As part of Rose Festival each year, the organizers fill Pioneer Courthouse Square with plants. In the past, if my memory serves, it has usually been bright flowers and grasses in an elaborate design. After 2 weeks, they sell all the plants to the public on the cheap.
This year, they thought outside the box. While there are still annuals, there are plenty of perennials and even vegetables and herbs. The stairs of KGW’s studios are filled with blooming sunflowers. Over in the speaker’s corner are tomatoes – some flowering and some even with small tomatoes ready to grow.
The best editions to this year’s square are the chairs. Throughout the square are white Adirondack chairs and foot rests. They are in clumps, but can be moved to suit your needs. When I fist saw this last week, it was the first time I had actually seen people relaxing in Pioneer Square. One woman was knitting, another eating lunch. A businessman in a starched shirt had his eyes closed, maybe napping. Usually, there is a frenzy in the square- people trying to finish lunch or get somewhere or tell me about God. Now, it is serene as if we’re not in the middle of Portland anymore, but out in the country relaxing, knitting, drinking lemonade.
The plants go on sale this morning at 8am. It’s been nice to have them in the city the past two weeks.
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