The Nerve!

I couldn't get a pic but the jay bird who lives in my yard was just stealing my blueberries. It was cute. I guess I should go pick the rest before he does.

It's not every day...

That you see a historic Carriage House in the middle of a downtown street. This is the Ladd's Carriage house, which WAS on the corner of SW Broadway and SW Columbia, it is now in a parking lot at Columbia and 10th. For most of the day is was lumbering down Columbia to it's new temporary location. Quite a sight.


In other news, tonight was jam night. No I did not join a band. I did make Strawberry vanilla jam. Yum. I also still have about 4 lbs in the fridge and 10 lbs in the freezer. The jam was about 6 lbs. =)

How do you do? Berry well, thank you!

Time flies when you are busy at work. Oh yes it does. I am adjusting to my new working schedule of doom and it's going swimmingly, more or less. My sleep schedule is a bit wonky though. Riding my bike to work when there is no traffic is downright enjoyable. That's maybe the one upside of working late. The exhibit is extraordinary. It wasn't before we opened, when I was helping to install it. It wasn't exciting the first time I saw it put together, it was nice, it's a lovely exhibit, but it wasn't especially amazing on it own. The exhibit, Body Worlds 3, is about the human body, and it must take people seeing that to really make the power of this show sink in.

Alone, the plastinates are just empty former bodies, really, more silicone polymer than human anymore, but they ARE human. But when the crowds come in, and they see this exhibit, it's really a very powerful experience, for them, and for me. Seeing school kids learn about their bodies in ways a textbook can never ever explain, and their awe and amazement it just incredible. You know, the same kids that can;t keep still for 5 minuets, joke about inappropriate things and thinks learning is boring? Awe-struck, still a little giggly( the plastinates are anatomically correct you know.) but just quiet and serious and subdued. Grownups are equally amazed,. Listening to people and reading their comments left at the end of the exhibit are what, for me, bring tears to my eyes. It's a human experience unlike anything any of us can really have outside of the medical world. How small, simple and complicated, fragile and strong a human is. Vulnerable. It's really something to see it as a shared moment. Alone, it's void of it's soul. Surrounded by people, it's something unique and breathtaking.
Pretty cool. And fairly exhausting work.

I did manage to go to Sauvie Island for the first time this year with Miss J9 today, we picked strawberries. loads of them. I picked 20 lbs in fact. At a 1$ a pound that's a sweet deal. Granted some were picked for my friend, Erica, but the the rest are bound for the freezer, jam pot and my belly. Strawberries are my most favorite fruit. And this is the time to get em.
The field at our favorite farm was just perfumed with the berries, then Janine's car was perfumed with berries and now, NOW, my apartment is flush with the scent of ripe picked berries. Ahhhh...it's heaven.
berries..

Out and About

I may be busy at work installing a large exhibit of plastinated bodies from Germany, but I have tried to get a whole lot done outside of work before the exhibit actually opens. Once it's open, my evenings are sort of gone 3 days of the week and it's going to be crazy busy AT work. I needed to sort of squeeze a lot of summer into the last couple weeks.
And I have managed a pretty good job.


The garden is in stasis, i need a second soaker hose, a little more garden soil and a bit more mulch and it's all watering and waiting and enjoying. A little pruning here, a few cuttings for the house there (roses are lovely right now! As is the cow parsnip, delphinium, columbine and the various yellow and orange daisy-like flowers from last year). Most of the seeds are up and happy and it looks like a miniature field out back right now.


The porch is shady and cool and fits two chairs nicely, sitting with coffee and a crossword in the am, a beer and a book in the pm, life is good!
I fixed up my bike in preparation for my summer of riding to work. I don't ride my bike to work much. The downtown traffic is unfriendly and stressful for biking at rush hour, which is when I am off work. And much of the year, it's also dark at that time. Going TO work is great, coming back, no fun. Since I work till 7 or 9 all week, it means I can come home when the streets are practically empty and it's nice and shady and cool. Much less stressful. Anyway, I got a street tire for the front wheel( the back wheel already has one. It's a mountain bike and the tires usually have thick tread, which slows you down on pavement and asphalt, you need little traction.) and a basket too. That way I can carry stuff! (Dur, but not on my back in the summer heat, yuk.) It rides so nice, I spiffied it up.


We've BBQed a few times. Last night a bunch of my co-workers came over and ran the Starlight Run, which is much fun and part of the June Festival of Roses events. The run begins and ends a block from my apt. They were a running science demo, it was great. They carried flasks of hot water with glo sticks and food coloring in them, and in the other hand, they carried...dry ice. Now the cool (pardon the pun) part of this demo is that as they ran, the carbon dioxide the dry ice was giving off was equivalent to the amount a car does in the 3.1 miles of the race! They had signs on their back explaining this and finishing with "One more reason to run!" It was excellent. And my co-workers were awesome, but one of our volunteers actualy ran as the Tram. That was elaborate! My favorite however was Waldo )of Where's Waldo fame)..and his sidekick, Rainbow Bright. There are always fun costumes in the Starlight Run and all I have to do is be home to watch it.


We capped the evening off with yummy BBQ, beer, potato salad and other goodies and great conversation. Much fun was had by all and it was a good way to kick off the summer and BW.


Matt and I have been...(hold your breath....) going OUT! Like, going for walks to...PLACES! We have been to both the Zoo and the Chinease Gardens in the last week or so. It was great. I am not a big big fan of zoos but it's still exciting to see a peacock, bald eagle, or mountain lion. It's sad when the bear is pacing. (Pacing is part of something that happens to animals in captivity when the go a little crazy from confinement, not enough space, and boredom.) We didn't get to see everything and the butterfly pavilion place wasn't open yet so maybe we will go back. We got a discount for taking the MAX in.


Today we went to the Chinese Gardens. It was so lovely. We had tea in the teahouse, relaxed and enjoyed the view. Nice day today.
Back to work tomorrow.

Next we may get up to the Japanese gardens or the Hoyt Arboretum.


I took pics at the zoo and of the race but the camera i used at the zoo was my little digital and I am afraid there were no good shots. And my big camera was too slow for the runners, the shutter just wouldn't snap fast enough so no good pics of that either. Maybe next time!

And Some Crafty Stuff...and chatter

Gardeny crafty: made labels for the veggies out of a "Simply Limeade" bottle, then duct taped them to bamboo sticks. Not sure the tape will hold up but didn't really have another option right now.

Knitting: the HP shawl is on the back burner, i think I will start on it again soon. I have been knitting dishcloths 'cause they are easy and mindless.

Painting: I am actually painting something. Granted it's on a canvas about 2"x2",but painting nonetheless. If I finish it, I will post a pic.

Baking: I made banana bread waffles. Which is to say, I made banana bread batter, and then cooked it in a waffle iron ( not a Belgian one.) They are tasty and good, and easy to toast. I would recommend this, it's yummy and different, not a muffin and not a loaf. However, since one waffle is about a 1/2 cup of batter, I don;t recommend them AS waffles, for, you know, breakfast. That would be like eating a stack of large muffins! ugh. Needs no butter or syrup though i think it would be really good with ice cream...


I saw Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday. If you can do it, I recommend going to their late show opening weekend. Then you get to see the movie early, but no one likes the late show so it's not crowded. I saw Shrek this way too, highly enjoyable, if you don;t mind being up late anyway, Pirates is 3 hours or close to it, I got out at 2:30 am! eek.
Anyway, I liked it, it was fun.
I also saw night in the museum last night as a rental on the advice of several people. I don;t care for Ben Stiller much anymore, same old schlock. But people would say , oh but this is different, or you work in a museum, it's funny! (from other museum people.) Well, it was ok. It's a very fancy museum to only have two staff people and one security guard...=P and Capuchin monkeys are NOT FROM AFRICA, they are from SOUTH AMERICA!! How do they DO this stuff?! And get away with it? IT"S ABOUT A MUSEUM! Good gravy, if we had an exhibit about the Serengeti, and put capuchin monkeys in it, we would lose some creditability or something. It's almost as bad as calling apes monkeys.. ARARARAR... The monkey was obviously a key player but a chimp would work as well...that's why PIRATES had parrots and monkeys, they are from the new world and all trendy and stuff.. arrrrg. OHhhhhhh god did that bother me. =P It shouldn't, its a Hollywood silly comedy movie. but it DOES.
But it was ok.

More Garden Nonsense

The yard is all tided up and ready for simple summer things like maintenance, few new plants here and there, watering, pruning, enjoying. No more big projects. The last was covering the back slope of the vegetable garden with weed blocker stuff, plastic mesh that is supposed to allow only thing things you cut holes in it to grow there...it's mulched (as are the other beds), it's got three different ground cover plants started on it and it's got a soaker hose around it to see if I can cut down on water use this summer. It might change position. Right now I figure that it's on the hill, the water will soak into the ground and trickle down to the garden. But I fear it won't soak all the way to the edge so I might weave it through the rows, if it's long enough. We shall see.



The beds are looking well. I pulled a trailing rose from the front of the fence to the back in the new bed, mulched and added some alyssium for ground cover.


The side yard got all neatend up and the hosta is looking lovely this year.


There are new additions to the bed by the porch, you can't see them here. There are 8 new little dahlia starts to go with the dahlia I planted last year which is just beginning to return. Another thing you can't see is the plant I thought wouldn't come back this year. I can't remember it's name, but it had fuzzy leaves and purple flowers and was lovely. I was going to plant a columbine there, but lo! it had little sprouts underground. Annuals may be showy, but perennials are like magic things that you don't expect and POOF there they are.













New additions to the bed: a blue geranium and something called white butterflies or something (have to find it's real name.. ) it's got spotty green and red leaves that are very cool and it will get big with little white flowers that look like butterflies, i guess. It's a cool looking plant. Both are perennial. Also some more alyssium and some ground cover left over from the hillside and chives. Two columbines as well, I love columbine. You might notice there are upside down wine bottles...they are fill of water, sort of an automatic watering system. Another thing I am trying this summer, you can use anything like that to do this, houseplants too, water bottles, soda bottles, beer bottles..just fill with water and invert quickly into soil ( like, stab it into the soil.), reusing and saving water, yay!













close ups of some flowers in Photographia.

Amended!

This shot from Saturday (which I used as a before shot, but it's actually next to the plot I worked Saturday, the other side looked as bad before I worked on it so it made a good before shot)...


is now this...Matt even helped! =D


And, at the end of the afternoon when all the gloves had been washed, they turned into "demented ikebana" according to Matt. or somthing like that.