December 9: Snowstorm

Shadow government.

Three crows flying

in a city snowstorm.

December 19: Social media

From a Portland bar

a friend shares with me

the holiday cocktail list.

Posted with Blogsy

November 26: I-295 North

holiday shopping--

twinkling red lights

finding beauty in traffic

 

Posted with Blogsy

June 27: Mercy

Heading into Portland

for some sushi.

Sign points the way to Mercy.

Posted with Blogsy

April 5: National Poetry Month

The Time & Temperature Building in Portland flashes the time, temperature, and then two sets of 4 letters each that vary from day to day. Currently it's flashing POEM and MNTH for National Poetry Month.

above the city
POEM flashing in bright lights
labels the scene

March 2: Civilization

coffee and pastry

in a cafe near our hotel

cobblestone streets

 

No cobblestones here, obviously, but this part of Portland has nice-looking brick sidewalks

 

Posted with Blogsy

March 1: After the concert

Long walk back to the hotel

holding hands

the city lit like Christmas

Posted with Blogsy

January 31: Cocktail

Behind the bar

bourbon bottles' amber glow,

soft music of ice cubes.

Posted with Blogsy

November 1: Birding in Portland

A stretch of woods below Portland's Western Prom used to shelter a significant number of homeless people. When we birded in that area, we would come across makeshift shelters, piles of clothes, and other heart-breaking signs that people were living there. Now many of the trees have been cut down, opening up the woods: it's no longer good bird habitat, but more importantly, it's no longer good shelter for those humans who needed it. It's not like those who stayed there vanished into thin air when the woods were cleared. As the calendar turns to chilly November, where have they found shelter?

city trees cut down--
sadder to think the homeless
have lost even this

February 20: Birthday

The Chinese Year of the Sheep began yesterday, and today I begin a new turn around the sun. The way a new year begins always feels auspicious. I have a good feeling about this one. We celebrated Chinese New Year with tea and dumplings in a sunny Portland cafe yesterday, and again last night with more dumplings (and cocktails) with good friends at Empire. This morning began with breakfast on the go from Standard Baking Co., which I ate while tromping around the frigid Portland waterfront looking for white-winged gulls with a birder friend--an outing puncuated by calls from my mother and sister singing "Happy Birthday." The white wings of Iceland Gulls shone in the sun, seals surfaced nearby, crows chased a Red-tailed Hawk overhead, a Peregrine stood sentinel on the Casco Bay Bridge, and all is right in my world.

A new year starts well:

coffee and croissant,

gulls along the snowy pier.

Update: And my birthday closed with a brilliant conjunction of the young Moon, Venus, and Mars in the southwest sky... All signs point to yes.

Posted with Blogsy

December 7: Christmas lights

In Portland this afternoon to see the Nutcracker and enjoy some dumplings at Empire. The Christmas tree in Monument Square is lit; the sign on the Time & Temperature building is flashing: 20 (degrees) / BUY / LOCL; holiday lights festoon Congress St. A season of lights in the darkness.

 

Street lights, Christmas lights...

Moon rising over the bay

makes us say, "Oh! Look!"

 

 

Posted with Blogsy