monday

the heart

meat on the beach

i aint bluffin'

finally home.

free range in portland

horizontal sessions

look way up

day three: ben. pictures.

On our third day of breakfasts Ben suggested we head up to the Japanese Gardens. He encouraged us to pay attention to the award winning carpentry. With specific direction to find a bench in the gardens and to look at the way the cedar posts met the rocks on the ground. We really enjoyed the gardens. These are just a few pictures from the day. I will keep posting more as the week goes on.

There is more information about the project and more pictures on Robins blog: http://www.robinlambert.ca/wordpress/ I think his pictures are a bit nicer than mine.

I just got home today, once i get settled I will post the rest of my Portland pictures. What a week. The conference was really intense. Just so intense.

Day Three: Ben

On the third Day of our Show up your Portland project we met up with Ben. Ben is awesome, he's a friend of my friend Jude. We had a long chat about politics in the states vs. politics in Canada and we also learned about all the languages Ben knows. I was deadly impressed when he wrote out a word for us in old timey greek. With Ben we ate at Helsers on Alberta. This place was amazing. I think Robin and I are going to go back right after I finish writing this blog entry. I ate buttermilk pancakes, scrambles eggs, and a scotch egg. Robin ate a pear and havarti pie and ben ate porrige and scrambled aggs. The meal was really beautiful and the waitress kept refilling my coffe so regularly that i think i drank about eight cups of coffee before we left.
Ben suggested we visit the Japanese gardens. He is a carpenter and a house builder and in his suggestion for checking out the Japanese gardens he wanted us to pay close attention to the carpentry in the gardens. The whole Garden was designed by traditional Japanese gardeners and often wins international awards (even beating Japan) Ben sent up to find a small structure in the garden and to check out the way the cedar posts met the rocks on the ground. "mastery". And it was.
The Gardens are 9$ to get in and totally worth it.

Day Two Photos

These aren't the greatest photos. I will do some editing when I get back to Toronto. (promise)

Day Two: kenneth

Oon our second day of breakfasts we ate with Kenneth at the Bakery Bar, Robin and I both at granola. Delicious granola sweetened with honey and topped with plain yogurt. Kenneth is a really great guy. He's originally from Tennessee and he is actually a distant relative of Davey Crockett! The Davey Crockett.Pretty neat. Kenneth's suggestion for our day adventure was really wonderful. He spoke highly of the Japanese and Chinese gardens, as well as the Rose test Gardens, but he told us that the gardens in people yards were really some of the most impressive. The yards according to him are quite small here (maybe compared to Tennessee they are but compared to Toronto they are a dream) So Kenneth suggested we take a long walk South of Alberta st near Freemont. In that neighborhood there were going to be some impressive gardens. He sent us to also find two specific houses that were quite notable. We wandered the streets and had a lovely day looking at homes and gardens. Both houses Kenneth sent us to were crazy. i wanted to knock on there doors and ask them what they had done right to live in such amazing homes.
thanks to Kenneth Robin and i had a lovely day.

Haircuts!!

Last night Robin got a matching hair cut with me!! that's two matching haircuts! whose next?
the hair salon we went to or the "lady barber" is called Bishops on the NE side on 25th ave. Our "lady barber" was Vanessa, she was rad! The first thing they ask when you walk in the door to Bishops is "do you want a beer?" free beers with your haircut!! shut the front door!

The Ace Hotel

A message i found in the apothicary of secrets.

A little guy on the wall of the stairwell, there is a huge mural to go with this but this little man was my favorite.

Photoboothin'


The upstairs of the lobby. Pretty cool.

wednesday may 12

Show us your Portland!!
day one: Donilee.

On Wednesday Robin and I met Donilee for breakfast at a place called the tea zone. We had a really lovely breakfast. Robin and Donilee both got scones. Scone "so good they must have been made by angels" so says Robin. And i ate some crumpets. Turns out I love crumpets, I thought they would be like English muffins, but i was happy to discover they are more like pancakes (a personal breakfast favorite) Also since we were at the tea zone i forwent my daily coffee and drank a tea suggested by Donilee. The tea came with a little timer to ensure it wasn't over steeped and it was really good, almost good enough for me to briefly think about quiting coffee.

Our breakfast conversation was wonderful Donilee is a really great person, vibrant and exciting, Robin and I both agree we want her to be our new best friend. She offered to actually tour us to her favorite places to go in Portland. It turned out she was taking us on her regular first or second date route. we went to Ace Hotel. This hotel is at the edge of the pearl district. Its pretty hip. the bathroom wall paper is actually old player piano paper and the lobby has an old time photo booth (that takes credit cards) we took some pictures, which was great squeezing three of us into the booth. and the upstairs art of the lobby has a great old apothecary with ace hotel note pads and pencils for writing your secrets in and leaving in the drawers. I left a message to my former self.

Next we went to Powell Books, North Americas largest book store (maybe) it's massive and amazing, i could have stayed there all day. But we had to move on to an amazing vintage shop called Avalon and met the owner (whose name I cant remember but he was a really cool guy) The shop had old Victorian spats, I wanted to own them but figured my ankles would be too large to fit them. From Avalon we went to Voodoo Donuts. This place smelled amazing. As we all know I don't eat the white sugars so I just got to watch Robin and Donilee eat amazing looking donuts. They have a bacon and maple flavored donut. I bet it's amazing. Apparently there is an ordained employee or owner at Voodoo Donuts who will marry you on the spot. I proposed to Robin, but we didn't follow through. There is a picture of me proposing to Robin, I will post that soon.

Next we checked out the Oyster bar, one of the oldest restaurants in Portland and finally we made our way to a block of food carts to get lunch (pulled pork! and veggi burgers...) and part ways with Donilee. She was an amazing host and we are both so excited that we met her! new best friend!!

wound care

portland day one!

I got into Portland on Monday evening and immediately went to the university to meet up with JDR and Helen Reed. I made morning plans with Helen and had a few drinks with Jen. Then I went to my new home for the first half of my trip. This house is huge and beautiful. Sandy (my host) has a beautiful yard and she lives in a wonderful neighborhood. One thing that freaks me out about Portland, aside from how much I already love it is that the street don't have street lights in this part of town. It's both comforting to know they don't need them and that the city is so environmentally conscience and disconcerning to walk around in the dark at night... the real dark.

Tuesday morning I woke up bright and early and Helen picked me up to take me to a church yard sanctuary a little ways out of Portland. She used me as an "actor" (I'm using that term loosely) in a video project she's making for Open Engagement. I got to walk around in the woods for and hour or so. It was pretty surreal.

Once Helen had all the footage she needed She dropped me off at Sandy's house and I ventured out for a solo breakfast. I ate at the Spunky Monkey. I wasn't fond of the name but the place looked cute and the lady who worked at the dry cleaners across the street said "I hear they have organic sort of stuff over there." sold. My meal was really great the coffee was fresh and the girl who served me was super friendly. by noon on Tuesday I had already decided that I LOVE Portland!

This is the first long written entry on this blog ever! there will be one every day that I'm here if not two .. or three.

I'm a day behind in writing but we have a breakfast date at 7am tomorrow. so I will go to bed now. <3