The cosmos lady

We just had three days of 100 degree weather.  These photos were taken before the heat spell.

Cosmos 'Diablo'.

This year I shared my seedlings and there are three houses up the street with this cosmos blooming.  I am so pleased about that.  Makes me feel like kin to the Lupin Lady, Miss Rumphius.   My neighbor gave me that book some 30 years ago because she said it reminded her of me, always sharing my plants.

Quoted from Amazon

Barbara Cooney's story of Alice Rumphius, who longed to travel the world, live in a house by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful, has a timeless quality that resonates with each new generation. The countless lupines that bloom along the coast of Maine are the legacy of the real Miss Rumphius, the Lupine Lady, who scattered lupine seeds everywhere she went. Miss Rumphius

 received the American Book Award in the year of publication.

The heat pretty much finished the bee balm.

The cleomes have too much purple.  My fault.  When I thinned them, I had a strong preference for those with purple tinged leaves.  But there are some later pink ones coming along.

Small simple piece

Torn strips of fabric applied to batting with misty fuse and hand quilted.

Walking in the neighborhood

These people seem to have folks living in their yard.  It's been going on a LONG time....

It isn't this house.  I just like this house.  Things are all jumbled together in Portland, though.  Homeless.  Nice houses.  Etc.

I like these art deco chairs.

Community garden

Homeless car campers

Homeless campers along the edge of the park.

Cleaning the roof with Dave and Nancy

We helped our friends Dave and Nancy clean the roof on their cabin.   The goal was to clean the roof without a ladder.

Dave threw a tennis ball tied to fishing line over the roof .

Then a (too long) rope was tied to the fishing line and pulled over.

And the double broom thing they made was attached and pulled up.

The rope was pulled back and forth to sweep the roof.

Dave and Nancy got the buggy uneven side.

Nancy and I went for a walk.  It was so quiet there.

It hasn't gotten better...

"Mike Jenkins, also known as Pork Chop, said he moved to the Laurelhurst Park area from the Springwater Corridor. He said many others will make the same move when the corridor is swept by the city...“They’re coming,” Jenkins said. “Down here in Laurelhurst Park. Put ’em on Hawthorne. I’m gonna put ’em on Belmont, I’m gonna put ’em right in front of shopping centers.”"



Laurelhurst Park camping

And a quote from Nextdoor:

"Is this basically him saying 'If you won't let us utterly destroy a protected natural area, I'm going to make sure we shove ourselves in your face as much as possible.'?

That's the same entitled mentality of the people on SE Hawthorne who painted a sign saying that people had better start giving them moe money when they pass or they're going to be forced to continue breaking into houses to steal. JUST because you don't have a fixed address, that doesn't mean that 1) I owe you ANYTHING, 2) You can threaten me with "Let me continue my criminal behavior or else!''

And another quote:

"This used to be something that I saw more frequently at Col Summers Park last year and the year before-, but I think it was more if we, as neighbors called in. It wasn't proactive, but reactive. To be honest, I don't think police will even come unless there is a direct threat of violence or a weapon involved."

More of how it is here:

Daycare wagon stolen and found on Springwater Trail

Homeless campers build tunnel along river destroying trees

The horror of living in Lents

Springwater sweep postponed

Gentrification in Portland

I like this process

I like playing with my quilt process so that it emphasizes spending the most time on my favorite aspects which are playing with color and hand quilting.

In this case, I fused  wonder under onto a small rectangle of cotton batting and arranged colored blocks of fabric on top of the batting and then fused  them together.  This left everything pretty well anchored to the batting with free edges where the blocks overlapped.   I like the free edges.  I then big stitch quilted the piece with Valdani perle cotton, size 8.   And now I am playing with fusing small strips on top.  They aren't fused yet, just pinned on.  I like this process. It is fun.

I left it un-square because it might become part of something else.