Mama and Duncan, back in the day.

One of my favorite photos of my little Mama and Duncan, the darlin' dachshund. I took it July 1, 2007. We'd been in Portland since, June, 2006, and lived in the Presidential Court Apartments at NW 22nd and NW Everett since October, 2006. Our first apartment, in Southeast Portland, had sold in September, 2006, to be converted into condos. Not what we wanted, period. We lucked out and found this great place where we lived until Mama died in January, 2011; Duncan preceded her in June, 2010. They're out for a walk, as you can tell. Mama's a responsible dog owner, as you can see. Love those two so very much and still miss them to this day. Thank goodness for my camera and all of the chances that I got to take photos of them!

That's our building they're walking towards, with the trimmed green hedges alongside NW 22nd Avenue. We lived on the top floor, the fourth floor, in the corner apartment that looks down onto the intersection of NW 22nd and NW Everett. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed our lives in that apartment. I drove by in the last few months and noticed that all of the hedges are gone, replaced by wimpy looking, sparsely placed cedars, I'm guessing, with some sort of shorter bush in between them. I'll show you other landscaping that is gone in an upcoming post. I'm partial to the way it was.

Big landscaping changes at my former apartment building

Sometimes I get homesick for the neighborhood where Mama and I lived before she died in January, 2011. So, I drove by when I had a vacation day and a Zipcar on April 14. Was I ever shocked at the changes to the landscaping at our former home, the Presidential Court Apartments in Northwest Portland's Alphabet District!



I took these two photos from the car after pulling to a stop at the curb, ignoring the no parking sign for a moment or two. Our top floor apartment is visible in this photo--we had the entire sort of pale olive-colored section as well as the brick part with the pointed parapet, the entire front section of that top floor from corner to corner. Our bathroom window is the small one at the corner inside corner. The apartment around from us to the right--that's its bathroom window across from ours. Mama's bedroom has the three windows at the corner of the pale olive section of the wall, next to the bathroom. The living room is behind those windows in the brick section.

Here are four photos that I took in May, 2007, looking down from our bathroom window. We had moved into that apartment, perfect for the two of us and our little dachshund Duncan, in October, 2006.



Here's the look that used to be on the right side of the entrance, as you're looking at it from the curb.



This photo shows the landscaping directly beneath our bathroom window, to the left of the entrance.



A street-level view of the landscaping to the right of the entrance.



To the left of the entrance.

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.