Here is where I share some of an ever evolving list of the people and businesses and culture that I love and you may also appreciate. Please let me know if there are other resources you adore that I can check out and we can continue to mutually enrich our worlds:
Businesses:
A common theme in all these businesses I love is that they are small and unique and have character and strongly support the local community.
Green Hammer – an ecologically oriented contractor that continues to explore the leading edges of what it is to bring more ecological ways of thinking to how we design and build.
Blossom Earthworks – Todd and his crew have helped on many of our projects. They have a passion for permaculture and native plants. We have had a lot of fun working with what is already in a garden to reimagine how to enrich the landscape and ecology in affordable ways.
Bloomtown Gardens – Darcy is a great resource when you are looking to bring a more eclectic and exotic mix into your garden, with her own nursery in northeast portland to see plants before bringing them into your own garden.
Portland’s Alternative Realtors – these people are great to work with if you are looking for realtors who have a good sense of ‘green’ homes and community and a flair for uniqueness.
Portland Mid Century homes – Beth is a realtor with a wonderful passion for mid century homes and helping buyers and sellers of these types of homes. She is knowledgeable, has a great sense of what is on the market and she is very good at knowing what is good and fair pricing
Bluebird Real Estate – Toni is a dynamo and absolutely brilliant in the sometimes tricky process of negotiating home purchases.
Mirador – favorite little home store of a ‘green’ persuasion. Located at 21st and SE Division, owners Lynn and Steve are good friends whose store is a gem of a place for kitchen and home supplies and decor
WordPressTheming – Devin is who I worked with to develop this site and he is a passionate small webdesign business that loves working with wordpress for it’s flexibility and ease of use and he is fun to work with
Laura Russo Gallery – my favorite stop for some of the great artists of our bioregion, both contemporary and historic artists. I’ve learned more about art of our region here than anywhere else and they have a great inventory of many or our great regional artists, just ask and they are happy to show you sublime work
A couple gems in Manzanita on the coast:
* Unfurl - an ecological clothing store run by a great couple Suzie and Judson. They used to own the natural foods store and have now created this great store with clothing, shoes, jewelry, art and more that is thoughtful, ecologically oriented and beautiful
* Mother Natures – a great smaller natural food store, not the cheapest, but you get well selected products that draw from the riches of our region
* Cloud and Leaf - the best small bookstore I’ve ever been in. Jody, the owner, has done an amazing job of editing a very rich and varied selection of books and magazines, I don’t know how she gets so much into such a wonderfully cosy space
* Bread and Ocean – the local organic bakery and cafe and bistro on weekends. Julie, the owner, was the long time co-owner of the much missed Blue Sky restaurant, and has created this little slice of food heaven. There is great little deli, baked goods, catering and really high quality fine dining on the weekends
Books
I love being surrounded by books I love and here are a few that stand out:
Fiction:
Any Human Heart, by William Boyd. Feels like real life and interweaves a history of the 20th Century through the eyes of the protagonist, Logan Mountstuart
Waxwings, by Jonathan Raban. Set in Seattle and feels very place and time based set iin 1999. Weaves the tragedy and comedies of life with a big heart
Trask, by Don Berry. Some say this is one of the best books written in Oregon. I loved the setting on the coast as settlers and native americans are starting to live around each other. Historical and mythical.
Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami…and most any other work of his. He writes in dream like way that has japanese zen like writing coupled with capturing some sense of life in the liminal realms. The writer used to own a jazz bar and you can feel jazz in his writing style.
Creativity
The Practice of the Wild, by Gary Snyder. Still my favorite book by a writer who has spent time in the Pacific Northwest and lives in Northern California. A book that captures our innate need for wildness in our lives and nature and reclaims the wild from being marginalized as too messy. A poetic exploration.
The Courage to Create, by Rollo May. I’ve read a lot of books on Creativity and this is the one I’d take to my desert island. May weaves psychological insight with his notion of creative courage as us allowing ourselves to be the vehicle of new visions trying to emerge.
The Web of Life, by Fritjof Capra. Still my favorite book to explore notions of nature and ecology in our lives. Accessible writing and breadth of knowledge
If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland. If I could only have one book that weaves together creativity and exploring our own authenticity this would be the book. Brenda brings together ideas from great artists to reinforce her notion that we all have a unique voice to bring to the world and each voice is needed.
Design
The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain de Botton. The author explores in simple eloquence the idea that the design of the places we live can and should express our highest aspirations for ourselves. He draws from the history of architecture and thinkers in a very accessible and stimulating book
Groundswell: Constructing the Contemporary Landscape, edited by Peter Reed. This book highlights a number of landscape projects from around the world and looks at the current thinking about how to integrate nature and community. Beautiful photography and insights and includes one of my fave landscape designers and thinker, James Corner, who does wonderful job of articulating landscape design as a long term adaptive strategy based on processes of nature
Good House Cheap House, by Kira Obolensky. One of the more fun books that brings together contemporary design and creative and affordable ways to transform our spaces. I love this book and would recommend it for the elegant and cheap approach to doing concrete counters. Gorgeous.
Northwest Style, by Ann Wall Frank. The best book I’ve found for providing beautiful layouts and explanations of the history of our regions architecture and interior design. Also features the integration of beautiful art and artistic sensibility into creating our homes.
Natural Remodeling for the Not So Green House, by Carol Venolia and Kelly Lerner. True confessions, two of our projects are highlighted in this book. And I would recommend it regardless as I think it presents one of the most thorough and accessible discussions of many of the ecological considerations in ‘green’ restoration of our homes.
Magazines
I love monthly magazine fixes of humanity and new design ideas and thinking.
The Sun – a magazine that feels impossible to classify. It includes interviews, human interest, poetry, and at the back, Sunbeams, quotes that riff off of whatever the theme of that issue is. And then there is Readers Write, where readers send in their own stories related to the theme of the that issue. Moving.
Resurgence – put out from the UK, and it’s tag line is appropriate: at the heart of earth, art and spirit. Inspiring and insightful writing that covers all those topics and offers pragmatic sense of hope and examples of regenerative change that is happening.
Garden Design – bringing beautiful examples of garden design that integrates contemporary and historical approaches to landscape design. More emphasis on Eco-friendly gardens and approaches. Always inspiring
Elle Decor – somewhat misleading title, it’s not the fashion magazine. And though some would find this a bit mainstream and over the top in terms of high end projects, the magazine does the best job of any of the home design magazines of capturing artful and eclectic and just plain gorgeous design and decor
Metropolis – explores urban architecture and design with a modernist bent. While it can feel a bit industrial design like at times, I find this magazine rich in it’s looking at how design can respond to both urban and ecological needs. Nice profiles on some of the work of architecture and design innovators.