Boot Lust

My daughter-in-law is having her birthday party at my DH's cabin this weekend.  Kellie & Don have invited a whole herd of friends to come celebrate the birthday (and her brother Trevor's birthday, too).  And Memorial Day will have its due.

Kellie decided she wanted to have a cowboy/cowgirl party.  She requested that all the attendees dress the part.  Now, here comes the confession.  I have had boot lust for quite some time.  I saw these amazing embroidered boots in a catalog.  I have visited the website just to look at the photo of them, and drool.  They were costly.  I don't need them.  Really.  I. Do. Not. Need. Them.

But then Kellie decided we all needed to dress the part.  So, you could say that now I did need them!  (Not having any boots of the cowboy variety....)

I bought them.  I love them.  I have been keeping them on my dresser, like art.  I admire them every time I enter or exit my bedroom.  They are just so dang cool!

And then, of course, I needed a shirt....

I am not really a Western shirt sort of girl.  I am more the ethnic, embroidered, hippie-style (from my youth) kind of girl.  I found this shirt, which appealed to my Boho side and still had a sort of Western wear vibe.  I did not need it.  Really.  I didn't.  But.....for the party.  For Kellie....you wouldn't want me to disappoint Kellie by not dressing the part, would you?

I do have to admit I think I'll be a bit more Rodeo Drive than rodeo!

Snow Day in May

I am on call for jury duty this week.  I am not lucky at raffles.  I am not lucky at lottos.  I never find the golden egg or the prize in the cake or win the Dream House sweepstakes on HGTV or any of that sort of thing.  I never win anything.  (Well, mostly never....)  But getting called, repeatedly, for jury duty?  I'm your girl!

I do think that it is the duty of every American citizen to willingly serve on a jury, when asked.  I take my civic duty seriously and I don't try and weasel out of going.  But, in all honesty, I hate it.  I hate the idea that I might make a mistake and vote the wrong way on a verdict.  I worry that I have missed something, or not understood something, that the implications of some little detail has eluded my attention.  But mostly I hate the waiting.

You wait for your name to be called.  You wait for the clerk to arrive. You wait for a number for voir dire.  You wait in the jury assembly room, which is alternatingly either too hot or too cold.  You wait for ever.  And ever.

But then they throw you a bone!  When I called in this evening to see if my group was called for tomorrow, I discovered that I am not required to go in!  I have, of course, to call in again tomorrow evening to see about Wednesday, but all day tomorrow is mine to do with as I please!  I kept trying to figure out what the feeling of being unexpectedly free reminded me of and I finally got it....a snow day when I was in school.

Being a responsible citizen and doing your duty?  Good.  Not actually being picked for a jury?  Better.  Not having to go in to the courthouse at all?  Priceless!

CONGRATULATIONS, Chris!!!

My amazing son-in-law, Critter, graduated from law school last Saturday.  With distinction.  

He received an award for volunteer service to the community, too.  1500 hours worth!

He did all this while getting married and having their first child about one year ago.  There is also a new
little one on the way.

He works hard.  He adores my daughter and treats her with love and respect (as she does him, I must add).  He laughs, reads, thinks, studies, plays, does housework and laundry....the list goes on and on.  He is a remarkably wonderful father.  He even took his little daughter with him across the stage to receive his diploma.

It has become abundantly clear that he does everything with distinction.

Am I a lucky mother-in-law or what?  CONGRATULATIONS, darling man.  I love you.

Sunday Mish-Mash

Last night was the "super moon" and while I didn't get to see it just as it rose, I did manage to get a couple of shots of it once it had cleared the hills to the south of the cabin.  It was spectacular!

I spent the weekend at the cabin and it was so nice to be up there, in the quiet, where things are blooming and the phone doesn't ring.  I read a lot of magazines, worked in my journal and read.  It was heaven.  A nice break from the Festival craziness that May always brings.  My lilacs are just beginning to be in bloom.  Next weekend they should be in their full glory, but alas, I won't see it.  I will be in California celebrating my son-in-law's graduation from law school (a truly good reason to miss the lilacs).

The rhododendrons at the cabin are in full bloom now (and I, of course, forgot to take photos).  I have all pink up there.  In town, at the house, my red rhoddies are blooming like mad and the yellow azaleas are a lovely counterpoint to all the red.

The fiddleheads of emerging ferns are everywhere....

....and the hydrangeas are putting out leaves of the most lovely green.  Some of them are showing little bits of the blossoms to come.

I have done a fair amount of work in my journal lately, more than I consistently do when I'm not traveling.  For some reason, I am compelled to journal when traveling, but at home journaling often gets put on the back burner as mundane everyday life takes over.  That's sad.  Journaling about everyday things makes for some really interesting reading years later.  I am trying to do more, and at least for the last couple of months, I have been fairly consistent in sticking to the plan.

The little canvas (below) is one I have just completed for a self-portrait project through the Art House

Co-op.  (By the way, the Art House Co-op has a series of ongoing art projects, many of which are free, to take part in, if you are interested.  Check them out!)

I carved a stamp using a self-portrait photo I took a while ago.  It was fun and I was happy with the results.  

The best part?  I'll be able to mail in my little canvas tomorrow, nine days before the deadline.  If you know me at all, being nine days early for any deadline is just plain amazing.

The Santa Monica Pier

Last Saturday I spent the day with my daughter, son-in-law and their two children at the Santa Monica Pier.  I haven't spent much time in Los Angeles and environs in my lifetime and had never been to the Pier.  It was great fun!  I had (almost) as much fun as my grandchildren.

 

For someone who loves bright colors and taking photographs of shapes and forms, it was a veritable feast of a place.

The day was perfect....75 degrees, sunny skies and a lovely on shore breeze.

The children rode the rides.  We all had lunch at a pretty fine Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier.  We went to the aquarium and saw all sorts of fishy things.  (The jellies were especially lovely to my eye.)  Ice cream was enjoyed.  Playing on the sand was fun.  Soaking up some sunshine was much appreciated by my old bones.  It was a lovely day.

My granddaughter, minus some front teeth, agrees.  It was a fine day!

Saturday Morning

Busy week.  It's always busy this time of year as this is when I do the scheduling of the volunteers for the Edmonds Arts Festival.  Not even two months until we are, once again, in full Festival mode.  This is rather a poignant season for me as it's my last year on the board.  I will miss it.

I completed my map for the ArtHouse Co-op map project.  The idea was to create a map, a map of anything you wanted, that would fold up into a 4 by 6 inch packet and was mailable in a standard envelope.  I chose to do a map of places I've been and places I plan to visit.  I had quite a lot of fun doing this as it took me back to my university days (all these many decades ago!) when I was a geography student, studying cartography.  This was just as computer mapping was becoming the way of all mapping, but we still had a cartographic lab and we all  had to make maps by hand.  It was something I was not particularly good at, although I did enjoy it.

I also had fun this week doing a run of relief prints.  I got to make a huge mess!

Between gully-washers of cold, grim rain, spring is exploding around me.  The cherry tree in front of my house is reaching out its arms toward the flowering quince.  The aroma is delicate and fresh and screams "spring!"

I can't get enough of tulips and daffodils and I'm forever buying a bunch (or three) at the local market and coming home and plunking them in whatever receptacle is at hand.  I have jugs and vases all over the house.

I couldn't, no, I could NOT, cut any of the flowers growing on my back deck.  That would be a sin!  I stand at the kitchen window and just gape at all the color.  Such a lovely sight after a long, cold, wet winter.

 I am so ready for spring!

2nd Part of my Africa Travel Journal Pages

Are you sick unto death of my travel journals, Dear Reader?  If so, well, I apologize.  This is the last posting from Africa.

Again, I have so much fun with my Pogo Printer, being able to print out photos from the day to use at night when I sit down to journal.  Sometimes it is easier to plan how to approach the daily writing by looking through and picking the photos I want to include.

The leaf in the spread above is from a plant the locals call the sandpaper bush (Ficus exasperata).  The leaves are so rough that they really do use it for sandpaper.  (I saw it in action.)

I collect feathers wherever I go.  A wonderful teacher at ArtFest once told me that if she found a feather in front of her feet on her daily walk, she knew she was on the right path.  I love that idea and now I am always on the lookout for feathers.  Nonie has gotten so she hands me any feathers she spies.  (I always give her any green glass I find on the beach, so I guess that's fair.)

Once I started writing about Tony, our guide on Safari, I couldn't stop.  He truly was the Best of the Best---smart, funny, a fantastic communicator, organized, professional and kind.  Besides he has the best smile, too!

This trip to Africa was just the best holiday.  I learned so much, met such lovely people, saw so many incredible species of animals and birds, heard some great music and traveled with a most congenial group.  I wouldn't change one thing.  (Well, except maybe make it last longer....)

Africa has turned out to be a place I really want to explore in more depth.  I hope to return before too long, maybe to South Africa this time.  Or somewhere in the western part of the continent.  There is so much diversity and so many places I want to explore.

It is good to have more places to inscribe on my "to visit" list.