Kennedy Road

Framing the view from my garden

2012-01-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

Making a frame for the mountain on this particular morning, seemed like something creative to try. Tom Torrens is a well known Northwest artist who created a bell that has stood on our patio for 20 years. The frame for the first photo is part of that bell, and presented itself as the perfect accompaniment for a photograph on such a stellar morning. As the day progressed and the sun began to set, the cloud formations were nothing short of dazzling. And looking easterly, at the same moment as the sun disappeared behind the cloud bank, in the clarity of the brilliant late afternoon light - the mountain and Commencement Bay were equally beautiful.

At the end of my garden this morning! A picture IS worth a thousand words! A tribute to the young ranger killed at Mt. Rainier earlier this week.

2012-01-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

An hour later it seemed someone had sat on the mountain!

In my garden!

2012-01-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

What is a rose doing in bloom in my garden on the 2nd of January in a new year? Clearly it's confused! But the beauty of its color, and arrangement of it's leaves, are an inspiration for these wintry days, and a reminder that out of darkness comes this beauty. The rose was a gift from a friend, delivered in one of those four inch grocery store plastic pots, almost 11 years ago! Despite severe weather, being moved from our former garden to this new one and little attention this rose has continued to grow and flower - this year non stop since summer! Thanks Jill.

Meanwhile at the end of my garden, in that azure moment at the end of the day yesterday - January 1st, 2012 - the reflections of the lights at the Port of Tacoma danced across the open water creating a watercolor-like image for our late day enjoyment.

Different shades of blue papered the sky behind Mt. Rainier in the low light of late afternoon yesterday and I watched fascinated by a flurry of cloud on the SW side of the mountain. The disturbance continued for sometime and what it was will remain a mystery but it was fascinating to watch the flurry of clouds in an isolated place on the flank of the mountain.

End of Year Reflections ... not of the philosophical kind!

2011-12-31T12:47:00.000-08:00

We are continually amazed at the number of days of sunshine, or at least no rain, that we have experienced in December this year. Reading the forecasts we have had galoshes and umbrellas ready to greet the days and instead had to grab for the sunglasses. This morning was no exception. Monotones of color certainly were prevalent - mostly grey. But as the sun rose from behind the mountain the shaft of light created pointed right to the end of my garden! Another stunning sunrise. With very best wishes, to anyone who comes across this blog, for a joy filled, adventurous, healthy new year.

Matisse was here?

2011-12-31T12:22:00.000-08:00

Late afternoon December 24, 2011

On the south facing end of my garden the view looked as though Matisse had come to visit. At this time of year the sun is at its most southerly place in the sky creating new images across Puget Sound. So low was the setting sun that a shadow of the trees, on the top of the hill across the water from us, was projected onto the water looking just like an impressionist painting. It reminded us of his paintings of the gardens at Giverny. And then .... it was gone.

Winter Solstice approaches ...

2011-12-19T20:57:00.000-08:00

As the winter solstice approaches ( this year at 12.30am on the 22nd of December) the sun is so much further south and rises almost behind Mt. Rainier highlighting the mountain from behind. These two images were taken on the day before and the day of the winter solstice last year. Who knows what the morning will be like for the next couple of days, but photos like these remind us that the most spectacular sun rises of the year, from our vantage point, happen in winter. I haven't seen any druids at the end of my garden but rest assured we will be on the lookout for the next couple of days!

Should you post "pretty pictures"?

2011-12-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

I have the privilege of living in a very beautiful area, with a very spectacular view from my home, and the surrounding area as well. Looking at stunning images in various publications, or in one of the many online photo storage and display sites, it's easy to think that unless you "fix" or embellish a photograph and make it "perfect' or extraordinary ( in whose eyes is always my question) ... it should just be left in your computer photo book, or your personal photo album. Who cares? Should you even bother to put "pretty pictures" in a blog for goodness sakes! But I choose to do so, for now.

Looking at the westerly facing end of my garden this afternoon I watched a stunning sunset image develop before my eyes. I'll just look, I thought, no need to try and capture it. But ultimately I couldn't resist. And as so often is the case ... this was the light one minute and less than a minute later ... it was gone. A fleeting, stunning end to what had been a bleak, grey, rainy day.

At the end of my garden yesterday ...

2011-12-17T16:57:00.000-08:00

At the end of my garden yesterday, The Mountain appeared after a very foggy morning with rain dripping down from the grey skies. By mid afternoon, however, the clouds parted - the rain stopped and the sun shone. A meteorologist said yesterday it was the driest 2 weeks on record at SeaTac airport - since they began keeping records. Sometimes it's hard to fathom how it can be "dry" when the heavy fog we often get at this time of year feels very moist. I find myself sometimes using clothing analogies to describe the way Mt. Rainier appears and yesterday there was a fluffy white "collar" two thirds from the top of the mountain encircling the lower one third. Of course by the time I found my camera ... it had changed ... again! But then that's part of the mystery. Today about 50 neighbor friends gathered at my home for brunch ... a tradition going back more than 30 years for many of us to a time when our children were very young together. It was a brilliant sunny day and The Mountain, in all her majesty, now fully dressed in snow did not disappoint: how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful place.

And then sometimes .....

2011-12-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

And then sometimes ... it's as though we live in another place altogether! My mother used to love to tell the story of going to a lecture by a group of Rotarians who had visited the Pacific Northwest from Australia. One of the speakers was showing images of the beautiful scenery of the region and projected a photo, much like the one from this morning, onto the screen announcing that this was Mt. Rainier! My mother was the only one in the audience who laughed out loud. She too had been here when the mountain at the end of my garden seems to have disappeared and does not show itself for days and days. So for today we listen to the muffled sounds that fog brings and wait knowing we will be rewarded on another day: perhaps with a view like the one below from another January day in another year.

The morning's shadows at the end of my garden.

2011-12-14T18:16:00.000-08:00

Unexpected Morning surprises .... Long Shadows

For as long as we have lived in this beautiful place people have said " I bet you get bored looking at the mountain and don't think to look at the view for days on end" ... or ... "Do you really check it out every morning?" No we never are bored by looking to see "if the mountain is out" and yes we really do check each morning.

Today it initially appeared that we were going to have a "no mountain this morning" event. We were wrong. Slowly the clouds lifted and a tinge of gold followed along the crest of the Cascade Foothills. A brief flash of the rising sun was followed by the sun climbing up behind the heavy cloud cover: but not before highlighting, by long shadows, the trees along the edge of the hillside and then making a shadow of the mountain top all the way across the bay! Sure we have seen shadows before but we cannot recall ever seeing a shadow of the trees or of the mountain of this magnitude. What a surprise at the end of my garden!

Why get out of bed early?

2011-12-13T14:27:00.000-08:00

About 7am a huge log boom makes its way east ...
not very much differentiation of color in the sky

A little color began creeping into the morning ...
about 7.20am.

Under-lit the clouds come alive and the shadow of the mountain
is projected onto the clouds.

An hour later, it is as though someone turned off the light!

At the end of my garden stands a mountain!

2011-12-12T22:42:00.000-08:00

Mt. Rainier and Commencement Bay of Puget Sound

At the end of my garden stands a very tall mountain. Her name (for I am certain that mountain is a she) is Tahoma. She is also known as Mt. Rainier. Locally, here in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, she is also simply known as The Mountain. For more than 40 years I have watched and documented the many moods of this mountain. There was a time when I thought to try and publish a book of some of my images of this monolith but like so many plans in life - it hasn't come to fruition. In the meantime I decided my blog was as good a place as any to share some of my images. This view (taken earlier this week) might be called - now you see me and in a flash I'll be gone! It was a moment when "quick get the camera" flashed through my mind and while not a fabulous quality image it shows a huge fog bank moving in and indeed - in a flash - she was gone.

I'd like you to introduce you to ...

2010-10-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

Baby Boy Darling ... holding tight to Nanna's shirt


First holding by big sister Eva

The newly expanded Darling family

Three generations of Darling men!

The newest member of the Darling family ... his first name is to be Simon with maybe a middle name to follow. He was born at 8.34am on September 30th in Anacortes, Washington, weighing 9lb 5 ozs and is 21 inches long. Everyone is doing well and we are all so delighted.
P.S. 10/6/2010 His name is Simon Elijah.

New Knees and other thoughts

2010-09-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Thinking about Tibet and organizing my thoughts and images of that journey had to be put on hold for the past while: friends always come first. I spent much of last week in Seattle, at one of the major hospitals, advocating for a dear friend who had knee replacement surgery.

It appears that we all should take an advocate with us when we are planning a hospital stay. There are lots of controversies swirling around of late about the state of health care in many Western countries: many of the stories are negative. It was definitely appropriate that I was there ( or someone else could also have been the watchdog!) to intervene when people were not paying the attention they ought to have been doing.

My friend's ability to walk without severe pain has decreased enormously over the past few years and in the images below you will see the evolution of her new knee joint.

#1 ... the degree of displacement of the bones of her lower leg. The fibula bone is posterior to the knee in a very dramatic way. When I saw this image I wondered how she could possibly walk.

#2 ... an image of her "new knee" in place and her now straight leg. The unusual looking ladder on the front side of her leg are the staples put in the skin until it heals.

#3 .. the new knee joint in a frontal view ... look at how straight it is! Remarkable.

The first Total Knee Replacement surgery occurred in 1968. It was an unthinkable option when I was in nursing school. I think of how much my grandmother would have benefited from such a surgical intervention. This surgery was a great success and my friend is at home recuperating ... doing her exercises diligently and imagining hiking up a small hill next February to assist with an art installation.

Meanwhile it's time for our family to gather and await the birth of a new grandchild in the next few days ... then it will be time to get back to documenting my Tibetan adventures.

#1 Side view pre - surgery

Side view of same knee with new joint in place


Front view with new joint in place and the oh-so-straight leg.

Lhasa: small word ... large impact!

2010-09-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

Stepping through the wrought iron gateway of our hotel onto the narrow, congested street was a small but momentous act for me. The emotions running through my head and heart were huge. I'm here. This is Lhasa, Tibet. Turning right, my back to the main, westernized thoroughfare at one end of the narrow street, I strolled toward the heart of the Barkor - the center of spiritual Lhasa. I was stopped by the view of a non spiritual, but necessary item of daily life in Tibet, yak butter! One of the ingredients of yak butter tea, the piece on the table must have weighed several pounds. I did wonder if Tibetans use yellow food coloring in their butter too? Don't think yak milk comes out that color. But somehow that measure of daily life grounded me.


Yak butter

Walking slowly on, trying not to gape as I took in the sights, sounds, smells and activities around me, I arrived at a 'T' and stopped. Quietly making their way from my right - in a clockwise direction - lips moving, prayer beads slipping through fingers, prayer wheels spinning in many hands - were Tibetans dressed traditionally or in more westernized clothing - making their way around the Jokhang Temple ... the heart of the Barkor. Some chatted with companions as they walked, others moved in silence. I had previously witnessed such a procession of Tibetan refugees around the great stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. But here it was Tibetans, in Tibet, circumambulating this most sacred of temples. I could only stare through my tears. A continuous line of pilgrims stretched for blocks as they waited along the wall of the Jokhang for admission to the temple.

Circumambulating the Jokhang

On both sides of the street were merchants, selling just about anything you could imagine: souvenirs of every kind - hand made and commercially produced, household items, food items, raw foods, cooked food to eat, statuary of every size and shape, prayer flags by the thousands ... it was dizzying. Who was shopping? The people in my group, Tibetans, Chinese tourists, monks ... and looking at the photos I took - there were so many things I didn't really see, mostly because it was all just a bit overwhelming.

Note the woman on the stool, right, with traditional turquoise hair ornaments.

The sacred and the saucepans - side by side

And amongst the congestion and commerce appeared a small fairy ... wings and all! I walked on behind her, as her mother tried to hurry her along ... she wanted to pause and look at everything - and finally I couldn't resist taking her photo.

Tibetan fairy!

Walking on there was a sudden flare of intense white smoke. It was difficult to see where it was coming from. Finally we could see an enormous incense burner which had obviously just had an addition of (probably) cedar branches added to it. Most of the large censers we saw, in all of our travels in Tibet, were being fed with cedar branches.

Jane, from our group, walking toward a military watch point.

It is forbidden to take photos of the police or the military in Tibet and China. Fascinated by the burst of white smoke, I took the photo totally oblivious to the fact that I had captured one of the military watching posts that are placed at regular intervals around the Jokhang temple - following the upheavals in the city in 2008. I later witnessed a soldier stop someone who had taken a photo that displeased them, demand to see the image and then tell the person to delete the image ... and watched as the man did so! The watching posts are manned by four soldiers bearing semi-automatic large guns - two of them facing each direction. They are ever vigilant. Later in our stay Amy and I adjourned to a rooftop restaurant for a cup of tea and to rest. Sensing someone was watching me I looked around and it wasn't until I looked to an adjoining building that I realized there were soldiers, with guns, phones and binoculars watching us, as well as the square below. Posing Amy carefully, the soldier under the lavender colored umbrella can clearly be seen behind her.

The observed - Amy

The observer.

Thinking about that first exposure to Lhasa ... fully aware that it was no longer a small city with a totally spiritual focus ... but a city that had long been under the control of the Chinese government and one which the Chinese have very purposefully peopled with Han Chinese immigrants .... it was the vibrancy and vitality on the faces of the Tibetans we encountered on our first walk around the Jokhang temple that (perhaps foolishly) was somehow reassuring. My amazement and gratitude at actually being there never diminished. I recognize now that trying to collect together my thoughts and emotions around such an experience will be a much more complex undertaking than I had first imagined.

Lhasa: how might it have looked then ... and how it looks now!

2010-09-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

In the mid 1920's an eccentric French woman, named Alexandra David-Neel, walked from Yunan province in China to Lhasa, Tibet. She made this journey, with her adopted Mongolian son as her companion and, was the first Western woman in the holy city of Lhasa: their journey is detailed in her book My Journey to Lhasa. Of the many verbal images she creates in her writing, one that sticks in my memory is her description of coming over the final mountain pass and seeing the Potala Palace atop a hill and Lhasa laid out before her on a huge open valley. Few buildings impeded her view of the Potala Palace in all of its imposing architectural wonder. Grainy black and white photographs show the buildings without giving any impression of the grandeur of the surrounding scenery.

Approaching Lhasa airport

Our flight departed Zhongdian in the rain and our route north and west was mostly seen through peek-a-boo moments when the clouds cleared and the rain stopped beating on the plane's windows. However what terrain we did see was covered in muddy water and the visible mountains appeared bleak and unfriendly. I found it a little disconcerting to not see huge, high mountains - we were after all journeying to the roof of the world. The awareness came slowly that of course they were not huge and high mountains - we were after all between 10 and 11,000 feet above sea level already!


Between Lhasa airport and the city

Settling into the small bus, which met us at the airport, our journey continued. Lhasa airport is about an hour from the city itself. We stopped to see this series of sacred sculptures in the wall of a mountain between the airport and the city. The white items are khata (usually white scarves associated with Tibetan religious practice symbolizing goodwill and compassion) which people have thrown to gain the highest place on the side of the mountain. Hoping their prayers are closer to heaven, we wondered?

Where one used to first see the Potala Palace!

The bus moved on toward the city - all eyes were to the left waiting our first views of the Palace. Instead this was what we saw! American writer, Canyon Sam (Sky Train - University of Washington Press 2009) had detailed very clearly what to expect on arriving in Lhasa today. However as the bus continued on toward the center of the city the first view of that amazing building, perched on the top of a mountain, appeared through the bus window. No less amazing than I had imagined. Moving on away from this amazing sight and the modern thoroughfare ... the bus turned into a tight, crowded narrow street in the Tibetan part of the city and stopped outside our wonderful, Nepali managed, traditional hotel where we settled in for the next four days.


Potala Palace seen through the dirty, wet window of the bus

The Dhood Gu Hotel, Lhasa

Chinglish!

2010-08-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

Traveling in Asia one sometimes finds oneself standing in front of a sign which may make totally good sense in the language of the country. I have experienced signs like the one above (note the very English royal crown on the left and the ? ball of yarn on the right ) which totally confound ones ability to understand just what is being said. When I asked our guide to please translate what this sign said (on a street corner in Zhongdian) I was staggered to find that it was about investing money in the building that was under construction and the amount of return you could expect for your money!

"Polystone brand strategy for dissemination will be the height of the existing communication structure unification means to create structure unification"
... is what the sign said in English ... well certainly Chinglish!

A small cafe in the old section of Zhongdian

Delighted Cafe!

Don't fall down the stairs - at the top of a flight of stairs.


A closeup of the exhortation placed all around Lijiang


And perhaps most mysterious of all in a hotel room

The Security Scattering Sketch reads - exactly as written below:
• " Declaration
• Please don't worry if a fire is occuring We hotel have owned superior scattering facilities to ansure you transmitted safely.
• Please follow the direction route to the information corridor and there safeguards will take you out to the security belts.
• Red point stand for where you are now."

Many times we found ourselves perplexed by the signage and its possible meaning. At the same time we commented about the incredible changes occurring in China and wondered aloud why there were not people translating signage from the Chinese characters to correct (or even understandable) English particularly when so many young people there speak excellent English?

We didn't take it but we sure wondered where it went!

The road to Tibet

2010-08-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

Planning to travel in the Developing world requires a certain degree of flexibility! I began planning last year to join a small of travelers to Tibet for a month long trip. The itinerary was chosen by the tour leader and our guide in China and set in place. Chinese visas were in process when, in April, a major earthquake struck the city of Yushu and one of the areas we were to visit was closed to tourists. Plans change. Our Chinese guide created a new itinerary for us: Beijing, Kunming, Lijiang and Zhongdian were to replace our plans to attend the annual Horse Festival in the area around Yushu.
Almost 10 years ago Peter and I had visited Kunming, Lijiang and Zhongdian on our way to Deqin in Eastern Tibet. Kunming was not our favorite city - but we enjoyed a couple of days there. In the original, old part of the city we found Lijiang to be a quiet sleepy town where you could wander the cobblestone streets admiring the traditional architecture and pause in a cafe for a quiet cup of tea or a meal.
Zhongdian we thought at that time was one of the more soulless places we had ever visited. One dirt road entered a sad, dusty, small city where we were aware of the military and police presence for the first time. Food was terrible and the hotel dismal. We were happy to leave. Zhongdian's only saving grace was a visit to an old monastery, perched on a hillside outside the city, saved from destruction during the Cultural Revolution.
At that time the Chinese government had just renamed that part of the country - Shangri-la province! Huge billboards announced the re-naming as we made our way up a single lane, boulder strewn, precipitous road to Deqin. Although the scenery was spectacular the naming Shangri-la had a hollow ring ring to it.
Eight years later ... accompanied by my daughter Amy, the changes I experienced were phenomenal. Kunming was larger, more polluted metropolis and the pall of coal smoke and other air quality contaminants now hung over the city all the time. A "Tea University" visit provided information and tea sampling at a much higher level of sophistication that our prior visits to one of the many tea shops of the city. Yunan province is a famed tea growing area. One "cake" of tea below - $329 USD! Serious stuff, tea, in this part of the world.

At the University for Minorities, also in Kunming, a beautiful new museum has been constructed ( in 2008) to display the collections of clothing and artifacts which we had previously seen packed into dusty old glass fronted cupboards with no identifiers. I was delighted to see the articles so well curated and displayed.
Lijiang felt like a low grade carnival with the quiet meandering streets crowded with loud, Chinese tourists who push you out of the way rather than walk around you! And umbrellas as weapons ( it was raining) make for challenges when most of the people are shorter than you! The once quiet lovely shops selling items particular to the Naxi (pron. Nashi) culture had all been replace by cheap junky tourist items: how many fake "pashmina" shawl selling shops can a city support. The only quiet time was at 7am when Amy and I walked the blissfully quiet streets to the hotel where we were having breakfast.

Peter and I had attended an evening performance by the only living, traditional Dongba shaman - I recall he was 82 at that time. Several of us from our group attended the 2010 "show". It was terrible - the stage filled with aged men sitting passively with their musical instruments, dressed in a Chinese version of what they thought traditional Naxi clothes were. Amy and I left when we couldn't stand anymore. Our Tibetan guide in Lijiang was exceptional: knowledgeable & charming.
Zhongdian must have trebled in size - most of the roads are paved and the military was visible everywhere. (There was a Tibetan uprising here in 2008 and apparently freedoms have been greatly reduced.) Our hotel was opposite the hospital and we were intrigued that it was owned by an Aviation company! Amy and I walked the small streets of the remaining section of the original city where cars were not allowed and one of my treasured purchases, of a small string of green beads cut from stone, was from a Black Yi woman in the marketplace in the old section.

We succumbed to our last "show" ... guaranteed to be Tibetan by our guide in Zhongdian ... and found ourselves in the midst of a Hollywood-styled spectacular, attended by very loud (they talked loudly through every performance) groups of Chinese tourists. We left that one early too.
What we had been doing for these first days was gradually ascend to higher and higher elevations: we were relieved that no one in the group had experienced any serious effects from the altitude which was by then 10,400Feet.
Our next stop - Lhasa - 11, 450 feet above sea level!

From Mayfield West, Australia to Lhasa, Tibet!

2010-08-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

Atop the Dhood Gu Hotel looking toward the Potala Palace, Lhasa

Who would have thought that a birthday gift given 55 years ago, would spawn a dream that is only now realized? That birthday gift, from my parents, was a copy of the book Seven Years in Tibet (author Heinrich Harrer - published 1956) .

At the time I lived in an industrial suburb of the city of Newcastle, Australia: a city known mostly for steel production and a huge shipbuilding dockyard. Mayfield West was about as far from Tibet ... in terms of exotic vs non exotic, old vs new, complex, long, cultural history vs relatively new (at least the white culture in Australia was comparatively new) ... as one could imagine. However the seed was planted and since that time I have dreamed of going to those amazing high places at "the roof of the world". The dream recently became a reality for my daughter and me.
I now live in the NW corner of the United States and recently returned from a month-long sojourn in Tibet/China. The accompanying photo shows me on the rooftop of our Lhasa hotel - the famed Potala Palace ( now a museum with a time schedule for entry ) as the backdrop. I can easily read the delight on my face at being there finally.
The shirt I am wearing is a much treasured t-shirt, made by Olympia WA artist Martie Carroll ( as an experiment, , she said, at the time) which has been part of my travel wardrobe necessities, since I bought it from Martie more than 10 years ago. Sharing this adventure with daughter Amy added greatly to the fun and delight of the trip and as I enfold the experiences into my "real life" I hope to write more about it. It was truly the journey of a lifetime.

A July Day on Puget Sound!

2010-07-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

Within an hour today, July 2nd, our summer weather again let us know that this is not a usual year! The ornamental grasses in our front yard were totally weighed down by the water from a downpour. Later, we looked west and watched, with the sun low in a both black and brilliant sky, as a storm made its way across Puget Sound toward us. Minutes later, it was raining so hard we had difficulty seeing. This was all followed by one of the more brilliant rainbows we have ever seen.
Such is an early summer day on Puget Sound.

Meanwhile, the brilliantly eccentric plant known as bee balm (botanical name Monarda - I call it the plant having a bad hair day ) blooms like crazy and grows taller each day - spectacular crimson against the "summer" - very stormy - backdrop.

Butternut Squash soup!

2010-06-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Alice, I wanted you to know that this remains my absolutely favorite food so the minute Nanna walked in the door, on Friday, with a container full, I demanded that my Pappa heat some up immediately and it's pretty amazing how co-ordinated I am with a spoon and a bowl of soup! Hardly missed a bite. love Eva P.S. My hat is a wonderful Gautemalan head cover Nanna finally remembered to bring to me.

The traffic light turned red and ....

2010-06-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

The traffic light on the corner of Broadway and E. Pine Street turned red in the gathering light of the day on Saturday and I watched this couple stroll out of the store on the corner and pause, waiting for the light to change.

She looked spectacular! I wondered if she realized that the row of yellow button trim on her city shorts was a match for the shopping bag she was carrying? The peeking red top under her jacket was a perfect match for her shoes and as I watched she crossed one foot, over the other, and leaned in toward the young man with the fedora - something in the distance catching her eye.

I grabbed for the camera as Peter asked - WHAT are you doing?

I snapped the photo wishing the long haired young man who had sauntered into the picture hadn't been there at that moment ... but he too paused waiting for the light to change.

The car behind me tooted its horn encouraging me to go ahead and turn right ... this Seattle moment was over.

Sailing through a rainbow

2010-06-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

Each Wednesday evening in Spring and Summer a local sailing group, the Corinthian Yacht Club, heads out for a race. Watching from our home we see boats juggling for the perfect starting point and at 7pm the starting gun sounds and off they go. Sometimes - they go nowhere: not a breath of wind can they find and at other times it appears to be one point above a fire drill as furious winds blow, the boats maneuver to avoid each other - all in an effort to be first across the line.

On a recent Wednesday we watched a storm come racing across Puget Sound and the sailors grab for foul weather gear. Heavy wind and rain blew them around and more than one had some sail in the water.

And then ... a rainbow, brilliant against the grey background, divided the sky. The sailors gathered in their lines, reorganized and sailed on. Shortly thereafter a second rainbow appeared. What an amazing sight: white sails against a monochrome sky with rainbow hues for contrast.

A lone, small, boat sailed towards us and as we watched it sailed straight "through" the rainbow. We wondered aloud - is one changed by sailing through a rainbow? If yes - how are you different? What do you see? Could you take a photo of yourself as you sailed through the rainbow? What of the pot of gold? We were left to wonder.

"My Mountain" ... a June view.

2010-06-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

Capturing images of "my mountain" has been a past time for more than 40 years. Growing up where the tallest mountain on the entire island continent (Australia) was 7,280 feet, it has been a source of amazement to me to be able to gaze upon this 14,410 foot peak whenever she shows herself - as seen from my front door.

The sun finally came out here in the Pacific Northwest a few days ago and Mt. Rainier showed herself in all her glory - just waiting for me to snap the shutter and capture one more image.

Tacoma morning ... Mt. Rainier

2010-06-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

It's mid way through the month of June and the sun is actually shining today: it's been shining all day. We have had a prolonged, wet, cold spring and many of us are craving extended periods of sun. Each year, most often in February, we are treated to spectacular sunrises like this one shown, and I publish this image here to remind us of the circles and cycles of the year and the thought that the sun sometimes even shines in February on a Pacific Northwest morning.

Ah-Ha it's really Dead Feminist Broadsides!

2010-06-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

Tacoma is a city with a plethora of amazingly talented young artists: they keep turning up all over the place. (Of course we also have wonderful middle aged and older artists.) My latest exposure to our local talent was at the Pierce Country Library in Gig Harbor earlier this week when the pictured

(Jessica Spring ( left) and Chandler O'Leary) "unveiled" the latest in their series of Dead Feminist broadsides and discussed their process.

For information about the project in depth please go to ...

http://anagram-press.com/blog/

The latest in this series is called Drill Baby, Drill - a now well known phrase uttered across the airwaves in recent times which has taken on new meaning with the horrendous, gushing, exploded oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. This broadside is their Chandler and Jessica's response to this international tragedy - the effects of which may not be truly known for years.

An enormous amount of research goes into each one of these productions and these two young women deserve kudos for their intention as well as for the work itself. Congratulations to the "Ladies of the Pencil, Pen and Press"!

By the way a broadside was what we usually call a poster today: but it was, in the past, the way information was disseminated to the masses. I like best the definition from Wikipedia ... and it's reference to the use of a broadside to publish a musical ballad. The Dead Feminist piece you'll have to read about at Anagram Press.

"A broadside is a single sheet of cheap paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in Britain, Ireland and North America and are often associated with one of the most important forms of traditional music from these countries, the ballad." (Wikipedia)

What's a Feminist Broadside anyway?

2010-06-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Is it a side-ways swipe across the face from a feminist? Could it be a minor swipe from a feminist against the side of your car?

Maybe a comment "at" someone from a feminist who was perceived as making a "broadside" ( in a sort of sniping manner)?

Hmmm ... I don't think so and what would these two young women have to do with a Feminist Broadside???

Have to investigate further!

The storm and the Tall Poppy Syndrome!

2010-06-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

Two days ago a brief, wild storm with torrential rain blew through our
neighborhood. With quiet restored I looked out to see how had the poppies fared? Not well.
That plant I had been watching for days was now lying on its side, totally knocked down by the storm. I was reminded of a piece of Australiana (my country of origin) which pervades the culture in a way that many people
find negative and non beneficial in any way.
It's called The Tall Poppy Syndrome.
The analogy has to do with "what happens to tall poppies?" - the answer being either they get their heads knocked off or they get knocked down. In other words don't be too successful and for goodness sakes should you work like mad and have great successes, do not under any circumstance tell anyone or "boast" about it, cos for sure you will get knocked down!
The confusion for me has always been the duality of (Australian) people seeing themselves, or someone they admire, as a "battler" ... meaning that in spite of huge odds a person battles on and either "wins" or overcomes some challenge. Being a "battler" is a good thing. However it is crucial that at the same time you don't speak too much about your success.
A vivid example for me was congratulating a family member on a wonderful scholastic achievement and another family member saying there was no
need to make a fuss and that the achiever would know within themselves
if they had done a good job or not: praise was not necessary.
I probably won't ever solve my issues with this "syndrome". Life can be very challenging and at times extraordinarily difficult. Achievements should be celebrated in my opinion. There is no way for me to understand why someone would choose to put someone down, rather than raise them up and "make a fuss" of their successes.
Much has been written about the Tall Poppy Syndrome and if you put the phrase into a search engine one can now find references all the way back to antiquity. But it doesn't solve the question about the "whys" of this idea for me. And yet I hear my maternal grandmother cautioning me "Remember, pride always comes before a fall"! Hmmm!

BACK TO THE POPPIES:
It was difficult to believe the amount of devastation the driving rain had created in the garden. One could almost feel the "bruises" of the raindrops on the pink, silken petals. The one blossom which had opened, revealing it's blackish velvet center was now dashed to pieces and part of it returning to the dark earth below.

However as I walked to look further, there was one of my neighbor Bob's bees
diving into the center of the neighboring poppy. That bee didn't care that there were blemishes on the petals: its legs were heavy with pollen as I watched it head north to the bee hive to deposit the collected pollen stopping to collect just a little more on another flower and in so doing, assuring that next year I may get to watch this ritual of spring one more time.

I'll no doubt continue to mull the issues of the Tall Poppy Syndrome longer than next spring!

And then the next plant began!

2010-05-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

And in the image below I was delighted to see that I am not

the only appreciator of these amazing creations of Nature!

HOW did that get there? Further poppy musings.

2010-05-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

8.30am May 25th:
How did that pod "petal" get there?
As I slept the neighboring poppy made a transforming move!
I wonder if there was any sound? And exactly how did it get on top
of the blossom's petals? Hmmm.

At 11am it remains on the top of the blossom ... at
what moment will it be cast aside to become compost?

Meantime the original blossom looks increasingly like
crushed silk and its interior black center is beginning to appear
as light raindrops fall.

7pm viewing, May 24th ... further amazement!

2010-05-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

A little more sun is all it took!

2010-05-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

Obsession is a word I have heard applied to many different situations, but not a word I usually think of as a personal trait! However I have to confess I have become a little obsessed with watching these poppies in our garden as they unfold. Finally there is one which has shed all of the confining green "petals" protecting the budding blossom inside. The image at the bottom shows the petals of the blossom now ready to open out. Just have to hope we don't get another wild storm. Poppies get a lot of attention for various reasons: their beauty is one of them.

Stair stepping Trio

2010-05-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

Arranged in stair-stepped order, as though posing for my lens ... and in spite of the almost monsoon-like rain, and wild winds, of the last few days the majesty of nature continues to unfold in our garden. A different poppy plant in the garden, not yet ready to bloom, holds water drops in its "whiskers" while beside it the last blossom from our Japanese iris hangs before becoming compost in the garden below.

Third Thursday in Tacoma

2010-05-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

It is Art Walk in Tacoma and we took the opportunity to visit three galleries tonight. At Peter MacDonald's Brick House Gallery on Fawcett Street longtime local artist Bill Colby was showing a broad range of his work. I was fascinated by a wood block print, with the carved block mounted on the wall above, made by Bill in 1960! This exhibition focuses on Bills' printmaking.

Seeing artists who have continued to evolve and grow in their work is mighty encouraging and Bill Colby is an inspiration to us all. In the accompanying photo he and Peter greet a guest.

You can visit the Brick House Gallery at 1123 Fawcett Avenue on Third Thursdays or by appointment at (253) 627 0426.

Photographer Boyd White has spent the past four years documenting homelessness in the Northwest, as well as in other areas of the country. At Tacoma Art Place nineteen of Boyd's evocative black and white photos are showing.

They are thoughtful, beautifully composed images of a part of life about which no one community seems to have an answer. The world over, homelessness is an issue and many ideas are put forward but the challenges continue. Do stop by Tacoma Art Place, consider buying one of their new t-shirts promoting TAP and see Boyd's images.

Tacoma Art Place is a completely volunteer-run non-profit. Our financial survival depends on your contributions and memberships. Please help us start the year off right by making a contribution. You can do so by visiting TAP or online via PayPal. Your contributions are tax deductible and absolutely essential to keep the sort of art access that TAP offers in your community.

Seated in the window of the Fulcrum Gallery on Martin Luther King Way were three young women who are very active in the arts community in Tacoma. Megan, Heidi and Ellen good naturedly allowed me to take their photo with Jeremy Mangan (the featured artist at the gallery) in the red shirt behind them. The clouds, trees and my reflection in the window are NOT part of the artwork - but they do make for an interesting image. However the life sized painting of the famed horse of Troy is part of the exhibition and that and the other works in the show make it worthwhile a visit. Jeremy will give a talk about his work at the gallery on June 17th - 6-9pm. See the gallery website for details.

Walking into the Fulcrum Gallery I was wowed by artist Elaine Vogel's fabulous coat. Created by Lynn Di Nino (well known Northwest artist who seems to be able to do just about anything when it comes to art !) it is made from Goodwill sweaters and other garments she has paired to great effect, AND to great compliments from the viewing audience!

Gathering skies with fantastic shades of grey and black seemed like a good idea for us to think about making our way someplace to eat.
Dashing through a torrential downpour, water was careening off the sides of buildings like huge waterfalls. Leaping across the overflowing gutters we made our way to LeLe Restaurant, ate our fill of #54 (THE eggplant dish) and a wonderful curry while we dried out.

Great Art and great food ARE available in Tacoma, WA!

An unfolding

2010-05-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

In the few moments before a wild, windy, hail-laden, storm struck the house this afternoon, I ventured outside to gaze upon this amazing poppy, planted at the edge of the garden, and observe the first unfolding of this year. I almost felt as though I was intruding on a private occasion!
Showing her pink folded petals, for the first time this spring, I stood in awe (again) at the magic of spring and rebirth that greets us at this time of year. My hope is that the wild winds whipping around our house at this minute won't damage this unfolding.
I am easily imaging waking tomorrow to this pink wonder, fully opened, in the garden.

How do they do that?

2010-05-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Have you ever stood in front of a piece of art work and wondered "How do they do that?" I feel very fortunate to have some highly talented artist friends. And while their work is certainly visible in the art world ... I wanted to post some of their work in case you, the reader, are not familiar with their creations.

At the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham last weekend, I was delighted to watch this woman come across my friend Marita Dingus' installation in the current exhibition Show of Hands: Northwest Women Artists 1880-2010.
The woman was chattering quietly with a friend when she stopped in front of Marita's piece and was immediately silenced: she remained there for a very long time, solitarily engaged with this wonderful creation titled 200 Women of African Descent. The whole exhibition is certainly worth a visit.
Marita is represented by Francine Seders Gallery, in Seattle. Another delight was to see the work of Diem Chau ( with whom I had taken a class at Pratt some years ago ... "before" she was famous!) in three of her beautifully detailed pieces.

When my friend Alicia Tormey invited me to her studio to take some images for her to use, I had my first experience of watching the process of encaustic painting happen ... before my very eyes ( as the over used expression goes!). I had no idea of the complexity of laying down all those layers of paint, wax and shellac ... and then taking a torch to it!!! EEK! The painting didn't incinerate, the studio didn't catch on fire, I didn't catch on fire
and the effects are stunning. But not done yet, said Alicia! Looking at the images later I found myself intrigued by the process images as much as the "almost completed" works. Alicia's work can been seen currently in a show at the Alexis Hotel in Seattle, Pacini Lubel Gallery - Seattle, and Gillman Contemporary in Ketchum, Idaho.

Each month my friend Colleen Maloney and I volunteer in the Open Art Studio at the Tacoma Art Museum. When the chores of maintaining the studio are completed ... we "play". One of Colleen's many talents ( she first identifies as a graphic designer) is as a paper/book artist and yesterday I watched her assemble a book from the stunning pile of paste papers she had created. Her sense of color always amazed me and when a book is completed, the manner in which those colorful papers are assembled - is simply stunning. How does she do that? Surrounded by so many talented people, one just hopes some of it rubs off!

Sparkles and Polka Dots Seattle Style

2010-05-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday must have been a Prom Night somewhere near the Pike Street Market in Seattle . Walking to dinner at the Pink Door in Post Alley( always a wonderful meal, great service AND on this glorious late afternoon we shared our first outside dining of the spring with good friends Rick and Francie) this foursome passed us on their way to a prom.
The clothing styles were what caught our attention: one in strapless tuille with sparkles carrying her very high heeled black shoes in her hand. In her hair was an extravagant rhinestone creation. Miss Polka Dots looked like a 50's matron: big white sunglasses and a bow completed her outfit. The third young woman (hidden in front of the young woman in polka dots) was covered by a black coat and all that designated her as going to a party was her very fancy patent leather flats. Black and white tennis shoes decorated the feet of the solo male ... they looked perfect with his rumpled tuxedo. It was hard work to catch them still ... but then the traffic light turned red. Hope they had a great evening.

A single bloom can change your day!

2010-05-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

Driving down the hill of my friend Sally's driveway this morning about 9am I braked! WHAT was that on top of a tall stem that I could see at the edge of her garden? It was this amazing, crimson, parrot tulip: breathtaking in its solitary stance in the morning sun.
No matter how many images I took, it really doesn't capture the magnificence of this flower.
Just below the crimson beauty, lying languidly on the greenery below it, the light was radiantly shining through the petals of another parrot tulip: this one golden yellow with red accents. The second image of the golden tulip shows its underside - equally beautiful. Mother nature did herself proud when she dressed this morning!

Tapestry ... ancient skills newly interpreted.

2010-05-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

Tapestry weaving is an ancient art and samples of Greek tapestry have been found preserved by the desert climate of northwestern China dating from the 3rd Century B.C. My daughter lived in the city of Tournai, Belgium ( as an exchange student): famous as a center of tapestry weaving in the Middle Ages. Many ancient cultures used woven tapestries as shrouds in which to bury their dead.
Yesterday I watched 9 months of intensive work, of tapestry weaving, by my friend Cecilia end up in a pile on the floor! It was an experience unlike any I have previously had. It was the cutting down of a tapestry she has been weaving for the past nine months in her home studio. Commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission, this work is to hang in the school of a small community in Eastern Washington, called Moxee - just east of Yakima. Among her many beautiful creations Cecilia recently worked for two years, with a small group of weavers, on a set of tapestries being made for Stirling Castle in Scotland. The Scottish tapestries are based on the famed Unicorn Tapestries and are amazing medieval images.
No medieval images in this tapestry: the images are Cecilia's interpretation of the countryside of this small town in the middle of a huge hops growing area: it is spectacular. The images below are of the process of cutting it down ... and if I can get Blogger to place the photos where I want them they will show Cecilia's water color painting of her suggestions for the art work (immediately accepted without any changes!), the tapestry on the loom when we all arrived, the actual cutting down, the tapestry laying on the driveway of Cecilia's home, tying off the ends and Cecilia in front of the tapestry answering questions. And if I can't manage to place this many images successfully, I'm sure you will work it out - which is which!

The finishing processes will take about a month and in early June the town of Moxee will have this amazing creation hanging in the school there. What a special treat to be included in this unique experience. Thanks for including us Cecilia.

"You've been selected for Jury Duty"!

2010-04-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

In bold, red letters across the top of the folded page it said JURY SUMMONS. Failure to appear for jury duty is a misdemeanor ........ it continued. Only weeks before I had said to Peter that I would love to have the experience of serving on a jury: here was my wish granted. The list of instructions about what to do next was concise and emphatic.
Sunday evening March 21, I did as instructed and phoned the number on the summons ... darn my group wasn't called. But the message was to call again the next day after 4.30pm to see if my group had been called. It wasn't until Wednesday I finally got the call to be at the Superior Court of Pierce County by 8.30am with the admonishment to dress comfortably, park in designated areas only and make sure your juror parking sign is easily visible in your windshield.
Walking down the hill to the County-City Building the early morning air was cool on the face. Enter here said the sign ... WRONG door! said the security guard emphatically - this door is only for employees. Squeezed between two large, grumbling, men whose ample bodies could not fit between me and the door I placed my bag on the scanner bed and walked through the security gate which (of course - Peter would say) beeped. It's the metal eyelets on your shoes, said the guard as she waved the black wand over me from head to toe.
Room #123 on the 1st floor read my instructions. Handed my jury summons to the man who asked if there was any reason why I could not serve for the term for which I have been summoned? No. Then scan your bar code here, he continued, and read the screen. Is that you? Is all the information correct? Yes. He handed me some papers and directed me to find a chair and read the information.
Settling in to one of a large number of cranberry colored chairs in rows across the room, I read the pamphlets and watched the parade of my fellow citizens of Pierce County filling the chairs. Tall, short, young, older, very thin, grossly obese, some looking very confident - others equally unsure we gathered. A short but large and somewhat rumpled, balding man with large, crooked, aviator styled glasses took to the microphone and droned on for more than an hour; reading every word that was printed on the brochures we were handed. He repeated and repeated and again repeated so many of the instructions one wanted to ask him to please stop! But he had the microphone and he wasn't about to stop! Why had I decided not to bring some music to which I could listen?
To my amazement my name was called to join a pool of potential jurors quite soon. Just as in kindergarten we had to line up only here it was by number not alphabetically. Thirty of us were led to the court room and asked to sit on the benches ... in our numerical order. The judge told us that the case was a criminal case .. the charges were assault, attempting to disarm a police officer and harassment and the questioning, to find a jury of 12 plus 2 alternates, began. We were told to raise our number if we wished to speak! The attorneys took turns to question us.
Is there any reason why you could not serve on this jury? ( 3 people were excused) Had anyone every been on a jury before? Was there a trial? Did you reach a verdict? What was it? Had anyone had a bad experience with a police officer? What was it? What was the outcome? Were there any charges filed? What was the result of the charges? Do you know anyone who has been Tazered? Would you challenge a police officer if he came into a court room where you were and gave you an order? Would you challenge a police officer for any reason? And many more questions.

What I found fascinating was to watch the watchers! For example one of the attorneys would ask a question ( apparently innocently) and then swing around to carefully scan the group and watch the potential jurors reactions!
Of the people excused two stick in my mind: one was the young man who had been arrested for breaking and entering, resisting arrest and impersonating a police officer who "thought the charges were all dismissed but couldn't quite recall" and the woman, dressed much like a flight attendant in the 1950s ( only thing missing was the rakish hat) who'd been arrested for gambling. Twelve people were eventually asked to go to the jury box and then began the "picking off" (my phrase) ... with stilted language "The prosecutor respectfully thanks juror number ....for their service and asks the court to excuse him/her" ... then the defending attorney did the same. Each time someone was excused, another person from the benches went forward to fill an empty seat. Twelve were now selected and the young woman next to me, and I, were chosen as the alternates.
We were sworn in by the judge and the opening statements by both attorneys given. At the end of those, we were excused with instructions about when to return.
The testimony of the various witnesses didn't always make sense to me. Not that I couldn't understand but that I wasn't certain they were telling the "whole truth". Being a health care worker for 35 years I know well how differently people react in times of stress and if adrenalin is flowing lots, then the brain works quite differently: there would have been lots of adrenalin pumping in all the people present. The incidents happened, in a court room, early October last year and the questioning by the defence attorney, for example, about how many seconds elapsed between two events seemed nothing short of ridiculous. It was also disturbing to have the defendant's attorney actually alter, in his closing arguments, a piece of evidence. I do not believe it was a misquote by mistake.
At the time the jury was dismissed to deliberate the alternate and I were excused, with the proviso that we were not to discuss the case with anyone until we heard from the Judicial Assistant (JA)that the verdict had been reached, but that we were to remain available to serve in case any of the jurors could not be there. There was no question in my mind that the defendant was guilty of two of the charges: assault and harassment. But I felt there was no proof beyond a reasonable of the third charge and thus I felt vindicated when the J.A. called to say that the jury had made the same decision. It would have been very interesting for me to hear the way the jury argued their opinions. I felt that one man on the case would have found the defendant guilty on all charges, based on comments he made about "life" when we were in the jury room. But unless I meet one of the jurors somewhere, I have no way of knowing.
When I was in Bellingham last weekend celebrating our daughter-in-law's birthday, we saw this brilliant, huge heron (pictured below) sitting on a log in the rushing creek patiently waiting for lunch. He looked so wise somehow and I couldn't help but wonder what he would have thought about the whole process I'd just experienced.
It felt like a huge responsibility to determine at least a portion of how someone elses life might be affected by a decision I made. I am grateful to have had the experience and at the same time relieved I wasn't chosen for the ax-murder case that was being heard in the court house at the same time.

Let the Pattern Sorting begin!

2010-03-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

In a corner of my studio today sits an empty chair awaiting my arrival. Note the boxes on the floor surrounding that chair. It's the day of the great pattern sorting. Some people have collections of ceramic elephants, some have postcards of places they have visited or wish to visit while others have books lining every horizontal surface in their homes. The list of potential collectables is probably half as long in number as there are people. Even in homes where there is little other than the very basic items of life, I have found collections. There may not be as many items as there are patterns in those boxes ... and other storage places ... but for now, following the very successful conclusion of the RAGS Wearable Art show and sale, it's time for the annual pattern sorting. The decision about whether to keep that 1980 jumpsuit pattern, with the bell bottom legs and decorative full length zipper down the front, weighs heavily upon me ... to the chair ... in the hopes that I
will return, from under that pile of patterns, fabric etc, ... to write another day.

Much later ... would you just look at those boxed patterns: labeled and shelved and even a sack full of "no further use" in this studio patterns, ready to deliver to a painter friend who may incorporate them into an amazing work of art of a different nature! Next to tackle the fabric, thread, buttons and general "stuff" pile on the work table.

Eastern Washington Meanderings

2010-03-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

Topographical maps have always fascinated me. I find wonder in the idea that the lines and contours of the earth are able to be transferred to a two dimensional "picture" I can study. Today it would have been wonderful to have a topographical map to look at as we traveled the blue highways of the northern areas of Eastern Washington from Republic to the Methow Valley where we are now nestled in at the Chewuch Inn, in Winthrop, for the final two days of our mini vacation. But let me return momentarily to Sleeping Lady Resort and share a few images I captured there to remember our time spent among the whispering, long needled pines. Can you see the sleeping lady lying along the crest of the mountain? She's a little difficult to make out but once you "see" her she's quite clear. We bade her farewell, not unwillingly, when we found that the resort was to be the site of a meeting of about 200 trial attorneys for the next 3 days! The energy would certainly have been different that when we shared the entire place with a delightful Feng Shui practitioner who was there in Leavenworth to help a couple site a new home they will be constructing!
I wanted to share the image I captured of part of a spectacular glass sculpture, created by Dale Chihuly and his team of glass blowers and installers, specifically for the view of Icicle Creek that it overlooks from the top of a granite boulder. I loved this detail of the light showing through the more than one thousand "icicles" created by the glass blowers. We left Sleeping Lady sure we will return there for another quiet retreat. But now we know to ask with whom we will be sharing the facility!

Peter wanted to see Grand Coulee Dam on this trip and so it was to that direction we headed through some of the most stunning scenery. I don't do well when trying to describe incredibly beautiful scenery ... suddenly adjectives seem irrelevant or wrong somehow. I will allow a few of the images to speak for themselves.We traveled east around
Wenatchee,took the road north and then east to Coulee City.

Between Coulee City and Electric City we passed the famous landmark of Steamboat Rock state park: we were unable to determine just what it was in this monolith that caused it to be named for a steamboat!

On up the eastern shore of the huge lake created by the dam, pausing for lunch at Electric City ... we shared the bar with a wonderfully colorful group of locals gathered to have lunch at the Electric City Grill. It was around 1pm when we had lunch there ( not choosing either the Breaded Gizzards or the Bar Kicken' Broasted Chicken!) and we were a bit nonplussed to see a woman sit beside us, order a "vodka and seven" and watch the young waitress pour at least 2 1/2 ounces of vodka into the glass and a tiny bit of "seven" ... 7-up! We were reminded of our good fortune in life. Electric City is not a place either of us would have chosen in which to live. Grand Coulee Dam is certainly grand and impressive to see. Photos that we might have taken wouldn't do the mammoth structure justice. Only a small trickle of water issued from the dam and as we have seen every place on this dry side of the state, the water levels in the lakes appear to us to be very low.

Driving on through Wilbur to Creston, we found the wonderful piece of folk carving pictured here beside a restaurant that was shuttered and abandoned. Turning north our route took us alongside the huge Roosevelt Lake ( created by the Grand Coulee Dam) to Gilford where we crossed the FREE ferry to Inchelium and from there north on a brilliantly constructed road to the point where we joined Highway 20 westbound to Republic. The scenery along this drive was diverse and so beautiful - and we found Republic to be a very interesting town and the motel we chose spotlessly clean and comfortable. Republic at about 3,500 feet was crystal clear air and very chilly.

At the Tamarack Cafe we partook of a splendid pizza and engaged in conversation with a delightful group of sophomore and junior high school students, from the local school. We were amazed at their willingness to chat with us and even more amazed when the mobile phone of one rang, and she got up from the table and went outside to answer and have her conversation!!!!

Breakfast next morning at the Sportsman Cafe was as enjoyable for the conversation we had with the locals as it was for the good rural food.
Before leaving Republic we ventured into the local thrift shop where just about anything you could want was available: we paid for our 2 teaspoons and a wonderful down vest and packed and were on our way.
Wauconda Summit on the road to Tonasket was quite snowy, and beautiful, on both sides but the road clear and dry. Meandering waterways we saw along the way were varyingly snow embellished and there was certainly more snow on that pass than any we have traversed. Driving over Loup Loup summit was also very snowy but the scenery spectacular and we virtually had the road to ourselves only rarely seeing another vehicle as we drove down into the stunning Methow Valley: it was almost six years ago that we were here for 4th of July celebrations.

My Reward

2010-03-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

Driving Highway 2 through Index on our way here yesterday, Peter suggested I needed to avoid the telephone poles. I think they add something to the photo! The mountains along the way were breathtaking.

Just outside Leavenworth, Washington ( on the eastern side of the state over Stevens Pass on Highway 2) along a road that meanders along through a rural neighborhood one comes to a fork in the road. Turn left for Sleeping Lady Resort was our choice and it is from here that I write: the only sound is YoYo Ma playing Cello (thanks to the amazing tiny speakers I purchased to attach to the iPod function on my iPhone!) and Peter turning the pages of his book as he lolls in a rocking chair in the corner of our beautiful cabin in the woods here along Icicle Creek. The sun comes late into this deep valley and it is casting beautiful light across the wooden floor. I am luxuriating in my reward for a few months of very hard work in my studio.

Last week at Larson's Mercedes Benz dealership showroom in Fife the 16th annual RAGS wearable art show and sale played itself out over 3 1/2 days. Those who organized ( the fabulous women of the RAGS Guild) and we artists who had spent the previous months creating our goods to sell, were cautiously hopeful that people would turn out again and make purchases - one third of which is given to the prevention and intervention programs at the YWCA of Pierce County. However we all know of the current economic challenges and I am guessing I was not the only artist who wondered if he/she would take back to their studio most of what they brought to sell. Our amazing $80,000 gift to the YW for each of the past 2 years we didn't think was possible to repeat.

The results for the whole show will not be known for a month when totals will be revealed at the YWCA's annual luncheon but I was thrilled to part with a major portion of the works I had created and many of the artists were likewise pleased. I am always grateful that people enjoy wearing my work and I have also learned to not be crushed when someone says "No thank you". My marathon days of cutting and sewing for sometimes as long as 12 hours were rewarded .. and now the restful days are here: my reward!

Sleeping Lady Resort is a unique place built by Harriet Bullitt ( see www.sleepinglady.com) in the mid 1990s and a place we have tried to come to a couple of times in the past, but not been able to get a reservation: the secret is to come in the off season. Nestled in the woods among the beautiful long needled pine trees you find on the dry side of the state, it is an ecologically conscious site with much to offer. It was my birthday gift from Peter, last birthday, to come here and so we are here to loll and do as little as possible for a few days.

In the corner of our little cabin is a telephone ;

what a relief that it isn't mine to answer but it

looks beautiful, in its own way, nestled there

in the morning light!

Walking out the door, the fragrance of the pines is amazing and one only has to look up through the needles of the tree outside the door to imagine the potential for creating something wonderful by interpreting those pine needles into a design ... but for now it is surely time for the first nap of the day.

Playing with jello!

2010-02-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

If you were to ask me where I've been and what have I been doing, one of my answers might be - playing with jello! Not the gooey bright green, harrrowing yellow or terrifyingly bright red stuff of childhood delights. But the plain old, unflavored gelatin.
About a year ago my friend Colleen introduced me to "Gelatin Printing" following a reading by her of an article, by Jenn Mason, in the Jan/Feb. issue of 2008 periodical Cloth, Paper, Scissors (pages 14-16). Colleen is an amazingly creative paper artist who has a fabulous sense of color. Under her tutelage I began to play with this medium and after trying out paper images, I switched to making monoprints on fabric - I was hooked ... ( that terrible hackneyed expression follows) ... and the rest is history.
The accompanying images are of a garment I called - "Veiled and Unveiled" - (created for the competition mentioned in my previous entry) at the Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley Community College tiitled "Nature by Design: New Directions in Fiber and Jewelry. At this time I remain in the dark about whether or not my pieces were accepted. However the fun for me was in pushing myself to do something new and different. I usually avoid slithery fabrics like the plague! They have a mind all of their own underneath the needle of the sewing machine. The fabric is silk organza ( doesn't get much more slithery than that) and the cloak is meant to convey my thoughts about the amazing mysteries that go on inside our bodies ( design by nature) that we mostly are unable to see or feel or even know about. Just one example: one doesn't see the blood circulating through veins and arteries or the exchanges of nutrients or any one of millions of "events" going on constantly.And what is it that is allowing me to sit on this chair and tap my fingers on this keyboard? Not any one thing for sure ... but millions of events and most of us don't give a thought to any of these ongoing events.
Printing bodies and a few parts of bodies on gelatin and then onto the fabric gave very interesting images, which I found quite wonderful, and my delight was furthered by attaching them to the inside of the cloak - seen and unseen events going on "inside" - and hand stitching connections to the various body images. Difficult to describe but very challenging and in the end fun to do. Whether or not the jurors will think it's worthy of inclusion really doesn't matter - it was the pushing myself to do something new and different that made it all worth the effort. And the gelatin printing is an incredibly fun and inventive way to play: check it out.
And the other answer about what have I been doing - designing, cutting and sewing long hours for the RAGS, Wearable Art show and Sale to occur March 12,13,14 at the Mercedes Benz dealership in Fife. This event raises money for the Domestic Violence Programs at the YWCA Pierce County in Tacoma - our 16th year of raising funds for these very worthwhile projects. Hope to see you there.

Pushing one's own envelope further out ...

2010-02-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

The Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley Community College is calling for entries in a competition titled "Nature by Design: New direction in Fiber and Jewelry". I have previously entered this gallery's every other year Art to Wear competition and even been accepted several times. When the prospectus dropped out of the pile of mail my interest was tweaked. Reading the jurors comments my interest dropped into the garbage bin of my mind ... "show me something I haven't seen.........." she asked. My immediate thought was ... there's nothing that hasn't been done already by one of the amazing, way more talented than me, creative fiber/textile artists I follow in the media. I put the idea aside.
It took driving on a rainy day through downtown Bellevue to re-tweak my interest and resurrect my curiousity from the bin! For days now I have been transforming photographs into printable sizes, running silk fabric through my ink jet printer to capture the images and sewing, sewing sewing. This has been a very new adventure for me ... certainly pushing my envelope way out. One garment is finished, working from images such as the one captured here. It certainly looks like Nature by Design to me. Now to work on the other one. Wonder what the jurors will think?

When is an Elephant Bed ... not for an elephant?

2010-01-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

When it is a coccolithophore!!

On a beautiful Friday in January, I collected three women friends and we journeyed to Bellingham, gasping regularly at the Cascade and Olympic mountain views. Significant amounts of new snow in the previous days, the air so clear and the sky a brilliant blue, meant that we could see every peak: unbelievably beautiful. Our plan was to have lunch with the northern Darling family and then visit the new Whatcom Museum to see the current exhibitions.

There is a new restaurant in the Fountain District of Bellingham, opposite the Re-Store, aptly named The Fountain Bistro. It recently opened in a former KFC building and it is a delight for the eyes and great food for the tummy!
Following a visit to show my friends A Little Darling School (the fabulous preschool and kindergarten owned by Jason and Netta and directed brilliantly by Netta) who by the way were as impressed as everyone we have ever taken there, we adjourned to the Fountain Bistro where Eva proceeded to charm everyone around her in the restaurant and we ate a delicious lunch.

Whatcom Museum (www.whatcommuseum.org) was next on our agenda. If you have read my recent postings you will know I have been much involved with elephants for some weeks! (www.tacomaartmuseum.org) We then stepped into a different world altogether by visiting Bloom: The Elephant Bed - an amazing and wonder-inducing installation by John Grade, a local Seattle artist.

"Inspired by natural cycles of creation and destruction, John Grade's abstract sculptures reference the formation and erosion of landscape. Bloom: The Elephant Bed reflects the artist's fascination with microscopic organisms

(called coccolithophores) whose limestone shells formed the chalky White Cliffs of Dover in the United Kingdom. Geologists call this exposed layer of calcium, laid down over 200,000 years ago, the "Elephant bed."
It is simply spectacular. I had seen the show before and so had the pleasure of sitting quietly in a corner and watching people's response to this amazing creation. The huge sculptural pieces hang and move quietly in this gallery, with twenty six foot high ceilings, in a slightly eerie manner. People are amazed, entranced, curious and amused: they walk around the suspended giant pieces quizzickly. Angling oneself underneath you can stand up inside of them - a slightly disorienting/dizzying experience as the piece moves gently around you.
On April 10th the giant pieces will be carried through Bellingham in a procession and lowered into Puget Sound where, because of the construction materials used, they will slowly dissolve! Be there.
At the Whatcom Museum there are other very worthwhile artworks to see from a Boise, Idaho couple's collection. Check the website ... it's worth a visit.

THIS is how many elephants it takes to make a pile!

2010-01-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

Today I crept into the gallery at the Tacoma Art Museum where a new exhibition is being installed by the talented TAM staff: it is called The Secret Language of Animals and will open this Saturday - January 23rd, 2010. I couldn't wait till it was all completed.
THERE!, said James, is your pile of elephants - what do you think? Not 'my' pile of elephants - but 'our' pile of elephants, I corrected, and they look spectacular!, I said delightedly.
What a thrill to see something you have participated in creating sitting there in a large gallery space. A lot of "installation" art goes right over my head; it leaves me feeling a bit stupid that I don't "get it". I may enjoy looking at it but not really have a clue what the artist is or was trying to say. And here again I don't really know what Jeffry Mitchell is or was trying to say with this pile of elephants installation, but here for some reason it doesn't matter. This grouping makes me smile and the irony of a "pile of elephants" fitting in a museum gallery is pretty intriguing and amusing to me. The remainder of the show looks pretty wonderful too, I can't wait to see it all completed.

A January Delight for the Senses

2010-01-20T09:40:00.001-08:00

It was at least 5 years ago that I walked into the home of Ottie and Clara Ladd and stopped in my tracks. Lingering in the air, after the front door closed, was the most unusual, but gentle fragrance. WHAT could it be? I asked Ottie? In a large vase were bare looking branches covered with little yellow spidery-looking "flowers". Smell it, he suggested. And sure enough that was where the fragrance was coming from. Come, I'll show you - he offered - and there in his yard was a very large tree covered in the same yellow blossoms. That was my introduction to Chinese witch hazel! I have had a small, struggling tree in my garden since then.
Walking in the rain soaked streets of Seattle on an "art day" outing, last week, with Peter we were delighted to come across a huge Chinese witch hazel tree in full bloom in a tiny urban park. Skies were heavy and grey but walking into Waterfall Park ( on the corner of 2nd and Main Streets in the Pioneer Square area of the city) our senses were overcome. Brilliant yellow blossoms on branches, bare except for where some brown, sculptured-looking leaves remained trapped by twigs of the tree and the perfume ... almost overwhelming.
This easily missed oasis in the city is one I always walk through when in that area and I always walk away refreshed. The park is a donation to the city from the United Parcel Service and there are places to sit and rest, tables on which to place your food, beverage or book. A roaring waterfall in the corner of the park masks the sounds of traffic going by: wonder awaits you when you walk through the portal. Chinese witch hazel blooms in January, sometimes late December, and some of them have the most exquisite perfume. It seems doubly amazing to me that it blooms in the middle of winter and that the blossoms which are small spidery-looking tufts of yellow can give off this amazing fragrance. My photo doesn't do it justice.

The other image is of the waterfall corner of the park, taken when visiting there in October 2009 and autumn colors were at their most spectacular. It's a beautiful and refreshing spot to pause in, anytime of year. If you hurry you might still catch the Chinese witch hazel in bloom ... otherwise it will be a reason for you to make sure you go there next January.

Alice it's fabulous, love Eva!

2010-01-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

Our cousin Alice Addison taught my Nanna how to make Butternut Squash Bisque (no mere soup for this girl!) years ago and it has been a favorite of my parents and family ever since. When my Nanna came to care for me this weekend (while Peebo was busy helping my parents shovel the junk into a truck for delivery to the dump, and other treasures to the Re-store for resale) she thought it was time to introduce me to Alice's fabulous soup. It was an instant hit and I simply couldn't wait for Nanna to get it out of the pan and into a bowl before I laid into it with MY spoon (see me in the picture ) and I wanted you to know that I had 2 more bowls full before I signalled enough! Thanks Cousin Alice ... anymore recipes like that you want to share ... please feel free to do so.
love, Eva
P.S. Nanna included the recipe in case there are others who have a hankering for Butternut Squash Bisque on a winter's day.

ALICE'S BUTTERNUT SQUASH BISQUE
2 T unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tart apples peeled, cored and chopped coarsely
2 Bartlett pears,peeled,cored and chopped coarsely
1 Butternut squash - about 2-21/2 lbs- peeled and chopped.
4 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. dried thyme
1/2 t.powdered or fresh ginger
2 T. brown sugar (optional)
salt and pepper to taste ... sour cream and chopped walnuts for garnish (optional)
Saute the onions in the butter ... add everything else to the pot, bring to the boil and reduce heat and cover and cook till the squash is tender. Cool slightly then puree in batches till smooth. Gently reheat and enjoy, topped if you wish with a dollop of sour cream and chopped walnuts.

My Cousin Alice

The Turquoise Moment of the day

2010-01-17T17:20:00.000-08:00

My Dutch friend Agniet and I found out, when we met in Italy for a vacation, that we are both intrigued by what she calls the blue moment and what I always refer to as "that turquoise moment". The Hawaiian Islands have their green flash ... a sight many have seen at that very moment when the sun dips below the horizon.
But for both Agniet and me - it is this amazing, incredibly clear blue which can there and then gone as quickly as you see it ... that holds us: it comes just before dark. I am left in awe each time I am fortunate enough to witness it: a sacred moment for sure. If you haven't witnessed this phenomenon ... look particularly toward the west on a day when the sky is very clear, after the sun is well set and just before dark. This image I took looking SW across Puget Sound from our home.

You can see Agniet's wonderful works on her website: www.agnietsnoep.nl

THIS! is a pile of elephants

2010-01-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

How many elephants does it take to make a "pile?"
In the first photo, of this posting, you can see a pile of stitched, but not yet stuffed elephants, and the weary pattern maker and stitcher. The delighted "Elephant Queen" can be seen with a completed, stuffed friend in the middle image and the third image shows most of the 57 elephants that we created last week. We had Tacoma Art Musuem (TAM) volunteers, some neighbors of mine and some students from Tacoma School of the Arts (TSOTA) to help. Oh and the occasional dabbling staff member who just "had to have a hand in this"!!! James Porter, the senior preparator for TAM, was our support person extraordinaire.
Beginning January 23rd a new exhibition will open at TAM; it is called The Secret Life of Animals.
Jeffry Mitchell is the Seattle artist who created the idea and exhibited a slightly different version of the elephants as an installation at the Seattle Art Museum in 1990. He gave the go ahead, located a couple of the remaining elephants from which we made patterns and the new elephant pile was born. I haven't had the opportunity to ask Jeffry about the reasoning/inspiration/idea behind the work yet: stay tuned. Rock Hushka, Head Curator, has wanted to replicate this installation at TAM for many years. He is to get his wish as part of this new exhibition. It promises to be a very fun exhibition ... do come and see it all. Leroy our pup will greet you, and among the many interesting pieces of art in many different media the elephant pile awaits you! May be the only time my "work" is exhibited in an Art Museum. Look forward to seeing you there.

It was there for just a moment!

2010-01-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

At the Tacoma Art Museum on Saturday last there was a celebration of NW Coastal Native American culture. Dancing, drumming, singing, artists creating - it was a great afternoon celebration. It was also a last opportunity to see the amazing show of Native American Indian artist Joe Fedderson which has been hanging in the museum. Walking from the gallery, where Joe's work was hanging, to the entry area the blazing sunshine momentarily captured the image of the clouds on one of the stainless steel walls of the museum. I captured this photo, and as quickly as it appeared ... it was gone. Never go anyplace without a camera at the ready!

How many elephants make a pile?

2010-01-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

If someone had told me I would spend a major portion of a week, hidden away in the basement of the local Art Museum ... directing a "sweat shop" (joke) of wonderful volunteers, creating elephants!!! ... I would have laughed out loud for sure. However that is exactly what I have been doing for this past week.
The results are spectacular ... but I can't share much more than that for a little while. Stay tuned!
Yours most faithfully ... The, newly titled, Elephant Queen!!!

In the very early hours of a December 2009 morning

2010-01-04T20:51:00.000-08:00

Sometime in the very, very early pre-dawn hours ... wandering in an insomniacal (is there such a word?) manner around the house ... I looked out the window toward Mt. Rainier and registered that the lights, from the ships and the Port of Tacoma, were nothing short of magical the way they were playing across the surface of the water. The patterns of wind across the water made unusual shapes and designs from the reflected lights of the ports and ships anchored out in the ways. What I wanted was to be able to sleep, but the urge to record this brilliant scene was too much! It was spectacular - I wanted to share that view.

Where to begin?

2010-01-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

As a student at The Evergreen State College from 1983-86, I wrote many papers; one of which was entitled "From Pebbles to This" ( "this" being a computer)! At that time I had access to university libraries all over the country. The facts of that paper were credited to be true at that time. I want to share part of that that paper, written in January 1984, as my first blog entry ...
"Hundreds of years ago, men used notches in sticks or scratches in the sand to help them remember numbers. Smooth round pebbles made handy counters ..... so a handful of pebbles was the first calculating "machine". It is a long, long way from pebbles and marks in the sand to modern, electronic computers. But the methods of calculating have remained the same. It is the kind and complexity of the tools ... that have changed. One of the earliest kinds of computers, the abacus, is still in use today in most of Asia." ( the author of that quote is lost! ... but to continue in my own words)
It was not until the 1940s that the computer was first made available for commercial use: its primary tasks being those of solving mathematical problems. More generalized uses of the computer have developed rapidly during he past 40 years and it is that rapid development that is responsible for me sitting here for the very first time before this machine and its various attachments, determined that my very first words from our personal computer should come written about science and technology!
I thought to myself, as I faced the keyboard, of anxieties of the past that I had somehow managed to master: math to some degree, science, having my ears pierced!, handling our sailboat by myself ... all of which for some reason at this stage don't seem quite so "ominous" or quite so quantum a leap as I have made by taking the time to sit down and actually make out how to get "that thing" started up and going and to make it do what I want it to do!!*
The encyclopedia I was reading (ah ha! definitely pre the Internet and Google searches) speaks at some length about the "sequence of operations" that a washing machine makes when it washes a load of clothing. The washing machine even "makes some decisions" along the way: when the water reaches a certain level something is tripped which then sets another function working and amazing to me to realize that it is the very same feedback operation that works the computer I am using today. It is the feedback that I give to the machine that makes it carry out the functions I choose. That is of course unless I operate it incorrectly or give it a wrong command!
Electronic computers perform these functions on a very grand scale. Automatically they are able to run through numerous sequences of steps ... . and it was in reading about one of the basic elements of computing that I found where the pebbles on the beach turned into electronic pebbles!!! This basic element is called a flip-flop circuit. Included in this circuit is a pair of either tubes or transistors which are connected to each other in a manner that ensures whenever one is on, the other is off. ... Today I have played with those "electronic pebbles" and it will no doubt take me some period of time to injest the meaning of this new mastery. In no way have I mastered this computer, hardware and software, but I have with the aid of my son, the manual, and a couple of semi hysterical calls to the computer dealership,managed to get the muddled thoughts from my head onto this piece of paper .........."
How much of this writing is still true today is uncertain. I have recently witnessed Chinese merchants using an abacus with which to count and at the very same time I know that less than 10 years following the above writing the entire country of China was electrified providing access to all manner of communication.
I am awestruck that I can hit publish on the keyboard in front of me and, thanks to my friend Alicia, make my ramblings available for countless people to read ( or to laugh at) around the globe and at the same time very mindful of the clutter of the internet. Whether or not I feel this is a way I want to communicate, be visible, remains to be seen. For now I need to surrender to the electronic pebbles and simply push ... publish post!
The fresh New Year of 2010 is upon us and my wishes for anyone who reads this are for good health and great joys in the coming year.

Morning across Puget Sound's Commencement Bay

2010-01-03T16:02:00.000-08:00

Grandparenting IS all it's cracked up to be!

2010-01-03T15:56:00.000-08:00

Eva Grace is one year old! Holding the crown her mother made her - but which she would have NOTHING to do with as far as wearing it on her head went - she is here wearing a dress that long-time Kiwi friend Rosalie knitted for my daughter Amy when she was born - many years ago now! It fit Eva perfectly.

A New Beginning

2010-01-02T16:35:00.000-08:00