didn't want to interrupt ourselves. The only thing I ended up stopping for was this great blue heron.

What I'm reading: Carl Hiassen's Flush, with Evan. For myself, I'm between novels right now. I'm deciding between Ursula Le Guin's Lavinia, for my April book club, and a couple of books I got for review from publicists.

What I'm watching: Just finishing the movie Chronicle. The first half was humorous, then it got all weird and melodramatic. Now we're watching Portlandia on Netflix. It's always fun to see the familiar locations and I've got to tell you non-locals who watch the show: Star Trek in the Park? It's totally a real thing here.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home With Books. To participate, post a picture that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member, and add your link.