Archive for the ‘travels’ Category

The last art-related thing I did before hubby’s surgery on November 13 was do the yearly ArtFest at the Milton Artists’ Guild and Gallery. I could only do Saturday, and a friend helped me out, but we had a great time – and we sold both fabric and framed art – two pieces, including the large one I was working on on Instagram in October…and I learned how to use Square – which has come a long way since I first saw it used in 2012 at the StashFest in La Conner, Washington – new technology then, real easy now.

We did do some simple day trips this summer, and did take 3 days on the Cape before surgery. Vermont is gorgeous in the summer, and the Cape was beautiful off season, especially since we were right on the beach. Now it’s time to be thinking about all the shows coming up this year, and all the logistics involved in organizing which pieces go where….

Schenectady, NY on the Mohawk River at sunset

East side of Lake Champlain, North Hero

Overlook Park in South Burlington, looking west

Queechee, Vermont

SOLD! “A River Runs Through It” – hand-marbled, machine stitched

Sacandaga Lake, visiting my cousin whom I hadn’t seen in 45 years

Saranac Lake on a summer’s eve

Waitsfield, and the Mad River

Burlington lake front, from the Champlain ferry

More from our two-day stay – and again, playing around with lighting, cropping, and other assorted photo thingies (too technical to mention)….

Storm the day before, so at low tide the beach was LOADED – took this for my other Mom, Betty – she of the tidepooling book!

Next day – the gulls had scavenged whatever food there was left!

My early morning companions for beach-walking –

See what cropping does for this one –

View from our porch – Like the various textures in this one above –

This is a series – was playing with light for a possible “plein air” fabric painting…..

Manages to clone out the plastic cup, cropped it with some lightening – now I feel it’s a good picture.  

Next year……

We just had to get away this autumn, what with upcoming surgery and other commitments. I found a place directly on the ocean, room with a view, just feet away. Perfect! We visited a lot of beaches along the southern coast – more on those in the next post. But our last morning we went to find a place called Gray’s Beach, that extended out into the bay over lots of marshes and wetlands. Early morning light – wonderful!

This first is as you start to walk on on the boardwalk. No color adjustments, just some cropping.

Notice the difference.

Isn’t the mud wonderful?

Other side of the boardwalk –

Every slat of the boardwalk has something carved into it – memories, names, etc.

Love me that mud!

The town of Vergennes was settled around the French and Indian War, very big up here in the Vermont/New York area. The downtown has begun to revitalize, although some of the outer businesses haven’t been able to make a go of it. We hadn’t done much exploring within Vergennes, as it was always on the way to somewhere else. This time we took the turn for Vergennes Falls and were delightfully surprised at what we found – gorgeous falls, running wildly from the rain, and some great picnicking to return to next summer. Lots of photo ops, and a chance for me to experiment yet again. The sun wasn’t perfect,m so you can see how I played around with that. Definitely a place to come when the sun is exactly right – start keeping that in mind when we set out to explore.

Definitely benefits from cropping  and sharpening – this is the middle of the three falls:

Much better with the light – Close-up, just some cropping –

Almost impossible to get all three falls in, given my little phone camera –

The original – you know I love bark –

With cropping – light issues –

Black and white, as part of an online challenge – I will continue to work with some black and white – really love the effect.

Not really able to take much of a long vacation this year – getting ready for surgery, finances, hurricanes cancelling Delaware – lots happening, so we did manage to get a few wonderful short rides around Vermont, exploring a lot of new off-the-main-road places. I am using my camera phone and hubby uses his little point-and-shoot. A new DSLR is on the agenda for next year, but in the meantime I am understanding the difference between digital zoom and optical zoom – explains why my “close-ups” hardly ever are in focus. I also am concentrating on more interesting framing of my pictures. I find I take more pictures, and usually have one or two good ones out of each batch.

This trip was a Sunday drive down around the the town of Georgia, perched right on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. Normally we take the road from north to south, but this time we went south to east – like it was a completely different area! Sometimes it pays to look backwards at where you’ve been Discovered this beautiful boat access that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Plus, we’d had so much warm weather for October that autumn was pretty sketchy for New England – then suddenly the leaves turned – almost over night. We hit a couple of good spots for leaf-peeping.

This top one benefited from cropping. I was moderately successful at removing electrical wires.

This next series was looking north on St. Alban’s Bay – you can see how the cropping helped with more interest.

I fell in love with turning to the left to see what was there – light wasn’t perfect, but I think there’s a lot of interest in the photo.

Better with the cropping.

Some lighting contrast.

I love it in black and white!

Facing the bay, northwest. Light was not great, but I was playing.

A gorgeous Vermont autumn day!

…there’s a LOOONNNGGG list of bookmarks of stuff I’ve found over the past 6 months of being with friends. So here goes:

Found the RCP blog – really interesting look at having phots and such scanned as large images, rather than blowing up a photo….love the look and can see lots of possibilities!

If you follow this blog, you know I am a passionate follower of TED talks . Here’s another great one, especially in light of trying to educate girls and women across the world.

Also from TED – world problems attached to laughter – 10 Funniest TED talks. Provocative and funny at the same time.

You know I love creating zentangles. Now here comes the next best thing – coloring books for adults, using zentangles as a base. I’ve asked Santa…..

Rumor has it you can get a deal on markers from Amazon….or your local craft store……

LOVE what Judi can do with a sewing machine! Her quilting designs are absolutely amazing. I can dream……

I think most people have seen the mashup of Hitler taking on current problems…..some funny ones that have been done. Here’s one dealing with Burlington, VT, our new home.

from Atlas Obscura, more amazing pictures, this time of root bridges.

If Jurassic Park had been set in different geologic ages (would be great for the middle school science classroom)……

Yosemite was ( and is) magical…

120 Hours In Yosemite Valley from Tahoe Media Collective on Vimeo.

And finally, some nerd humor…..love anything that is a play on Latin!

In May, as spring was in full bloom, we headed south to visit Crown Point and its new bridge. We had watched the video a bunch of years ago about the destruction of the old bridge, and now we had a brand new one. Most of Crown Point hubby hadn’t seen for years, and I hadn’t been to the fort and the lighthouse. The colonies had both British and French forts at this location, active during the French and Indian War – nicely done job on a small museum.

Light house at Crown Point, NY

Samuel Champlain

New York side, looking toward Adirondacks

Shoreline on NY side

The new bridge – you can walk across

Baking bread

Evening Moon

Lots of thoughts kind of rambling through the head these days, main one is that my novel IS DONE!!! (Insert happy dance!) I’ve set up a page through webnode.com to talk about various items related to the politics within the novel, as well as things I’ve discovered in writing fiction. I’ll post it when I’m ready to reveal it for comments. In the meantime I have my last round of editing to do, and then it’s query letter to literary agents. I rethought the ending at least five times, and then I said start writing and see what happens – let the characters talk to me, like they have been doing the whole time.

Another activity has been planning and packing for our move back east. I need me my four seasons! Since I’m retired, I don’t have to go out in the bad weather! We will need to revise how we shop for food, as in the winter months we need to be prepared for days inside. This has all led me to thinking about places to travel in the winter. We may just hop Amtrak to come west during a cold January. I’ve started surfing, and I stumbled on this site on Costa Rica– a place on my bucket list! One look at this place and I’m ready to pack now! Give me the ocean, water I can admire, some unique things to do, and a great place to hang and I’m there!! Las Ventanas del Mar – the ocean view looks spectacular!

The packing for this cross-country move has been interesting. We are downsizing even more from our previous local moves, planning on replacing some furniture when we find a new apartment. I realized my hutch wasn’t important, although I love it – it’s the mementos inside from years of being together. Today we donated tools, stationery, and other odds and ends to Live Theater Workshop, which has provided many years of enjoyable theater experiences. The best one to date has been “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Revised.” Loads of laughs and great visual gags. All 39 plays in 90 minutes!

All the art stuff – books, supplies, finished pieces – that’s what is really important, and they will be packed about two weeks before the move. I don’t want to look at empty walls and not be near my sewing machine for too long. Which brings me to another thought – Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours. If you are going to be a professional and really great at something, you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice. I am so far from that! But I will say that the past year has definitely improved my free motion quilting and design skills with the amount of time I’ve been spending on my art. My days have settled in to a nice routine, and I no longer worry about keeping track of what I accomplish each year during retirement. Yoga, writing, sewing/quilting, sketching with pen and ink, walks – a very nice schedule!

Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe – just one of many stops on our 3-week jaunt into Northern California. This was an amazing few weeks, and probably only the second vacation we’ve done where we could truly say we were relaxed. Too many years and our opinion of California was based on LA and San Diego. Little did we realize just how wonderful northern California is.

Lots of small towns, no big box stores, local restaurants, vibrant main streets. Nothing like depressed (in so many ways) Tucson.  Once we got north of Edwards Air Force Base and Mojave, we got into some magical country. I haven’t downloaded camera photos yet, but I wanted to get impressions.

Majestic, from Yosemite to the sea.  From the Redwoods to the shore in front of Monterey Aquarium. We would sit at night on our porches (when we were lucky to find hotels that had nice outside spots) and talk about how gorgeous everything was, and how could we translate what we had seen into fiber. The best example of how in sync we are is that we are both standing in front of the jellyfish exhibit of orange jellies, both of us thinking about recreating these creatures in fiber….hubby with how he would marble the colors, and me with how I could stabilize some marbled chiffon so I could do stitching and still have it supple enough to move with the air.

This has led us to developing a new series for future work: Preservation. This can encompass loads of ideas – the environment, the written word, languages we are losing – so many possibilities, all attempted with marbled fabrics.

We enjoyed five glorious days in a cabin overlooking Monterey Bay (at 1600 feet elevation) that we found on Airbnb – our first time using it, and we were thrilled with all aspects of it. Great conversation with the guys at the cabin, great meals…and lots of mosqitoes, which I discovered after the fact (bought the cortizone on Thursday). We sat, read, and looked at the views. Supermoon Saturday had the full moon sneaking behind some redwoods, and the bay was perfectly clear all night, with the lights of the fishing boats visible from our deck. So nice to be wearing jeans and a sweat shirt for a change and enjoying chilly, moist air, which made the trip back to Tucson so difficult.

Met a long-time friend in Bakersfield for an overnight. I love how years can go by, and you pick right up where you left off. We had a ball trying to figure out a stubborn sewing machine so we could machine quilt on it, and then drowned our frustrations in some amazing dinner at Moo Creamery in Bakersfield. Ya haveta go if you’re in the area.

Made new friends, talked art in a lot of galleries, bought new spices and teas…and took lots of pictures. I have decided I need to upgrade my camera, as it is sllloooowwwwww doing what I want it to do.

Coming back to the desert only reaffirms our decision to move east. Near water and surrounded by green, friendly people, vibrant communities, and a state very friendly to artists (unlike Tucson, but that’s another whole blog post.) We both have our lists of things to do, we’re marbling next week to stock our Etsy store and try for some new fabrics, I’m writing up a storm, as I have set myself a deadline of July 31 to have the rough draft of my novel done. Life is good!

Yes! One of my favorite art quilters actually does exist beyond a blog!!! Kathy NIda (long i, as I have been pronouncing it wrong all these many years) is an artist I have been following for well over a decade, and it’s not just because she uses our marbled fabrics in her art quilts. She is one seriously cool lady – and amazing teacher to boot. We finally were able to get together on our last trip to San Diego, as she was also on school break. What a fun two hours! Laughing, lamenting, giggling, telling stories, talking shop – a fabulous time was had by all. Even better, I got to see one of her works at Visions Art Museum, and by far the best in the exhibit, which I didn’t really care for, especially after having seen the exhibit of fiber at the Mingei (yes, Kathy, everyone is right – you MUST go see this show!). But it was so cool to see the actual art quilt up close and personal, as I am in awe of her technique. Here are a couple of photos shamelessly borrowed from her blog (kathynida.com).

Here’s the quilt being dried after a washing (something about pet hair….) – our fabric is the pavement. Second one is a closeup. I so loved seeing an actual quilt of hers, because her process is so intricate, and seeing in person how it all came together is fabulous.

Now, about the exhibit at the Mingei at Balboa Park in San Diego – one of my favorite museums – the emphasis is on “every day objects,” and this time the exhibit was two brothers, William and Steven Ladd, who work with beads, fabric and boxes in developing labor intensive, meticulous and abstract work that expresses their shared memories of family life in Missouri. )from the website) While some of the work I didn’t “get,” I was in awe of their use of unusual materials. This is from their website, explaining their “towers.”

The temps have dropped and Northern Arizona is under storm warnings with snow possible. It’s windy here in Tucson, and it’s a thoughtful, kind of sleepy, kind of depressing Saturday. I still wonder about the lack of interest in things, like the business, that used to be a driving force.

I can’t really say it’s all because I feel like I am getting older and running out of time. There are still a lot of things I want to do. One of the biggies is traveling. An article on Facebook this morning made me realize that I need to start soon, before the body betrays me even  more. 25 top cities to see. I’ve been to Shanghai and Beijing, way before the massive high-rise development. There’s a real stark contrast between old and new in the two cities. New York City, but not in several decades, and the same for San Francisco several decades ago. Briefly Chicago for a conference, and then Europe – ah, Europe. I do want to get there.

I am facing some medical tests in the next month, and I figure, since my energy level is so low, and all I want to do is sleep, that there is probably something more going on with the thyroid. But now we’re looking at boobs and intestines and ovaries, so I may be giving up a body part down the road.

Also a video from Facebook this morning on bullying. I’ve said for a number of years that part of the bullying epidemic – actually a majority of it – I think is due to the way adults act on reality TV shows, as well as on news programs. Adults are the grown-up bullies. And that leads to even less attempts at compromise, because we have become so used to shouting to get what we want – or resort to violence.

On the good front this morning, the fourth chakra that I just completed as part of the commission is GORGEOUS.

Gotta go put a sweater on – temp is about 20 degrees cooler than yesterday!

  You are looking at the control room of the last Titan Missile site, south of Tucson, and obviouslynon-working. One of the things i have also been doing over the last few months is writing a novel, of which I have completed nearly 70,000 words. It’s been fun, a stretch, and involves a bit of interesting research. In thinking about how to end the book (futuristic, but I still want it believable), I decided to check out this museum for possible ideas.

What you are looking at on the left is our group in the main launch center of the site. Everything within the control room is designed so that no one person could actually launch a missile. It would require two keys, both placed far apart so that no one person could operate both at the same time…and all kinds of interesting trivia. This site has been preserved as a museum, and the curator is a former commander of the site. The movie before the tour talked about our foreign policy of prepared deterence, which I found ironic in the light of Bush junior’s policy of “with us or against us.”

Here are a couple of photo collages of other pics from that visit. Amazing construction for the day, and sites located in places I hadn’t even known about.

 Lower left – escape hatch to the surface, and middle right is the fresh air vent to the interior. Both will potentially figure prominently in the novel. Lower right the steel doors protecting the control room, and middle left the LONG corridor to get to the actual missile.

Now I need to make a trip to the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, plus a few other “border” areas. Now that the consulting work has eased up, I should be able to get two chapters a week done – 2/3 done and want to move along to finish so I can edit (which I seriously love!).

Yet another gorgeous day! We were so worried about all the rain and tornadoes, but I’m thinking we’ve brought the good weather with us! We left Des Moines, gorgeous morning, and finally crossed the Mississippi. There is something mythic about this mighty river and it’s division of the country. Every time we cross the Continental Divide, I think about the water that flows to the Mississippi. And the gateway to the westward movement, with all its pros and cons. And Mark Twain, whose many books I have read. I always feel like I am entering or leaving a different country. The day was quiet, and very relaxing…Iowa is certainly “heartland.”

Illinois just seemed soft and green, lots of farms, not nearly the amount of sprinkle systems that we saw in Nebraska. It is SO NICE to see rivers with water in them! And I must say, Iowa has some of the nicest roadside stops!

We traveled through Illinois, past Regan’s  birthplace, into Wisconsin, and finally to Milwaukee. We weren’t  sure we’d head this far north, but I have always wanted to visit this city. Tomorrow we are doing a boat cruise around the lake and river.

Here’s a few shots from today.

A whole rest area devoted to quilting!

Iowa rest area – patchwork. locks

Even the brickwork…..

The little picnic areas are identified by patchwork.

We noticed in Illinois that the mile markers were in fractions…one-quart, half, and three-quarter.  Very cool…I’d like to know why….in Wisconsin the markers were in two-tenths….also cool!

Mile markers!

Tomorrow on the water!

A pretty unproductive week this week in terms of blogging, what with fighting a mild case of the flu. I’m even behind seeing what’s going on the net. But I did find some cool ones…..

50 Places You Can’t Reach Without Climbing – and wow, are these ever gorgeous!!

Again, some helpful hints from 365 Project: 5 Classic Composition Tips To Improve Your Photography.

From Dumb Little Man comes 5 Ways to Overcome Mental Blocks.…timely for me this week! Some good stuff here!

Very disturbing, but necessary to watch – the perils – and death – in plastic……

A collection of video on the meteorite from Russia:

You may have already seen this video of an iceberg calving – this is the LARGEST ever. Nature is absolutely amazing!!

Guess the Spot – how well do you know landmarks? A fun quiz.

Love this commercial for the Lottery, and I am such a dog lover!

Love this next – you have to be very good to make yourself look very bad! An ode to gymnastics……

And finally – this has been making the rounds for a while, but the message is a good one.

I am a subscriber to Robert Genn’s Twice Weekly Letter, and this one really said something to me. The Stendhal Effect is described as “the condition of being dangerously overwhelmed by beauty in either art or nature.” I thought it was just me having heart palpitations in a great quilt store. I can walk out of a gallery energized by the amazing glass – or paintings – or woodwork – or fiber. A great quilt show leaves me breathless. A Monet exhibit has my heart rate decrease to a pleasant sense of peace. A visit to the Getty Museum leaves me so excited and overwhelmed I can calm down till way past my bedtime. And yes, great quilt stores give me heart palpitations.

So it turns out there is an actual, identified condition, called the Stendhal Syndrome. It was “first described in 1979 by the Italian psychiatrist, Gaziella Magherini, after studying more than 100 cases among visitors to the Uffizi in Florence. A concentration of particularly beautiful art can cause rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations.” What angers me is that with the decline of the arts in the schools, more and more students will never experience this. What I also find interesting is a related condition that strikes me at historical landmarks. I first realized it when I walked the Gettysburg Battlefield in the summer of 1974. I was overwhelmed with the place – I looked around, listened to the wind, and imagined all the soldiers fighting those three days. This happens whenever I visit something of historical significance. Standing in Fanueil Hall in Boston where Adams and other early leaders of the American Revolution stood kept me transfixed for nearly half an hour. Antietam – imaging the streams running red and soldiers staring as I walked. Sitting in a small room on the third floor of the American History Museum of the Smithsonian, watching three hours of newsreels from World War II because I couldn’t tear myself away. Watching the oil seep to the surface while standing on the Pearl Harbor Memorial, and wiping away tears, standing on the rocks by Lindbergh’s grave on Maui, and standing on the great Wall of China, staring off toward Mongolia.

Nature will also always do this to me. Looking up at a redwood until my neck gives out, the Grand Canyon, Point Loma, Fisherman’s Wharf, the mountains of Guilin, the Oregon Coast – there are so many places where I can just stand and stare and cry, it is just so beautiful. So art, nature, or that historical moment can overwhelm me so. I wish that for so many more people.