march

March is here. The above illustration is from A Child's Book of Poem's. 

Today was very spring like. The sun was out and I went to check out what's been popping up in the garden. My hydrangea bush still had some old dried flowers on it from late last summer, but among them many new buds.

Here is the contrast of dried up winter next to baby fresh spring. No judgement here. I like them both!

I pruned all the old dried flowers off the bush and now it's ready to grow into a big beautiful pile of hydrangeas. I love them. This bush started as a potted plant from Trader Joes.

The neighbor's dog, Clover, came by for a visit. She is super sweet and so well behaved.

Some other stirrings. 

And some cheery narcissus that are intent on keeping their heads down and facing away from the door. I snuck up on them.

I guess spring is coming. I do like it, I just feel like winter never got a real good showing. I am looking forward to flowers and California strawberries and sitting in the sun. 

winter landscapes

I really like the winter landscapes. I like the spindly trees and the open skies, the dried up plants and withered branches.  A couple of weeks a go I took a drive out to the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge and spent a couple of hours driving the course (you have to stay in your car). I drove slow with the windows down and listened to the birds, frogs, wind and rain. I mostly saw the same wildlife I have seen before: nutrias, hawks, great blue herons, canadian geese, tundra swans and many other birds and ducks. I really love this place. It's a treat any time of year.

Above you can see a red tail hawk in the tree there.

A Great Blue Heron

I ended the day in Portland with a warm meal at a Vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant. A wonderful end to an edifying day.

january

This illustration is from A Child's Book of Poems from 1969. The illustrator is Gyo Fujkawa.  I was given this book as a little kid along with A Child's Garden of Verse illustrated by Fujikawa as well. They were given to me by a man who worked with my dad making educational films. 

I loved these books. Loved looking at the pictures and later when I could read, reading the poems. The images and style was really influential to me, which I didn't realize until 30 years later. 

There are lots of poems in A Child's Book of Poems about the seasons. Many mention the things you do in winter, spring and fall and most of these things were completely foreign to me. I was growing up in suburban Southern California. There was no snow or ice skating (unless we drove 2 hours to Topanga Ice Rink). There was no nut gathering in fall or long awaited tulips in the spring. I don't even remember that many trees with fall colors.

I longed for these signs of the seasons, especially winter, since that seemed the most foreign to me. Building a snowman in your own yard! Incredible.

In my Southern California upbringing we would "go to the snow". Dad would announce, "Does anyone want to go to the snow today" And my sister and I would hunt down our seldom used scarfs and gloves (mainly brought out for birthday parties in Topanga) and we'd all drive for about an hour or more out to the mountains above Ojai. 

Snow was something you went to, not something that came to you. At that young age I became sort of entranced and awed by these neat happenings that came along with the seasons. I still am. I love anything to do with seasonal things and winter is my favorite.

I moved further north at 18 and further more at 36. I wanted more seasons. Portland is pretty good when it comes to seasons. You get the feeling of each season without extremes.  This year the winter has been very different - dry and sunny. It's been nice. I love sunny cold days, but it isn't normal and it feels more like March than January. The plants have begun to bloom even, thinking spring is on the way.

Today it's raining and I'm loving the sound. I have the windows open so I can hear and smell it better. I did miss the rain. Tomorrow it may snow! Still so excited when I look out the window and snow is falling. 

I love the winter more each year. The quiet of January and February. The bare trees and crisp air. I think this year I will finally do my winter zine. I hope you're enjoying January, too. 

an alternative oktoberfest celebration

It's Oktoberfest time! It seems that what everyone loves about Oktoberfest celebrations is the crowded parties, the massive drinking, the dancing and the meat.

I love Oktoberfest and yet I don't really like any of those things. Don't get me wrong, I love a good beer or two, but since they mostly make me want to curl up on the coach or take a nap, dancing around to loud music with a crowd of people is not something I'm probably going to do - drunk or not.

Another main reason I don't go to Oktoberfest celebrations is that I don't eat meat. It is pretty hard to find a veggie sausage at a German celebration. I don't really understand why, either. It would be so easy to just offer veggies sausages.

When the mister and I were in the Bavarian themed town of Leavenworth, Washington a few years ago they had one place that had veggie sausages. We ate there twice. I absolutely love a veggie sausage with mustard and sauerkraut!


Most German food, like Potato salad and other things, also has pork in it. So, that leaves that out for me, too. What's a German food loving veggie to do?

Put on your own Oktoberfest!


Mine is just for the mister and me. It features veggie sausages in buns with the toppings, German potato salad (I've made it in the crock pot before, mostly just potatoes and vinegar - good!), pretzels (can be made or bought from the local German Bakery), cucumbers in vinegar or salad, pickles and good German beer.

You can get Oktoberfest decorations from the local party store. I try and make the table look like a table in a bier garten. The final touch is some good old fashioned German music. I just find some on the internet and play it over the laptop.

This may seem pretty dorky to you - and it is - but we like it.

It reminds me of being in Leavenworth, which I loved. And it is a fun way to celebrate Oktoberfest without all the other stuff that although can sometimes sound fun - is just not really my style most of the time. I do love the German music and the Bavarian aesthetic. Maybe someday someone will start offering more veggie items at Oktoberfest celebrations.

Whether you are celebrating big or small - Happy Oktoberfest and welcome Autumn!

welcome spring

When was a bout 6 or so, a man who worked with my father making educational films gave me two books, A Child's Garden of Verses and A Child's Book of Poems. Both were illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa.

These books had a big impact on me, although I didn't notice it till many years later. The illustrations were so beautiful. Many of the poems dealt with seasonal things. There were lots of winter poems about the joys of skating and snow and cold and coming in from the cold. The images with them were so enchanting and charming.

But, they confused me a bit and made it clear to me that I was missing out on a lot of neat stuff living in Southern California. January didn't mean snowmen to me. I never needed to bundle up to do anything. And except for a few vacations, I wore my scarves and gloves mainly to go to the ice skating parties at the indoor rinks.

I also noted that there was supposed to be lots of rain in April, winds in March and other people had lots of leaves to rake up and burn in fall. The whole seasons thing captivated me and that has never really gone away.

I think these illustrations were the first thing that really affected my desire to move North and have more weather. I love that in Portland we have true seasons without it getting too out of control.



Gyo Fujikawa was a American born Japanese woman. She was born in Berkeley, California and she did some work for Disney in the early years. She was one of the first illustrators to get royalties from books instead of just a flat fee.

She was interned with her family during World War II where she continued to do advertising layouts. She never married or had children. She died at 90 in 1998.

A lot of the prettiest pages in the books I have are on both pages. I scanned these two to share with you in honor of yesterday being the first day of spring. Click through to the flickr page to see the bigger size.