Day 22-23 June 22-23, 2011-Portland, OR

Dearest Readers,

Still relaxing in Portland. Wednesday night my daughter Ayla, and her boyfriend Joel and I cooked dinner for my second cousin Elizabeth, and husband Jim Bowe who live in a nearby suburb, are expecting their first child and both work in the school system. We had never met. She’s the daughter of my cousin Kathie and husband Oz in Santa Rosa. Connecting with my far-off relatives and their friends has become another thread on this journey across America.

Dinner was a sesame-ginger pasta salad, a medley of greens from the garden, a thick, creamy squash soup, and a selection of lime, butter and fleur de sel macaroons from PIX bakery in the neighborhood.



Macaroons might be the new trendy “cupcake”. They have a crunchy meringue consistency with various fillings and flavorings–not the chewy sweet coconut cookies I used to call “macaroons”.





Etta and I have been taking self-walking tours of the North-NorthEast residential areas around Mallory–Joel and Ayla’s street. I love the colorful Victorian houses and modern ones too. Unusual flowers and roses are a specialty here.







I checked out some galleries and the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland’s downtown Pearl District today. My favorite work was Millee Tibbs then and now spooky-realistic-photo self-portraits at Blue Sky Gallery http://www.blueskygallery.org/

Wendy Franklund Miller’s encaustic abstract paintings at Augen Gallery http://www.augengallery.com/Exhibition/exhibition.html

and the weavings of Laurie Herrick from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. http://www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org/



Last night was “Parents’ Night”. Ayla and Joel’s neighborhood friend Peter Field came over with his parents Jane and John visiting from Putney, Vermont. We actually knew people in common in Putney, like Gordon Faison, and John and River from the old Glen Maples commune on the mountain from back in the late 70’s. Here we are surrounding one of the vegetable beds in the backyard, looking like happy aliens pointing at the nighttime curiosities growing on earth.


Peter brought two chickens marinated in olive oil, sharp black pepper and coriander, and sliced eggplant and zucchini to grill on Joel’s behemoth barbecue. We end the day eating again, gathered around the table, sharing the joy of human interaction.