I’m having a one-person Maira Kalman reading festival since I discovered Alibris as an antidote to Amazon. I don’t buy many books these days, but these books have such appeal for me…she’s an artist, writer, illustrator, wit. In 2011 Kalman was invited to curate an exhibition of her favorite things from the Cooper-Hewitt Museum collection […]
Category: Court Street
A View from the Top
This is the second state Capitol Building here in Salem…the one that burned on April 25, 1935. Many many photographs of the views of the surrounding town were taken from the top of this cupola. One of the early views of Salem though was a drawn as an aerial map …before photos were readily available… […]
April 25, 1935
Here is an iconic moment in time for Salem, and for our neighborhood. On April 25, 1935 (85 years ago from this writing) a raging fire consumed the roof and copper dome of this, Oregon’s second State Capitol building built in 1874. It was designed by the Portland firm of architects Justus F. Krumbein and […]
Rye Bread and the Kindness of Friends
Another random, nonsensical day filled with odd and wonderful moments. Today I thought that really the truth is we’ll all look back on this time of isolation as a magical time, a transitional time between “the good old days” and the difficulties that lie ahead, which we are beginning to understand will become more pronounced. […]
Is This The Life I Built?
This time at home has been a time to really think about things for me. About my creative work for sure, but about the structure of my life. When Katy Sewall said to her friend Tiffany Parks on a podcast I listen to (The Bittersweet Life) “…is this the life you built, or is this […]
Bulletin Board #2
It’s amazing how much there is to do around here…I had to take a blog day off yesterday, and I don’t have a lot to report today…though a few more window photos have come in: Salem: Portland: Texas D.C. Long Island I suspect you’ve all been zooming…we had two social “outings” this week that involved […]
What IS Happening to us?
Do we have any real idea what our world will be as we slog through this corona-spring? What our world will be when this is over? Nope. It’s unfolding all right, but we can’t make out the outline of our collective future…at least it isn’t visible from here in the far west. So what do […]
Life Without Distractions
It’s nice isn’t it…all this checking in with friends and family…”Are you all right?” So far so good. One friend wrote that she was looking forward to the week ahead without distractions and this caused me to think of my typical life…FULL of distractions. It sometimes seems hard to get stuff done there are so […]
The Floors!
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, […]
Clearing the Air
Now that the long winter and wet early spring are behind us, it’s good to raise the spirits. Sad things piled up over here…our son and daughter-in-law and grand kids took off for a couple of years far away, a good friend died leaving an unfill-able space, maybe a health issue or two…one does adjust […]