Sweetthings By Arlene

Lavender and Goat's Milk Soap

I ran into Arlene at the Farmer’s Market in Drain last Sunday. Arlene and her husband grow produce and lavender and sell at local farmer’s markets. Arlene also makes goat’s milk soaps and lotions, using herbs to make them even more special. I buy my soaps from her and my daughter loves her scented skin balm. Arlene is refurbishing an outbuilding on her property in Cottage Grove and hopes to be able to sell her items from there soon. She also has Etsy and Ebay shops, sweetthingsbyarlene at both. Next week I am hoping to get out to her place so I can take pictures of her lavender fields. I’ll post them on here when I get them. Here is her farmer’s market schedule:

Tuesdays from 4-7:00PM–Creswell Market

Wednesdays from 4-8:00PM–Coiner Park in Cottage Grove

Thursday afternoons–The Bread Club at Kalaypuya Bookstore on Main in Cottage Grove

Saturdays from 10-4:00PM–Trailhead in Cottage Grove

Sundays from 11-4:00PM–Drain Farmer’s Market near the grocery store

Last Sunday I bought some olive oil and goat’s milk soap and was going to buy some baby artichokes to grill but I got too busy talking to everybody and I forgot to get them. Another customer was telling me how she grills them and how delicious they are. Arlene’s products are wonderful, all natural, homegrown and she uses minimal packaging, a practice I am fond of. Besides that, she’s just plain nice.

If you go to the Drain Farmer’s Market and the vegan Hawaiian catering truck is there you MUST get lunch. My daughter’s favorite is their rice, bean and fresh greens bowl with garlic creme sauce and my favorite is the hummus sandwich. Someone said the dumplings are excellent also. It’s a small market but great stuff and exceptionally friendly people. Stop by and check it out.

Lavender bunches by Arlene

Changing My Focus

It’s summer now and school is out and I won’t be hanging out at the library all day. I’ve also got my house for sale in Drain (http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1421-Laurel-Hill-Dr_Drain_OR_97435_1107620612) and will be moving to Cottage Grove once that happens, which means I won’t be Stuck in Cottage Grove any more; I’ll be a happy resident. So it’s time to change the focus of this blog and I would like to change it to something I’ve been thinking about for a while.

Cottage Grove is a wonderful little town with all of the usual problems any town has but it is still a near perfect example of Small Town America and I am very saddened by what I see happening here and, I’m sure, in most small towns left around the country. Local businesses are closing up and self-employment is becoming more difficult. I want to try and do my small part to keep the self-sufficient, local culture of Cottage Grove and some of its neighboring towns alive and kicking. I will be showcasing businesses and their owners and encouraging people to support these businesses. I don’t want to see any more of them disappear.

My next post will be about Sweetthings by Arlene, a homebased husband and wife endeavor. Hope you’ll come back to read it.

Way Behind

I’m having trouble keeping up. I’ve got three part time jobs now and I’ve been working a lot, which has kept me from being able to work on ideas for the blog. I’ll try to catch up a bit.

We didn’t get to go to the All Species Parade and I haven’t heard anything about how it went, but we had a pretty heavy snowfall that weekend so I’m not sure what kind of turn out they had. Too bad. It sounded like it would have been a fun event. We were down in Roseburg that day or we would have tried to go.

Remember the Heart Gallery I’ve been writing about? That’s the portrait gallery program that features older children looking for adoptive homes. Well, I’m now one of the Cottage Grove volunteers who will be handling the displays. If anyone would be interested in having a display in their place of business, let me know. Not all of the galleries have to be as large as the one at the library in Cottage Grove. If you want to help, we can figure something out. I haven’t done anything official yet but I’ll let you know when I do. It’s an exciting thing to be a part of. I’m looking forward to it.

I also started a subscription with Good Food Easy, the community supported agriculture program I wrote about before. I’ve had two pick ups so far. I’ve paid only for a month’s worth and I will report after the end of the month about whether I found it to be worthwhile.

Our chickens have been laying like crazy. We can’t really keep up. If I get organized enough, maybe I’ll start selling the eggs.

Hope it’s not quite so long before I write again.

All Species Parade

Wow. I can’t believe how long it’s been since I wrote. Life. It just interferes so much with everything.

Coming up on April 19th is Cottage Grove’s first All Species Parade. It is being coordinated by Tinika Ossman, who is a mutual friend of Lesley’s, the woman who owns Victoriana (see previous post in February, I think). Tinika is the woman who sets up the display case in the library, where I hang out most of the time. There is a very nice display case that is used to showcase people’s collections. My slide viewer collection is going to be exhibited there in May. When Tinika called me to set that up, she told me about the All Species Parade. I’ll post here what it says on the flyer because it’s pretty unique, especially some of the things associated with the preparation.

“Who: Any child or adult who wants to wear a costume of their favorite animal, as it is in nature, or in literature, or as a totem. Also, small pets in costume, but they must be on a leash. Groups are encouraged. Sorry, no cars, motors or horses.

Where: Downtown Cottage Grove on Main Street. We’ll step off from North 5th Street, walk east to 8th Street and then back up to 5th and around again. This promenade-style of parade route enables everyone in the parade to see the parade.

Exhibition: Animal costumes and designs/Art Walk. March 8th 6 to 8 PM at Victoriana, 538 E. Main St., Cottage Grove.

Slide Show: Information, discussion, and help with group costumes and choreography for non-dancers. Don’t be shy now! Saturday March 29th 12 noon to 3PM, CG Community Center, 700 E. Gibbs St [that's where the library is].

Workshops: Costumes, Puppets and Mask-making. Centro Community Theatre, 513 E. Main St, Wednesdays April 2, 9, 16th from 6 to 9 PM and Saturdays April 5 and 12 from 10 AM to 5 PM.

For more information and creative help call Tinika Ossman at 767-3766″

The Centro Community Theatre is where they recently had an underwater Western production. I wanted to go but wasn’t able to. Lesley just told me that it was super cool. Sure wish I could have gone. What a concept–an underwater Western play–and everything was done by locals. This community definitely has a creative side and it’s obvious by all of the willing assistance and sharing of resources that the joy of the creativity is what motivates everyone, not the hope of making a buck or two. Even if my daughter and I can only attend the parade and not appear in it, I will report back about how it turned out. The workshops sound like a lot of fun in themselves. Should be a unique experience.

Adoption Update

The Heart Gallery is still on display at the library and when I got here today I saw that two of the kids–a brother and sister–have been adopted. That’s wonderful. Here’s their picture again.

River Road

River Road is a fairly main street that runs basically north and south through town. The section of the road that runs south from Main St has one of my favorite spots to sit and watch the river and it has some of my favorite houses. That’s also the part of River Road where my feed store, Old Mill Farm Supply, is located. Old Mill deserves its own entry so I will write about it another time. Today I just want to share some pictures.

I parked at my favorite spot, which is a little turnout in the road where cars can park and people can feed the ducks. There are mini-rapids at this point in the river and a nice concrete bench with moss to sit on. The houses across the river are all very interesting to view from the backside. Most of them are simple homes but they have funky decks and walkways down to the water. I love to try and imagine the old days in Cottage Grove and what life along that river used to be like.

I fed the ducks and geese a little when I first pulled in because they rush all vehicles, expecting goodies. I happen to always carry chicken feed in my car because our five chickens try to follow us whenever we go anywhere in the car, so we keep a tin of feed in the van so we can throw some handfuls out and distract them long enough so we can drive away. I got some shots of the birds, the mini-rapids and some houses. One of my absolute favorite houses is right next to this spot. It is an old ranch style house, very mid-century with Japanese influence landscaping. I love that place and am trying to get up the courage to knock on the door and ask for a tour or the chance to take more photos. Even taking photos from the road, I feel intrusive.

After taking some shots near where I parked, I walked north to get shots of some of my favorite houses across the street from the river. I came to the suspension bridge, which I have long admired but never walked across. Wow. Quite the moving experience. The bridge undulates and the sensation is a lot stronger than I would have expected. Very cool. I’m going to have to take my daughter back there. She would love it.
As I was crossing the bridge and taking photos I noticed what looked like a small house or outbuilding that was being hand constructed on the other side of the bridge. I was so surprised when I realized that the house was being constructed around an old school bus, with vines still growing over it. Sigh. It was love at first sight. I crossed the bridge and found that the main house associated with the bus house was just as magically funky. I definitely need to find the courage to knock on some doors and get some tours. The house looked like it was three structures, not including the bus house, and two of those structures appeared to be hand-built, taking a lot of time and using handy materials. There was a bare but mossy brick courtyard in front and on the street was a very large, very old sash window with a sign on it that said “Free Old Window”. I walked to the end of the street so I could figure out how to find the house the non-bridge way, then I walked back and got my van. I am now the proud owner of a very large, very old sash window. It will be the first of many that I hope to collect so I can build my own greenhouse. I should have taken a picture of it. I will once I get it home. And I will go back and make contact so I can, hopefully, take more pictures of that beautiful home. I think I could start a new blog about Lane County homes. They have some truly inspiring, magically delightful places throughout the county. I could focus on different neighborhoods or streets. I’ll have to give that some thought. I have always loved homes and the creative ways that people bring them to life. And I would love to have an excuse to explore them inside and take lots and lots of photos.

Don’t forget to click on the photos for closer views and some comments.

Lane County Heart Gallery

Today I was going to write an entry on my other blog and then take a walk along River Road and photograph some of my favorite spots for watching the river and some of my favorite houses along there. But when I got to the library, there was a photo exhibit set up in the lobby area where I usually sit. The exhibit is called the Heart Gallery and it is part of a program called A Family For Every Child. The gallery is all photos of children who are in foster care and are looking for permanent, adoptive homes. Professional photographers take their portraits for free and then the photos are professionally matted and framed, also at no cost. The photos are exhibited around the county in different venues. I checked the website listed on the accompanying literature and I was particularly struck by the fact that 32 of the 33 kids featured in the first Heart Gallery a year ago found permanent homes, or Forever Families, as the program calls them. That’s pretty amazing. The Heart Gallery is a national program but apparently the program in Lane County Oregon has had exceptional success. I think that says something about this community.

I’m including cropped pictures (there was a lot of glare) that I took of the portraits. Click on the pictures for a larger picture and for a tiny bit of info. Each child and more information about them can be found at http://www.lanecountyheartgallery.org/

The website also seems to have lots of information about other ways we can all help, even if we can not adopt–mentoring programs, donations, sponsorship, etc. I’ll be taking a closer look tonight at home.

Community Center Quilts

The building that houses the library where I do a lot of my hanging out is also home to the community center, senior center and Chamber of Commerce. I’m not sure what kinds of things are available through the community center or senior center but I do know they serve a rather lovely-smelling lunch at least once a week. They also seem to have some craft classes and they have a sign that directs visitors to the therapy pool. Sounds neat. The first time I explored the halls of the center outside of the library, I discovered a beautiful display of quilts. Except for one (my favorite) that had an Asian theme, all of the quilts had butterflies incorporated into them. They were all quite lovely and I kept meaning to take pictures of them. Well, earlier this week I went back down the hallway and the quilts had been changed. My favorite Asian one was still there but all of the butterfly ones were gone. The new quilts had handwritten signs next to them identifying what style of pattern the quilt represented. One of my favorites was made with vintage cloth pieces from the 40’s and 50’s. I took pictures of the new quilts so I wouldn’t regret it later and I took close-ups of some of my favorite parts. The photos didn’t come out as good as I had hoped but they give you an idea of what they look like. I couldn’t find anybody who knew much about them so I don’t know who the makers are. Click on the thumbnails to view the quilts larger. Sewing is one of those crafts that I wish I could do but know I will never take the time to get good at. Or even mediocre at. I definitely respect those who have the patience and talent.

Added on 2/22: I found out today that all of the quilts displayed, now and before, were created by one woman. Wow. Her name is Sharon Kidd and I wanted to make sure she got credited. Very impressive.

More Yurt Photos

I didn’t get a chance to post all the pictures of the yurts that I took. Here they are. Click on the thumbnails to get larger views of the photos. Photos can also be clicked again to view separately.

My Work

I didn’t get a chance to write this week because I wasn’t stuck this week. I had to work full-time because the flu swept through my place of employment and it was all hands on deck. I work as a receptionist at an assisted living facility and as the activities director at the same facility’s memory care wing. When I worked Friday it looked like almost everybody was on the mend, though, and I’m hoping all will be back to normal after this weekend.

I’ve worked with or been around seniors just about my whole life but working where I do now at the assisted living facility has made me realize just how full life can be at any age and at any level of mobility. Too many people believe that seniors lapse into some sort of special elderly level of life–that love becomes non-physical, that personalities can be divided into “sweet little old” or “crotchety old”, and that participation in the day to day becomes strictly passive. It’s simply not true. I know I knew this at some level but until I could see it for myself on a regular basis it never really sunk in. It does my heart a world of good to know that romance and sex and soap opera drama can be part of my life even if I live to be 100. I’ll still be able to sit with my girlfriends and gossip in a corner. I’ll still be able to express my opinion and have it not only be heard but have it be valued. I’ll be able to dance even if I’m in a wheelchair and dress up in silly costumes for a variety of occasions. Working where I work, I know now that I don’t ever have to grow up and that youth truly is a state of mind and not the passing of years. If anybody doubts that, drop by Magnolia Gardens and see for yourself. But be prepared to leave feeling better about life than when you arrived. It’s kind of contagious that way.

(I thought I’d lost this entry but I just found it. I actually wrote this last weekend, I believe. I’ll try to get a picture up later. It’s a beautiful place.)