Cooking our finds.

We came home and went out to dinner because Matt was starving. But then we came home after that cooked up our various greens.

The think I like about Edible Wild Plants is that he includes cooking suggestions and recipes.

I look forward to eating more wild foods in the future.

Walking home from the Historic Columbia Cemetery

Our route to the cemetery was fraught with peril due to a lack of sidewalks, high speed traffic and blackberry brambles on both sides of the road. We took a longer, alternate route home. And we encountered a chicken!

And not only a chicken, but two cats too. One of them immediately ran off, the other stayed to check us out.

The chicken was the first to investigate.

But the cat couldn't let a bird outdo him.

She wandered over to say hi. I fretted for her safety, as she looked rather pregnant. Matt, schooled in the world of feral cats since we adopted Antares, pointed out that her ear was clipped, indicating she had been fixed.

We figured both cats, and the chicken, were being fed by the people at the junkyard.

We also saw this air conditioned truck.

And some heavy equipment and logs.

Historic Columbian Cemetery

Matt and I combined two things I've wanted to do for awhile: explore the Historic Columbian Cemetery near our house and also to forage for wild greens.

This cemetery is not under anyone's jurisdiction. The web site says it is owned by the families of all who are buried there. Thus, the cemetery is rather rough around the edges, though someone works now and then, as these left behind tools testify.

This sign has fallen down.

I took this picture because it is very interesting to me how the Scandinavian population didn't really take hold in Portland the way they did in Seattle. We have Norse Halls and such, but Seattle has a whole historically Scandinavian neighborhood.

Portland's Scandinavians just didn't seem to have that much staying power.

This was an interesting grave that I need to research more. Here we have the father dying in early 1967.

Also buried is a son who died three days before him.

Another son who died a few days before that.

And a daughter who died the same day as her brother. I need to check back in the Oregonian or Oregon Journal for those dates to see if I can get more of the story. Google searches haven't yielded much.

Though it seems as if no one visits this cemetery, apparently people still do come to place flowers on graves.

I'm guessing these bodies have been moved elsewhere.

At times it was eerie. The cemetery is bordered by the walls of buildings on two sides, a freeway overpass on one side and busy Columbia Boulevard on the remaining side. Matt and I pinpointed the weird energy as being a "not so much dead people, but live people committing crimes here" sort of a vibe. We found a woman's purse that had been stolen and then abandoned, for example.

In one part, the grass had yet to be mowed. The web site has a plea for a new mower.

Matt searching for cat's ear.

Matt consulting our excellent guide: Edible Wild Plants, which I highly recommend to anyone with the slightest interest in foraging for food.

Holding dandelion greens.

I was quite excited to find this marker.

At one point, this was the city boundary.

First attempt at self-portrait. Oops. I forgot I zoomed.

A bit more of us.

Pericles! In the park.

It is free Shakespeare in the park season! We are going to see Pericles--apparently the most popular play in Shakespeare's time. I made cake!

We arrived and brought our own picnic and then ate the cake. There were belly dancers to entertain us before the play started.

One of the things I love about Portland Actors Ensemble is the way they can conjure up whole worlds with minimal props. This is particularly necessary in Pericles because he sails to several different lands in the course of the play. Here you see the cast join hands to create the boat, with Pericles at the helm.

There is a terrific storm and the boat is tossed from side to side.

Until the boat is dashed upon the rocks and Pericles is thrown to sea.

Kelly, myself and my mother chat during intermission. If you look closely, you can see Pericles himself (Matt Volner--who was great) walking behind us to get back on stage.

Brian takes in the view from his blanket. There were many mosquitoes about and Brian's shoeless feet fed some multitudes of them. As the evening wore on and the mosquitoes really began to feast it was interesting to see which actors broke character and slapped the buggers away, and which just sacrificed for their art.

This play was a grand way to begin the free summer Shakespeare series. We look forward to seeing The Comedy of Errors in August.

New Guitar!

Matt has suddenly decided to learn to play the guitar. Thus, he has bought himself a guitar to help the process along.

He's learning to play the end credits from the TV show Dexter.

Joshin & Bahar's wedding

Our friends Jojo and Bahar got married and we were invited. Get ready, this will be a summer of weddings.

The wedding ceremony picture.Getting ready to cut the cake.

We had incredibly delicious "Mediterranean" food. Bahar is Persian, and Persian food and I agree.

Back before digital cameras, very few people took photos during a wedding. Now that everyone has a camera in some form, sometimes it seems like more people are taking pictures than watching the wedding. Back in the day, Jojo's dad would have been taking photos, as he is a camera guy, but most of the other people wouldn't have bothered.

Jojo's sister is ready to capture the moment.

I enjoy taking pictures of people taking pictures. I also loved this dress.

Look at that handsome fellow. I'm surprised someone hasn't snatched him up.

Oh wait, someone has.

We all sang, "When I'm Sixty-Four." I enjoyed this immensely.

It was a great wedding and a great kickoff to wedding season.