Our house is old for this part of the world…1849. It’s been moved twice, and the current fir floors probably date from the first move in 1893. Aaron and Boyd from Bear Ridge Designs didn’t think they’d ever been refinished. They were not worn to a lovely patina, they were just worn. It was time, […]
Yesterday at quilt group at Kate’s… Bunny told us she was folding all her fabric after watching Marie Kondo (“Spark of Joy”…? “Tidying Up”?) and she was amazed at how useful the bins of fabric are when the fabric is folded and visible. After a year of sewing with inadequate space for sewing or making, […]
Did you ever see an idea that you just wish YOU had had…in fact that almost makes you swoon with sadness that you DIDN’T have it? Well, occasionally I do…and usually it’s an idea so good but so unrepeatable, you can’t even steal it. My stress relief is reading (well okay, “looking at”…) World of […]
Years ago I made a little painting (now in the collection of the Salem Public Library) called “Everything, Everything”…all the thoughts, all the feelings, all the activity of a life. And now in this season of my own life I guess that’s the way I think. The categories are loosening, the sense of the whole […]
The Court Chemeketa Residential Historic District (CCRHD) is one great neighborhood. It’s close to downtown, to Willamette University, to the State Capitol and campus, walk-able and tree lined…but best of all it’s just a neighborhood of exceptional people and staunch GARDENERS. Last week in the middle of a beautiful but scarily warm and sunny fall […]
For over 35 years of our 38 years on Court Street, our neighbors over the back fence were Legal Aid and Legal Services. Unbeknownst to us, they moved out a year or so ago and we found out Saturday that what we had begun to suspect was true WAS true…in the small space between our […]
I’ve been hit hard this flu season…three weeks at Christmas and three more weeks in Jan/Feb. Thank goodness for quilts (this one made by my friend Sharon) and books… …and if you haven’t read Colin Meloy’s YA adventure “Wildwood,” consider it…the main locale is Portland and it is a VERY fun read…here are the maps […]
We’re mourning a dying cedar tree when there are many more things to grieve about just now…but this tree has provided us shade and shelter for many years…a buffer from a busy traffic corner (our garden is the definition of rus in urbe). It has that familiar dying cedar look to it (over the years […]
This post is probably going to be in the “too much information” category for most of you…but I HAVE to do it. It does, however, explain why it has been so quiet from these parts for awhile. We’ve been hunkering down while this very old house has been thoroughly gone over, repaired and painted in […]
Our little corner of the world was a beehive of activity today. Scott was here painting bathroom #2, R was at the computer, me packing the show up… and Bill putting in a new trellis to, number one…support a clematis with a fierce will to live, and, number two to hide the view of the […]
