Have a seat

I was sure I'd have some blippable photos this afternoon from Liza's small dog meetup at the indoor dog park. But there was no natural light in the room, so I had to use a flash and the dogs all had ghastly green eyes. I mostly got photos of small dogs and their people's knees or butts - nothing remotely Blip-worthy.

Laurie and I had a couple of errands to run afterward, and I knew we'd be near this cob bench, so thought I'd get some shots as backup as I was pretty sure I'd have nothing to show from the dog meetup.

Awhile back I blipped about the bicyclist's memorial cob bench and tower in our neighborhood. This is another community gathering spot with a couple of cob benches, a kiosk for notices and flyers, nooks and crannies for offerings, prayer flags and a little lighthouse atop the structure. It's a welcoming spot, unless you have an aversion to mermaids with odd posture. It's incorporated into the garden of this house and comes right up to the sidewalk. (A small note of interest: years ago I lived next door to this house, long before the mermaid made an appearance.)

When we arrived, there was a young man looking at the posters in the kiosk. He marveled at the whole structure, impressed by the art, the bottles incorporated into the walls, the stonework and mosaic. He asked me questions about it, but I didn't have many answers, other than it was probably one of the City Repair/Village Building Convergence projects. He walked off smiling and I started taking photos. A minute later an elderly woman walking by stopped when she saw me.

She took a drag off her cigarette and muttered, "What a mess."

I said, "Do you think so? I think it's quite beautiful."

"Oh the homeless people hang out here and piss in here," she grumbled, tossing her cigarette in the street.
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Be sure to look LARGE. More photos, closeups here.

What is cob? To find out more about this amazing building material, click here. There are many small and large structures in Portland made from cob, including parts of our food co-op, People's. I plan to photograph a number of them over the next few months.