Can't stop sharing these photos of my snowy neighborhood, even on Valentine's Day!

It's just that this particular bus shelter means so very much to my life. And to see it blurred by the falling snow sort of tickles me. Not that I want it to snow like this again any time soon. I took this photo on Saturday, February 8 at 10:37 a.m. The colorful building in the background houses the Oregon Children's Theatre. An abandoned car, in the drive-through, going against the actual direction for service, at the Community Consolidated Credit Union. Club 21, also within walking distance of my building, but across NE Sandy Blvd., so I have never been there. I see no reason to cross a busy street on foot to have a good time. Here's my favorite neighborhood spot to walk to for a good time--The Blue Diamond PDX--which is on the same side of NE Sandy as my building. I took this photo on Thursday, February 6 at 5:24 p.m. Lots more snow fell during the night and on Friday and Saturday. Finally, here's the Blue Diamond on Monday morning at 9:14 a.m. Look at all of that snow beside the sidewalk. I took this photo standing to the east of my bus shelter while I waited for the first bus of the morning commute. I had waited to go to work so that the ice on my sidewalks--which had fallen from late Saturday afternoon, through the night, and into Sunday--had a chance to melt a bit. We were above 32 degrees and had a light rain falling. By the way, I have no idea when NE Sandy was plowed because I didn't go outside at all on Sunday, and the last time I saw it on Saturday at 3:02 p.m., it looked like this. It's obvious that no plowing had happened--the street is practically the same level as the sidewalk, only tamped down some by the vehicles that managed to get from Point A to Point B, wherever that may have been. You can't see it in the photo, but take my word for it. The freezing rain and/or sleet had started to fall, so I walked on home.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

My morning commute bus stop. Hallelujah, it is not like this every winter day.

On Saturday I bundled up, put on my rubber boots with the YakTrax attached and went out for an around-the-block-slowly walk. I took several photos and made 19 videos, ranging in length from 1:26 to 20 seconds. I believe this is the best photo to show you the way it was snowing right then. Taken February 8 at 10:41 a.m.
 

Almost the same shot, taken Thursday, February 6 at 5:24 p.m. I had finally made it home after a couple of hours, well almost home. I had about 600 feet to go. Whew. On top of the shelter, notice the difference in the amount of snow.

For some reason, this photo will not stick to the Blogger page. Sorry. I've tried various sizes, over and over. 

Finally, inside the bus shelter on Friday morning, February 7 at 6:36 a.m. Notice the difference in the amount of snow here on the sidewalk, about 12 hours after the second photo in this post. Usually I stand up at the bus shelter, especially in the morning. However, last Friday I had no idea how long it would be before a bus came, so I wanted to sit. I did not expect snow to have completely covered both sections of the bench. What to do? I remembered that Thursday the Portland Tribune street box was always filled, so I looked inside. Although snow had blown into the box, I grabbed three dry newspapers from the middle of the stack and spread them carefully on the bench. I sat down, quite pleased with myself. Then I stood up to take this photo which I posted to Facebook. In a few minutes the bus came, I got own, happy to get a seat because it was packed. A couple of blocks away, I realized I just may have been a dummy because I did not pick up and shake the snow off those Portland Tribunes and bring them with me. What if I needed them at the next shelter where I transfer to the second of the two buses that make up my commute? Luckily, when I arrived at that next shelter, it had been shoveled and all that was left on the bench was a bit of ice, so I tucked my raincoat beneath me and sat right down. I looked to my left and saw the bus! Yea! The snowy morning commute neared its end.

Snowy still life. Straight out of the camera.

I looked through the window of one of the side doors on my building and knew that I had to go back to the apartment and get my camera. Very pleased with the result.

Love Spalding.

First, I'm standing there with my iPhone, making a video and talking about how the tracks I'd made a few hours earlier had disappeared in the latest snowfall. Then, my phone rang--my brother and sister-in-law in central Mississippi wondering how I was making it in the snowy conditions, laughing when I said that I was out walking in the snow for fun. Finally, I notice this lady skiing along the sidewalk across the street. By the time I asked my brother to hold on, found the camera on the phone and held it up to take a photo, she had turned left on NE 20th Avenue. My brother and I continued our conversation, said good-bye, and I continued my walk around the block. When I got around the corner, I found a spot out of the wind and beneath a small overhang at the front door of the Sandy Blvd. Clinic, cropped and uploaded the image to Facebook. I figured that would it for the serendipitous sighting of a skier on the snowy sidewalk. Oh, before I forget, more serendipity in the matching colors of the car, the band on the Musicians Union building and the compatibility of the color of the skier's jacket and the rest of the wall color on the building. I love it when unexpected color combinations reach out and grab me.
 

Later that evening, cabin fever appeared again--it had been coming and going since I got home from work on Friday. Anyway, I decided to walk downstairs and look out the window in the side door of my building. My reward, one more serendipitous sighting of ski accoutrement. Left to right: ski poles, ski pants, skis. The icing on the cake, so to speak, the LOVE hanging on the apartment door, put there no doubt for Valentine's Day. I'm guessing that the word describes very well how the two skiers felt about their outing, skiing the neighborhood and beyond. The green door to the left served as their portal to the winter wonderland that Portland had become, beginning on Thursday around noon and continuing until around 4 p.m. on Saturday when the only thing falling from the sky was either freezing rain or sleet or both.

Looks like a snow cone bar, just waiting for the colorful flavors to be applied

Cabin fever set in. However, with the thick coating of ice on top of the inches and inches of snow, I decided to stay inside. So, I walked around in my building, looking out common area windows. Or standing in the doorways. I'm glad I did because I would have missed the opportunity to take these photos.
 

A collage of three photos that I took of these icy snow shapes on a row of electric meters outside my building. I didn't plan to make a collage, but once I had uploaded the three images you see below and realized that I just might be able to work, much like I did in yesterday's post, I went for it. Not perfect but certainly satisfying.
 

Top photo.
 

Middle photo.



Bottom photo.
 

Bonus view, wide shot, from the first floor.
 

Bonus view, wide shot, from the second floor. The snow must really be deep between the two buildings. I don't have any idea how to walk to that spot, plus that snow might be deeper than my boots!

Dapper dresser confronts snowy Saturday to get a lemon.

We're in our third straight day of snow! Plus, now it's sleet and/or freezing rain which will continue until sometime tomorrow. I went out for two walks today, one around 10-11 a.m., the other about four hours later on. Just lots of snow on the first walk; no snow on second walk, just a bit of sleet and freezing rain.
 

On my first walk, I noticed this man, dapper dresser that he is. Who wouldn't notice, snow or no snow? He graciously agreed when I asked if I could take his photo and put it on my blog.

 

He told me that in his paper bag he had vintage literature--I think he mentioned dictionaries, philosophy and one other topic which escapes me now. When I asked where he got them, he said that he works on the other side of NE Sandy at Old Portland Hardware and Architectural. Then he went on to say that he was walking home, a few blocks south of my building, to get a lemon. He and his boss were going to make some cider. I love Portland!

We interrupt Disneyland for Portland's winter weather--a few photos I took on the way home by mass transit

At the first of the week, the weather man predicted bitter cold, windy days and the rather certain possibility of a snowy Saturday. I predicted to myself snow earlier, if we got enough moisture in the air. Then, Wednesday night the weather man predicted one to two inches in Portland, starting between 10 a.m. and noon, greater accumulation in the surrounding upper elevations. That's what happened on Thursday. Now we're predicted to get snow through the night, maybe less than we had during the day; more snow on Friday, maybe as much as we got on Thursday, starting around 4 p.m. Snow to ice on Saturday, ice to rain on Sunday, then showers and rain through next Thursday.

 

Conditions on the way home. Thank goodness I had left the office at 3:45 p.m. I didn't check the conditions then, though. I took this screen shot at 4:54 p.m. while riding the second of the two buses I take to and from work.

 

Layered for success on the homebound commute! I had my camera in the green and black bag, but I knew I wouldn't get to take many photos--too windy, too cold, too wet.
 

Snow-filled bowls of a Benson Bubbler on SW 6th.
 

I wonder what happened when he came upon some deeper snow? I saw him while waiting for the bus downtown. I heard a young woman who got on the bus later on remark, "I thought I was a tough bike rider. I wanted to do it. Whew." She'd just put her bike on the rack in front of the bus.
 

It was a long wait downtown for the second bus. By the time it came, I had lots more snow on me, here and there. The wind blew it everywhere.
 

Finally, the bus! So packed that the driver couldn't let anyone on at subsequent stops unless someone got off first. I took this shaky photo looking towards the back of the bus--thanks to the young man who gave me his seat!
   

I took this one looking toward the front of the bus. The narrow rectangle of light on the left is part of the front door out of the bus. The driver was fantastic--personable, calm and skilled--I've ridden with him before. I gave him a hug when I got off at my stop, very happy to be so close to home!



My neighborhood bar, The Blue Diamond PDX, closed for the day earlier as the snow kept coming down--I read the announcement on Facebook. Right about when I took this photo, it looked like it had stopped snowing. Nope, just a momentary thing. I just walked to the front door of the building so I could take a look outside where the street lights are--it's still snowing six hours after I left work, about 10 hours after it started on Thursday morning. Once I got inside my apartment, just a few minutes after I took this photo, I peeled off all the layers, put them on hangers on the shower curtain rod to dry with the fan blowing. Then I cooked myself some breakfast for supper, enjoyed every bite, washed the dishes, and settled down to work on the blog. Tomorrow I'll do it all over again.

Oh, so good. Mama memories.

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Back story: Mama and I lived from October, 2006, until January, 2011, on the 4th floor, actually the top floor, of the Presidential Court apartment building on the corner of NW 22nd Avenue and NW Everett. We loved our apartment and many good days there, with each other and with family and friends, and our dearly departed miniature dachshund Duncan. From our kitchen window, we could see this much of a nearby multi-story, multi-family building. We always wondered what it would be like to see any of the views available from the top floor of that building, but most of all, we wondered what it would like to stand in that space we called the window room that you see in this photo. Mama died in our apartment on January 7, 2011, and getting the chance to go inside that building, much less to stand in that little room, never entered my mind again. Until I got an e-mail from the Architectural Heritage Center announcing a tour of the building, originally apartments, now condos. I immediately went online and signed up for the fundraiser. As I rode the bus in the rain last Sunday, most of what was on my mind was the renewed hope to able to stand in the window room, to look toward our kitchen window and see it from an entirely different perspective. To remember the good times with my Mama. I took this photo of the window room from our kitchen window on May 3, 2009.
 

So imagine my joy when I realized as I was directed to the last of seven condos on the tour and figured out that, based on where I was at that time in the building and putting it together with its views, my last stop would be the condo with the window room. I walked through the rest of the huge, single-story condo before stepping up onto the window room's raised floor. All I really cared about was finding out if I could see any of our windows, if the trees that had grown enough to block a view of the windows. Here's a cropped closeup of those windows. Our kitchen window is the only one still visible, the first one you can see on the right in the olive green painted wall--we lived in the corner of the building on the southwest side of the intersection. The tree hides the two living room windows on that eastward-facing wall.
 

Here's photo that I took of Mama waving at me from that kitchen window, on December 21, 2008. That was a Sunday. I must have been out walking the dog or coming back from walking to the Fred Meyer--I cannot remember. But I remember calling her on the cell phone and asking her to go open the kitchen window and wave at me so that I could take a photo. It took me quite a bit of looking through my photos until I managed to find this one--I didn't have it tagged as Mama, doofus me. Notice the snow? We Portlanders were in the midst of days and days and days of lots and lots and lots of snow. Fascinating to the two of us Mississippians-turned-Portlanders!
 

And here's the wide shot that I took of our building when I stood in the window room. Mission accomplished!

About the AHC Event - Centennial Celebration Tour!
Historic 705 NW Davis Apartments Sunday, September 29, 2013 Timed entries between 1:00 and 4:30 pm Members and Friends Admission: $ 25.00

A benefit for the Architectural Heritage Center, generously presented by the residents of the 705 Davis Condominiums Celebrate the centennial of one of Portland's "grande dame" apartment buildings designed by Whitehouse and Fouilhoux at a special benefit for the Architectural Heritage Center. 

Timed-entry tours begin in the courtyard with an overview by Edward Teague, head of the Architecture and Allied Arts Library at the University of Oregon. Visitors will learn about the noted building's history, architect, and architecture, and then be toured through seven one- or two-story units, and an original servant's room, along with an opportunity to learn about ongoing preservation, see historic photographs, and enjoy light refreshments.

Batchelder tiles, Honduran mahogany, and elegant moldings grace the interior, once inhabited by Julia Hoffman, a founder of what is now the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and the chief investor in the building. Other early residents included Max Hirsch, a founder of White Stag, Isabelle Gauld, Oregon chair for Bundles for Britain, Eric Ladd, "before his time" local preservationist, and Fanny and Edgar Lazarus - the latter the architect for Vista House.

Mother's Day Mini-Vacation, No. 20 - On the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway

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Our waiter at the best-place-to-eat-weekend-breakfast-in-Bend-Oregon, Brother Jon's Public House, had told us that he'd heard the announcement--Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, open already--usually not before Memorial Day! The guys added this to our plan for Saturday, May 11, 2013.
 

Left to right, South Sister, Middle Sister, North Sister, and Broken Top. Outta sight swell and glorious!
 

Mt. Bachelor.
 

Snow piled up on the driver's side of the car! Amazing!
 

Around every curve for a while, snow! I haven't seen snow this deep since I rode the cog railway up to the top of Pike's Peak years ago. Of course, this is pile here by snow plows and that at the top of the mountain was plain ol' deep, probably deeper than this, but nevertheless, this snow impressed me. And I still had the window down on the car and could feel the chill in the air. Magnificent!
 

Saw these bicyclists. Could not believe how many folks we passed riding bicycles!
 

Look! Here's one now!
 

We stopped to take a look at a lake. As I paused for traffic so that I could cross the byway back to the car, here comes the same guy!
 

There's Leland in the driver's seat of Engine, our Zipcar Ford Escape. We pulled out from here and stopped at another lake. Lamont walked, carefully watching out for vehicles and bicycles.
 

Isn't this lake a beauty? I wish I knew the name of it. Alas, I saw no sign.
 

Close up of the snow and trees on the far side of the lake.