Defining the Otsu-Gaki Style
We bid farewell to the parental units as they boarded jets to Minnesota yesterday. As luck would have it, the sun finally came out here in Portland for the last day of their visit. Proving that there are indeed a few days every year that it doesn’t rain here in wetTown USA. I guess it snowed something like 19 inches in the Twin Cities over the last week. So, they got that to look forward to.

Went out for some Thai food the last night they were in town. I ordered a papaya salad that could very well be the single spiciest dish that I have ever eaten. Even today, I’m still suffering some horrible kind of post-traumaitic stress that’s causing my lips to flare up even as I write and think about this.

Also Sunday we dropped by the Contemporary Crafts Museum & Gallery to catch the exhibit Defining the Bamboo Aesthetic. Beautiful pieces from international and local bamboo artists. This weekend the museum will be hosting an artists panel and demonstration. Charissa Brock the artist responsible for the sunflower sculpture (pictured above) will be on the panel.

And while I’m at it, the cheapest place I’ve found for bulk bamboo lumber (poles) is at Bamboo Gardens of Washington. A good source for live bamboo (besides stealing it from your neighbors yard) is the Bamboo Garden Nursery. Once you got all the supplies, then you’ll need the bamboo construction bible: Building Bamboo Fences by Isao Yoshikawa. Then you have to decide whether you will build your bamboo fence in the Otsu-gaki or the Misu-gaki style. More? A Bamboo blog and Bambu.