Portland – Page 30

Poet Tree

Several people in the neighborhood post poetry outside their homes, either in a dedicated housing or in this case, attached to a large tree by the street. Sometimes the poetry is self-written, while some highlight the work of others. Ellie and I pass by this tree pretty frequently on our walks, depending on the route she wants to take home, and the postings change over time, a Pooh quote below and a poem above. I was rather struck by the current poem, Langston Hughes‘ “I, Too”. I despised poetry in my youth so it’s not surprising that I was familiar with neither poem nor poet, but I was both moved and educated on our walk that evening.

I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table,
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed —

I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes

A Summer Night in Irvington

Cars line NE Fremont Street as the sun sets behind the Door of Hope church. This is normal for a Sunday morning but this was a lovely, if hot, Friday evening and the cars belong to moviegoers in adjacent Irving Park attending Movies in the Park, a program put on by the city of Portland at various parks around the city throughout the summer. A band entertains the crowd as they await dusk and the start of the movie. I noticed the crowd beginning to gather when I took Ellie on her normal walk earlier in the evening, so I took her on a bonus walk near sunset to get these pictures. Her reward for sitting still while I took pictures was a generous helping of treats, which delighted her to no end.

Not Endemic

While some species in Olympic National Park are endemic to the peninsula, others like this dark-eyed junco can be found elsewhere – including my backyard. The junco in the top picture is perching in a subalpine fir at Hurricane Ridge, the one on the bottom in a dogwood in our backyard. Earlier this week one was flitting about in a tree just a few feet away as I walked to the cafeteria at work, while others were feeding on the ground near the track across the street from my office where I walk when I need a break from programming.

The Wishing Tree

One of my favorite places I pass with Ellie on our walks is the Wishing Tree, where a resident has placed tags for passers-by to write their hopes and dreams.

Some are wistful.

“I wish that I could live here so I could see my daughter every day!”

Some are whimsical.

“For some really fun first dates, followed by no ‘first dates’ ever again!”

Some are practical.

“I wish for smaller class sizes. 30 kindergartners? C’mon people!”

Some are altruistic.

“I wish for life to be happy for everyone.”

Some are heartwarming.

“I wish for the strength and willingness to keep opening my heart.”

Some are heartbreaking.

“I wish that Susan’s daughter will be healthy soon & her tumors will be removed safely.”

There are so many things I am thankful for in my life, and each day I am reminded of two of them: our wonderful dog, and the neighborhood I get to walk her in.

📷: Canon M | Canon 22mm
🗓️: July 8, 2015

Door of Hope

The Door of Hope is a neighborhood church at the edge of Irving Park that Ellie and I sometimes pass on our walks (we used to go by it every time but our aging pup isn’t usually up for that long of a walk these days, especially in the heat of summer). I had taken my mirrorless camera with me that morning just to grab some snapshots on our walk, but with no image stabilization and an eager dog on the end of the leash, some of the pictures came out rather blurred. I could train Ellie to sit still while I’m taking pictures, but I don’t think I’ll ever try for serious pictures while we’re on our walks as I very much enjoy being in the moment with her.

This church wasn’t being used when we moved to the neighborhood over a decade ago and was slowly decaying until another church purchased it and renovated it and brought it back to life. When I took the picture I realized the original cornerstone was in between the two welcoming doors, reading something like Deutsche Congregationale Zion Kirche, which in English is Zion German Congregational Church (there’s a great picture of the original church there, with the congregation gathered outside for the photo, with a few people looking out from the windows and unfortunately a few people who were spread too far out and got cut out at the edges of the photo).

The church was founded in 1914 by the Volga Germans and has had a long history as the congregation, and the neighborhood around it, has changed. Prior to the church being built our little section of the neighborhood was a horse race track, a fact pointed out to me by a co-worker when I mentioned that when digging in the yard I kept finding these really old square nails, which he recognized as the nails used in horseshoes.

Hot Lips

I first learned of salvia from Ciscoe Morris, host of my favorite gardening show, and I quickly came to love them almost as much as our local hummingbirds. As Ciscoe would say, oh la la! We have several varieties now, this one is known as “Hot Lips” and has lovely red-and-white flowers from spring until late fall.

Surprise in the Dogwood

We don’t get a large variety of birds to our urban backyard and to make matters worse I can’t easily put a chair by the window in my office that looks into the backyard. So I typically miss out on many seasonal visitors but on this rainy winter day I moved the cat tree out of the way and stuck my telephoto lens out of the window to see what was visiting our feeders. I was quite surprised when this Townsend’s warbler flitted into the dogwood, didn’t have much time to get the picture (it’s a bit out of focus and not well composed) but what a lovely little creature he was.

Puffball

A female bushtit looks like a little ball with her feathers puffed out against the cold on a rainy winter afternoon.

Dry Feathers

A very similar picture to another female flicker photo (that one with wet feathers), taken a couple of weeks later. There was a family of flickers that used to visit our suet feeder but I haven’t noticed them as much lately. Maybe I’ve just missed them, I lost my early warning system when our birdwatcher-in-residence died early this year.

Suet for Starlings

We used to get a lot of starlings coming to our suet feeder, and especially in the spring when they were raising young, they could go through the suet rather quickly. Sometimes I’d still put the suet out regardless as Emma loved watching them and listening to the racket they made. Not sure why but I rarely see starlings at our feeder these days.