Enter the front door of my flat. Go up the stairs to the main level, but instead of taking a left into the living room, turn to the right and open the small door that looks like it might lead in to a closet, but actually hides a staircase. Climb that staircase - narrow, wooden, painted white with a red carpet track runner. At the top, open the door ahead of you and proceed in to the attic. Watch your head… follow the attic space down to the end - about 20 feet - and turn to your right. Grab the hatch in the roof with the big metal handle, and lift it upwards and away from you. Climb through the hole. And look around.

And that’s the view - a nice panorama from NNW to ESE, or thereabouts. On a clear day, you can see Mounts Hood, Adams and St. Helens, and you get a great view of the Fremont bridge irrespective of the weather. Click here to see a larger version. Please accept my apologies for the shoddy image stitching job.

The building containing my flat is in some ways like a mullet. All business in front (the business of looking like a nondescript Northwest Portland house) and all fun in the back. Maybe fun’s not quite the right word, but there are quite a few things going on in the back courtyard that you might not expect to see in this neighborhood. A huge and unruly vegetable garden. A greenhouse. A bee hive. And there are also chickens. The owner was putting the coop together when I moved in, and it is now complete (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he has ceased to work on it). Chickens are now in residence. But these are no ordinary chickens. These chickens are for change. And according to a sign that appeared on the coop yesterday (well out of public view), they are voting for Obama. Oregon has historically not been a tough battleground for Democratic presidential candidates. With the urban chicken vote squarely in hand, I think Barack can safely stay away from this state until November, and every once in a while toss the chickens platitudes from afar about pro-Vegetarianism and the importance of repealing the no-rooster laws that prevail within Portland city limits.