Big landscaping changes at my former apartment building

Sometimes I get homesick for the neighborhood where Mama and I lived before she died in January, 2011. So, I drove by when I had a vacation day and a Zipcar on April 14. Was I ever shocked at the changes to the landscaping at our former home, the Presidential Court Apartments in Northwest Portland's Alphabet District!



I took these two photos from the car after pulling to a stop at the curb, ignoring the no parking sign for a moment or two. Our top floor apartment is visible in this photo--we had the entire sort of pale olive-colored section as well as the brick part with the pointed parapet, the entire front section of that top floor from corner to corner. Our bathroom window is the small one at the corner inside corner. The apartment around from us to the right--that's its bathroom window across from ours. Mama's bedroom has the three windows at the corner of the pale olive section of the wall, next to the bathroom. The living room is behind those windows in the brick section.

Here are four photos that I took in May, 2007, looking down from our bathroom window. We had moved into that apartment, perfect for the two of us and our little dachshund Duncan, in October, 2006.



Here's the look that used to be on the right side of the entrance, as you're looking at it from the curb.



This photo shows the landscaping directly beneath our bathroom window, to the left of the entrance.



A street-level view of the landscaping to the right of the entrance.



To the left of the entrance.

While cold and blustery weather lingers, I'm dreaming and knowing this too will come, No. 5

I took this photo at 6:43 p.m. on June 14 2008, as I walked across the Morrison Bridge towards Southeast Portland. Look at that blue sky! I hope that I can remember to take a similar photo this year, just to document any changes in the buildings. And I hope that the sky is just as blue! Can you see the people walking on the Eastbank Esplanade? They know how to enjoy the Willamette River's east bank. When I got there, I walked down that spiral ramp and along the esplanade until I came to the Hawthorne Bridge. Then I walked across it and began my homeward bus rides, taking a couple of them to get home. I lived in Northwest Portland then, in the Alphabet District. My little Mama and our miniature dachshund Duncan were still alive then, and we totally enjoyed our lives in Portland. We'd been here two years, almost to the day.

P.S. I work in the brick building with the flags on top. When I take photos from the rooftop garden, I'm on that lower part of the building, very near those windows, the ones half visible due to the angle of the photo.



There's a nice patio there, a neat place to go outside at break or at lunch, to enjoy whatever the weather has to offer. Here it is after a rain had marked the edges of the tiles. I took this photo on August 23, 2013, at 7:13 a.m.

Framed for Christmas, No. 8

Merry Christmas, y'all, from Flat Chris--thanks to Chris' teacher, my friend Tonya, I now have his name correct--and Duncan, the darlin' dachshund! I took this photo on December 22, 2007, back when Mama and I had only been in Portland about a year and a half. We loved our apartment, being in the same city with my sons, and Portland itself.

By the way, that little blue scooter, a Barbie scooter which I had bought at some point at the local Goodwill, turned out to be just what Flat Chris needed to be able to stand up as he was out and about with Mama and me. Cool! And get this. The Monday after I had been looking through my Christmas photos and deciding which ones to print and then post in my work cube, a work friend came by and said, "I dreamed about you last night. You were on a baby blue motor scooter, wearing a matching outfit. You didn't have on your helmet; it was on the seat behind you. You pulled away with a matching blue scarf flying out from around your neck. I have no idea why I dreamed such a thing." When I proceeded to explain to her that I'd been looking at photos that same night, lots of photos with a baby blue scooter in them, we both got chills. She walked back to my cube, at my suggestion, to look at this photo, then returned to where I was relieving the Front Desk worker and exclaimed, "That's the scooter I saw you on in my dream!" More chills.