Jackalope, next door to Urban Farm Store

Urban Farm Store, My First Visit

On SE Morrison between SE 20th and SE 19th, the Urban Farm Store sits, all shiny and new, much like the galvanized trash cans and what I think are watering troughs out front, planted with berries and vegetables, mulched with hazelnut hulls.


I went there last week at lunch with Sarah from work and two others, Melissa and Molly. Sarah wanted us to see the baby chicks she'd seen on her first visit to the store. Sarah has chickens and recently gave Mama and me six eggs! Anyway, here's all I could photograph on my quick visit to a thoroughly professional, tidy and useful store. Here’s an Oregonian article about the new store.

Baby chicks.

Identification of the baby chicks.


Inside the store, from seeds and books and growing aids to farm/garden signs and a great clock.














Outside, a chicken coop in progress and fruit trees and all sorts of other urban farm needs.










And on the window to the left of the front door.






And back inside, on the check-out counter.


When they have seedlings available, I'm going back with Lamont and Leland. They have garden boxes on the corner where they live. We're planting vegetables!

St. Patrick's Day and 15th Anniversary Fun at 3 Doors Down Cafe

Love these balloons! Kathy outdid herself with them, the grab bags filled will all sorts of favors, the Irish soda bread, and a great big glass bowl filled with Pot O'Gold Tickets for 3 Doors Down Cafe's Happy Hour! Right now the Happy Hours are Tuesday-Thursday, 5-6:30 p.m., Sunday 4-6 p.m., but starting April 6, Happy Hour lasts all night at the bar and bar tables.

Corned beef and colcannon and a pint! I don't care for rye bread, so I ate mine with the pugliese bread always available at 3 Doors Down Cafe--yummy!




Here's someone I'd been wanting to meet, Dave's hunting buddy! He was one of scores and scores of folks who showed up to enjoy the fun, frivolity, and food with friends and family.


I can't resist a close-up of my St. Patrick's headband. I spread the glitter on it and attached the maribou feathers!


Do I ever want my D50--these photos fill me with a great big feeling of want. Surely their quality has nothing to do with the fact that I enjoyed two pints!

Stuff on the sidewalk, March 14, 2009, No. 6

Here's the whole picture. You should have seen me when I noticed these items on the sidewalk. I slowed down, stopped and looked, wondering what in the world could have happened here. No blood that I could see. Was someone celebrating St. Patrick's Day early, and it got out of hand? What do you think?

Stuff on the sidewalk, March 14, 2009, No. 5

Stuff on the sidewalk, March 14, 2009, No. 4

Stuff on the sidewalk, March 14, 2009, No. 3

Stuff on the sidewalk, March 14, 2009, No. 2

Stuff on the sidewalk, March 14, 2009, No. 1

While at first glance, it might appear that Saturday, March 14, deja vu-ed Saturday, February 28. I mean, there was a lecture at the Architectural Heritage Center and lunch at Por Que No. It was a new lecture: William S. Ladd was Portland’s most prominent 19th Century business and civic leader. Join longtime Ladd’s Addition resident and urban planner Richard Ross as he shares the full story of Ladd’s visionary 1891 planned community. Connecting a century of the city’s changing landscape, Ross will follow the lasting impact of one family of Portland pioneers on the City today. And I took another photo of the guacamole that I'll post soon--I think it's a better representation of that delicious little green bowl.

What wasn't the same was what I found to photograph. I've decided to post parts of it, with the whole of it being the last in the series. Any guesses as to what's to come?

I beg your indulgence ...

... while I soar with joy at Mississippi State's victory just now! They've won the SEC basketball tournament and an automatic selection to the NCAA tournament, known by some as March Madness, by others as the Big Dance.

Go Dawgs!

Portland's Skyline, March 5, 2009

I took this with the CoolPix L12. For a week before I sent the D50 off for cleaning and maintenance, I took only the CoolPix with me, so that I could sort of wean myself off my digital SLR. The little one holds its on in some respects, but I will be so extremely, outta sight happy to get my hands on the D50 again!

Ambiguity

What do you think this sign really means?

Paradoxical Footwear

Merriam-Webster Online defines paradox at "a tenet contrary to received opinion." To me, the raindrops represent the received opinion in this photo--February in Portland can be rainy. The brown boots also represent the received opinion--February in Portland can be cold. The black flats with the gold emblem are the contrary tenet.

I know I couldn't go out with my feet that naked. I don't believe I could have done it even when I was much younger, which you can tell by the feet that the person wearing the black flats is, a young woman. Not that I'd wear the boots, either--I don't think they'd go up over my calves. Back in the day, maybe, but not now.

Pioneer Courthouse Square Mile Post Sign

Mile Post Sign
Distances to nine sister-cities and other geographical destinations are listed on this whimsical signpost.
I took this photo on February 28, when I was downtown after attending the Architectural Heritage Center's program "Writing Local History." Just so you know, I've tried to take photos of this mile post sign other times. This is the first one I've taken that I've liked, ever.

I've been to some of the sites, all either in Portland or nearby--Pacific Ocean, Zoo, Mt. Hood, Washington Park, Portlandia, Columbia River Gorge (Col Riv Gorge), TriMet Info, and Waterfront. I'm not sure where that Independence is, but when I Googled and MapQuested Portland to Independence, Missouri, I found that it's 1800 miles, so I guess that's not the Independence they mean.

Have you been to any of the sites show at this angle of the sign?

Seeking direction at the corner of SW Washington and 5th

I took this photo from the 18 bus, thus the reflections from the neon signs Kelly's Olympian, on the way home from work on March 2. The ladies are standing near the door to Everest College which states "Career training for life" on its Web site. Oh, I just noticed something. The ladies are seeking direction from the map. Students come to Everest seeking direction for their lives. Serendipity!
Here's Kelly's neon so that you can have the whole picture.


Please take a look at Mama’s 10 things at Casey’s blog. You can see each and every one of them as large photos by clicking on the small ones, and read her descriptions on the first page, beneath the small photos.

Sorry that I missed posting on Saturday and Sunday--way busy around here, having fun, helping Leland with an assignment.

Last Saturday's lunch at Por Que No, yum-yum

First let me say that I must return to Por Que No, at 4635 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., to take more photographs of the guacamole you see in the photo above. Perhaps I'll capture the green better next time. I did get a great photo of those margaritas, though!

Second let me say that I'd already been to Por Que No on Wednesday a week ago, at lunch with my friend at work Sarah. That's when I first saw the guacamole and realized I'd been a fool, a 100 percent fool, to forget my camera. That little bowl of green looked gorgeous! So gorgeous in fact that I decided to try it. You see, I've never, ever been a guacamole person. The few times I tried it in other Mexican eateries, I found it to be oily and flavorless. However, I took one look at that little bowl and realized that I'd be an even worse fool if I didn't at least try it. I mean the chips looked perfect, too.

I'm here to tell you that I couldn't get enough of that edible perfection. That's not totally true. I got plenty, sharing it with Sarah who had bought it for us--she'd eaten lunch there the day before and knew already just how good it tasted! And then I thoroughly enjoyed a carnitas taco and a pollo verde taco. All in an hour, including driving and parking time, in Sarah's vehicle.

Back at work, I couldn't stop thinking about that guacamole and the carnitas taco, the most flavorful of the two, to me anyway. So when my friend from work Marsha and I were talking about where to eat lunch on Saturday after the Architectural Heritage Center lecture about local architect Joseph Jacobberger, I naturally suggested Por Que No. She'd recently read a article about it in the Oregonian and smiled, saying, "OK!" (You too can read that same article in the link above, right under the photo.)

So on a sunny and sort of cold Saturday afternoon we rode the 14 bus and walked a couple of blocks to get in line to make our order, looking around at the interesting walls decorated with exotic keepsakes and vivid paint while we stood just inside the front door.



Peek-a-boo! There I am in the bottom of that mirror.



On the counter to the right stood gigantic glass jars filled with brightly colored fruit juice drinks--I missed them in this photo; yes, another good reason to return. When a relaxed, happy-looking man with curly hair and friendly, sparkling eyes asked, "Would you like something to drink while you wait?" I figured he meant something pink or yellow from one of the jars, but when he answered my, "What do you have?" with a list that included margaritas on the rocks, I blithely answered, "Yes!" "Salt?" he asked. "Just a little," I answered. He then turned to Marsha who grinned and said, "I'll have what she's having." Oh, somewhere in there we both ordered the pint-sized ones! (The recipe's at the top of that Oregonian article, the one you can read if you click on the Por Que No beneath the photo.)

Both hungry and thirsty, we ordered our food and invited ourselves to sit across from each other in two empty seats at a four-top table. The two ladies by the window graciously agreed to let us do that. Moments went by and the drinks arrived, followed by the guacamole and housemade chips that I had ordered for the two of us. We sipped and dipped and smiled and talked--after I took the photo. I'd remembered by camera! Somewhere in there, it dawned on Marsha (and me, to tell you the truth) that additional non-margarita-liquids were needed, so she said, "I'm going to get us some of that juice," and stood up as I said, "I'll take the pink one."

(Just now at Por Que No’s Web site, I found out their official name is Aguas Fresca.) Tasted freshly sweet and vivid.


A few minutes before our food arrived, I took this photo of the sign out front. When the man I was convinced must be the owner came to check on us, I showed it to him. He told me about the fluorescent bulbs he's substituted in the building's original sign, so I decided to be sure to get a shot of it from the sidewalk.


I took several bites of one taco before I remembered to take a photo. And I don't know which one I'd already taken a bite out of or which one is on the right--I had ordered the carne asada and the pollo asado, but I do know that the one on the left is the carnitas. It's still my favorite one--I saved it for last.

On our way out, when we bussed our table towards the back of the restaurant, Marsha noticed the open back door. I followed and came out into a charming back patio. "This will be so great in warm weather," I exclaimed. Marsha agreed.




I'm wanting to go back to Por Que No to eat again, before too long, not just to take another photo of the guacamole, but I have to get the green just right. I think it'll depend on the light coming through the windows. It'll probably take more than one visit.

Seen on the streets of Portland, No. 8

Dangerous, yes. Mannerly, yes. It's easy to see which word describes which "vehicle" at the intersection of SW 10th and Morrison. It was the old car that caught my eye. What is it? I don't know. I do know that I got the serendipitous motorized wheel chair. Notice the crossing tracks on the left side of the photo--the ones going crosswise, beneath the old car, are for the Portland Streetcar. The ones going up and down, at least in the photo, are for the MAX.

Swinging along in SE Portland

OK, so I'm chicken. I can't yet get myself to ask someone to let me photograph them for the blog. First, I don't want to slow them down when they so clearly have somewhere to go. Second, I don't want to be told no. Third, I don't want to be looked at like I've gone off the deep end. I know--cluck, cluck, cluck.

So until I can figure out how to get a backbone about this, I'll continue to have out-of-the-ordinary photos of intriguing Portlanders.

I like her grays and blacks, her layers, her beret, her shoulder bag, her shoes, and her exuberant stepping out walk. I took these photos last Wednesday on SE Hawthorne at 11th. It was after work, extremely windy and cold. I had been fooled by the sunshine into thinking it was warmer, so after I got outside, I had to put on my hat, my scarf and my gloves.


You can see the difference in the swing of her skirt, between this photo taken beside a building and the first one, taken as she crossed the street.