David Hockney

 On the first Thursday of every month the Portland Art Museum has a free entrance day. Off my "live-in gardener" and I went, as I wanted to see the temporary exhibit of more than 100 pieces of art by David Hockney. 

This was David Hockney sitting in two different chairs viewing bouquets of flowers. Each of those flower pictures also showed up individually around the room.

What a variety of techniques from collage, video, photographic art There were whimsical child like drawings to very intricate personal artwork of friends and lovers. There were scenes from Yosemite, British landscapes, his dog Stanley, flowers, swimming pools, and intimate pictures of people. And then there were paths, which fit in very well with my word for the year (Path/Adventure).

Here is Stanley.

I was enthralled by the different art techniques he so creatively used to express his artistic talents.

And a swimmer for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The museum recently built a new entrance to the museum and added a small French style bistro/restaurant. We stopped there for a bite to eat and a pot of tea. For a little while I felt like I was in Paris. They even served and sold tea and jellies from my favorite teashop in Paris, Mariage Freres. Their baguettes, which they made, were amazingly good.

The park outside the museum was so pleasant to walk through both to and from our car.

Two books completed recently, both about young girls that grow into womanhood in different ethnic lives. One is from Iran and the book is The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali. The other is from China and the book is Teagirl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See. This second book was a re-read from several years ago. I read it to refresh my memory for a presentation I am doing at TeaFestPDX the end of June. I really enjoyed both books. 

Now I wrote this post a couple weeks ago and forgot to say "Publish".  The museum exhibit was amazing and the books were too.  Already I want to return to the museum before the David Hockney exhibit leaves the museum.

Sending love,

Marilyn

More Gardens in Springtime

 OK, I know, I keep sharing gardens in my part of the world. I am finding gardens is my thing in springtime for sure, but maybe even in other seasons too.  This post is picture heavy, but enjoy!! I certainly enjoyed snapping pictures and enjoying each cloudy, spring day.

Adelman's Peony Gardens was the goal this week. You know I am always up for an adventure.

I did come home with 6 peony buds, which are now in full bloom in my apartment.

They are perfection and don't really look real, but they are.

But, we found a new garden too. My daughter, Jill, took us to one near her house, the Rare Plant Institute. It has a sale one weekend a year in their greenhouses. The parking lot was full of plant lovers and kids too. The kids may not have been as thrilled, but what an amazing adventure to learn in the garden.

There were several ponds at the top of the hill. Whew! I made it up the hill and was greeted with this beauty. Oh how I love calla lilies.

They also had a vineyard and were doing a wine tasting. In the distance you can see the greenhouses and parking lot.

I don't know what this plant is called, but my daughter took a small one home. I will be watching it grow in her garden now. This is the plant she went for. It was quite spectacular. She is creating a pink and black garden in front of her house. How fun and what a combination of colors. 

We were greeted by this sea of rock garden flowers. Oh how I wished I could bring a bunch of them home, but sadly my little patio is already full.

No matter that only one peony bouquet came home with me, it was a delight to my soul.

What is delighting your soul this week?

Sending love,

Marilyn

Mother's Day, Two Celebrations

 Celebrations come in all sorts of forms and desires.

Each Mother's Day since my daughter became a mother I let her choose how we should celebrate. This year she wanted to take a walk at Leach Botanical Garden. It is a historic garden that was once owned by the Leach family and is now a public garden.

We met there on a lovely, perfect weather afternoon and walked through the garden.

Grandson was not particularly thrilled to have his picture taken, smiling!

But the gardens were just gorgeous!

Even though my pictures don't show it, the garden was full of people enjoying Mother's Day in the garden. It truly was a lovely way to celebrate and spend family time.

Then I sort of miss choosing the celebration!

So my "live-in gardener" listened to me saying I would love to go for tea. Since my daughter doesn't like to go to tea, we went today. Just the two of us had our own small celebration. It felt good to make my own desire known and have my "live-in gardener" or should I say husband listen. Sometimes we just need to let our desires known. Thankful he listened.

It was good too. Everything was so fresh and tasty. I really enjoyed every little bite and every little sip of our celebration.

And because we were celebrating Mother's Day I thought it was sweet the tearoom added the Happy Mother's Day sign to the cake, even though it was a day late.

Hoping you all had special celebrations even if it was small or large, a cup of tea or a sip of coffee. Whether celebrating being a momma of kitties or dogs, or even if your child was not able to be with you. You are all worth celebrating.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Season of Gardens

 

This week the weather has been amazing; so spring-like and maybe even a bit of summer. The perfect season to be outdoors and in the garden. Now the first few pictures are in a park about 1.5 miles from my apartment. I probably could have walked there, but didn't want to carry the picnic I had prepared. How wonderful to be outdoors enjoying the day. The river is called the Willamette (an Indian name). The boat is called The Portland Spirit. They do river cruises throughout this season. It is quite beautiful from the water when cruising. They were just turning around when I snapped the picture, heading back to Portland.

In the park I found dogwood and roses. Loving flowers so much, I am always on the look out for them.

Our picnic was of course also tea time. We had egg salad sandwiches, fruit, olives, and macarons. I love the challenge of putting together tea time or a picnic from what is in the cupboard. Sometimes those end up being the best, plus less stress. Just toss things in the basket and off we go.

But now let's get serious about gardening. Ha! Even with just having a patio, my "live-in gardener" and I can't ignore getting a few plants. So off to the Canby Garden Fair we went. There were tons of tomato plants, but we decided it was flowers for us this year.

So many beauties to choose from. We only have a few pots to fill; so we couldn't get much. But enjoying the looking was part of the fun.

Several times I had to stop to smell. These lilacs were amazing.

And then we returned to our little patio garden. A friend gave us this jasmine plant when we moved into the apartment and it has flourished in a pot, climbing up the bird feeder pole. I imagine the birds are enjoying it now too.

I even had my morning tea enjoying our little patio garden.

If you look closely our little table holds the flowers we brought home from the garden show. I can't wait to see them flourish on the patio this summer.

Are you planting a garden? Do the flowers just call to you to take them home when you see them at the garden shop or market? It is hard for me to resist. Now how many pots of flowers will this tiny patio hold?

One more picture just to make you smile. There is one squirrel that likes to visit our patio every few days. He is quite unafraid of people. I think someone must feed him. He will come right up to our window and peak inside to see if we are there. Here he is enjoying our little birdbath. It is hard to keep the birdbath clean, as our neighbors above us also feed the birds and the residue sprinkles down, not that the birds or squirrel mind.

Sending love,

Marilyn