Abandoned on the street, No. 1

Boots near the side door of Presidential Court Apartments, NW 22nd and NW Everett. I took this photo May 5, 2009.

Quirky find of mine, NW Everett, the old Meier and Frank Warehouse Building

I saw this from the bus at some point prior to June 3, 2009. I know it was before that date because on that date I walked part way to work so that I could stop and take these photos of Andy Warhol himself, as paper graffiti.

In this close-up, you can see that an additional upstanding citizen has added a speech bubble. Do you know who I was? That's what is written in the speech bubble. I have marked out the other words written on Andy's head and the accompanying paper graffiti because I considered it objectionable.

There's steps, and then there's steps.

The front steps on a nearby house on NW Everett, during the snow marathon in 2008-2009. I took this photo on December 23, 2008, mainly because it looked like someone had made a snow angel in the snow packed onto the steps. Ever since we'd moved into our apartment in October, 2006, I had figured the house was vacant. This photo certainly supports that premise. All nearby steps had been cleared, repeatedly, as we had days and days of snowfall.


Maybe things are looking up for the house. I took this photo on May 8, 2010, a few days after I walked by on my way to the bus and noticed a man working on the steps. The right side front door was open. I got a glimpse of the stairs to the second floor. Now I'm totally curious as to what is going on with the house. Extremely hopeful, too.

Waiting for the streetcar

I walked 11 blocks Thursday morning before catching the bus. I finally felt somewhat normal and wanted to take photos! I'd noticed several display windows a couple of blocks west of where I stood waiting for the bus. When I looked up and noticed this lady, I wished for my zoom but snapped anyway, hoping for a clear enough shot to crop closely. Got it. What fun! Have you had this kind of fun lately?

Two roses on NW Everett, in a front yard

Happy Holidays!

From our heart to yours, best wishes for the entire holiday season from Mama, Duncan, Lamont, Leland, Kailey and me.

Christmas smiles for you, from snowy Portland, Oregon, along one block on NW Everett.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I took all of these photos before sunrise on Dec. 23, 2008, some with the flash, some without it.





I wasn't sure whether to include this one or not, but it was on the last vehicle, so I just couldn't leave it out.

Nor could I leave out the snow angel's ghost, on the steps of a house where no one lives on NW Everett. Poignant.

TriMet Bus Stop ID 1607

Stop is in Fareless Square

TriMet Bus Stop ID, 1607, Served by 17-NW 21st Ave/St Helens Rd

Amenities

Shelter
Recycle/garbage can
Traffic signal
Bench near stop
Lighting at stop
Pavement at back door of bus
Curb ramp near stop
Pavement at front door of bus
Sidewalk near stop
Schedule display
Crosswalk

Sometimes I walk to this stop from the apartment and board the 17 here. On this particular, last Thursday, I decided to leave early, ride the bus to this stop, get off and walk about four blocks to the Byways Cafe to try their biscuits, without gravy.

I took this photo after a pretty good breakfast (the buttermilk pancakes remain my favorite), when I had walked back to the stop to catch the next 17. Hoping that it would translate well to black and white, I then took the photo below. I wanted you to see my black rolling bag and the colorful, flowered, plastic one that I use daily, to transport my sweet ice tea and the rest of my lunch to work. With its zipper closure at the top, it makes a great tote, although I usually let the rolling black bag do the toting.

Beauty, wide and close

I have walked by this tall flowering shrub for two springtimes now, on my way to the morning bus or at the beginning of my walk to the second bus, a little over a mile away. I think it's a camellia, but I'm not certain. I do know for sure that it is beautiful and difficult to photograph because the flowers are so white and the leaves are so green.

Neighborhood Clean Sweep

It's Clean Sweep time in the neighborhood. Notice the dirth of cars parked on the street? About eight minutes after I took this photo, the tow trucks would begin to clear the streets of cars not yet moved by their owners.

To facilitate the pick-up of the leaves, this water truck sprayed the streets. I took these photos while I waited for the #17 bus last Friday.

The neighborhood is divided into four parts which means the whole thing takes place on four different Fridays.

Here are two photos I took on Everett west of the photos above and at an earlier Clean Sweep this year.

These signs are put out in each area on the Wednesday before the scheduled clean sweep. Also at least twice a year a brochure comes in the mail.


To read and see all about an earlier Clean Sweep click here.

Look who I found among the daffodils!

Ok, so she's no spring pig, but she has got to be the cutest chalk pig I have ever seen!

If she were mine, I'd trim that little branch from in front of her saucy face. But it could be that the people who live in her house on NW Everett only look at her in profile, from the yard side of the wrought iron fence.

The spring continues

Up NW Everett, and I say up because there's an incline, one comes to the corner at NW 23rd Avenue. On that corner, which is actually the southeast corner of the intersection, there stands the Portland Rose Apartments, set back so that it has a nice front yard complete with flower beds, shrubs, trees and two sidewalks, one that goes towards NW 23rd, the other that goes to NW Everett, at a right angle to each other as they leave the building's front door. This flower and several others like it are in a bed alongside the second sidewalk. Later on when leaves fill the trees and shade blankets the yard all day long, the blossoms will be gone, but the green plants will remain, filling in the bed quite nicely.

A cawing crow stopped me in my tracks.

Thank goodness I had my camera at the ready Friday morning so that I could snap this communicating crow at the corner of NW 21st and Everett.

Spring is in the streets!

Forewarned is forearmed--is that how it goes? Anyway, what I'm trying to do is tell you that I know from past experience (last spring, summer and fall) that I cannot control myself when it comes to taking photos of Portland's flora.

Sunday afternoon I walked out of the apartment after watching the end of the NASCAR race in Atlanta where my favorite driver again finished third, crossed NW 22nd Avenue at Everett, and walked about 300 feet west. There I stopped and took this photo, one I've been wanting to get since last week when this huge camellia began to bloom in earnest. I wanted a blue sky for the background, to do honor to that tree. Besides that I got the tiny red leaves that color the top of that tree to the left, farther down the sidewalk. What a great time of the year!

Blossoms up close for you.

Next, I walked back to the corner on Everett and turned right onto NW 22nd, heading north to Glisan. Just before I reached that intersection, I saw this flowering tree, one that I remember well from last year.

It's amazing to me that so many gorgeous tiny flowers can appear from such a tiny spot on the trunk of the tree.

Do you know what kind of tree this is, please?

What signs of spring are you seeing again this year?

What tales would this tree tell, if only it could talk.

This tree is located on NW Everett, east of our apartment a few blocks. I took this photo walking to the bus last Friday morning; the tree stopped me in my tracks.

Do you have any of these in your city?

I've noticed several of these lately. This on is on SW 18th Avenue, beside PGE Park, a sports venue a few blocks from our apartment. Some days I walk by it on my way to SW 3rd and Salmon, to catch the bus that takes me across the Willamette River. I walk or ride by another one down NW Everett, at NW 4th Avenue, I think.

Right now I don't know one thing about these signs, other than that they're intriguing. I don't recall seeing a bicycle chained to one, but surely that could be a use for them. I don't know if they designate some sort of trail, an idea that seems implausible at best. If they were to call attention to something specific, why isn't there more information there?

I'm curious. If I learn more, I'll update you.

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.

Sunflowers, stalwart and true, make me smile.

When I walked down NW Everett and across NW 17th Avenue on Monday morning, I grinned when I saw these sunflowers, still standing as straight and tall as they were the day I took this photo in August. In the last few weeks we've had some hard rain and/or gusty winds, and these sun-lovers persevere. Their slender stalks grow in a small corner yard, raised about two feet up from sidewalk level. A low wall supports the yard and frames the outer edge of the flower bed.

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.

Without a doubt, the most unique small business sign I've yet seen. How about what you've seen in your city?

Mad Dog Garage, on NW Everett, between 15th and 14th, as the street descends out of the Northwest Hills and into the Pearl District.



Y'all curious? I am. Next time I walk by I will take a slower look. With these photos as evidence, this doesn't seem like any garage door I have ever seen, even if the tiny dog's head is mounted on a gear-shaped disc.

Who is this man? He’s on the wall of an old building with Meier & Frank above the door. See him there to the right?

This building, which looks to have been a Meier & Frank warehouse used during their years of operation in Portland—they sold out to Macy’s last year--takes up the block between 15th and 14th Avenues; I walk by on Everett--I don't know the name of the northernmost street for certain. One of these mornings, I'll have to leave the apartment early enough to explore.

How, I ask you, could I have walked by without taking a photo of this character? He appears to have been painted or printed on paper, cut out and plastered to the plywood covering the window. He's ended up colorful, exotic, romantic--a mystery.



Is he some character from an opera? A novel? A play? A figment of someone’s creative mind? Who knows? Give me your knowledge, or at least your best guess. Please and thank you.