Portland Rose Garden and Japanese Garden

Good morning, my friends. Well, I said it would be a good day, and it was. It was one of those days when I could have taken thousands of pictures, but I restrained myself. I'll show you what I have. This part of Portland comprises several of its most beautiful and beloved public spaces. Clustered together, one can find the Hoyt Arboretum, Washington Park, Pittock Mansion, Oregon Zoo, International Rose Test Garden, and Portland Japanese Garden. Matthew and I were there to see the Japanese Garden. As it turns out, the place was way busier than expected on a Thursday afternoon. We had to park quite a distance from the Japanese Garden. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, because we had to walk right past the International Rose Test Garden. 

We’d both been here before, but I’d forgotten how big it is, and how beautiful. Honestly, I don’t know why we don’t come here every week. The garden is huge. We came down one stairway, but there are many places one can enter and exit. To our right, it looked like this.

To our left, it looked like this. And this is only just a small part of the whole.

I don’t have a lot to say about these next several pictures. I just took pictures of the roses that caught my eye for whatever reason. They all had names, but I didn’t record them.

Matthew noted the red on this one was so saturated, it was almost hard to see it with our naked eyes. Interestingly, I’ve noticed that highly saturated subjects can blow out my digital camera’s ability to record the color properly. I suppose cameras use the same apparatus to see color as our human eyes. In any case…what a red.

I don’t have much to say about these, so I’ll just let you look.

This one’s for you, Texas.

The rose below is known as “Double Delight.” I used to grow it when I was growing roses. My brother also had a rose garden. This was his favorite rose, and he grew it in his garden as well. I tried growing one in his memory, but the deer wouldn’t leave it alone, and I finally gave up. Some things aren’t meant to be.

Portland is known as “The Rose City.” Every year we have a “Rose Festival.” We like to joke in our family that summer never really gets off the ground here until after the Rose Festival because it invariably rains on our “Rose Parade.” There are many events associated with the Rose Festival, and there’s something on all summer long. For our Rose Parade, a queen is chosen, and there is a sidewalk honoring past rose queens going back to the early 1900’s.

This is just a portion of the sidewalk. The plaques on the left have names. The lighter bricks on the right will be for future queens.

I just chose this one at random so you could see it. It’s a little like Portland’s version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

And this next image was quite a treat to happen upon. Just a few days ago, I learned about Wildwood: Follow the Crows. You can read more about it at that link. In a nutshell, it’s an “art trail.” These crows are stationed at various places around town. One can pick up a “scavenger hunt” map, and there’s an app available. Eventually, the crows will be auctioned off and proceeds will go to one of our local children’s hospitals. This is the first one I’ve seen.

Matthew, with his sharp eyes, noticed the eye is actually an owl.

Here’s a little more information about this particular crow.

Okay, so that was fun. We decided to head up the hill to the Japanese Gardens. Along the way, I spotted this plaque.

We paid for our tickets and then followed the trail through the Japanese Garden. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there, and the trees have grown tall. It didn’t look like the same place I’d visited previously. There were several structures. This one was the “Learning Center,” and there were some displays of Japense art here. We especially liked these Japanese lanterns.

I took a picture of the accompanying informational sign, but it was a huge sign, covering a whole wall. 

I’ve cropped it into smaller sections, and hopefully, it’ll be a little easier to read.

And if you can’t read any of that, there’s more information right here. We especially liked the one pictured below.

Okay, and then we just walked the path. It was lovely and serene. The sun had been shining earlier, and it was hot. Here, the sun had gone behind the clouds, and so it was much cooler, adding to the peaceful feeling.

Certainly, one cannot have a Japanese garden without a koi pond. These were enormous.

There were lots of them.

This one was so brightly colored, he looked as if he might glow in the dark.

And then this waterfall. At my only other visit to the Japanese Garden, I was on the hunt for a picture of a waterfall for an online photography class. I was to take the picture with both fast and slow shutter speeds. A fast shutter will stop the action of the water. A slow shutter will allow the water to blur, giving it a bridal veil appearance. My photo wasn’t bad. 

Yesterday, I tried unsuccessfully to recreate it.You can see how different the place looks. Things around it have grown large, and there is less light. Also, there isn’t as much water, probably because it’s August. I feel fairly certain the photo above was taken in Spring.

We sat for a while here. It was peaceful, and we’d been walking and talking for a while.

Turning around, there was a view of the city. Even the view has been overtaken by the growth of trees. Mt. Hood was to the right and outside the frame, but it was barely visible with the cloud cover.

And then we headed back to our cars, walking through the Rose Garden again.

We walked a little way past our cars to see this structure with a sign that said “Elephant House.” Inside was this full wall brick sculpture. The building was a covered picnic area, and there were tables in the way, so I couldn’t get a straight on shot of it.

Looking to our left was this explanatory sign. And this is such a cool story. I’d never heard this before. This is Rosy, the first elephant ever to come to Portland. She came from Thailand in 1953.

Here is her story. Cool.

You might remember the quilt I made of our newest baby, Tula-Tu.

We parted company shortly after that, and I headed to Erik and Mae’s house to pick some apples. I picked a 5-gallon bucketful. That should make some applesauce. I’ll do that tomorrow. They also passed along some Asian pears, and so I’m going to make some apple-pear chutney with those. Looks like this weekend will be a lot of canning.

The only sewing I did yesterday was to make some progress on the Quilter’s Retweet project. You can see that I’ll finish this block this morning.

And that means it’s time to choose my next project. I’m on the “Short” choice for this go-round, and so I asked Mr. Random to choose for me. He chose…

Looking at my list,…

Oh fun! This project was given to me by my Canadian friend, Terri. Terri and I were able to meet up at a Tim Hortons when we made our way to Alaska last year. This is a picture of Terri and me. It was great fun meeting Terri in person, and she passed along several kitty projects.

This was one block of a larger quilt.

Look how much fun that is. This one involves some coloring, and so I’ll probably work on getting this ready for stitching today…or tomorrow. It might take up my slow-stitching time instead of actually stitching. I haven’t even looked to see if I have the right floss colors yet. 

Okay, so I have some catching up to do today. We’re doing our grocery shopping and running a couple of errands. If I’m canning applesauce on Saturday, then I need to gather my supplies and sterilize some jars and lids for that. (I just wash them in the dishwasher.) Girls’ Getaway got none of my attention yesterday, and I haven’t been in the garden for two days. I’ve been out gadding around instead of taking care of the home front, and so it feels as if everything needs attention all at once. Oh yes, and I’m baking a plum torte today. It’s a perennial favorite, and I’ve been looking forward to it.

All right then. I hope you enjoyed this visit to some of Portland’s most iconic tourist attractions. It was good for me to get reacquainted with some of the things our fair city has to offer. Probably, I won’t stay away so long after this. Matthew and I are already talking about visiting Hoyt Arboretum for our next meet-up. It won’t be until the end of October, though, so we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed for good weather.