Futility Now

So I took a week off and we went to the coast. It was fantastic. We stayed in the Tennessee Williams room at the Sylvia Beach hotel

We investigated intriguing rocks.

Then we went and stayed in a beach house with Portland’s greatest living author, Matthew Flaming and his wife and child. While there we ate at an awesome diner in Waldport.

and did some cooking at home.

We visited more beaches, this time with the sprout (who we see here looking sort of like Ringo on the cover of Abbey Road).

We also went on a serious fishing adventure and returned with a ridiculous quantity of bass. Unfortunately, only Matthew had the presence of mind to bring a camera suitable for wielding out the middle of the ocean. Perhaps if we plead enough he will pass on some pictures and we’ll get them up here eventually.

We left just in time to avoid it being sunny.

On the way home we made a brief stop in Philomath by this awesome building.

We were expecting serious abuse from Yoshi when we got home, but he came around fairly quickly. I wonder if he had basically despaired of our returning and was too relieved that we were back at all to punish us for staying away.

So let’s see, what has been going on?

Well, for starters I invented this awesome sandwich

so that’s something.

We also went to the woods again, only this time we made a further expedition to this lake, which was total quality fun. I’m a little leery of camping in general, because I am very serious about personal hygiene, but as a day trip it was really wonderful.

Portland institution Shag has decided to move next to the tattoo parlor across the street, so I guess that’s another exciting sign that the neighborhood is on the way up. We sort of knew that already, since being able to stroll out and get a drink or something has become a bit of a challenge, since everything is packed to the gills most evenings. Unfortunately, you still have to go a couple miles to get a decent loaf of bread. Somebody could really make a mint by correcting this, says I.

So far I’ve been spending my summer in the studio (which keeps getting referred to as “the dungeon,” since it is in the basement — I don’t like the connotations of that reference, though, so I’m thinking about giving “the underworld” a shot) rather than on impressive home improvement projects. I did break down and get some decent curtains for the living room this week, though they currently hang unhemmed, bottom 18″ pooling dramatically on the floor. Yoshi thinks this is a brilliant idea.

The yard, however, would brook no such negligence.  A very wet spring (yes, even for Portland) meant we’d avoided being outside much at all, but once the heat & sun did arrive, our plants seemed to think it might be their only chance to grow — ever.  So they did.  Luckily, “the mum” (as jmags calls her) came up for a visit and provided the guidance and confidence we needed to really tear some things out. As you can see.

All this brute labor convinced us we deserved some sitting-around-in-bars time. When I managed to look away from this suave fella I found some captivating color palettes.

tomato red, pale warmish grey, milky chartreuse, black

goldenrod, slate grey, caramel brown, more tomato red

caramel smoky brown, shadowed orange, black and brick

And I’ve been holding on to colors from an image that I couldn’t catch on film because I happened to be driving when I saw it: stormy slate grey (sky), emerald green (painted side of brick building), ivory and black (striped power cable overhead crossing them both).  I wonder if I’m being drawn to color groups just because of the really marvelous light we’ve had in Portland lately, or if it’s because my own work is so achromatic that I’m working with a vitamin deficiency?

Here are some pictures. The first two are the three of us getting some snacks at the Doug Fir before anything exciting happened, and the second is a picture of whatever it is ladies use to put foundation on next to a purse whose decorations managed to mark it. Hazel and I thought it was pretty cool.

Despite our well-documented efforts to tame the yard, it is already a total jungle. Here is a picture of Yoshi looking out the window in disgust at the fruits of our slovenliness.

Rather than taming the damn thing, we’ve run off to Parkdale again (geez). Here is a picture of Mount Hood.

When I turned the camera on to take that last picture, the shutter speed was set really low. I thought the grass looked cool all overexposed.