He spells it clinker, she spells it klinker, but it's all brick to me.

On May 19 I enjoyed an Architectural Heritage Center Neighborhood Walk, through the Hollywood District. We saw lots of interesting houses and buildings, heard lots of interesting history, and walked lots and lots of blocks. Since I don't have house architecture styles memorized, I can't remember what we saw where, drat it. But I can remember clinker bricks. I've had some fun with Picnik on these photos.


Here's a close-up photo of the same front porch column. I wonder if it is completely made of clinkers or if they just cover the column?


Around the corner and down the block, more clinkers decorate this porch.


I saw this house before the one that is in the top photo, but seeing the clinkers painted gray bothered me too much to put this house as the first photo. However, I have altered the photo in Picnik so that you can see the design developed with the clinker bricks. And thank goodness the person who wielded that doggone paint brush didn't get up on the roof and paint the chimneys!

I think you'll learn lots from this Old House Journal article, “The Accidental Charm of Clinker Bricks”.

And here's some info from Wikipedia: Clinker bricks are partially vitrified brick stones used in the construction of buildings.
Clinkers are burnt under temperatures so high that the pores of the fuel property are closed by the beginning sinter process. Thus they are considerably denser and therefore heavier than regular bricks. Clinkers hardly take up water and are very resistant.
In early brick firing kilns, the surface of the bricks that were too close to the fire changed into the volcanic textures and darker/purplish colors. They were often discarded, but around 1900, these bricks were discovered by architects to be usable, distinctive and charming in architectural detailing, adding the earthy quality favored by Arts & Crafts style designers. Modern brick-making techniques can recreate the appearance of these bricks and produce a more consistent product.
In the United States, clinker bricks were made famous by the Pasadena, California architecture firm Greene and Greene who used them (often in combination with native rocks) in walls, foundations, and chimneys.

Cars in the Park: Italian Cars

Ferrari 430 Scuderia, one machine whose calmness at the curb surely belied its need for speed. I read on the Internet, zero to 62 mph in 3.6 seconds with a top speed of 198 mph. I read on the Internet that it weighs just under 3000 lbs. and has a 4.3 liter V8 engine with 503 horsepower. I thought as I looked at it from every side, this car inhales asphalt at the hands of the woman who owns it. But where can she legally drive it, I immediately wondered, as it desires to be driven? I doubt I'll ever find out, but oh, how I would have loved to have heard that engine at least start up.






A look at the engine.




Gotta love that guy's grin!

A bit more from the Internet, from Edmunds dot com:

What Edmunds Says

If you want a race-ready Ferrari for the street (and really, who doesn't?), the 2009 Ferrari 430 Scuderia is where it's at. Just don't expect three pedals on the floor.

Pros

Wicked acceleration, otherworldly handling from lightweight chassis, closest thing to a racecar for the street that Ferrari sells.

Cons

Wallet-vaporizing price, conventional manual transmission unavailable, not ideal for the daily commute.

I couldn't find an exact cost easily, so I gave up looking when I saw almost $300,000!

Just a quick glimpse of rodeo royalty on their way to the start of the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade

The morning of June 11, as I rode the bus to Sherwood to Cruisin' Sherwood, I figured I get to see lots of folks lining streets the bus would cross, waiting in their chairs and sitting on the sidewalk. The parade was to begin at at 10 a.m. I took these photos about 8:30 a.m. as the bus rolled alongside buildings close to Memorial Coliseum, the starting point.




Carnival of Roses, the parade's theme, decorates the banner beneath the flowers. I also think it says Vancouver Rodeo on it. I found this on the marching order for the parade: Miss Vancouver Rodeo Queen, Courtney Miskell. I don't know who the other girls are, but they certainly are riding beautifully decorated horses.


These are the St. Paul Rodeo Queen and Court. I found on the Internet that they won the award for Rodeo Queen and Court. I found there names on the St. Paul Rodeo Web site: Queen, the girl in front, is Ashley Fults. The princess on the left is Julie Drescher and the one on the right is Barbara Jayne Lerwick. The 76th annual rodeo is July 1-4, in St. Paul, Oregon.


Here's glimpse of those folks lining the streets and/or walking around looking for somewhere to sit. We crossed Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard as I snapped this photo--we're looking north. This is just before we went downhill and found the rodeo royalty!

Seen on June 18, downtown Portland

The red caught my eye as they crossed SW Park at SW Madison in front of the Oregon History Museum at the Oregon Historical Society. I thought how lucky they are to have each other, at their age. I couldn't resist following their progress for a few moments.


The street barricades stood guard over a row of Chevrolets outside the Portland Art Museum's The Allure of the Automobile and the Cars in the Park display, this particular Saturday it's All Chevrolets. The barricades didn't slow down either one of these pedestrians holding their bags--his from Rite-Aid, hers from Macy's--which mean they've been walking for at least eight blocks with those bags, her with her umbrella open the whole way maybe because it had been raining off and on for several hours; neither one of them even seemed winded, and they've been slowly increasing their elevation the whole way. I'm guessing that they live somewhere along the Park Blocks, don't have a car, and walk everywhere they possibly can. Wonderful.


Here's where their paths part, just a bit. Why not? The allure of the automobile and all that.


He's drawn to stop and gaze at the vintage Chevrolet.


Not for long, though. Drawn by what is surely a connection honed over their years together, he knows it is time to move on, following closely the woman as she heads home without missing a beat.

Now for a few photos of the car that stopped the man, a 1932 Chevrolet four-door special sedan. The placard in the windshield also included this poignant statement of History: Bought in 1972, restoration completed in 2005. Our oldest son wanted to restore it but died in 1999. We wanted to finish it in his honor.


I took all of these earlier in the afternoon, well before the couple and their red highlights caught my eye.

Friends, Food, Fun--my Saturday!

FRIENDS: Casey, my friend from Mississippi, and Ryan, her friend and now my friend. I ran into them, well, actually, I walked up to them at the Farmers' Market at Portland State located in the tree-lined South Park Blocks early Saturday morning. Here's the back story: Having been alerted by Casey's Facebook post about the availability of Unger Farms Hood strawberries, I got myself downtown to the market early on. After buying two pints of the luscious-looking red ones, I grabbed my phone and called Casey, as promised. As I was leaving her a message along the lines of, "I'm at Unger's. I just bought my strawberries. Are you here yet? Oh, there you are ..." something like that because I cannot remember the exact words, but there, walking together about 10 feet from me, were Casey and Ryan! Later on, I took this photo of them near the main Information Booth for the market. Ryan's holding one of his pints of Hood strawberries! I'm using my strawberries in my milk and soy protein morning drink!


FOOD: Here's the busy Unger Farms booth.


FOOD: Something l love to buy at this particular market is a packet of Farmhouse pate from Chop. Yummy. I usually eat a little bit of it every week day for lunch, along with some chevre, Mango Madness Pepper Jelly, all on Triscuits. This week I'll have my fresh cherries, too! I forgot to take a photo at Baird Family Orchards, where I bought them.


FOOD: I didn't mean to make her mad when I said, "Could you move back? Your shadow's on the plate." But I did make the woman at Spring Hill Farm's market stall mad, and I apologized then and I continue to apologize now. I stopped her from being able to quickly enjoy her plate of food when she had a break from helping customers like me. Shame on me! Gotta love the photo, though!


FUN: This balloon guy's smile peeks through between the little girl and her daddy. See her mother and little sister looking on? The mom's smiling, the little sister appears at least to be very curious. I wonder about her big sister. Do you think there's a smile on her face?


FUN: Yes, she's smiling! Looks like her balloon creation is a monkey with its very own banana.

Friday night at 3 Doors Down Cafe

The salad special: fresh cucumber, red onion, French radish, red wine vinaigrette, sweet onion, herbs. What can I say? If you read those words and think summertime, crunch and crispy, tender and savory, and refreshing, then you know how this tasted and felt in my mouth.


Entree: summer squash, basil, parmesan risotto. Perfect combination of textures and flavors.


Cocktail: Italian Lemon Drop--I completely forgot to get a list of the ingredients. Sorry! It tasted great, lemony tart which combined very well with the sugar around the rim.

Cruisin' Sherwood #2

Who needs a big ol' precious stone ring
When you have seen this shiny, shiny bling!
It's Emerald, surely worth a lotta bucks
And truly one fine '66 Chevrolet C-10 Pickup Truck.








Fine words.




I love that teensy cowboy hat hanging from the rearview mirror! The shifter! The gas tank cap! The chrome trim! The font used for Custom!

Cast Iron Colonnade in Skidmore/Old Town

The Saturday that I rode the MAX to shop at the Dress Barn, I took this photo from the window. As I looked at it closely, deciding if/where to crop it, I noticed that gaggle of guys to the left beside the lamp post. Immediately I wondered, "Just what are the three of them looking at the one on his knees doing?" Then I noticed the women looking over their right shoulders towards the guys. Surely those two women are wondering, "Just what are they doing over there?"

The canopies which you see between the arches are a small bit of the western most part of the Saturday/Sunday Market. And that's an even tinier bit of the crowd out on a sunny day!


I love that guy's black and gray checkerboard shirt and pants! Now that I look at the photo again, I'm wondering, "Is the man in navy blue angry, or did I catch him at the moment of pushing his glasses up on his nose which made him look angry?" So I've cropped it closer. What do you think? Is he on one of those hands' free phones?

I found this information, and lots more about the area here, to share with you: In 1984 a colonnade consisting of cast-iron components salvaged from the North Wing of the New Market Theater by the Portland Friends of Cast Iron Architecture was erected on the site of the original building.

I found a note about found objects--all due to Good Samaritan serendipity.

Saturday I got off the MAX Red Line at the wrong place in downtown Portland and ended up catching a Blue Line so that I could then catch a Green Line to make it closer to my ultimate destination, the Park Blocks in front of the Portland Art Museum. More about that tomorrow. If I had not made that mistake, I would have missed this amazing note, taped to one of the benches at the MAX shelter.


The wide shot of the bench, altered in Picnik to zoom in on the note.

Cruisin' Sherwood, a nearby Oregon town which hosts a whole lotta vintage vehicles once a year

On June 11, I rode the #12 bus for well over an hour from my apartment to Sherwood, determined to experience a car show I'd been hearing about probably since 2007. I made it, even with having to wait for another 20-30 minutes for a shuttle bus to take me to Old Town Sherwood where reportedly 550 vehicles awaited. What a good time I had, walking the streets with thousands of other car lovers! Now, I realize that loads of car lovers are men of all ages and that men understand and appreciate what engines look like because they can visualize the result of stepping on the accelerator with such and such an engine under the hood. While I adore the sound made by such and such engines, I would much rather see the car as it was designed to be appreciated, hood down and ready to roll. So, I decided to forego photographing some of the beauties with hoods up, although I couldn't pass up all of them. Anyway, here goes--the first photos. I hope you find them as exciting and pleasing as I do.


1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Nomad Station Wagon

The Willamette River runs high right now.

I took these photos on June 9 when I lucked out and got to ride with a friend on his boat during the arrival of the fleet, which happens every year during the Rose Festival.


We slowly passed beneath the Steel Bridge.


As the antenna touched first one cross piece, then another, it serenaded us with a rhythmic tlang-a-lang-a-tlang. An eerie sound.


Here's a better view of the cross pieces. Shining bright, the sun changed the color of much of what I photographed, depending upon which way I faced.


We've crossed to the other side of the bridge.


I like this perspective.


We're south of the bridge now, heading downriver. Here you can see the Steel Bridge in the foreground with its upper level for vehicles, MAX, pedestrians and bicyclists. The lower level is for trains. The orange bridge you can just see is the Broadway Bridge, while the barely visible one beyond it is the arch of the Fremont Bridge.