Swan Island Dahlias

"The Dahlia you brought to our isle
Your praises for ever shall speak:
Mid gardens as sweet as your smile,
And colour as bright as your cheek."
~Lord Holland

As part of my job, the part I love (which is most of it, minus the paperwork), I take groups of our participants on outings to a variety of places in and around Portland. Many times I am able to see and experience things and places I wouldn't normally, or I get to share a place I have experienced with these wonderful people. Today was such a day. The Swan Island Dahlias are AMAZING! The fields are in Canby, OR...about 30 minutes south of Portland. I took a group of five ladies to see the flowers, picnic lunch in tote. We sat in the sun and ate lunch and then walked among the beautiful flowers. Enjoy the pictures!! I know in the dreary months of winter, I will!

The above flower is my favorite for the season...Freckle Face!

Our stash to take home! A bunch of these were given to us! How wonderful!

Me with the Dahlias!

One of my participants wanted to take a picture of me because I was taking pictures of all of them. The above picture, not a great one mind you, was taken by one of my little ladies. I promised I'd show it off and not delete it. Too bad I keep promises... :)

After trips to the fields the last couple of years, I must say that it is a good thing for my pocketbook that I don't have a yard to plant all of these wonderful plants in...I could do some damage.

India's Independence Day 8/15/1947

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again." ~Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

India declared independence from British Rule at the stroke of midnight between August 14 and August 15, 1947. You can read more about the partitioning of India and Pakistan from Britain here.

I have always been facinated with India...I think it may be the way my subcontious expresses it's desire for me to travel to that country. Someday I will. I am drawn to that culture and I think that the only way that thirst will be quenched is by me experiencing that place of intrigue for myself. When I saw that there was the India Festival being held in Portland at Pioneer Courthouse Square, how could I not go? The festival was sponsored by the India Culture Association of Portland. I rode the Max train down to the square. When I got off the train I ventured into all of the people. I have discoved that I love, absolutely love, clothing from other cultures. I am facinated by the styles, colors, fabrics, accessories, etc. I made my way over to the "staging" area and there was a group of kids dancing, and lots of cheering. I eventually sat down, right in front and I have to say, I was in heaven. I watched many, many groups and inviduals dance.


Eventually, I was a little too warm to continue sitting in the sun so I pulled myself away to walk around the booths and get into the shade and breeze. I couldn't stay gone long. I made my way back to the dancers and watched more. The longer I sat there the hungrier I got, especially since I could smell all the yummy food. I wasn't sure if I would be able to eat anything, but found something that appeared to be "safe". If I get sick, I can tell you it was the Vegetable Biryani, not because it wasn't so delicious, but it may have contained gluten (safe according to recipes I've found online, but still no guarantee). I must say, I think it was worth it (I hope that statement holds true through the next couple of days). It was made with basmati rice, vegetables and a curry sauce on top, yummmm...I must also say that I drank a Mango Lassie and though it wasn't my favorite beverage in the world, I didn't hate it, had actually gotten quite used to it by the time I sipped the last of it. I can now say that I tried something new, 2 new things in fact and enjoyed them...would have them again if offered. I ate rather quickly becuase, you guessed it, I couldn't stay away from those dancers.

Rather than rambling on any longer, I'm going to cut to the chase with the pictures:

Amazing colors and clothes.

All the onlookers

Amazing

There were several girls that had all kinds of accessories. The one you see above I thought was gorgeous. I can only image how heavy it may have been though. I might add, it took me about 5 tries before I got this shoot.

Cute little girls dancing.

This young boy, 4 or 5 I would say, was practicing his role while I was eating. Couldn't help getting a quick picture.

She teaches Indian dance...should I take lessons sometime?

These are some of the clothes that were on a rack in one of the booths.

I was amazed by all of the dancers, of varying ages. The kids were cute, it would be fun to see them in a few years after continuing to take lessons. Those who'd been dancing for many years...WOW is all I can say. I am working on getting some of the video footage uploaded for your enjoyment and for my memories, most likely the short snippets will be in another post.

I finally knew I needed to get home to get some stuff done, or I could have and would have stayed until the festival closed at 9pm, so I pulled myself away, and got back on the Max to head home. While I was riding back I decided that I think I was born into the wrong culture...I should have been born into a culture like Indian culture, full of color, dance, music. Maybe I can be multi-cultured and enjoy them all...I plan on going back again as I loved it so much and right now that is the easiest way to "travel" to India...my hearts desire. Hope you enjoyed this little trip! Happy travels to you!

Rainy concert in the park

The first time I heard Portland Taiko was completely by accident. Liesl and I had been hiking in Hoyt Arboretum 4 summers ago and stumbled upon a concert. It was a group of amazing drummers at the Rose Garden at Washington Park. We had no idea what we were walking into, but we decided to sit down and enjoy (until we had to find where the car was parked before it got dark). I started doing some research the next day and found out the name of the group. Since then I have sort of "followed" the group and have seen them perform whenever I've had the chance. For this years Washington Park Summer Festival they were performing again. I called Liesl and asked her if she wanted to join me since it was the same group in the same venue we'd seen 4 years ago. We decided we'd do a picnic dinner and enjoy the music. Not only did we experience the music, we also experienced the rain, and lots of it over the two and a half hours we sat in it. We weren't sure if the opening group (Mizu Desierto Butoh Theatre) for the taiko group would perform, and they did. Portland Taiko was then able to perform thanks to the donation of pop up canopy like tents from one of the food vendors. Their show was altered due to limited space and room to move around because of poles, but it was still good. Most people stayed through the rain for the concert and I am glad I did, even though it was touch and go for a bit! :) Thanks for sitting in the rain Liesl!

Portland Taiko performing.

"Volunteers" mopping up the stage before performers could go on. They had to wring the towels out after going across the stage once.

All the umbrellas that were being used to proctect people from rain.

Liesl and I, before we got too wet.

Quote of the Day

This is from the quote of the day that I get via email and today's was very touching:

"There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul."
~ Edith Wharton

Violins meet Roses!

I love Portland, and I must say I love Portland 10-fold in the summer months. It has been such a busy summer, and I've LOVED every minute of it. I vowed at the beginning of summer that I was going to have fun this summer and do as much as I could, whether it be a new or repeated experience. I've had lots of both! This weekend was the first since the end of May that I didn't have something scheduled, though I knew the weekend could fill up rather quickly, even without scheduled events.

The weekend started out nicely...breakfast with a friend at Bob's Red Mill, one of my favorite places for gluten-free goodness. Then the rest of Saturday is a blur, probably because I didn't do anything too outrageous...did buy a purse-I was way past needing one. Sunday was good, church, hanging out with Ezme, and "attempting" to tackle my list of things I needed to do around my apartment that I have neglected the last couple of weeks. At 5 I decided that I was going to a concert in the park that started at 6...why spend time inside when the weather is so beautiful? That is what I asked...then assured myself that all the things I needed to do would most definitely by waiting for my later tonight, or tomorrow, or next week. So, spur of the moment, like so many decisions I make, I headed to North Portland to one of my favorite parks...Peninsula Park and Rose Garden. You see, every summer, the Portland Festival Symphony has free concerts in the park. They have 6 different concerts in 6 different parks. This year it was down to 5, so I couldn't miss out. Once I got parked I was walking towards the park, which has a huge rose garden and I could smell them. It was wonderful! I meandered through the roses, by the fountain and made my way to the concert area. I got myself all situated and sat down with the crowd of people. There was a group of kids who I think must have just performed. There was an Einstein looking man interrogating them. I felt for them, but could also tell he was just a little quirky. Shortly the adult group got up and was setting up to perform when their conductor was introduced....as that Einstein looking man, Lajos Balogh. He was quirky, but this symphony has been his life since he moved to Portland from Hungary. He was passionate about the music and was wonderful with kids. Below you can see a picture of one of the girls being "interrogated". My favorite was when he asked one girl if she knew how much time t.v. took away from practicing her instrument. Her response was..."do you know how much time homework takes away from practicing my instrument!" You go girl!

At the end of the performance Maestro Balogh invited all the kids up for the "Toy Symphony" and they all got instruments (recorders, rattles, etc) to play with the larger group. It was fun for them all.

While the symphony was performing the kids loved to dance...ahhh, life through the eyes, and with the energy of a child, especially a child in the summer. Enjoy! I sure did!

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." - Kahili Gibran

The title quote of this post was the quote of the day in my email box...how perfect. You see, I did just that today! Went to the beach and walked around barefoot in the sand, and the wind most definitely played with my hair by blowing it all around. What a wonderful day. Mary was in town for a variety of things, baby shower being one of them. When she first got to town Wednesday she mentioned that she may want to go to the beach, which was sort of happenstance because I had today off from work!! Woohoo! So we got up and headed to the beach. The weather was wonderful, especially after the heat wave Portland experienced last week. I actually got cold and wore long pants and ended up putting a sweater on. Refreshing!

Mary and I on the beach at Cannon Beach.

At Seaside

This is the Lucifer Crocosmia flower that I absolutely love! Someday this plant/flower will be a my yard!

Haystack Rock

Thanks for the mini-vacation to the beach Mary! Much fun!

Baby Isaiah, we are excited to meet you!

Feet
Someday I’ll jump through puddles
Take a stroll or run a race
Someday I’ll walk across the street
Or maybe walk in space
Someday I’ll scale a mountain
Or I’ll join the ballet corp
Someday I’ll walk a tightrope
Or explore the ocean floor
Someday these little feet will do
some things that only heaven knows
But for today they’re happy to just
wiggle all their toes.
-Unknown

The above poem is what I put on the front of the invitations I sent out for Holly's Baby Shower. I want to be able to easily find it again, hence including it in the posting. We had the shower today, and I would say that it was an overall success. I didn't count exactly how many people were in attendance, but it was a good sized group. Holly & Brian-congratulations on the upcoming little one. Can't wait to meet him!

Some pictures from the event...

The rocker was given to Holly by her grandma, it had been her mom's.

Holly wanted people to be able to paint onsies for Isaiah, so onsies they painted. People paired or tripled up and showed their creative side.

Mary, Holly, Elisa, me!

Holly and I post shower! Look how cute she is.

Thanks to all who helped...Mary, Elisa, Nancy and Joyce for opening her house to us! All is much appreciated!

Obonfest 2009

The Japanes Buddhist Obon Festival is also known as the "Festival of the Dead". Depending upon which "sect" of Buddhist tradition determines the time of year that the festival is held. Most often it is in July or August. The festival is a week long celebration honoring the spirits of dead ancestors. This is also the time where the spirits return home for three days. This festival has been celebrated since the 7th century and includes festing, dancing, and special services. The previous information and any more that you would like to read can be found at Japanese Obon Festival of the Dead. Annually, the Oregon Buddhist Temple hosts the Obonfest in SE Portland. This year I decided to go and experience it. Besides being curious about the Bon odori dances, I also was very excited to see Portland Taiko, which is an AMAZING Japanese drumming group. I first stumbled upon this group performing at the Washington Park Amphitheatre a few years ago while hiking with a friend. They are phenomenal. I enjoyed seeing all of the kimono, food, vendors, and of course the drummers and dancers.

Lanterns are a prominent item seen during the festivals.

Portland Taiko drums

This was a demonstration swordsman.

I didn't know what to expect when I walked into the temple, as I haven't ever been into a Buddhist Temple. I was surprised by the gold and beauty. The above picture was taken of a fixture inside the temple. I decided it would be nice to go some Sunday to experience a Buddhist service.

Portland Taiko group performing.

Bon odori dancers. Loved the kimono.

The obi sash and belt. I'd love to see an individual actually being dressed in a kimono, I think it would be facinating to see all that fabric become a beautiful ensemble.

Kimono on people were dancing by.

Check out those shoes, also called geta sandals. I would most definitely fall flat on my face. In watching the dance I can see how they would be helpful though!

Below is a video of Portland Taiko. Enjoy!

"Mom, it's hot...."

That is what Ezme would be saying right now if she could speak the English language. Her version is more like... "meee..." without getting the "...ooowww" out. Portland is HOT right now. Downtown temps read 107 today, 103 yesterday, and it looks like the end is not in sight, at least not in the 10 day forecast that has been provided. Yes, we will experience a "cool down" by Sunday, to an oh so cool 90-95 degrees. After this, that sounds like heaven. I cracked and bought an air conditioner today and I already thank God for making one available. When I arrived home today the reading was 103 in my nice hot apartment that is trying to impersonate an oven. As I was setting the AC up in my room I was dripping...and I don't drip. Ezme hung out on the ice pack, which was room temp (normal room temp, not current apartment room temp) within 15 minutes. I felt for her. I have the luxury of working all day in air conditioned building and then coming home to melt. She is home to melt all day. My room is already becoming more bearable, but in the meantime, I wanted to share Ezme's thoughts on the heat.

"Can you turn down the heat?"
A sentiment borrowed from Linda's cats (a friend from work).

The blue thing poking out from under her chin-yea, that is the ice pack.

If anyone has cooler weather to send, we'd appreciate it! Mom already said she'd try, but thought that if she could box up cooler weather it would be warm but the time it got here...bummer...