Wish I could fix it so that you could smell these roses.

I walked by on my way home and, when I realized just how good these roses smelled, I walked around on the other side of the bushes, got out my camera, and took this photo. Just one of the perks to many Portland neighborhoods--enjoying someone else's roses.

Happy Mother's Day!

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Roses for you on your special day. Love to all the mothers out there.

Rainy autumn in my neighborhood, No. 4

From nearby fully-opened blossoms, the scent of roses wafted in the wind. But not from these rosebuds. Possible late-bloomers? My guess, they'll become never-bloomers. Hmmm. Can you become a never?
 

The red door and white trim at Albertina Kerr's headquarters becomes the best background possible for this red rose bud.
 

I like the peachy orange and bright yellow rose bud contrasted with the dark green leaves and maroon stems. No color alterations here. These photos are just as they came out of my iPhone.



A fading pink rose bud seems the perfect lead-in for this poem I found on the Internet:

When the Rose is Faded by Walter de la Mare

When the rose is faded,
Memory may still dwell on
Her beauty shadowed,
And the sweet smell gone.

That vanishing loveliness,
That burdening breath,
No bond of life hath then,
Nor grief of death.

'Tis the immortal thought
Whose passion still
Makes the changing
The unchangeable.

Oh, thus thy beauty,
Loveliest on earth to me,
Dark with no sorrow, shines
And burns, with thee.

Mid-September Roses at the Rose Garden in Washington Park

I've been remiss, out of it, gone, down in the dumps missin' my little Mama, even sort of feelin' sorry for myself, escaped into an addiction to British spy/WWII television programs through Netflix, lazy, and good for not much of anything off and on for months now. I've been up for air at times, thanks to my two swell sons Lamont and Leland and to my work and those special folks at the workplace. And to Portland itself.

It's past high time for me to straighten out and partake of life every single second available to me.

Tiny steps still get it done.

Yesterday I went to a lecture at the Architectural Heritage Center and to two museums I'd never visited through the Smithsonian Museum Day. I rode the brand new Portland Street Car Central Loop between them.

Today I'm going downtown to Pioneer Courthouse Square for White Bird's West Coast premiere of Le Grand Continental by Montréal-based choreographer Sylvian Émard at Pioneer Courthouse Square on September 30, 2012! This exciting performance brings together 150+ participants of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds - dancers and non-dancers alike - to perform a contemporary re-imaging of a traditional festive line dance! Age range 9 to 75.
Read The Oregonian piece about it here.

Here's the first blog since Tuesday before last.



I took these photos the evening of September 16 when our dear friends Nora and Upa Parikh (plus Nora's sweet sister Aida) were in Portland for a family wedding. I got a Zipcar, picked them up at their hotel, met Lamont and Leland for a fine dinner at 3 Doors Down Cafe, then took the three of them riding around Portland. Lucky us, we made it to Washington Park and the Rose Garden before the sun went down. We made good memories, taking in the beautiful blossoms, some of which smelled so good, some of which had no scent whatsoever. How does that happen?

  Aida, Nora, Upa, taken with my iPhone at 3 Doors Down Cafe.

Here's some sunshine and the promise of beautiful blooms for y'all.

Best wishes for a fine week from Portland Oregon Daily Photo!

City Hall Roses and the Morning Commute

I took this photo on July 30 on my way to work, waiting beside City Hall for the last of the two or three morning buses that I catch to go from home to the job.


A bit past its prime, this City Hall rose still is beautiful. You're wondering why it's two or three buses, right?
I get on either the 15, 17 or 20 first, a few blocks from the apartment. If I ride the 17 or the 20, I transfer to either the 4, 8 or 33 when I get off. If it's the 4 that shows up first, I ride it all the way to work. If it's the 8 or the 33, I ride it to a block from where I can catch either the 4, 10 or 14 at the bus stop right beside the City Hall roses. Any of those last three take me to the bus stop across the street from my building. If I ride the 15 first, I have the option of the 4 or the 33. You know the story on each one of those as far as either getting straight to work on the 4 or taking the 33, then catching either the 4, 10 or 14.


I took this photo on July 9. Oh, after I get off the 17 or the 20 I also have the option of catching the MAX, either the Green Line or the Yellow Line. I can ride it to within one block of where I can catch the 4, 10 or 14 for the last leg of the morning commute.


Here's another rose from July 9. If memory serves, we'd had a hot spell which I believe severely impacted this beauty. It hadn't given up as much as its nearby buds had, though, who were losing their petals. It had the option of surviving a bit longer.


Options are a great thing to have, especially when you ride to work on mass transit like I do. What option did this lovely yellow rose have prior to July 9 that the red one didn't have? I wonder if the heat didn't impact it because of its color? It seems to me that the bright yellow just might reflect more heat than the deep red which I see as absorbing heat. Anyone know anything about this for sure? I'd love to hear.

Two roses on NW Everett, in a front yard

The interesting, the unique, the beautiful ...Portland

Honestly, you never, ever know what you're going to see in Portland. It's a wonderful place to be.

Not long ago I walked around my building after eating lunch and saw the Hot Lips Pizza delivery vehicle waiting at the traffic light. "Shoot," I thought, "I left my camera upstairs!" I knew I'd get a shot of it for y'all, eventually. Saturday two weeks ago, I wandered the East Rose Garden in Ladd's Addition, taking photos, hardly raising my head, until something made me look up. There it sat, parked as the driver made a delivery across the street! Click, click. Satisfied, I walked back towards the car and spied one of the most unique vehicles I've ever seen. The Thing, all Volkswagen, all orange, all convertible. If I hadn't stopped to smell and photograph the beautiful roses, I'd have missed the interesting and the unique vehicles.












For the curious:

A bit from Wikipedia about The Thing:

The 181 has become something of a cult classic, due in no small measure to their funky angular styling, which leaves no question as to its strictly utilitarian purpose. The doors are removable without tools and the windshields fold down (like a Jeep). The interior is a perfect illustration of form following function, and its painted steel door panels and split, flat bench seats look appropriately post-modern, industrial chic today. Prices range from $3000 USD for restorable units to upwards of $15,000 for nicely restored examples. In early 2007 four 181 "Things" sold at the Barrett-Jackson auto auction for well over $20k each, with one 1973 example selling for $42,560 USD.[1].

If you have time and are curious, click here to see Ladd's Addition from the sky, http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=45.50854&lon=-122.64940&z=15

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Ladd's Addition:

Ladd's Addition is one of the oldest residential districts in Portland, Oregon. It is in the Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood, located in the near southeast part of the city. Ladd's Addition is known in Portland for its peculiar diagonal street pattern relative to the rest of the area. It is roughly eight blocks (east-west) by ten blocks (north-south) in size (by reference to the external grid) and is bordered by SE Hawthorne, Division, 12th, and 20th.

Ladd's Addition is named after William Sargent Ladd, a nineteenth-century Portland mayor. He originally owned a 126 acre (500,000 m²) farm on this land, and in 1891 decided to subdivide the land for residential use. Rather than follow the grid that the majority of Portland was based on, Ladd was inspired by Pierre L'Enfant's plan for Washington, D.C. Ladd designed the plat based on a diagonal street system surrounding a central park.

In addition to the off-kilter layout that has confounded many Portlanders, the narrow streets in Ladd's Addition are lined with American elm trees and many lead to a large traffic circle in the center. Other streets lead to four smaller, diamond-shaped "circles" located to the east, west, north, and south. Each of these "circles" contain one of Portland's test rose gardens, with the northern garden's rose bushes being in a slightly different layout than the other three.

FLAG - Friends of Ladd's Addition Gardens, raises money and volunteers to maintain the beautiful rose gardens, and Save Our Elms inoculate the elm trees yearly for Dutch Elm Disease. They sponsor fun neighborhood events such as BBQ's, a neighborhood yard sale, and home tours.

The entire neighborhood is designated a Historic district. The neighborhood also hosts several churches, a hat museum, a few shops including an espresso and dessert house (Palio) and "Funky Church," a residence that was formerly a church and currently hosts small concerts and other events. Portlanders directionally savvy enough to navigate the web-like neighborhood can often be found walking their dogs, or admiring the many early 20th century homes and gardens.
Musicians Elliott Smith and Neil Gust lived in Ladd's Addition after graduating from College.