Opening Day for Baseball--Nationals Win!!!!

It was a rare treat for me to share the opening day of the Nationals baseball season with my grandson, Griffin, a true Nationals fan.  This is a picture of the team after the 2-0 win over Miami.   

I also used the time to "brush up" on sketching from the tv screen....which used to be a favorite way to get free models---but some of them move a lot.  I ended up with this, and the face is sort of generic.  Interesting that the pose was easier to "compose" from several guys than the face was, but here it is.  I wish I had photographed the sketch with no paint.  I think it was actually a little more interesting.  I started to do the crowd in the background, but ran out of time.  Picture a sea of mostly red, with a little white....that is the effect.

And now...for true followers of the blog, pictures from the Easter egg hunt yesterday!  Both girls and boys won!  All winners....because of a tie.  I was tempted to post only "my" team, but the guys look great as winners, too.  We all had a lot of fun, joined by friend Melanie and her family.

Easter Weekend-East Coast

I flew into DC on Friday night to get ready for a great Easter weekend at St Michael'..s Maryland with my cousin Roy and his family..Oh, and of course Louisa, Peter, Griffin and Sophia, often referred to as "The Smiths."  Our first stop on Saturday morning was the pastry shop where we picked out a delicious and beautiful assortment of macaroons.  It was so hard to choose that we ended up with what they call a "monumental" assortment. Truly. They were all beautiful and arranged in a special box--with a drawing of Washington monuments on the top. The shop is "The Sweet Lobby" and they won the Cupcake wars award on the Food channel.  We were now ready to set off to St Michaels:

Well, this is a picture of the girls....who were charged with selection of the treats.  The guys (Griffin and Peter) had to make a run to pick up some forgotten items and then picked us up and we were on the way.

When we arrived in St Michael's, we were amazed by the sunny and warm weather.  It was almost balmy.

We had a great afternoon snacking and visiting and just hanging out together.  Badminton and chatting were enough for us, topped off by a wonderful meal of meatloaf and all the fixin's We had a nice walk to the harbor before more chatting and then off to bed.  Peter and I intermittently worked on a jigsaw puzzle, but he did most of it.

Easter morning was busy.  First, the children (Griffin, Sophia, Alex and Ryan) had a fun hunt for their baskets from the Easter Bunny.  They had clues to follow on post it notes.  Each child had a different color and different clues.  What fun, and then the reward was a special basket for each one of them.  We then had a huge Easter breakfast.    

We went to mass at the local church, where Kathy and her husband were married, and where Roy and Sandi have attended for many years.  It was meaningful to be there with them.  

We came home, relaxed a bit and had a family picture:

We were joined by Kathy's friend Melinda and her family and had the major egg hunt, which is a really important Easter event.  More on that later, as I am waiting for the pictures.  Suffice it to say it is "boys versus girls" and we had a tie.....so everyone was a winner.

We then had a great feast (as if we hadn't eaten enough already) of turkey, ham, etc. etc. etc...including homemade mac and cheese and the best turkey stuffing I have ever had.  We left late Sunday afternoon...full of food, family love, and good feelings.  What a great Easter!

Silver Falls State Park - Hiking Trip

Yesterday, I took a seven-mile hike in Silver Falls State Park.  It is especially amazing in Winter because there is so much water feeding the falls.  The main hike is the Trail of Ten Falls/Canyon Trail.  As expected there are ten falls....actually, there are more at this time of year, including some with the trail actually going under the Falls.  Very much fun.  The picture above shows part of the group going under one.  Another fun thing was 187 steps in one area, with not much of a break in between several flights. I wish I'd taken a picture.  I went to their website to find one, and it isn't there.   I guess they don't want to scare you off!   We went up them--some us faster than others.

I went with the Chemeketans, who hike this trail often.  There were fourteen in the group.  We hiked the Canyon Trail, stopped at the Lodge for lunch where there was a roaring fire to warm up by.  Then we returned to the trailhead parking lot by a shorter and more even trail--the Rim Trail. 

More about the Canyon Trail is here:
http://www.oregonstateparks.org/images/pdf/silverfalls_trailmap.pdf

Salem in January - Geese Migration

I'm currently in Salem, which is in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. One big difference from Portland is the open skies.  Today, I was out kind of exploring the area and saw hundreds of geese flying overhead.  I tried to take a picture, but I only had my cell phone and it didn't fully capture it.  It was amazing.

Here's a link to a you tube of geese flying that I think is particularly beautiful:

Some of the lessons learned from geese:

1. Trade leadership so that one goose doesn't always have to be the leader..those behind actually have it easier because of the air currents.  It really is harder for the leader.

2.  Communicate constantly.  It can be a little noisy, but it works.  You need to know where everyone is and if there are any problems.

3.  Take a break before you are tired and rest in areas where you can stay together

4.  Stay together!

5.  Know your destination and be patient in getting there.

I'm sure there are more.  I'd appreciate feedback from those who have thought about this and have some more ideas about lessons from geese.

PS:  I have had some trouble on the preview getting the "youtube" to run, so here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q40h8dPmgwQ

Hope it works.   It's less than 2 minutes and very beautiful.  These geese are headed north and the ones I saw were headed south, but I don't think that makes a huge difference.

Thanksgiving at Westwind

I had a great Thanksgiving at Westwind with the Black Mountain group.  I was able to take a walk before the big dinner and the tide was way out.  It was VERY low.  The picture above is of Cascade Head from the   Westwind Beach.  My friend Ken and I walked as far south as we safely could go and saw this keyhole through the rocks that normally close off the south end of the beach:

Until you got close, it seemed easy to walk through and go to Lincoln City, but actually it wasn't! We didn't try it, but walked as far as we could north...where the Salmon River was coming through.  It was weak because of the low tide, but still a river.  Then we headed East and eventually found the road to the lodge at Westwind...just in time for the big feast.

I meant to take pictures of the Thanksgiving Feast, but didn't.  There were 81 there, and a good time was had by all.....lots of pies!!!

Fused Glass Party

Last Friday, I treated some friends to a fused glass party at "Live, Love, Laugh" Glass in Tigard.  I did it to thank Carrie, Nancy, Jan, Patty and Judith because they helped me get my house ready for sale and get a garage sale going.

We had fun doing it, we each now have a 6" x 6" plate, and we went out for dinner after.  That is having fun with your friends.  I cannot recommend "Live, Love, Laugh" Glass highly enough.  They supplied all the materials and great instruction.  There was a lot of variety in the glass pieces we could choose from to be fused onto the clear glass plates. It was hard to decide, but I think everyone was successful.

Mine is shown above.  It has a little more color than the picture shows because the darker pieces at the bottom are iridescent green and some are a brownish color.

I'm the only one whose seen them so far because I just picked them up today.

Here's Carrie's:

It really is clear glass.  I took the picture out the window with a sheet of white paper behind.  The background scene was too distracting without the white paper.  I took all the pictures that way.  Lively design, Carrie.

Here's Nancy's:

Nancy's has a lovely scalloped edge.  She chose to have hers "slumped" which means it was put in a mold and formed into a shallow dish in a second firing.

Here's Jan's:

It looks like a party!

Here's Patty's:

Sort of like a labyrinth, and very colorful.

Here's Judith's:

Love the colors! and the edge is very pretty.

Hope you enjoyed this glass art show.  I am posting this in the travel blog instead of the Plum Gallery blog because I considered it an outing more than an art project.

Art Overload!!!

I truly don't know where to begin, but will just take this chronologically. I'm writing this on Thursday.  I went to the Freer Art Gallery on Tuesday to see one of my favorites, the Peacock Room.  It was designed for Frederick Leyland by James McNeill Whistler.  Yes, he's the same Whistler who painted his mother.  This room is an amazing work of art in and of itself.  Leyland didn't like it, though, and thought Whistler had gone too far.  That's another whole story, but it is kind of "over the top.".   However, Freer loved it and eventually bought it and moved it to his home in Detroit.  Later, it was bequeathed to the gallery as part of his gifts, and reconstructed as part of the Smithsonian.  The picture above shows just one wall of the room.

Other work by Whistler is in the Freer, and I loved it.  Some is part of the permanent exhibition and some is in a new show.  In my visit this time, I realized how often Whistler created a frame to complement his work.  I also enjoyed a special exhibit of etchings and watercolors of street scenes in London done during the time Whistler was there.  There were a lot of children in those, which made it very charming, yet I learned the children were actually poor children hanging out and trying to score food and such to take back home.  Well, it was documentary.

I saw so much else!  A highlight was a photography show of portraits, including a woman who assumed various persona and then photographed herself as a Japanese skateboarder, a lesbian in New York, etc.  It was very interesting.  I should have written down her name. I also enjoyed a show about the intersection of art and news.  I brought home a printed page with a quote on one side by a policeman who said it is easy to identify criminals and a quote on the other side of the same page by another policeman saying that it is not easy to identify criminals.  The stack of printouts was part of the display, and taking one was my contribution to the whole thing.  I also liked a newspaper that was entirely gilded and made what is a throwaway very valuable because of the gold!.

Another thing that made a big impression was a show of digital photographs by Weingarten.  They were a real breakthough, and I just ran across the show accidentally yesterday.  To give you an example, here is his portrait of Dennis Hopper:

Doing this review on line does not do it justice...the images are huge (60" x 90"), and are done in collaboration with the person they portray. The show was called "Pushing Boundaries."  I know I have not done it justice, but I try!