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Short and Sweet and Scattershot

You Know What’s Long Overdue?

June 30, 2015

A good post.

One about adventures and food and family and friends.

Here’s the thing: I have two dozen stacked up in my brain, and each day ends without the spare minutes to write them down. (And no, I didn’t manage to put today’s leap second to use, either.)

But I’ll tell you what’s coming when the dust finally settles around here:

A surprise trip to Los Angeles.

A new backyard studio for my Landscape Architecture practice.

A successful Summer PDX Food Swap.

A little Peach who is nearly two years old and funnier by the day.

A husband who is SIX WEEKS away from being finished with grad school forever!

#✈ ️ #americafromtheair #twoOtoLA

A photo posted by bethany rydmark (@bethanyrydmark) on

 

The little snippets make it to Instagram.

For now, that’s where you’ll find me. And one random hour, when you least expect it, another honest to goodness blog post will pop up right here…

xx Bethany

P.S. I think you’re swell for keeping in touch and reading along.

Musings, Oregon, Portland, Tidbits About Us

Over the City and Through the Fir Trees

May 10, 2015

Full circle.

Back to the upper gardens of The Grotto…

My first visit: fall 2011, before flying away into a wild unknown. Most recently: late afternoon, in a tiny hollow of the week. Ted, relieved to take a break from finals. Me, momentarily disconnected from project deadlines and life juggling. Lucie, happy to walk and scamper on her own.

Sunbeams streaming low, over the city and through the fir trees. A stolen few hours awash in quiet calm… Continue Reading…

Food, Portland

So These Guys from Budapest Walk into a Portland Coffee Shop…

April 23, 2015

That’s it. No punchline. They walked into a Portland coffee shop, bought me an iced latte, and invited me to share pictures of food. Next thing you know, I’m cooking shrimp and sharing a photo of it on their beta app.

I love my life.

Slow cooker sweet corn polenta and chili lime shrimp, made today and shared (virtually) with my new friends over at @piqniq.

Last night’s Instagram post started it all: “Slow cooker sweet corn polenta and chili lime shrimp, made today and shared (virtually) with my new friends over at @piqniq.” I wasn’t even going to blog about it anytime soon, but with so many of my friends replying on the post (or texting direct!) asking for the recipe, I thought I’d share it here for ease of distribution…and I might as well include a little bit of the backstory. Continue Reading…

Musings, Oregon

Heart in Oregon Necklace Giveaway

April 13, 2015

heart in oregon necklace
I’m a sap for sentimental jewelry. I love wearing pieces that connect me to a story, and when I found these sweet little Heart in Oregon necklaces on Etsy, I just knew I’d be wearing one soon. I bought mine last week (and I’m wearing it right now!), and I’m excited to send a matching one out to one of you lovely readers: anyone, anywhere on the planet.*

To enter the giveaway, follow the instructions in the widget at the bottom of this post.

Congratulations to winner, Irene W.!

Read on for tidbits from jewelry designer Amanda Senten at Freshy Fig about her jewelry design, her childhood memories, and her upcoming travel dreams. Continue Reading…

Food, Short and Sweet and Scattershot, The Little Peach, Tidbits About Us

Family Time + Dessert Before Dinner

April 9, 2015

It’s pretty nifty for us that Portland’s best little organic frozen yogurt sweet spot is just blocks from Lucie’s daycare… On sunny days like today, Ted calls mid afternoon and says, “Meet you at 5:30 for ice cream!” 

Lucie and her dairy-free frozen yogurt at Eb & Bean

Typically, Ted leaves his office in the Lloyd District and heads for homework and night class up in North Portland, and I’m usually finishing up a day of drafting and preparing to trek back to outer NE with Lu for an evening of controlled chaos, dinner time, bathtime, and bed (and then a post-kiddo-bedtime attempt at squeezing in a few more to-do list tasks before Ted gets home at 10:30pm). All too often, we three feel like ships in the night during the week. Continue Reading…

Food, Oregon

Long, Long: Rambles from Lincoln City (and Life)

April 6, 2015

My little brother calls Lincoln City the “Chile of the Oregon Coast.”

The long, long skinny beach town hugs Hwy 101 for miles: a rambling collection of nondescript businesses, gas stations, and strip malls dotted with a few eye catching boutiques, outlet stores, and saltwater taffy shops. I remember my parents taking us to the shoreline in the eighties and nineties to watch soaring cloth birds fill the sky during the annual Summer Kite Festival, but my adult memories of Lincoln City consist of passing quickly through on drives to destinations north or south: never quite enough time or reason to simply stop and be there.

This trip, though, the pin on the map at the end of our route was just a west turn off Hwy 101 and two blocks from the sand: a cheery little beach house in Lincoln City, proper. Continue Reading…

Oregon, Short and Sweet and Scattershot

On the Trail to Lincoln City

March 27, 2015

Last Friday, Lucie and I joined our friends Heather and Micah and their girls Penny and Ramona for a spring break getaway to Lincoln City, Oregon and a calm weekend of tidepools and sunbreaks, games and seafood dinners.

Heather and I set aside trip dates on the calendar back in February, then I blinked and it was the night before departure. We called each other on the phone, “Did you?” “Nope. Not me.” “Not at all.” “I didn’t plan a single meal, I haven’t sorted clothes or groceries…” “I’m packing blind and winging it once we get there.” I paraphrase slightly, but you get the idea. We’re both moms with many irons in the fire, and sometimes getting out of dodge is an exercise in lunacy tempered with reckless optimism. Continue Reading…

BabyOregonian, Musings, Poems

Cargoes: Poem for a Wednesday

March 11, 2015

Lately, I’ve been dreaming of far off places again. Ted know this. As my head hits the pillow, I mumble fanciful wishes for plane tickets and foreign sublets and new horizons, unfamiliar sights and smells and tastes…

The siren’s song is everywhere.

I load little Lucie into her car seat, and we set out on the daily circuit around the city.

We have a new CD of poetry read aloud by Julie Andrews; her melodic voice fills the air as we drive (a pleasant jump from jazz radio) and briefly, ever so briefly, the poem Cargoes sweeps me away: Continue Reading…

ACE

Ace Learning Abroad: Architecture in the UAE

March 4, 2015
Parque 3 de Febrero

Visiting A Landscape Architecture Site in Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

One of my favorite choices during university was studying landscape architecture outside my own country. I spent a semester at Lincoln University in New Zealand, learning  new perspectives on my field, meeting terrific professors and classmates, and when I left, I took with me a lifelong appreciation for the people, the materials, the climate and the culture of the land I grew to love.

During our travels in Beirut, Lebanon, I enjoyed wandering the halls of the the American University of Beirut’s Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management. The students had cleared the classrooms for summer break, but evidence of their learning still lived pinned to the walls and piled on the studio desks. I loved peeking through their projects: sites and histories so different from any of my work at home.

Recently, I was browsing the American University of Sharjah’s website to learn more about their College of Architecture and found myself daydreaming about what it would be like to return to school in another part of the world. I’ve never been to the United Arab Emirates, but I’ve been curious about them ever since Jr. High world geography class.

Now and then I think yes, please! Sign me up to become a student again – even better if it could be in a corner of the world I’ve yet to explore.