Portland - Rose City

The International Test Rose Garden in Portland Oregon is about as sweet as you can get. This garden is a testing ground for new rose varieties. Their web site says that there are more than 10,000 individual rose bushes of over 610 rose varieties. The garden is laid out with walking paths and a sitting area with a modern sculpture in the center. This is not a quick stop. This is a place to take a leisurely stroll and literally stop to smell the roses. This is a poet's inspiration. In this place in time, all life is about roses! 

A rose is a rose,
And was always a rose, 
But the theory now goes, 
An apple's a rose,
The pear is, and so's
The plum I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose, 
You, of course, are a rose - 
But were always a rose.
~Robert Frost

After visiting this garden, you can understand why Portland is called "City of Roses". The city started being landscaped with roses for its only world fair in 1905. During WW2 hybridists sent their roses over to Porland to protect them from the bombings. The friend I was visiting had some bushes in her yard that were flourishing.  Oh, Rose City, you will be in the sweetest of my dreams. 

Barcelona: Flamenco Night

The journey to the Gran Gala Flamenc at Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona began with some delicious food and wine at Elsa Y Fred.  Such a welcoming little place with a warm ambiance. The weather was perfect for a walk to the music hall. The show was mesmerizing, evocative, powerful and so much more.  The intense and beautiful flamenco dancers were like a dream. 

Nashville - Music City and Athena

 I've always wanted to visit Nashville, especially since my friend, country singer Mindy Miller, moved there. What better birthday present to myself than to finally walk the same street as music legends.   

The highlights of my visit were getting to see Mindy play, once with Natalie Brady at Redneck Riviera and once at Nashville palace with Pat Gulley. She has such an amazing set of pipes, and I really hope she goes far. So much talent. I was so choked up to get to hear Landslide played for me on my birthday.  

It was fun to visit the old Honky Tonks and imagine the singers and songwriters that played and made history in their halls. I truly enjoyed talking to the guy at Ernest Tubbs Records who sent me over to Robert's Western World for some traditional music. It did not disappoint. 

Bonus: There is a temple to Athena in Nashville! What a giant, golden, glorious surprise she was. 

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