Cordoba y La Mezquita

Cordoba is known for this crowning Muslim landmark. The building is the size of three football fields. I am sorry for that description, but it does give size. It is a forest of marble pillars and red and white arches as impressive as any of the gothic churches of Europe. When Fernando III conquered Cordoba in 1236, he left the mosque intact. A 16th century archbishop constructed a cathedral inside. We are lucky this remains as it is truly magnificent.

Museo Nacional del Prado

On our last day in Madrid, we visited the Prado, the finest art museum in Spain. We toured the works of three Spanish painters: Diego Velazquez, Francisco de Goya and El Greco, who was born in Greece but claimed Toledo, Spain as his home. No photos allowed so google them if you wish.

Alongside this museum runs a beautiful boulevard called the Paseo del Prado. Wide streets with a wide walk down the center made for a respite from the sun. Portland sure could learn a thing or two about delightful walking streets from the Spanish.

I managed to capture some fun street art though.

Palacio Real

Building started near 1734 and was completed in 1764 while Felipe V was ruler. His son, Carlos III, was the first to inhabit this palace. No photos were allowed so I cannot convey the beauty of this palace. The grand staircase while quite large was easy to ascend as the steps were broad half steps. There were many wonderful and opulent rooms including the Throne room where the king and Queen held court. A fascinating side excursion was to the Armory where all of the shields, swords and body armory are displayed. Across the street is the Kings Cathedral. 

Madrid At-Lasta

We arrived in Madrid, found our luggage and then our transporter found us. YEAH! He was from Mexico and followed the love of his life to Spain. Good for us his English was good and he gave us an introduction to the topology of Madrid on our ride to the hotel.

We arrived at the Hotel Melia Galgos at around noon. We were exhausted and they were ready for us, letting us check in early. We adopted the culture immediately by taking our first siesta. Life IS good!

Later we strolled down the Calle de Serrano, the hottest shopping district in the city. Window shopping was fun. Merchandising is certainly different which makes it more interesting.

Ending in the Parque de Bueno Retiro, we watched a lot of street vendors including mimes, musicians vendors and puppeteers entertaining children and, well, us.

After, we headed past the Museo de Prada toward Plaza St. Ana to enjoy drinks and tapas, small plates of food, and people watching. Caite's recommendation was a restaurant called Lateral. It was a nice finish to a very long day.

Hurry Up So We Can Wait

Up at 5am and out the door by 5:30 with a message from United stating the plane was delayed but we still needed to be there at the regularly scheduled hour. Oh too bad, the pilots got in late and need to rest. Don't get me wrong I'm glad they are but ME TOO. Sleeping until 7:30 sounds really good right now. Our plane now leaves at 11:am. We've been here awhile. I guess it guarantees that we will sleep on the plane. Good thing we had a 6 hour lay over in New York.

The Backsplash is Nice-a

It needs to be sealed and the switch plates added but I love the dark top with the creamy travertine tiles juxtaposed with the white cabinets. We are getting close.

Sporting New Counter Tops

I chose a quartz product, Zodiaq brand and chestnut is the color and pattern. The sink is granite. It was recommended by several people. The faucet is a HansGrohe Allegro E. It looks like a piece of sculpture. I will get a close up for you to see and post it in a few days. This brand appealed to me because the housing for the pull down element is magnetized so it should never droop. YEAH!

Here they are.

When the painters come, the island will be painted a chocolate brown.

My back splash is being installed now so in a day or two, I will post photos. It is looking fab.

The Chihuly Garden and Glass

A trip to Seattle yesterday to see the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum at the Seattle Center was in the cards. WHOA! Talk about eye candy. Here are a few images.

The first is the Sonic Blooms, designed by Seattle based artist  Dan Carson. These blooms are solar powered which provide enough powere to set them to glow in the evening ans sing during the day. They are pure delight.

So that you get a sense of their size, here is another view.

And then there was the Glasshouse . An asymmetrical room with an amazing Sculpture of glass flowers in reds, oranges and yellows floating near the ceiling and a completely open floor.

Here is the Glasshouse from the ouside.

Standing outside the Glasshouse, close to and slightly below the yellow glass explosion, looking upward at the Space Needle. Cool, don't you think?

You gotta love this capture. Do you see the reflection of the Space Needle and the glass house in this blue orb. Another way cool...

You need to see this for yourself.

Starting NOW

The demo team came today and removed the guts of our kitchen.
Sink, stove top, counter tops and back splash all gone.
 It does make the search easy for anything in the drawers.:)

The rest of the project plan is to have all of the interior white, ie, woodwork and cabinets, painted so the kitchen mini redo is leading up to that. The island will be painted a chocolate brown. The periphery will remain white. The new counter tops will be a quartz product, the color chestnut. The shiny gold knobs will be replaced as well.

Now the wait for the new kitchen countertop.

That's My Boy

This is Drew bungy-jumping in the Alps. Scares me to death just thinking about it. Never ever tell me this will happen before it does.

But oh so beautiful. If only I had your courage.

Life is a Project

Why is it that a tiny need morphs into a much larger event.
The kitchen is our current happening.

I needed a new sink and faucet in the worst way. The current model was a drop in sink.
Don't you hate the staining that regularly happens to the grout. I so wanted an undermount.

Our kitchen is almost entirely white. Yes, I am aware there is a "white" movement in the mind of some decorators but the absence of color is not good for me.

So here it is on Day -1 to give you some idea of our starting point.
No those are not shelves in the top of the cabinets. We have removed the drawers to ready for the counter top removal. Stay tuned folks.

The Tree People

What do you do when the Trout Creek tree people watch?

Laugh at the humor of it all and capture the moment.

Tooling Around

A few years back, I purchased some Cutco knives, which I dearly love. The handles are ergonomic and made from a very hard plastic so they can go in the dishwasher for better cleaning; the blades are very sharp and rarely need to be sharpened. They also have some other things that work quite well. Last week, while making chopped salad, I saw the pizza cutter which looks like the rotary cutter used in quilting. It was an a-ha moment. This is what I did with it. Finely chopped cucumber in a matter of seconds. It worked on green onions also. Not so well on tomatoes. I am now on the lookout for other candidates. It's nice to try new things.

A Tomato in July

Do you believe it. I picked my first tomato.

Generally, tomatoes show up in late September around here. The early May sunshine and warm temps kicked them into high gear. It' so pretty, I almost don't want to eat it but then again, fresh chopped basil and olive oil. Oh my!

A Walk in the Park

The Sisters Quilt Show planners held the special exhibits over to Sunday. What a gift to those of us who were hot and tired on Saturday. My favorite exhibit was at Five pines Conference Center. The Modern Quilt Guilds were featured. The quilts were hung from clothes lines stretched between trees. A wander among wild flowers and across the creek made the exhibit complete.

What makes a quilt "modern"?

Deconstructed Nine Patch by Jacquie Gering

 I Don't Wear Blue by Cinzia Allocca Allocca

A Very Long Conversation by Rossie Hutchinson

Modern quilters tend to 

• use solid colors which gives the quilt a more graphic look.
• use large blocks of a single fabric
• use lots of linear quilting
• use white space

I personally love the look of these and their titles. Totally fun, they are. But what I like best is that an entire new generation of women are doing what I love to do and that is awesome! Maybe what really makes it modern is the artists don't have grey hair:)

Sisters Visit Brother in Sisters

The second Saturday in July, always... the Sisters. OR outdoor quilt show.
This year, my sister and friend, came from Kansas City to see the show.
We stayed with my brother who definately has a room with a view. That's the north Sister.

Up early on Saturday morning, we arrive long before the show officially opens. Why?

• it's the coolest part of the day.
• it's fun to watch the hanging of the show.
• the parking is easiest.
• the coffee lines are the shortest.

We parked near the Art Center only to find this sculpture. How fitting. How clever.

After coffee at Angelina's bakery, we headed over to the Stitchin' Post to watch some of the hanging.
Firemen from the area volunteer their time and ladders.

Then walk you must from one end of the town to the other and back again...until you are exhausted.
The weather was perfect, the quilts delightful. Inspiration abounds.

All in a Days Work

Before I had even awakened and gotten out of bed yesterday, Rick had hit a hole in one. #2 at Witch Hollow.

I think this is his fifth but everyone of them is total joy, amazement, delight, surprise...all of the above. It means he buys the round of brews for his team mates, thank you very much. It means he gets his name in the paper. It means he gets some cash from the hole in one club. It means hole in one club members get a drink on the house, well sort of. It means he gets to write a big #1 on his score card for the hole. (Helps the score for sure.) And best of all, if only for one day, water walking seems really possibly.

Crossfit, Nike and Drew!

A few years ago, my son, Drew, asked me to help him with the header he was putting together for Crossfit training blog. He works for Nike and they have a number of amazing gyms on campus. Off we went for the photo shoot. What he didn't tell me was that the campus is also awesome. It was a beautiful spring Sunday and we had the place to ourselves. I captured loads of wonderful; images and compiled this photo collage to remember the day. 

 

And this...

These images tell his story. They capture him lifting, running, pulling up, Core Performance, his work group, some of his shoe models, Nike athletes, including Brandon Roy, International flags and the large G for Girl Effect. Look that one up.

Hey, Drew, what do you think of this one?

The People's Republic of Portland

On Friday evening, we managed two things. First, we ate dinner at the Deschutes Brewery. They were featuring a new beer. The ads said "fresh squeezed". The beer had a citrus flavor which was very good. My son would approve. The evening was gorgeous which makes street seating so exceptional this time of year. There were a few who grabbed plastic milk crates stashed along side the building, dragged them to the street and had their own impromptu street party. Rick ordered the beer. I had wine. Is that even allowed in a brewery? My bad.

We chose this particular place because our next destination was Portland Center Stage which is just around the corner. I love PCS. I've seen a lot of productions there. Some I've been familiar with, others not so much but I can say, I have never been disappointed. The People's Republic of Portland was all this. Lauren Weedman "She's from LA" is the playwright and only actor. She is laughter on her feet as she pokes fun at our institutions, citizens and way of life. She leaves nothing unturned. Not bikes, Voodoo doughnuts, strip joints, eating out, hanging out, the MAX, umbrellas or not and the rain. The list is longer and her portrayal funnier. She is the quintessential storyteller.

This ever popular play has been held over because the house is packed most nights. I got the sense that there were repeat viewers. Perhaps we all like to laugh at ourselves and Rose City residents know first hand that there is so much to laugh about and this light heartedness makes us glad we live here. Go see for yourself.

The Best Thing Since Sliced...

A few weeks ago, I got wind of a new trend. This one happens to be healthy.  Have you heard of Mason Jar Salads? The concept is to make salad for the week when you bring those veggies home from the market and store them individually in Mason jars. I had to try this and I am sold.

Here's the deal. Buy your favorite salad fixings. Wash them in one part vinegar to 10 parts water. That is suppose to clean them up and kill any miniscule things you don't really want. Line the jars up. I bought quart size jars with wide mouth openings. 12 for $10 or so. Chop the wettest veggies first. Generally the tomatoes, next cucmbers, then celery, then carrots or radishes and green onions. Finally top off with chopped lettuce. Push the lettuce down a bit to pack it in. Place the lid and then store in the fridege.

I usually add spinach to the mix when I put the salad in a bowl for serving. Spinach doesn't chop to well. It has  tendency to wilt. If you are taking these to work, you can add dressing first so that it stays in the bottom of the jar and then shake to mix it at serving time.

Obviously, you can add meat or egg or whatever other veggies you like best. Just put the wettest ones in the bottom. This stays amazingly fresh. Mason jar seals or really good.

I love salad but making one everyday is a pain. I always have good intentions and then at the end of the week I find this runny stuff still in bags in the fridge. What a waste of cash.  Making salad once and storing it in separate containers fits my bill. For more info or other ideas, just Google Mason jar Salads. An amazing number will pop up.

Have fun and good eating!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who have mothered someone or something. That is a broad definition, I know. That definition is also good. Mothering someone or something is worthwhile. If you haven't mothered then mentor. We mothers like to share. Life is good!

My view today...Amen!

Cinco de Mayo

I may not be Hispanic, but I am a believer.
So looking forward to a margarita and quesadillas this eve.

A story from a Cinco de Mayo celebration a few years back...

Today is the Cinco de Mayo half marathon except it is on Once de Mayo and Mother's Day to boot. A rainy day in Portland but would you expect anything else. I am the designated driver and stuff-holder. Here is this fit young man posing for the photographer at the start of it all. He’s got the Portland Spirit.

One of the benefits of running this race is the promise of a couple of beers at the end. Drew left his ID at home. They wouldn’t serve him. I grabbed his race placard and went to the oldest person taking tickets, showed her “my” race number and started to pass through the line. She looked at me quizzically and asked if I had run in the race. I replied “Doesn’t it look like I did?” Me in my jeans and birkenstocks. Who argues with a 60 year old woman? Not a 70 year old that’s for sure. One benefit of aging. PS The beer was good and cold even if it was 9AM

Ya Gotta Love Skype

I know I do.

My son lives in Amsterdam and Skype allows us to video conference on a regular basis and best of all, it's free of charge. Having worked for Ma Bell back in the day, I wonder how all this is possible.
Sundays generally are our day to connect. I was thinking about him today and made this digital layout with a picture he sent to me when he was in the French Alps. Photo via Smartphone and What's App messaging. Ya gotta love this too! Hi Drew!

Voices: Amy Tan

I've read a number of her books. The Bonesetter's Daughter was my personal favorite although The Joy Luck Club is good too. I often wonder how much of a person's life story ends up in their writings. In this case, quite a lot. Ms Tan was born in the US to immigrant parents from China. On this evening, she shared the story of growing up with a mother who suffered from severe angst and perhaps depression.

Generally, I thought the lecture was too personal, a downer but some life stories are just that. I would have liked her to link her unusual upbringing to her life as a writer. Or, the journey she traveled to becoming a published writer. That didn't happen and I missed that aspect.

She graduated from Linfield College here in Oregon. It is where she met her husband of many years. Her next novel, Valley of Amazement, will be published later this year. I look forward to reading it.

If you live in Oregon, you should consider attending the Voices lecture series. There are four a year in October, November, February and April, featuring women speakers from all walks of life.

Next years lineup features Eve Ensler of Vagina Monolog fame, speaking on "In the Body of the World";
Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love, speaking on "Big Magic: Thoughts on Creative Living";

Marin Alsop, first woman to head a major American orchestra, speaks on "A Life in Music";

and Asenath Andrews, founded the Catherine Ferguson Academy for Young Women, educating teens with children and helping them break the cycle of poverty. She will speak on "Take Away Shoes and Give Girls Wings".

I hope to see you there!

Lemon Meringue Pie, Oh My!

Being one of 27 grandchildren, one on one time with Gramma is really special. Gramma Dorothy is a very good pie maker. On this day, she and Caite decided to make a lemon meringue. An internet recipe, improvising without a rolling pin (isn't that what empty wine bottles are for) or a rolling canvas, lots of pots and pans later, some angst and a lot of laughter, the golfers, Delse and Elaine, were the recipients of this amazing effort. Thanks you girls!

Ready for the oven...

Baked and ready to eat...

Lemons and More

When you have a Meyer lemon tree and a prolific producer of fruit it is, you are constantly on the look out for lemon recipes. This one I found in the new Oregonian cookbook which I discovered at Costco and was made possible by this delightful machine gifted to us by Rick's sister, Marcy, many years ago.

This machine is so simple, much better than the old fashioned ice cream maker. No salt, no ice required. Just put the inner container in the freezer. Overnight is best. Make the ingredients and pour in. Turn the crank every 3-4 minutes for a total of 20 minutes.
VOILA! and YUMMO!

Meyer Lemon Frozen Yogurt 
2 1/4 cups plain low fat yogurt
3/4 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 T light corn syrup
1/3 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
1 T grated Meyer lemon zest

Whisk all together in a mixing bowl.
Process in an ice cream machine according to manufacturers directions.
Eat a lot!

Landfill Harmonic

This is inspiring.
It makes feel bad for what we buy and then dispose of so quickly.

Technology saves the day

I needed something to keep the fruit flies out of my wine glass. This worked.

 Whatever!

A Valid but Lofty Goal

I found this on Pinterest the other day and it made me pause. I find it very difficult to pare things down to just useful or beautiful. There is the category "might be useful someday", or "might be useful to one of the kids" or "to good to toss", or "what do I do with this" or "I'll just put it away for now"...
I am very good at making new categories.

One road block is indecision. At our last house, we had an unfinished basement which I fondly referred to as "the pit of indecision". It housed all the superfluous stuff.

Another roadblock is taking the time to put things away, as in clean up or file or dispose of or just whatever.  I would much rather move on to the next fun activity. So, this is not my strong suit. How do you manage your stuff?

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