Gimme Shelter!
Anyone following my blog must be wondering by now what happened with my moving plans, or if I’ve simply fallen off the face of the earth. It turns out that I was left waiting for a full 3 months for a particular house I’d been waiting to share with some other artists (see details on my previous blog entry, ” A Portland Housing Story”). Long story short, we decided once this house was finally available NOT to take it. We had to leave our previous situation before it could be available, and even after that we would have had several weeks of work to do to make it live-in ready. By this time, we were no longer up for the overhaul and simply wanted to find a move-in ready home. We tried to find another place that would accommodate all of the house-mates we spent so much time assembling, but the search proved unpromising.
Luckily, my partner and I did find a house that works out nicely for the 2 of us to share with a midwife and her two daughters (8 and 14). I wasn’t specifically looking for a family situation, but as it turns out I’m very happy that this is where we landed. We’re now in Clinton, our favorite Portland neighborhood. We are close to natural foods groceries, a great strip of restaurants and cafes, and next door to a community garden and school. We have a large yard, a garden, 4 chickens, 2 pet rats, an orange tabby, a trampoline, a huge basement/studio, and wake up to the sounds of school children playing in a nearby playground. The kids add a lot of life to our new home, and I have no doubt that this will be a good place for creative blooming. One small coincidence: our house-mate works for the Alma Midwife Center, which is mentioned in my previous entry regarding the belly-cast.
I took this photo before the move, but I hope to replace it with one that includes all of us, and some of the creatures that make this place already feel like “home”.
