HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE !

Well, there is was again .. the Summer solstice!
I'm not a summer person so I'm not exactly welcoming the coming hot summer days, but I just realized that for a fall/winter person like myself it's actually a day to celebrate as well since it means that now we've crested that longest day we are marching back toward crisp autumn weather and longer nights. I can't wait! 
I just wish it would go a little faster than the few seconds a day at first and only 1 or 2 minutes by the end of the summer ... 

It has been a very warm week but Saturday started a little cooler and overcast so we decided to go on a little road trip and drove to Silverton, about an hour away from us.
I remembered seeing, when we were out that way for an appraisal, signs for the Gordon House, the only house built in the State of Oregon by Frank Lloyd Wright.
So we'd made reservations for the noon-tour and left after coffee.

We arrived a little early and took the time to walk the trail that circumnavigates the home and provides an opportunity to appreciate the home’s exterior from every angle.
One thing that I love about Wright is how his buildings’ profiles take on an entirely different identity when viewed from different vantage points.

                                   

Once inside we listened to a short lecture about the history of the house and it's original owners after which we went for a guided tour ...

The Gordon House is just one of over 50 homes scattered across the country that Wright designed in his 'Usonian' style, a revolutionary architectural concept launched in the 1930s to design affordable, efficient and beautiful homes for the middle-class Americans. 
These homes integrated seamlessly with the landscape and favored open floor plans, natural materials, and passive solar design., providing people an opportunity to be close with nature.
                                                  

Wright liked to incorporate large walls of windows into his designs, but did not like to use curtains and instead favored fretwork like the repeating design that you can see in the living room’s north facing windows (below right).
At the far end of the living room, a built-in sofa creates a cozy seating area where one can enjoy the home’s immense fireplace.  Built-in shelving and cabinetry are the foundation for the wall of windows above that are screened with Wright’s custom fretwork.

                                                        

Wright preferred that the “Work Space”, aka kitchen, be used strictly for meal preparation and not as a family congregation area as it is typically used today.

             

The bedrooms at either end of the hall upstairs were primarily used by the Gordon’s children and grandchildren.
In the eastern bedroom, glass doors surround the room on two sides, and the doors in corner of the room open as well.  The ceilings upstairs are all rather low which is said to inspire a feeling of tranquility and calmness:



I especially liked this little nook at the top of the stairs, where Wright purposefully designed a small nook for the owner's loom where she would spend hours weaving cloth.

                                                                

The house was almost destroyed when it was sold by heirs of the family it was build for in 2000.
Having no interest in the Frank Lloyd Wright aesthetic, the new owners had plans to demolish the house to make way for a new and much larger home to be built on the very spot where The Gordon House sat.
Fortunately, at the bidding of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy organization, the new owners agreed to donate the house – on the condition that it be moved from the property!

 

So starting in early 2001, the house was meticulously deconstructed, cut into pieces, and moved approximately 24 miles south to The Oregon Garden in Silverton where it was re-assembled, restored and opened to the public in the Spring of 2002.  

I'd say we are fortunate they did because it would have been a shame to loose this beautiful house, we liked it a lot!



Since it was after 1pm hen the tour was over we drove into Silverton for a bite to eat. 
This Spanish & Mediterranean restaurant called Oso sounded good to us, so we went in and split a combo plate with Greek meatballs, tsatsiki, pita bread, rice, a marinated vegetable kebab and a Greek salad:

Not bad!

We decide to add another destination to our outing and drove to the town of Mt Angel to visit the Abby, something I had been interested to do since visiting this town in 2021 for it's Octoberfest.

               

Mount Angel Abbey is a working Catholic Benedictine monastery and seminary located on a Hilltop in Saint Benedict, and as of 2021, home to approximately 51 monks.
Founded in 1882 by Swiss monks from Engelberg Abbey, the serene hilltop campus offers a Romanesque church, the by Finish architect Alvar AaltoAlvar Aalto-designed library (which unfortunately is closed on Saturdays), hiking trails, a museum, and public access to the Brewery and Taproom. 

The eight bells of the bell tower, which visible from 10 miles away, comprise the largest free swinging bell set on the West Coast. The heaviest weighs four tons. 
Their tolling the prayer cycle throughout the day is quite moving.
                                       

The expansive campus is surrounded by oak woodlands, peaceful walkways, and sweeping views of the Willamette Valley.
As we walked the inner courtyard under the large beautiful trees, you have a sense of such peace and serenity.
 


The church is beautiful, very bright, with a large organ and many statues ..

                    

     

That's St Benedict on the left and St Scolastica, the twin sister of Saint Benedict and the patron saint of Benedictine nuns, on the right:

         

The Benedictines are noted for their hospitality and their "prayer and work" motto, their mandate is to treat every guest as Jesus.
The monks pray the Liturgy of the Hours five times daily in choir, and devote themselves to reading and silence.  

As the oldest seminary in the western United States, Mount Angel is the only seminary in the West that offers a College of Liberal Arts, a Graduate School of Theology, and a Doctor of Ministry degree program.

The quirky museum features an eccentric collection of artifacts such as taxidermied animals of every sort (even a polar bear), American Civil War memorabilia and the world’s largest porcine hairball.

                                                           



Also on the grounds is this pretty little chapel at the small cemetery:

                                            


Saint Benedict is the name of the post office at the Abbey. 
When it moved from Gervais to the town of Mt. Angel in 1884, the postal service would not allow the abbey to establish its own post office as it was less than a mile from the Mount Angel post office. 
So they named the grounds the town of Saint Benedict which has has its own zip code and is known as Saint Benedict, OR.

                

On the lush south lawn of the Abbey Church, welcoming guests and visitors, stands this iconic angel statue depicting a protective guardian angel, gently guiding and looking over a small child:

                                                 

As I said, the library is closed on the weekend, which was a real bummer since it's apparently a stunning building .. oh well, a good reason to come back.

It's a beautiful, peaceful place and we were glad we made the impromptu decision to go there!

But wait, there was more ... let's not forget the brewery!
Every monastery is traditionally designed to be self-sufficient, a practice that actually dates back to the rule of St Benedict in the 6th century, which states that manual labor is a core part of spiritual life. 
To achieve this independence, monasteries produce a wide variety of goods to sell to the public.

                  

Here in Mt Angel they choose book-binding and beer-brewing.

The monks opened the brewery, Mount Angel Abbey’s Benedictine Brewery and Taproom, in the fall of 2018 on a peaceful hillside overlooking Willamette Valley, hop fields, distant mountains.

It is likely the only beer in the US that receives a priestly blessing at every stage, from raising the hops to pulling the tap. 

                           

Located on the expansive grounds, this brewery operates in the ancient monastic tradition. 

A taproom that goes by the name of St. Michael’s. 
We  decided to sample what the monks had to offer .. good beer. Like they say, “taste and believe.”

 

Seating is available indoors and outdoors so we took our glass of Haustus (a Latin noun meaning a 'drink', 'draught', or 'the act of drawing water') out to the patio. 

How about these names: Dark Night, Haustus (a Belgian Pale Ale) and Mea Culpa (which comes from the traditional Catholic Confiteor prayer, where it is repeated three times (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) to signify personal responsibility for one's sin). 
There's also a St Benedict (of course), St. Michael and St. Raphael and their signature beer Black Habit (a dark ale).

                                                             

We actually celebrated the Summer Solstice with a potluck we were invited to by our landlords at their house up the hill from us.

I'd made a platter of deviled egs, as I usually do, and we enjoyed the company and the many delicious dishes they brought.

                                             Not a bad start of the summer!

                                     

This Sunday was the 25th annual Garden Tour and Fair in Mcminnville. 
We didn't get to go there last year since I sprained my ankle on the Friday before, so we were looking forward to go this year.
Again, like last year, the temperatures had been rising steadily throughout the whole of last week and on Sunday the predictions were for a scorching 92F (33C)!!
Not the best temperatures to be out and about but I guess cold and rainy weather would have been a lot worse! 

We went early hoping to beat the heat some and were at the Fair at 9:30 am.
Apparently lots of people had the same idea:

               

We slowly strolled by the more than 70 garden- themed vendors ... traditional and specialty plant growers, amazing garden art, wearable art (clothing and jewelry) and even some garden furniture ..
        
            

                                   

After browsing for an hour we were happy to escape the rising temperatures (already around 86F/30C at 10:30!) for a little with coffee at Union Block coffee on 3d street where they, beside serving good coffee and a vegan coffee-cake (not bad!), had the AC going full blast ... ah, bliss!

          

             

We finally braved the outside again for the tour of the 5 private gardens that were selected this year.

  
    
         

One of the gardens had a very peaceful Asian theme full of beautiful large statues, lots of azaleas, bamboo and hydrangeas.

And this following one, situated on top of Hill Rd, sported a pretty water-fall and even a pool on the south-side, overlooking the vineyards and hazelnut trees down below and Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson in the far distance!



                     


Of course the roses are stunning around this time of the year, especially in this lovely garden which the owner tributes to her mother who was an avid gardener and grower of beautiful, old fashioned plants, especially (sweet smelling!) roses!



Look at this arbor ... I want one just like that in my future garden!

                                                      

  One of the gardens was embellished with beautiful pottery the owner makes herself:                                              

                                  

  There even was some entertainment:      

                                 

We were done at 1:00 pm and when we got home around 1:30 pm the temperature had indeed reached 92F!

   

It had been a beautiful morning but we were glad to stay inside for the rest of the afternoon where our AC worked hard to keep us at a comfortable 76F.

The meadows around us are already being mowed but the berms are still producing new (to me) flowers, like these Meadow Checkerblooms on the left and big yellow Mule Ears on the right.

      

Soon, they will disappear when the summer heat will be too much even for them ... but these daisies will last longer, they'll go on forever:

                           

I haven't seen too much of the deer lately, since the logging trucks have started to bring trees down from the hill, but yesterday I came up these two ...

 

And to end with some more good news: the frogs have stopped their insane, excessive croaking for more than a week now! 
I guess the hierarchy has been established and the mating has ended so it seems that            once again peace and quiet has returned to our little piece of paradise.
                                             

 

Just like last year, the wild rose I dug up from somewhere on my landlord's property (with her approval of course), is flowering profusely. 
No scent, unfortunately ..

The weather has been very stable, temps in the high 60s, low 70s and no more frosty nights for quite some time now so I decided to buy my summer plants and warm(er) weather vegetables.
It wasn't until I came home with these cute little Million Bells, similar to mini-petunias, that I realized that my big hanging baskets in the front of the RV are actually planted with the same! They're in a different color at least so it's not very obvious. 

 

  

    

 

What were supposed to be my cold-weather vegetables, like lettuces, spinach  and arugula, are finally waking up (after I re-sowed them 3 times!) and are looking almost ready to eat.

 and I added some dill, basil and cilantro to my herb planter:

 

     

 

Those yellow dots by the way are marigolds, of which I planted two in each box. Apparently their strong aroma masks the scent of nearby vegetables, confusing pests like tomato hornworms and whiteflies. 
I can use any help I can get!

And those strawberries I planted so diligently in my 2 large, self-watering planters, raised on a table and covered with chicken wire so the chipmunks couldn't get them?

     

Well ... that didn't work squat! Already the next morning several of them (still green by the way) had a bite or two out of them!
So I took them out of those planters, which freed them up for a butternut squash and a honey-dew melon:

 

 

 

 

... and divided the strawberries over three hanging baskets I'd saved from last year:

  

 

 

Well, wwhaddayaknow? This time the birds started to peck on them! ... sigh ... so I had to bring out the %$#@! bird netting, that sticks to anything but what you want it to, and wrap them all up!
Who's next? Bring it on!

Sadly enough our landlord got a little carried away with his new big mower and mowed down 'our' wild grasses next to the RV.

 

          

Granted, they looked a little unruly but there was the occasional wildflower popping up and I liked the wind rippling through the high stalks ... oh well, we'll probably have a second growth!
Fortunately I picked some of the wildflowers before he did that, and there's a lot more of them in other areas, and brought them inside.

 

                                    

                                                   

The bees have been flying for a while now and my little bee-house has been used already by both the orchard-mason bees as well as the leaf-cutter bees:

 

                                                       

Masons on the left, cutters on the right ..
 

I've been on a shopping spree this week .. which is quite the adventure for me since I'm definitely not a big spender, but my mum had sent me some money for Christmas and I still hadn't done much with it so here it goes ..
First up; new hiking shoes and sandals! 
I've used Merrell's Jungle Mocs for years as my go-to winter shoes, and I love them, but I was looking for something a little more 'hiking' shoe now and found these, the Merrell Crosslander (top right):

 

                                                        
I love them! Very lightweight, very comfortable, surprisingly 'roomy' for the tootsies and with excellent traction!
I also splurged on new hiking sandals, the straps of my previous ones constantly slipped loose and although I added some Velcro to them they kept doing so.
I went for Walmart's Dream Pairs, a lightweight, comfortable sandal. Waterproof and best of all, the strap stays tight!

But wait, there's more ..
My hand-blender, which I used for our morning smoothies, gave up the ghost so I replaced it with a blender, something that has been on my wish-list for a while:

  

It works so much better for said smoothies, although I might still replace my hand-blender for a new one as well because this won't work for pureeing soup (in the pan) of course.

O, I almost forgot (I know, but I said I went on a spree), I got me a cute new reader case for my Kindle since my old one was falling apart:

This one has two nifty upgrades, besides looking so much cuter than my old, boring black one, it has slots for cards (library, etc.) on the inside and two strips there on the left side which create a stand when you want it upright.

 

                                           

So far I'm happy with all I got, everything fit just perfectly, I didn't have to return anything, which is quite a miracle.

To top all this off I'm planning to pick up this silverware set on Wednesday at our local Walmart:

                        

We're sick and tired of our old set, which has very heavy grips that always find a way to slide off the plates when bringing them to the sink after dinner or tip over the bowl or cup your spoon is sitting in, etc. 
These are supposedly well balanced and quite light, so out with the old, in with the new!

So .. thanks again Mum, I think I'm going to enjoy all of this for quite some time!

 
I also finally finished my puzzle. 
I love this one, although it took a long time to finish, which had more to do with how busy we've been of lately ..