NoPo

We moved into our August "let" yesterday. It is in North Portland, five miles from the city centre and half an hour from the river beach at Sauvie Island. 

The University of Portland has some influence on the demographic, as does the steady influx of Latino immigrants. There are a few quintessential evergreen islands -- old Victorians or farmhouses that organically merge with midnight-intensity Douglas fir shade,  larkspurs and roses and have a generally kept-up appearance. Some of these "evergreen Gothic" properties are not as kept up and are on a continuum with the white trash side of the neighbourhood. On the other, nouveau trash side of the continuum, more modest single-story homes and vinylclad duplexes shimmer in the heat, like trailers that have sat so long that the topsoil and various additions have come up to cover up all signs of mobility.

Crime rates as mapped are the same pastel checkerboard as many other parts of town, though a greater police visibility seems to be required to keep it that way, especially on Lombard St., the main strip. Lombard is not an attractive street but we are fairly close to the St. John's neighbourhood and the prettiest Gothic bridge north of the Golden Gate. (I can't explain why  a bridge two miles away should raise my opinion of the neighbourhood, but somehow it does, and I remember being proud of showing off the stone arches of Key Bridge, the closest bridge to the house I grew up in in Arlington, VA.) And the best New Mexico food in the city is right by our house,  a moderately priced classy kind of place, not just a "red or green" chile/sopapailla shop. 

Our house is an expanded ranch-style house, with a studio above the garage. The studio is being rented out separately. The owner made out pretty well, I think. I doubt every house in NoPo could command a grand. But she is getting that from us and I'm sure the studio people are paying most of a thousand. She is a single mother who makes her living doing silk art so it is not like we are paying J. P. Morgan. She has gone back to New York to visit with her father, who is not well.

You can sort of imagine one of those 1980s Cher movies being filmed in this house. There is a little bit of a life-affirming vibe of heroic determination about our immediate block. The neighbours are colourful with strong personalities, with a lot of kids. 

The place is not clutter-free and has been lived in, but it is fully furnished, with a lot of antiques, such as a 1915 Wedgewood stove which is the rangetop and oven.  All the containers and such are exquisite. Outside there is a deck, with a porch/arbor on which there is a dining table under a shade that is shaped a little like a litter such as a raj might use to ride an elephant, and a sitting area under a silver or Japanese maple with amazingly delicate leaves that nevertheless provide total shade. 

I guess relative humidity is so low here in the summer that the living room just moves outside, even the upholstered parts of it.

I have no Internet at the house, and to be honest, it is time for a break. We may be away parts of this month and probably will not be online too much, as soon as my last projects are done.