Persimmon

A colorful photo for a bright and sunny day. There's just something about this photo that makes me happy. These  colors are so vibrant, the smoothness of the fruit so enticing. I have it pinned up by my desk and it brightens every day. One of these days the perfect project will show up that will allow me to use these colors. Come to think of it, the green and orange are ones I've used as part of the new color scheme for this year's SmartTrips program which will focus on neighborhoods along Portland's MAX Green Line. This link will take you to last year's SmartTrips North/Northwest program.

Persimmons are harvested in November and I can't remember ever eating one. No matter.  The photo was in Sunset magazine, photographer was Kathryn Kleinman/Foodpix.  I love Sunset but it continually reminds me of how much I love gardening and how little of it I actually do. Maybe this Spring. Like the photo of the persimmon, gardening lifts my spirits.

A cool paper company

http://www.ghplp.comGrays Harbor Paper Company hosted a sweet lunch time show at Bridgeport Brewpub. They make the coolest, most sustainable paper around. A small, family-owned business, it is keeping hundreds of people employed in Hoquiam, Washington. They are Green e-certified and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC: check it out if you don't know about this: FSC is a certification system that provides internationally recognized standard-setting, trademark assurance and accreditation services to companies, organizations, and communities interested in responsible forestry. The FSC label provides a credible link between responsible production and consumption of forest products, enabling consumers and businesses to make purchasing decisions that benefit people and the environment as well as providing ongoing business value).

Grays Harbor Paper produces their paper with renewable energy which is all produced on-site, they use carbon neutral power (locally-gathered wood waste) which means no additional CO2 released into the air. Last year they could claim all 365 days they produced paper without burning any fossil fuels.  Their big push now is to close the loop in recycling paper. This means after you buy the paper from them, get the job printed, disseminate the piece, have the end user recycle it, the recycler takes it to a plant in Halsey, Oregon where it is re-pulped or whatever it is they do to it, then it is trucked back to Grays Harbor to be made into paper again. Close the Loop. Keep the entire process in the Northwest. Makes good business sense.

Also they donated the paper for Grays Harbor 2020 Vision and Action Plan, the visioning document for the area which I designed.

www.ghplp.com  

http://graysharbor2020.com/

Some winter photos from central Oregon

Waterfalls falling

Boy were they falling yesterday in the Columbia Gorge. Lotsa rain means lotsa falls. Loved seeing new ones where they don't usually exist. Of course the classic is Multnomah Falls, with the perfectly-proportioned bridge to add perspective and scale. Natural beauty complemented with man-made (okay, human-made) engineering. Especially nice when there aren't a million people around, but then that's part of the beauty. Everybody, anybody, can discover magnificence here.

In the spirit of MLK day on Monday, check out this sidewalk art. It's on one of my walk routes.

Haiti Help

So yeah, I created an account at Mercy Corps who I believe is  the best relief organization around, not to mention they are right down the street. So if you haven't yet, click on through and donate a buck or two.

http://www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/christinerains

Finally updating

Since my new website is set for release shortly, I have decided to get my blog blogging regularly. Daily? Most likely only weekly unless I have a slow week which, fortunately, I haven't had for awhile.

CHina Exhibit yesterday. Posters from Shenzen were very cool. Wish we had cool-looking characters to work with, they make our letterforms look very pedestrian and boring. I especially liked the poster that was made for a Buddhist monastery using the word "mind" (was that it?) and you could only see it from certain angles. It illustrates how our mind is truly free in the surroundings of the monastery where it doesn't have the delusions of society working on it.