Lucky me. I spied someone to pose for me in the garden yesterday afternoon. I hope you enjoy these five photos!

Photo #1 - I walked around the rose beds at Albertina Kerr, across the street from my apartment building, checking for the subtle, delicious scent of roses in bloom as I enjoyed the sights and the glorious Portland weather. This particular flower is where I got lucky, not that it had a noticeable scent. None noticed, but as I bent over to take a sniff, the petals revealed a hidden lady bug. Excited, I held my iPhone 5 camera as close as possible, tapped the screen to focus, and blindly pushed the button. Blindly, I say, because in the sunny conditions, a glare covered the screen.



Photo #2 - Checking for focus would wait until I got back inside my apartment, so I kept snapping.



Photo #3 - This one turned out pretty good!



Photo #4 - Sunshine captured in the opening rosebud. I'm particularly fond of this sort of color combination, the golden and the rosy orange.



Photo #5 - This image lets you know just how lucky I was to see this little lady!

Sight I saw, out and about a little while ago

Talk about your moment in time, when the sun shines right where you want it, when you're able to hold your breath and your hand so that your iPhone 5 is steady.

Thanks to Albertina Kerr--an organization which maintains a lovely building across the street and is a leading provider of services to children, adults and families with emotional or mental health challenges and developmental disabilities--I am not all that sad that I don't have a yard or a lawn or a garden of my own. They willingly share theirs with the entire neighborhood.

I think this is the prettiest photo I have ever taken with an iPhone camera. Still feeling shocked as I look at it again while proofreading. Can't help but whisper to myself, "Wow."

Love Spalding.

First, I'm standing there with my iPhone, making a video and talking about how the tracks I'd made a few hours earlier had disappeared in the latest snowfall. Then, my phone rang--my brother and sister-in-law in central Mississippi wondering how I was making it in the snowy conditions, laughing when I said that I was out walking in the snow for fun. Finally, I notice this lady skiing along the sidewalk across the street. By the time I asked my brother to hold on, found the camera on the phone and held it up to take a photo, she had turned left on NE 20th Avenue. My brother and I continued our conversation, said good-bye, and I continued my walk around the block. When I got around the corner, I found a spot out of the wind and beneath a small overhang at the front door of the Sandy Blvd. Clinic, cropped and uploaded the image to Facebook. I figured that would it for the serendipitous sighting of a skier on the snowy sidewalk. Oh, before I forget, more serendipity in the matching colors of the car, the band on the Musicians Union building and the compatibility of the color of the skier's jacket and the rest of the wall color on the building. I love it when unexpected color combinations reach out and grab me.
 

Later that evening, cabin fever appeared again--it had been coming and going since I got home from work on Friday. Anyway, I decided to walk downstairs and look out the window in the side door of my building. My reward, one more serendipitous sighting of ski accoutrement. Left to right: ski poles, ski pants, skis. The icing on the cake, so to speak, the LOVE hanging on the apartment door, put there no doubt for Valentine's Day. I'm guessing that the word describes very well how the two skiers felt about their outing, skiing the neighborhood and beyond. The green door to the left served as their portal to the winter wonderland that Portland had become, beginning on Thursday around noon and continuing until around 4 p.m. on Saturday when the only thing falling from the sky was either freezing rain or sleet or both.

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.