Autumn Interlude--Sky, Sidewalk, and Vehicle

A tree across the street from Lincoln High School, Saturday afternoon

A tree on NW Flanders at NW 23rd Avenue, Saturday afternoon

The tree to the left of our building's front door, before sunrise.

Nearby sidewalk, #1

Nearby street level matching accessory, #1

Shrub on nearby sidewalk, #2

Nearby street level matching accessory, #2, on NW 23rd at Glisan

Nearby sidewalk, #3

Nearby street level matching accessory, #3, on NW Glisan near NW 23rd Avenue

Nearby sidewalk, #4

Nearby street level matching accessory, #4, the corner of NW Davis and NW 22nd

NW Davis, a view I enjoy every afternoon after I get off the bus, taken Oct. 29 before it started to rain which knocked lots and lots of leaves from the trees

NW Everett, a view I enjoy every morning when I walk to the bus stop--although I took this photo in the afternoon on Oct. 29--it's too dark now to get a good shot in the AM

Part of the price for our autumn beauty--cars blanketed with leaves

The same car, different view

One last view of the autumn bounty.

All of these shots are within a four-square-blocks space, except for the one by Lincoln High School. They provide emphatic evidence of the necessity for Northwest Portland Clean Sweep--for us, the next one is Dec. 5--nearby streets either the week before or the week after. I found this on Portland Online:

PDOT and Neighbors West-Northwest have successfully collaborated for the past 15 years to clean the streets in NW Portland. Residents and businesses are notified in advance to remove their vehicles from the scheduled sweep area by 7:30 a.m. because City sweepers cannot make their way down NW Portland's narrow streets with cars parked.

Can you imagine how many leaves we'd have here if they didn't clean off the streets three times a year?

Portentous omens?

I'm standing at the bathroom sink, brushing my teeth with my brand new toothbrush. It's obvious that the sun's shining now, after a whole lot of rain during the night and early morning. I raise the blinds to take a look out the window.

Ah.

Only neutral-colored vehicles visible along the sidewalks, beneath the virtually leafless trees. Omens, a portent of things to come, I wonder. Gray skies. White snow. Brown leaves. Black ice.

I walk out into the living room to get my camera. After raising the window and taking out the sliding-half-screen, I turn on the camera and focus just as the girl and the guy walk into view on this side of the street and the man steps into view from behind the tree trunk across the street.

Ah.

Matching accessories for the street level omens. Click.

Have you seen dump trucks like these in your city?

Thursday morning I boarded the 20 bus in front of the Volvo place and rode ten blocks east on Burnside, downhill.

I got off at SW 12th, to walk a different route part of the rest of the way to work. First I thought I had lucked out and could get a shot of a big ol' crane, swinging its bucket out over an I-don't-have-a-guess-how-many-stories-deep hole. I could not move fast enough, doggone it. A few steps later, I spied something I've been wanting to photograph for you. Two double tandem dump trucks, just sitting there in the middle of the street, waiting.

By the way, the golden gingko trees in the background stand in front of the church where the "ABC Wednesday J is for Joy" bride and groom wed back in September.

Does that Lay's delivery van look rather larger than normal to you?



I crossed at the corner and walked about half a block, then turned to take a photo of the trucks, looking north. The lead truck had moved down beside the crane, and the second truck had stopped at the crosswalk. Would that I could have seen and photographed what the scoop scooped, then dumped!

I'll still be on the look out for my favorite double tandem dump truck. When I get that photo for you, I'm certain that you'll understand immediately why I say favorite.

Serendipity--you gotta love it.

On Oct. 14 these red trees grabbed hold of me and I had to pull the Buick off Barbur Blvd. into a Fred Meyer parking lot, and take this photo. Last night when I took a better look at it, I got plumb tickled. Look at the car. Look at the man's shirt. Look at the trees. I love it.

For fun and foliage-filled walk around our block in Portland's Northwest Hills, go to my other blog, Mama and Me from PDX.

Great Leaf Moments, A Series, II

The Buick's headed north on NW 22nd Avenue. I was NOT driving and taking a photo, I promise. I stopped in the middle of the street once I realized there was not a car in sight behind me.

And I promise, I do NOT know the owners of all of these matching street-level accessory vehicles. Chalk it up to serendipity. Or as Mama would say, "You can see more drivin' than I can just ridin' and lookin'!"

Notice how flat the street is? Once it slopes down from West Burnside, it flattens out at our street, NW Everett, and stays flat all the way to the Willamette, as far as I can tell.

View from Mama's windows, moments ago.

In and around Portland, it's been raining, it's been blowing ... off and on for days. That happens this time of year, with welcome sun breaks now and then.

Still and all, beautiful sights await my camera and me. I couldn't believe that at the moment I decided to push up one of the windows in Mama's bedroom and take a few photos of the trees across the street, there walked two women in perfectly colored raincoats--more street-level accessories for our autumn leaves. Oh, I didn't lean out to take the photo this time because I wanted to stay dry!

Fall Colors, on NW Everett Street in the Northwest Hills

This evening the television weatherman said that Portland's weather is more like November than October, as much as ten degrees cooler than it ought to be. When I was a kid growing up, October meant cooler weather and the leaves changed color, so I think it's just right.

On our street you can see reds beginning to overtake greens in one of the trees in front of the Manhattan. I first saw the change in the tree when I looked out the bathroom window. Then I noticed the yellow and black car with the For Sale sign in the window, and continuing on up the sidewalk, I saw the red car and the other yellow car. Ah. A perfect fall foliage photo, with street-level accessories. I leaned out one of Mama's bedroom window to get the shot I wanted.

P.S. I took the close-up of the leaves resting on the sidewalk in the rain Thursday evening after shopping for groceries at our nearby Fred Meyer. I couldn't resist that vivid red.