The result has been fabulous. We have had flowers since late January, crocuses by the hundreds, and months of tulips. To balance out the number of bulbs that die back and leave blank spaces, we have also added numerous new flowering plants this spring: a beautiful camellia snagged at Portland Nursery one beautiful February day, a Daphne ‘Carole Mackie” for scent and floral interest in mid- to late spring, an Endless Summer Hydrangea (Blushing Bride) and a couple of Edgeworthia chrysanthae, which stopped me in my tracks with their lovely light yellow blooms in late winter. The incomparable Meg de Hass van Dorsser of Margaret’s Enchanted Gardens, Ltd., helped immensely with recommendations. She also helped legitimize my Hydrangea longings to Brooks, who sort of hates them. And by “sort of,” I mean truly detests them.

Following are some photo highlights. I’ll write more about some of the specific areas we have focused on at a later date.

Irises

Our first irises opened in early March, which actually scared me a bit. That seems too early.

Now, we have many in bloom. Most of the irises we have are the light purple color shown first, as luck would have it:

Daphne “Carol Mackie”

Edgeworthia chrysantha (aka Chinese paper bush)

Garden supervisor, Canis lupus familiaris (common name: Brooks Jr.)

With the exception of the dog’s photo, all of the images are from today–what beautiful weather we have been having!

The first time, we left in despair of ever obtaining not just food or drink, but eye contact with anyone who worked at the establishment. This was during their first week of business. They eventually compensated for this hipster habit of ignoring non-hipsters with some signage indicating that one should order at the bar.

Our return visits have gone better. While we lack that ironic panache that would likely get us quicker service at the bar, we have successfully sampled several of the items on the fairly short menu–chicken dumplings (totally decent), Frito pie (vegetarian and meat versions–also decent), Rotel (good, if not like any I ever had in the South) and the weekend biscuits and bacon gravy (nauseatingly awash in butter, in a bad way, and made with bacon that reminds me of the paper-thin slices of a meat-like substance available for breakfast at any Holiday Inn Express.)

A menu with a few more options would probably work in their favor. Perhaps an expansion will happen in time. The food is basically ok, if not really Southern. But it’s a Portland twist on Southern, so it makes sense.

It’s ultimately the hipster vibe that rubs me the wrong way. I have an innate dislike of hipsters anyway, but the Portland variety of hipsters who provide food service are particularly annoying. The total lack of acknowledgment when you arrive is one of the key failing I associate with their ilk. When you couple that with the fact that Travis, Ben, and crowd at Leisure, just a couple blocks away, can remember your name after a couple visits and always at least make eye contact when you show up, no matter how busy they are,  The Fixin’ To falls short of the St Johns standard.

Too bad. I was very ready to like the place.

One can only imagine the existential crisis he endured upon attempting to return them at Spaceway. Oh right…methheads are not capable of existential crises.

Anyhow, the great mystery now is whether or not he will succeed in associating the Great Bottle Fail with those people in St. Johns with the cool fence and break out our windows.

Previously
And even more previously

The one confounding factor to my newly-minted weather predictor is that I had a wee bicycle accident last weekend. More of a falling over than an actual crash, it involved trying to go up a hill and finding the limit of my atrophied muscles. However, I did fall over on the offending foot, so…maybe it won’t rain today. Either way, life is good.

Saturday, Aug 25^th, 11am Action at Whole Foods to Support Beef Northwest Workers Who Are Organizing with the United Farm Workers. At Whole Foods-1210 NW Couch. Beef Northwest is Whole Food’s only supplier. We want Whole Foods to do the right thing and show support for the workers at Beef Northwest–who are backtracking on their commitment to neutrality! We need leafletters–show up a little early to get your stack of fliers OR…

Meet with leafletting expert Lauri King a little earlier for an exciting leafletting training at 10:30am at the coffee shop at Powell’s at 10th and Burnside. Learn techniques for making sure that flier gets read.

Update: Steve Witte of United Farm Workers emailed me the following in response to my request for more information about why workers are protesting.

For over six weeks Beef Northwest professed neutrality, to allow workers to choose representation without interference from the company. While negotiating with the United Farm Workers the company continued to pressure workers with anti-union activates — in effect lying to both the union and its members. If the company is not honest with it workers, can it be trusted to be honest with its customers?

Beef Northwest is the exclusive feedlot for Oregon Country Natural Beef which is sold at Whole Foods. The UFW has asked Whole Foods to help workers improve their workplace, particularly in the areas of health and safety. Whole Foods did not. The UFW contacted Oregon Contrary Natural Beef requesting their help as well and they refused. This beef is sold as grass fed and natural but what they neglect to mention is that for at least 90 days these ‘natural’ cows are fed potatoes, corn and vegetable oil that had been used in processing plants prior feeding it to the cows — this is hardly natural.

We are sharing information with consumers. This product is not at ‘natural’ as touted and comes with a high human cost.

Thanks, Steve!