Summer Rain

We waited so long for summer this year that this morning's light rain sent me into an utter panic.

Nothing to worry about, of course. The sun returned soon enough but not before I happened upon these beautifully jeweled sage leaves.

20

Today is a typical day: lesson planning, kid schlepping, laundry...pretty much the usual with one notable exception. It's also our 20th wedding anniversary. Twenty years! I can't believe I'm old enough to have done anything for 20 years but there you have it.

We decided to celebrate with a getaway to Seattle last weekend. The kids went off to stay with my wonderful, fabulous mother-in-law while we caught the train and headed north for a few days.

On of the frustrating parts of planning this trip was the outrageous prices for hotels in downtown Seattle. Even the simplest ones are shockingly expensive and, we imagined, probably completely lacking in charm in our price range. I kept searching and searching for something that didn't require a second mortgage and one day up popped airbnb in my search results, where we found a very inexpensive studio perfectly situated for our visit. We stayed on the second floor of The Virginian Apartments, overlooking busy 4th avenue:

We didn't really head out with much in the way of firm plans but we had a guidebook or two for ideas. We ended up at both the Olympic Sculpture Garden and the Ballard Locks on the same surprisingly beautiful day.

We walked for miles, we ate fantastic meals, and truly had a marvelous time.

Here are a few favorite photos:
And perhaps my favorite of all:
Here's to the next 20 years!

Walking Tour

Yesterday we had another opportunity to walk and learn with the ever fabulous Peter Chausse who leads fascinating walking tours of Portland. I've lived here my whole life but each time we go out with him I see and learn new things. Perhaps the most memorable fact of the day: who knew there were Transformers on the Governor Hotel? If you click on the collage above, it will magically appear larger and you'll have no trouble spotting them.

Mosaic Monday

I haven't done this in ages. I wonder why. My goodness, there are some lovely images out there!

1. Fall in Love, 2. time to choose the right colours.., 3. Crafting 365 / 36 - round like a circle in a spiral like a wheel within a wheel, 4. Thread, 5. 337::365 India's found shell..., 6. Untitled, 7. •oO.°, 8. if the klompen fits wear it bench monday, 9. Strawberry Fields Quilt

My lovely children were dispersed yesterday, the boys to the mountains and my youngest with friends which meant that my husband and I had some unscheduled time alone together on a beautiful, crisp fall day. I almost forgot to bring my camera but I am so glad he reminded me to tuck it in my bag. Sometimes I think I've already taken all the good pictures I ever will, and then the same old street I've walked 100 times surprises me with its colors.

What a treat to spend a fine, relaxed day off with the one I love best.

Photo Break

I went back to work this week after an all-too-brief break. For reasons that have yet to be explained to my satisfaction (but most likely come down to money) I am now responsible for simultaneously planning and teaching two separate classes. In the same room. With 40 students. It is, quite simply, insane. The only reason I figure they can get away with it is that I don't get paid for prep time anyway, so who cares if the work is doubled?

Each night this week I swore I was going to come home, make myself a nice margarita, and lose myself in some Bollywood. The reality? I collapsed in a quivering heap in my bed. This term is going to be intense. And that's all I want to say about that right now.

So...how about a nice photo break? Because I didn't absolutely have to do anything this morning, I took the camera and spent some time poking around in my shamefully overgrown yard. Despite my shocking neglect, things are going quite well, especially with the herbs, greens, young tomatoes, and ruby-sweet strawberries.

Our first baby zucchini are already ripe. Isn't it early? I can't tell, but I am happy to have them.

The best part? I wasn't alone. I had some company only too happy to pose for me.

Miss Chutki:

and the recently named Romeo who seems to have adopted us for good:
He looks just a bit mean and shifty here, but he's actually a total sweetheart.

I'm planning on a couple of relaxing days of sewing, some knitting, a little yard work, and hopefully pulling my husband over to my side in The Great Freezer Debate. I think we need an extra to hold all our summer bounty but he's not yet convinced.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend full of good things!

Welcome, Spring!

If you read my last blog post some two weeks ago, you'll know that between starting a new term at work and preparing for Passover, I've been running non-stop. That California vacation seems like months ago. No wonder things have been quiet here--though it's been hopping (relatively speaking) over at Magpie Eats!

Passover got off to a lovely start. We hosted my cranky relatives on the first night. They never stay past dessert to finish the seder, but I'm used to it now and it only drives me a little bit nuts. The Princess decided this was the year she'd learn The Four Questions to ask at the seder, which is kind of a big deal given that it involves singing in Hebrew. With MonkeyBoy's excellent assistance, she learned and snag beautifully and took the responsibility very seriously.

We spent the next two nights with friends, sharing another seder and a festive Shabbat meal complete with silly songs and much hilarity. It was a lovely few days of cooking and eating and talking and laughing and a great deal of wine so I spent the weekend mostly at home and mostly quiet which wasn't bad at all.

Now that things are slightly calmer, I'm gradually turning my thoughts towards the garden. I went out this morning during a sun break between the rain and the hail, and found that, while so much needs attention, thankfully there's a great deal happening despite my neglect.

We have bluebells all over:

The figs are just beginning to make leaf buds:

The peonies and rhubarb are up:

And the andromeda is covered in a froth of scented blossoms:

It was a long, hard winter and we lost quite a few things which we'd had for years, including the Meyer lemon trees that were a gift from my sweetie for our fifth wedding anniversary. Kind of bummed about that.

But the succulents seem to have mostly made it through and today's sun breaks were surely welcome:

It's supposed to start drying out soon and I'm hoping to spend lots of time on yardwork in the coming days. Welcome, Spring!

Photo Talk

My groovy new tripod is already getting a workout. I think the first thing they always recommend for taking better pictures is use a tripod. I get it now.

In other related news, I made the sad discovery that my old version of Photoshop won't install on my new Vista computer. Damn. But really it's OK because the only thing I ever figured out how to do in Photoshop was remove blemishes. I know it does plenty more but nothing I ever seemed to need.

I've used Picasa for years as a photo organizer and a lightweight editor. It's a great (free!) program and every new release has had truly useful improvements. I especially like the current version's photo collage features. I haven't found anything better for organizing and tagging my zillions of photos. But what Picasa doesn't do is resize things. Since I like to shoot my photos in maximum quality, I often need to make them smaller to get them up on the web, including here on the blog. Photoshop does this, along with 50,000 other things, but since it wouldn't install on my new computer, I was stuck.

I googled free Photoshop alternatives and came across my new love, Photoscape. It does everything I ever needed Photoshop to do, but much more intuitively. I actually have a better understanding of what I'm doing when I adjust my photos, rather than just clicking buttons and hoping for the best. And I whipped out a new blog header in a snap, so if you're reading me in an RSS reader, please hop over to the blog and see what you think. I am absolutely delighted with this find and wanted to share it with you.

Thanks to Colin for the lovely lilies!

Sunny Day

Hi everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it? We've been getting back into gear here at Casa Magpie after a lengthy, snowbound winter break.

We'll remember the snow (and hope for more, ideally on a school day) but lately it's like early spring here in Portland. We always have a week or two like this and the garden centers love them because everyone gets all excited and goes out to buy plant starts which mostly rot in the ground once winter returns. Fake spring usually comes in February, so this is a bit odd, especially coming on the heels of ice, snow, huge rains, and floods reminiscent of Genesis.

It's almost warm and the sun is brilliant in the low-in-the-sky wintry way. We joined friends on an outing yesterday which I know we'll mostly remember for getting just a bit lost and the slog through cold, muddy, calf-deep water which finally got us back to our starting point. The kids thought it was great fun!

But in and around the adventure, there was a lot to look at, too.

Happy New Year

Normally the secular new year kind of passes me by. Deep winter doesn't give me the sense of rebirth and possibility that I feel during the Jewish new year which falls just as everything moves into autumnal glory. Just as I stay well outside the Christmas frenzy, I also tend to avoid resolutions and new beginnings as January rolls around as they're not part of my personal rhythm.

So it's odd that I'm finding myself anticipating that rollover to a new calendar year this time around. I don't know if my recent dental work could be affecting me already but I am feeling stronger, healthier, and less fuzzy headed than I have in months. Recently when looking around at everything I should be doing, I've been likely to shut down, overwhelmed, and begin to long for a nap. I'm no paragon of energy at the moment, but it does seem within the realm of possibility that I might be able to regain control of some things that have gotten away from me. I suppose that's not much, especially for the overachievers out there, but it's enough to fill me with cautious optimism.

Enough of that New Year's silliness--how about some photos? I love going back over the year in photos and being reminded of everything from spring flowers to family outings.

I wish all my readers only good things in 2009. May it be a year of health and happiness and growth.

Icy

This is what it looks like around here:

There's not a lot going on and, apart from the frozen icy branches scraping on the windows, it's pretty quiet. The weather people are now saying that maybe we won't pull out of this as quickly as originally forecast. It's not so bad, though.

Chanukah begins tonight and we are well supplied with provisions for latkes and doughnuts. We're well supplied with candles for our many chanukiyot , dreidels, and gelt. I even have a few gifts tucked away and ready to go. As far as I'm concerned, we could spend the entire holiday like this, in front of the fire though I am looking forward to seeing friends later in the week after things warm up.

Here's wishing everyone a holiday filled with light and joy and maybe even a miracle or two.

First Camera

My little girl has decided that she's going to follow in my footsteps, I guess. Her grandmother gave her a simple digital camera as an early birthday gift and she has been having a great time. I think she has a pretty good eye, actually. She took pictures of everything today.

She even asked me to get her photos on the web so she now has her own Flickr page. Just you wait, she'll be blogging one day soon....

In other photo news, we saw this on the highway today:






The truck that was pulling this giant lion-thing had the name of a plumbing company on its side. I do not see the connection. Very odd.

Mosaic Monday

1. mirna's heart *, 2. fringe, 3. worn, 4. Momiji at the Lakeside, 5. Blue World, 6. Untitled, 7. Orange on Gold, 8. 0604 Rockin' Bokeh 156/365, 9. Possibly maybe, 10. summer cartwheels (day 7 | year 2.5), 11. Stargazing, 12. noon, 13. Dresses, 14. post_20080608170302, 15. Chinatown, 16. Colours of Little India

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Mosaic Monday....OK, Tuesday

1. Dots Of Flowers, 2. Untitled, 3. C365, 213 - Circles in Progress, 4. Circles, 5. Times Square, 6. Red.Petals, 7. Pink flowering Tree, 8. Berried Cedar Waxwing, 9. 9 delicious red leaves, 10. Vine, 11. parcheggio abusivo, 12. True Blue, 13. existence, 14. "Me arrégle esos pelos", 15. green shadow, 16. spring in Tennessee_4

So many gorgeous Flickr photos. The problem? I'm starting to crave a better camera....

Go By Train

With an early morning blood draw, the loss of my bank card, a mammogram, and endless Passover cleaning and prep to do, this isn't turning out to be such a great day. So let me procrastinate further and tell you a bit about yesterday, which was quite delightful.

We joined a bunch of other homeschooling families for a day trip to Seattle via Amtrak. This required being downtown and fully awake before 8 am which was slightly traumatic, but we pulled ourselves together. The Dark Lord had yet another day off school so he joined us. I don't get to do so many things with all my kids anymore and I was delighted to have him along.

The train ride itself provided many hours of enjoyment for the kids, especially the little ones who enjoyed traveling without the restrictions of seat belts and car seats.

Once in Seattle, we decided to visit the central branch of the public library, which is a truly stunning structure. The Spouse is the real architecture enthusiast in our family, but I found the building absolutely breathtaking and had a field day taking pictures. After the library we walked down to the Pike Place Market. We failed to locate one particular vendor from whom we'd hoped to purchase a bar mitzvah present for MonkeyBoy's dear friend, but we had lots of fun wandering and eating piroshky and crumpets.We were pretty well worn out by the time we walked back to the train station for our return trip. I thought it would be quieter on the train what with all those worn out kids but they seemed determined to get the most out of every minute and they played hard until the train pulled into the station back in Portland.

Almost Summer

MonkeyBoy and I had rather a hard time dragging ourselves to shul yesterday and sitting through the service given that it was a summery-warm and brilliantly sunny morning. (Beth, I'm keeping my promise!) Those two hours felt like a gentle torture but once liberated we raced home to enjoy the sun briefly before returning to the synagogue for The Princess' Shabbat School class. We got the boys to come along and while she was learning about Passover, The Spouse and I took the boys to a new nearby park.

Tanner Springs Park is a mini-wetland in the middle of an urban neighborhood of new construction and new money. The whole area was once a swampy wetland and this little plot of under an acre is all that remains. It's a bit unsettling, really. There was a surprising amount of birdsong and not a songbird to be seen so I couldn't help but wonder if I was hearing virtual birds. One bird was for real, though-- a huge osprey alternately perched on the roofs of swanky condos and swooped down to look for fish in the dinky little stream. It was truly awesome to see the magnificent bird up close but also a bit sad given its slim chances at finding a meal.

We wandered about in a bit of a sun-induced daze but throughly enjoyed the warm afternoon. There was some great art installed in the park which made interesting photography subjects.

Our lovely afternoon was topped off by a stop for ice cream after picking up The Princess. I'd been curious about Cool Moon Ice Cream ever since last summer's skywriting episode. They have a great selection and everyone enjoyed their choices but I was particularly taken with their "kulfi", a pistachio and cardamom ice cream that lacks the texture of its Indian namesake, but has all the rich, exotic flavor. A perfect dinner for an almost summer evening.

Day 3--and a Mosaic for Monday

It's a little odd, all this blue sky and sunshine.

But we're adjusting.

We headed west to spend the day at the beach. It was an easy drive to Santa Cruz where we went to the boardwalk. I'm not a ride person but The Princess and I did manage to sail above the crowds in a mercifully slow overhead tram. The sun was shining, the sea was sparking---this was clearly not Portland in March.

Leaving Santa Cruz I got a happy honk and a wave for my John Edwards bumper sticker which made my day! We drove north along highway 1 and (yes I know I'm repeating myself) it was breathtakingly gorgeous. We spent a couple of breezy hours on the sand at Half Moon Bay, flying kites and collecting shells--a perfect beach visit.

Mosaic Monday

I've had no end of trouble getting this to work. A few of my very favorites from the last couple of weeks just won't show up. But luckily there are plenty of gorgeous photos on Flickr.

a walk

The nasty cold seems to be on its way out and I finally felt well enough for a walk. The kids and I decided to go to the Eastbank Esplanade, and bring along a grandpa and a cousin for fun. After a ridiculous comedy of errors (and cell phones) we finally managed to assemble our group of five for a leisurely stroll with lots of stops for photos. We walked north along the length of the Esplanade, across the Steel Bridge, south through Waterfront Park and back to the east side over the Hawthorne Bridge, a loop of just under 3 miles.

I can't even describe, after days of feeling so rotten, how great it was to move around and breathe fresh air.

I've finally figured out how to make the photo mosaics without spending all day uploading photos to the online mosaic maker. A nice plus--if you click on the mosaic it will open in a much larger format in a new window just in case you want a closer look at anything. The graffiti is definitely worth a second look.

When the hellebores are blooming...

..can spring be far behind?