Merry Christmas--via my little Mama--December, 25, 2007

Without a doubt, my Mama gave it her all for me and my camera, readily stepping up whenever I asked to take her photo.

Here she is, first standing in the protection afforded by the porch at our apartment building in NW Portland, face glowing, her smile spread all the way to her eyes. Second, she's completely bundled up, posing just outside the porch, snow spitting around her. In the third photo, I've walked down to the street to get a shot of her from that persepctive. Even more snow's coming down, and she's ready to go, leg cocked to start her walk down the steps, just as soon as she hears from my sons. They were driving over to get us because our celebration was to be at a friend's home this particular Christmas. She's got her cell phone at the ready, gripped in her right hand. Seems to me that they drove up right after I took this photo.

We enjoyed our Christmas very much. I hope that you enjoy yours today. I appreciate getting to share my little Mama with you again. I miss her very much, every single day, so it means a lot to me to include her here at momentous times like this. Thank you.

Framed for Christmas, No. 11

Inspiration for all last-minute shoppers, a beautiful store window. I took this photo on December 6, 2007.

Framed for Christmas, No. 6

The night of my birthday in 2007, December 12, cold air kept me inside my friend's great big white boat, some of the time. You see, he and his sweet family took Mama and me and other friends of theirs out on the Columbia River to experience the Christmas Ship Parade. When I got warm, I'd step from the living room onto the back deck, maybe it's a swim deck, I don't know the exact term. I just know that I felt safe enough there to stand very still and try to get a good photo of any nearby boats, all lit up for Christmas. Here you see one of the clearest images I managed to get that memorable night.

Framed for Christmas, No. 4

For my birthday on December 12, 2008, Mama and I had tickets for the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation's Holiday Express. Turned out that Mama had a head cold, it was raining and cold for Portland, so Leland went with me on a ride in a vintage railcar pulled by this magnificent steam locomotive, SP 4449. He took this photo for me because I was too short to get the entire locomotive in the shot, given the distance we were allowed to walk beyond the SP 4449.

If you're familiar with my blog, you realize that I adore this gigantic piece of machinery, so it should come as no surprise to you that one more image follows this one.

 



Massive strength and beauty, decorated for Christmas. I took this photo on December 1, 2012, at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center.

 If it fits your beliefs, join me in prayer for those impacted by the horrific tragedy in Connecticut.

Framed for Christmas, No. 3

Here we've got the lower part of mine and Mama's Christmas tree in a photo that I took on December 11, 2007. After the multitude of needles which fell all over the apartment from our cut fir tree in 2006, we opted for this aluminum one and enjoyed it very much. Hope you like the photo. Do you see the ornament outline of Mississippi? I am especially happy that it's in the photo because that's where I was born, 65 years ago yesterday. Yes, my birthday was 12/12/12. Cool.

Framed for Christmas, No. 2

I took this photo on December 26, 2007. At that time there was a store on NW 23rd Avenue that really caught my eye during the holiday season, so I'm excited that I got this photo, plus a few others I'll share later on. I love those green gloves and that golden ribbon in his right hand. Hope you enjoy these vintage Santas.

Framed for Christmas, No. 1

Portland's Christmas tree, December 17, 2010. The Jackson Tower in the background looks so great, all outlined in white and with the green light on the clock. Yes, you do see a tent on Pioneer Courthouse Square--it's busy all of the time. And over to the left, that's KGW's The Studio on the Square. Do you like these white lights and the gold star more than the multi-colored lights and the white star? I can't get the link-thing-a-ma-jig to work, but there's a photo of the other tree, which is the current lighting configuration, on the Friday, December 7, post.

I've put frames on some of my Christmas photos because I wanted to print them to display as part of the decorations I have in my work cube. I've decided to share some of them with y'all.

One of the Christmas store windows at Urban Outfitters

As I stood there waiting for the bus, a woman came out the double front door, camera in hand. I watched her take several photos before telling her that I always liked their display windows. She told me, excitedly, that she had the best carpenter who could build whatever display items that entered their minds. She said he is also good at recycling lumber.

Whooee!! We been busy today, the Saints and me!! Whooee!!

Yippee!! Wow!! I'm tickled all gold and black and white!! Y'all Saints' fans know just what I'm talkin' about!!!!

Today I've been busy--see below after the two updates.

Mama's doing OK, not great but OK. She doesn't seem to be getting enough oxygen at the setting she's on, so we're calling tomorrow to see if we can increase it.

Duncan's at the vet to have his teeth cleaned and his semi-annual check. He needed one molar pulled, had an elevated kidney level which meant he had to have IV fluids before he could get knocked out for the teeth cleaning. He also had an elevated calcium level which could mean cancer--they called to get the OK to do an additional calcium test that might give us an answer. He's had 16+ really good years, so as emotional as it will be to lose him, we hope that we can remember that as time goes on. Maybe he's OK. I will find out more when I go to get him at 5:30 p.m.

I've made three batches of brownies today, in foil cupcake pans with paper cups to keep them from sticking (for tomorrow's building-wide pot luck), washed, dried, folded and put away two load of clothes, mopped the hardwood floors, shopped for two hours for three kids whose names I got from our Transitional School Christmas wreath at work, at Fred Meyer near Duncan's vet (I did very well, I think, getting all of each list pretty closely matched and spending only $112--Freddie's discounts and the coupons I got in the mail because I use my FM card every time I shop--hooray), helped Mama with her bath, wrapped and bagged all of the gifts, uploaded more vacation photos to my friend Kay's Walgreens' account (she and her husband are the ones who took me to Talladega). I'm tired but pleased.

Gotta go get the brownies figured out--how to get them to work safely.

Getting ready for Christmas in Portland's living room

As the MAX train I was on pulled to a stop on Nov. 15, I got this shot of Portland's Christmas Tree. Workers had it upright and ready for plumping and shaping. Trimmed branches encircled the tree's base. I wonder if the man in the bucket is trimming or attaching?

After the free "tour" of the Central Library's new eco-roof (more about that on another post), I walked back to Pioneer Square to take more photos of the process.


This fellow explained and demonstrated how to make the branch into an attachment.

You can tell from this direction just how much plumping and shaping will make a beautiful sight for everyone to enjoy once the light switch is thrown Friday night after Thanksgiving.

Here's a close-up of the trunk. I cannot remember for sure, but it seems to me that the trunk is surrounded by a base that doesn't allow the public to get to the branches. By "get to the branches," I mean touch them and/or mess with the lights. I'll have to look at last year's photos to know for sure.

This shot was taken from almost the same spot as the first one, but I was standing in the square instead of on the MAX.


I looked back to Nov. 24, 2007, and found out that my memory still works! You can see the base in this photo of the unlit tree.

And a bit of it at the bottom of this photo of the lit tree.


Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I plan to attend the lighting again this year, for my third time which is all of my Thanksgivings in Portland.

Pink and Silver--my first window of the season.

Friday night after the lighting of the Christmas tree, I crossed SW Yamhill at Broadway. I stood on the corner and took a photo of the MAX going westward--you can see it at Mama and Me from PDX--and turned right to walk north on Broadway. That's when this woman--wearing a hot pink wig, wrapped in a strategically placed pink ribbon, and sitting in a store window--grabbed my attention. I stepped closer, past the pillar on the corner in front of the door, and took this photo.



Looking to the right, I saw another interesting window, but before I could walk towards it, I noticed this sign on the inside of the pillar. I love the attention to detail shown by the window dresser(s)--surely this pink light reflected in the sign came about as part of that person(s) creativity.



Here's that other attractive window. I never would have thought about hot pink ribbon in relation to the holidays, but it works for me. I also like the different size silver balls which match the color of the store's sign and the gigantic clear Christmas balls. It's all in the details, isn't it, CDPBers?

Portland's Christmas Tree

On Nov. 9, the Stimson Lumber Tree arrived in downtown Portland at Pioneer Courthouse Square. In between then and the tree lighting on Nov. 23 at 5:30 p.m., workers trim the tree and wire in a branch here and a branch there, to increase the fullness and fine tune the shape.

Here's a bit of info about the tree, from the square's Web site: For the fifth year in a row, Stimson Lumber Company is generously donating a 75-foot tall Douglas-fir to the City of Portland for all to enjoy this winter season! Grown on Stimson forestlands near Gaston, Oregon, these trees are managed by professional foresters for the sustainable growth and production of timber. Stimson's forestlands have been independently certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Program. Stimson Lumber is proud to present this tree to the City of Portland which will light up Pioneer Courthouse Square throughout the months of November and December.

Last year when the bus mall still ran on SW 6th Avenue, which borders the east side of the square, I got off the bus after work and made my way to a spot in the crowd. I wanted to be sort of out of the way--you know how people constantly walk back and forth in big crowds. It seems I'm a natural magnet for those walkers, a door if you will. I managed well enough because I got close to a pillar and enjoyed watching people until the flip of the switch. I took a few photos with the old CoolPix and left shortly afterwards, headed for another bus to take me to the apartment. Unless extenuating circumstances prevent it, I will be there again this year.



Across SW 6th Avenue is the building that gives the square its name, the Pioneer Courthouse. I need to find out what those little blue sheds are, there in front and to the side of the building. What do y'all think they could be?