The Digital Fridge Door

More of the orchids

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:09:00 +0000

The orchids, hanging out with the other plants.

Which looks like this:

from the inside. A rest (no running or walking) day.

And speaking of running, I'm posting weekly running updates at RunWendeeRun. I'm up to 40.9 miles for the year. 600 in 2012!

Orchids!

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Remember the plants I got from one of my students? The money tree which met such a terrible end? (I'll give you some time to click back to the links and get in a good guffaw).

Did I really only mention just the money tree? I guess so. I mean, heck, it was quite the story, huh? Well, I received two other plants at the same time, and they're still doing well.

Knock on wood.

One of the plants had long arching leaves and I picked it because it seemed like it would fit in well with other plants. David said it was an orchid, that was blooming when they bought it, but it hadn't blossomed since. We've watered it and weeded, fussed over it, wondering if it was happy, and if it was, in fact, an orchid. The plant sent up buds for blooms in December (or maybe November). The flower buds survived the windstorm that hit but stayed tight for such a long time that I'd worried that maybe the flowers wrapped inside had died and just wouldn't show.

When we got home from Hawaii, we discovered, just in time for the new year, these pretty blooms just starting to open:

Worth the wait! :)

Who doesn't love a good parade?!

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:04:00 +0000

Every year, after the end of The Rose Parade, the floats are parked on Sierra Madre and Washington Blvds at the end of the route for viewing for another day or two. This is something we do, every year, if we can (if we're in town). What I love about this is that you can get up close to the floats to see the details – what flowers the builders selected and all the intricate work involved. You can meander past the floats at a much slower pace as well, compared to the floats driving by you if you were there, live, at the parade. What I always forget about the float viewing is that you can actually smell all the flowers, as well – – always a lovely surprise for me.

Here are some photos from this year:

Not a cloud in the sky on January 3rd, sunny and almost 90 degrees F. This is exactly why I love living in Southern California. Tank top, shorts and plenty of sunscreen lotion.

Aren't all the flowers just gorgeous?

More detail of the ladybug, below. What care the float-builders took in laying out patterns of seeds, like in the ladybug's spots. Whew!

The pink line = the Rose Parade float driver navigation line.

The drivers hidden deep inside the finished floats can't really look out to navigate their way. This pink line is painted along the parade route (yes, down the middle of the road), as I understand, so the drivers and their floats will stay on course.

This is part of the line at the end of the route, where the floats are parked for public viewing.

Hawaii, up and around

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:29:00 +0000

You know how they call them 'red-eye' flights? Yeah, well, so much for just the 'red-eye' part. It took us a good 36 hours to recover from the sleep-deprived fog that followed our red-eye flight from Honolulu to LAX.

Kicking back, waiting for our 11pm flight.

We've finished doing laundry, restocked our fridge, reacquainting ourselves with English/European soccer (football) standings, are getting in a huge fix of football (U.S. variety) bowl games, and are checking, editing and uploading photos. Here are some of the 'up and around' snapshots:

Lots of opportunities for great photos at my parents' place.

And orchids, from my aunt/uncle's place, next door.

I joined the 'From Where I Stand' group on Flickr a few months back, in case you're wondering about all the photos with me and my hiking sandals/feet.

At the North Shore, checking out what I think are really small opihi

and cooling off our toes. Like my hiking tan lines?

After driving further north around the island, chips and margaritas at Cholos in Haleiwa, Oahu. Nom!

During our stay, I managed to get in a couple good runs, plus a few walks, for about 17 miles total. Since we normally walk – but NEVER run – I consider this to be quite the accomplishment. I went for runs right out the front door, which pretty much left my parents speechless. Seriously. They were thinking, “Who knew?!”.

Kahalu'u fishpond, from my last run there.

Merry merry!

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:21:00 +0000

(I'm testing posting by email). We're on vacation, enjoying the holidays with family. Wishing you all a joyous Christmas! Mele Kalikimaka!

Ketchup = Catch up

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:36:00 +0000

The problem with trying to write about a long trip, I find myself thinking, is you (I) have to be sure you (I) don't run out of steam before you (I) actually finish writing about the whole trip. So far, I think I've gotten just half way through our trip up the Coast.

I need to regroup a little, get back to editing and posting the photos from the trip and checking my notes to finish sharing the stories.

In the meantime, October was really long. LOOOOooooOOOng. And, wow, where did November go? Maybe finishing writing about the trip will be a Start-of-2012 project. [Ahem]

October:

Mini pumpkins -

Finished crocheting a scarf -
(taking a ~~nice~~ photo of it is on my to-do list)

Got sick -
(I'm sure you can imagine it without the visuals)

November:

Rain -
(See? It does rain in Southern California)

Turkey, with all the trimmings, twice -

Got to 500 miles Run/Walking for the year-
(photo already posted, below)

December:

So far, Big Wind (Pasadena was called the epicenter of the windstorm).

[sigh]

500 miles

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:04:00 +0000

500 miles for the year, today. Bring on the pumpkin pie! Woot! Happy Thanksgiving!

Drive up the Coast, Part 5: Moseying along

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 01:30:00 +0000

In addition to the redwoods, there was, of course, more to see.

We moseyed over to Humboldt Lagoons State Park, just west of Redwood National Park. Driving the precariously narrow and steep road, having seen lots of large trucks blasting up or down, we were leery. We got halfway down, peered out and went, “Oooooh”. The lagoons are shallow bays between rocky headlands* where coastal wave action has formed a sandy bar separating each lagoon from the Pacific Ocean. The lagoons are resting areas for migratory waterfowl.

From where we parked, you could gaze out one direction and see only the lagoon:

then turning to look the other way, beyond the wide golden beach, the Pacific Ocean:

From the Humboldt Lagoons State Park, California State Parks website and Wikipedia:

Gold-seekers swarmed into the area in 1849 when discoveries were made along the Klamath and Trinity rivers. Prospectors attempted to mine the sandspits along Big and Stone lagoons, but managed to extract very little gold despite considerable effort. In the early 1900's Dry Lagoon was drained by early farmers and several types of crops were attempted but none proved economical. Several dairy ranches were established along the shores of Stone Lagoon. Today the marshland habitat has returned and supports a rich variety of marsh plants, birds and other animals.

We stayed for a while; there was plenty to take in.

We also stopped at Trinidad Head Lighthouse.

The low, square, brick tower was built in 1871. The light is only 20 feet above ground, but the headland on which it stands gives it an elevation of 196 feet above the sea. From the road, indeed, the tower doesn't seem very tall, but its location affords great photos, looking down at the ocean below.

We discovered a trail, hiked down (avoiding the first of several banana slugs) and found ourselves looking out at Trinidad Head* and its many sea stacks in the long shadows of late afternoon. We sighed serenely and pulled out our photo/painting gear and set about doing our thing(s).

Sometimes you have to share the scenery:

*Somewhere along the way, we had a discussion about this geographic term, “head”. J decided, from the context of a conversation he'd had, that it was another term for 'lighthouse'. And I thought it must mean something else, maybe something geographic, because otherwise it would be redundant to call it the Trinidad Head Lighthouse. That would also explain why the place we went to later that was the Something-Something Head was high up on a hill, but did not have a lighthouse. It did have a potty, which made the somewhat misguided detour very worthwhile.

Had we thought to access the internet, we would have known that:

“A headland is a point of land, usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends out into a body of water. The word is often used as a synonym for promontory.”
(At this point, yes, I clicked to the link that defined 'promontory')
“A headland is often referred to as simply a head, either in context or in names such as Beachy Head or Koko Head.”

Wikipedia, to the rescue.

Clicking more, I've find that clumps of rocks that we were seeing are called sea stacks. Trinidad's sea stacks are part of the California Coastal National Monument, a string of more than 20,000 rocks and small islands along California's 840-mile long coastline. Created by Presidential proclamation in 2000, the National Monument designation ensures the protection of all islets, reefs and rock outcroppings from the coast of California to a distance of 12 nautical miles along the entire California coastline.

That's a lot of coastline, my friends.

The Trinidad area, it reads, “is one of the most spectacular and pristine segments of the California coast, and has been established as a California Coastal National Monument Gateway – an area that offers the best shore-based opportunities to discover and view offshore rocks and islands and their inhabitants.”

Yes indeed.

Drive up the Coast, Part 4: Redwoods!

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:36:00 +0000

Finally! We were where we wanted to be and wandered among the redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants, Miranda Redwood Park, Humboldt Redwood State Park and so many other stops that I couldn't keep up taking notes. We stopped at about Fish Creek Road for lunch, photos and painting.

The redwood branches were glowing in the early afternoon sunlight, fingers of golden rays falling on the leaves and vines in the trees.

We visited Lady Bird Johnson Grove at Redwood National Park and took even more macro photos than of the big, tall trees themselves. I wasn't expecting the vegetation to be so lush! We were charmed by all the ferns and sorrel (clover) that blanketed the forest floor, lush and thick, and the Rhododendrons.

Comparison of redwoods and sequoias, from the Redwood National and State Parks (National Park Service) and Visit Sequoia / Sequoia National Park websites:

Giant redwood trees grow naturally only along a narrow belt (a few hundred miles) on the Northern California coastline. They thrive in a moist, humid climate, and the near-daily coastal fog provides them with exactly the kind of conditions they need to grow. The fog adds moisture to the soil and lowers their rate of evaporation as well.

Giant sequoias live at a much higher altitude. They grow naturally only along the western slope of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, mostly between a 5,000 and 7,000 foot elevation level. While the temperatures in Sequoia National Park are fairly mild year-round, sequoias need a period of dry heat for their cones to open and release their seeds.

Giant redwood trees are the tallest trees in the world, reaching heights of up to 378 feet tall. Their base can be up to 22 feet in diameter and they can weigh up to 1.6 million pounds. The trees can reach ages of 2,000 years and regularly reach 600 years.

Resistance to natural enemies such as insects and fire are built-in features of a coast redwood. Diseases are virtually unknown and insect damage insignificant thanks to the high tannin content of the wood. Thick bark and foliage that rests high above the ground provides protection from all but the hottest fires.

Giant sequoias, on the other hand, don't grow quite as tall but can still reach a very impressive height of up to 311 feet (that's still the size of a 31 story building!). While not the tallest, giant sequoias are the largest trees in the world (ie – in volume). Their base can be up to 40 feet in diameter and a mature tree can weigh as much as 2.7 million pounds.

Finally, finally, we were able to bask in the dappled sunlight under the redwoods, the other bookend to our summer of the BIG trees.

Running update

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 06:07:00 +0000

On my way to the gym for that 400th mile

A running update:
Finally got past 400 miles for the year! Woot!
I'm on a good pace to get to 500 miles for the year. If I knew my foot could take it, I'd increase my weekly miles so I could get in 600 miles, which is what I'd really like to accomplish... but I don't think my foot is quite there yet. Ergh.

Follow the details of my running here. I post my mileage and worry incessantly about recurring/lingering aches and pains.

This week's miles fueled by lots of birthday cake:

There may - - or may not - - have been more. I'm not talkin'.

In the garden

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

My ginger plants are blossoming again! See the slideshow of what's happened so far in the Ginger Blossom set at Flickr, here!

Drive up the Coast, part 3: North to the Redwoods!

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:36:00 +0000

As much as we wanted to stay in lovely Carmel Valley, we needed to time our travel so that we'd be able to secure a campsite over the Fourth of July weekend. We pulled up out stakes, had one last breakfast of chocolate and almond pastries, and headed North.

Somewhere along Coastal Highway 1, I wrote: 'Miles and miles of crops', and I know I sighed, “I just love California”.

No, in all that dreamy sighing, I didn't think to stop to take photos of all that farmland.

[sigh]

We stopped to take photos of Pigeon Point Lighthouse, just south of Pescadero, California, then drove up to the lighthouse and stopped to walk around and take more photos.

From the California State Parks website:
Perched on a cliff on the central California coast, 50 miles south of San Francisco, the 115-foot Pigeon Point Lighthouse, one of the tallest lighthouses in America, has been guiding mariners since 1872. Its five-wick lard oil lamp, and first-order Fresnel lens, comprised of 1,008 prisms, was first lit at sunset, November 15, 1872. The lens stands 16 feet tall, 6 feet in diameter, and weighs 8,000 pounds. It sits in a lantern room that had been constructed at the Lighthouse Service's general depot in New York before being shipped around the Horn. Although the original Fresnel lens is no longer in use, the lighthouse is still an active U.S. Coast Guard aid to navigation using a 24 inch Aero Beacon.

The lighthouse is currently closed to the public, but the grounds remain open.

The lighthouse keeper's housing is restored and operated as a Hostel.

We meandered along the boardwalk and breathed in deeply of the ocean air and peace.

Back on the road, our goal was to get past San Francisco and into redwood country.

We stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge and exclaimed, “Fog! Ha! What are the chances?!?!”

We drove and drove and drove, and finally stopped at Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area in Leggett, CA and secured a campsite. Sure enough, the park brochure proclaimed this as “the Gateway to California's Redwood Country”...

Drive up the Coast, part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0000

We stayed at the campground at Carmel Valley for two nights and enjoyed having a home base from which to explore Carmel and Monterey. We also enjoyed having showers that didn't require tokens or quarters, or were on a timer, as well. You can imagine. Timed/token showers loomed ahead...

We drove into Monterey, found a wonderful bakery and fueled up with more coffee and chocolate-y almond-y pastries. Heaven! We meandered along the coast, basking in the sun after the fog lifted. So many miles of beach and ocean… We were tempted to go ahead and commit to another night at the site or maybe stay even longer. The original plan was to see the Redwoods, then make it up to Olympic Peninsula, to see Mt Rainier and the fields wildflowers. Or maybe even get to Vancouver, to see the Olympic venues. Getting that far north would mean we couldn't linger for too long in any one place, though. And, however far north we reached, we needed to be able to head back home in time for me to teach on Monday, July 11th. We could make it to Seattle, but would need to pace our way up along the coast, that's for sure. But there in Monterey, we thought, just maybe, we could stay put right there and plan on a long, deep dive into the area … very much tempted by the thought of return visits to Paris Bakery.

We drove along from Monterey then decided to do 17–Mile drive, stopping at all the marked stops: Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Bird Rock, the Lone Cypress, Pescadero Point.

From the Pebble Beach Resorts brochure:
“Before the automobile had become a way of life, 17–Mile Drive was navigated by horse-drawn carriages from the famous Hotel Del Monte, now the site of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. It was 1881 and excursions through Del Monte Forest and along its spectacular coastline often ended up at a picnic spot at Pebble Beach…”

We ogled the views, the big homes with ogle-able private views, paused to whip up lunch (PB&J, fresh fruit and granola bars). We stopped and watched the otters and seals. We made a pit stop at the Lodge at Pebble Beach. In the lobby, there were the most beautiful, huge, paintings that captured the bright sunlight and deep, leggy shadows on pristine white sand beaches. Or, at least that's how I remember them.

Dumbfounded, I ogled those for a while.

But did I get pictures? I was far too spellbound. Alas!

We (I) quickly found that it was hard to choose between being spellbound with enchantment for the beauty of it all and thinking to slip behind the lens of a camera to actually capture it. Sigh.

We came upon Point Pinos Light House and discovered that the park was closed that day! Oh no! We could always come back; or would we? We could certainly improvise and make the best of it. It turned out that we happened upon several other landmarks that we'd normally spend much more time at, only to arrive to closed gates. We are not so easily deterred, as you can see:

Pt Pinos, navigating the closed gate and fence.
The oldest, continuously-operating lighthouse on the West Coast. Lit February 1, 1855.

The Carmel Mission, built in 1771 by Father Junipero Serra. Peering wistfully over the stone wall, after closing.

It was about at this point that it occurred to me that one of us was intent on photographing lighthouses and
bridges and the other of us wanted to paint within the garden walls of all the missions along the way. The lighthouses won; the comprehensive tour of California missions will have to wait for another trip. There were plenty of lighthouses and even more bridges, and plenty of mighty fine places to paint along the way, of course.

Carmel River Lagoon and Wetlands Natural Preserve

We stopped at Julie Pfeiffer State Park and hiked to the falls. We were really struck by all the clover (Redwood sorrel?) all around us. We plucked one and managed to carefully stash it away so that it survived the rest of trip.

At about this point, I realized there was no way I was jotting down the spots we'd stopped at quickly or accurately enough. No way that the Campsites of Southern/Central and Northern California maps that we'd brought along showed enough detail to help me recall our path for each day. I would need much more detailed maps to refer to. I tried to take photos of signs at each spot, but even just two days into our trip, and not even out of 'Central' California, oh my, we had so many pictures and so many more wishes to return to take pictures, but not enough of a photographic memory to remember where to return to.

Note to self: Take the time to take better notes.

All the photos from the trip are here.

Tablerunner: Finished!

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:18:00 +0000

This post is especially for my quilty/sew-y compadres. You know who you are (but I'll post links to your blogs all the same so everyone else will know. Bwa-ha-ha!).

I've finished the tablerunner for our coffeetable! Yay! Wow, did I really not post photos of this in-progress, here on the blog? You might have seen them in my Flickr stream. See the old quilt for comparison, here.

All done. Quilted (see, Donna? Straight grid) and bound, with mostly neat mitered binding. There may or may not have been cussing involved with the mitering, I won't say.

I managed to find matches for the colors in the fabric in our sofa, which certainly says something about either my eye for colors or how much I have in my stash to choose from (again, I won't say). I managed to not buy any additional fabric (or batting) for this project, except for the binding material. Because I'm just very particular about things like that.

Okay! Done!

The BigBear goes, "Oh, man. I'm going to have to be neater about eating...", and I'm thinking, "You 'n me both". Yes, we're ~~slobs~~ enthusiastic eaters. Never mind that he just made a bowl of buttered popcorn. Chances of getting a buttery splotch on the new tablerunner on Day 1? That's what it's there for, right? To be well-used?

I'm in quite the quilting frame of mind, so am putting together tops from pieced blocks that I already have (plenty to choose from there as well) and am hoping to get back into some freemotion quilting.

Stay tuned.

Drive up the Coast, Part 1: Having faith

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:03:00 +0000

So there we were, driving up the coast.

We'd stayed overnight in Santa Barbara, which is barely like Southern California, and also just barely not. We were somewhere in between … After breakfast at Tupelo Junction, we headed North, determined to get to Carmel / Monterey. We weren't sure where we'd stay, but knew that we wanted to get at least that far on our first official day of driving...

Driving up the coast with Pooh Bear (circa 1988)

Not having a plan seemed a looming challenge for me. I'd driven up the coast in about 1988 and the challenges that I encountered then seem so far away: not having cel phones (ie, they didn't exist) and losing FM radio signal as I meandered along. I had a plan, a destination, and more importantly, a reservation. If I didn't show up, someone would take notice. And I had plenty of quarters - - there had to be plenty of pay phones along the way. I have memories of curvy roads along the coast and small towns that I stopped to say hello to.

In Harmony, CA (circa 1988. Note the perm and fanny pack!)

I stopping at Morro Bay, checked into my room and breathed a big sigh of relief. I remember that I stayed and settled in long enough to sketch the rock and had a nice dinner by myself.

During that trip, not only was I often outside of FM signal range, I remember very distinctly that my tape deck stopped working as well. It was unnerving, driving alone, without music, curving up a particularly steep hill. At that point, leaving Morro Bay, I was impatient to get closer to my destination already. Having the ocean off my left shoulder, down steep cliffs, was immediately less romantic.

So this time (2011), we drove through Pismo and Shell beaches, as perhaps everyone does when one drives up the coast. We stopped at Morro Bay and spotted otters, a sure sign that we were indeed well outside of Southern California. Although we'd both made the drive before, separately, neither of us realized that you could drive up to Morro Rock, so this time, together, we did. We took another look at the otters, wished there was less fog, then headed on.

Further up the coast, my notes say we stopped at San Simeon, surrounded by bright mustard blooms. J took photos as the fog cleared.

We'd tried to work through some of the small challenges that we could imagine during the trip to Kings Canyon – got new camp beds, figured out a better way of making two cups of robust morning coffee, expanded beyond our very basic camping cooking repertoire. Slightly bigger challenges during that trip - - keeping our site bear-safe and outsmarting mosquitos - - those will always remain challenges.

The challenges in 2011 seemed to revolve around having faith. What do we depend on: our intuition or the safety blanket of technology? I'd just gotten a smartphone. I wanted to be able to stay in touch without lugging around a laptop. I didn't expect this battle of wits – J wanted to find his own way and I needed the security of knowing where I was, what direction I was going. The information was there and I wanted to be able to use it. Ultimately we found compromise: We found that using my smartphone we could check traffic, navigate us through the traffic jams in small and big towns, properly identify upcoming landmarks and geography without having to unfurl paper maps, and could find the nearest gas station as our tank ran precariously low.

But as the daylight grew more and more dim, no amount of descriptions and reviews could help us as we read signs that read “Campsite Full” as we passed by them, closer and closer to Carmel. It was the exceedingly low-tech guide, though, of alternate campsites printed on a handout that a ranger at a (full) campground gave us that steered us into Carmel Valley, where we found a campground with plenty of room. We were the only tent campers that night (lots of RVs though) and the host looked at us sympathetically as it started to rain as she took our information.

Night #1 helped us know that we could find our way and have faith that we could find our way home and be able to keep in touch both ways. And not strangle each other in the process.

In Carmel Valley, we also knew this: We had made our way, with a little bit of low-tech help and had a place to rest. We could set up camp in the rain and the tent stayed water-tight.

We slept deeply through passing showers.

All the photos in the '2011-07 Drive up the Coast' set, here.

Magenta ribbons

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:57:00 +0000

We just finished up Summer term. With Senior Show, Graduation and interviews, that adds a few more layers of craziness to life, in a good way. The image above was (I think) a final project for an installation art class, sheets of colored paper inset into the huge black metal beams that make up the iconic structure of The Building. It stayed up well beyond its final presentation, through graduation, adding a really nice touch to my many treks across the bridge those last few days.

In adding that link, above, I noticed that the background image at the school website is much like my photo:

See the reflection? Ooooh.... nice ...

so it's safe to say that this student project made quite the impression.

Summer graduation is kind of like that: just a bit more lighthearted and festive. Even the building couldn't resist getting a little gussied up.

So. I'm slowly going through the photos from our trip, piecing together details, wishing I'd taken more coherent notes (ie. complete sentences or whole paragraphs, or even on consecutive pages in my travel notebook). It's slow going.

I did run across a great blog post that I wanted to pass along, though. I wish I had written it and taken those photos; do you ever run across writing like that? You wish you'd written it? Couldn't I have given up going on and on about our new camp beds and written something more thoughtful about the Sequoias, like this? I read this and went, "Doh!". Thankfully, that quickly gave way to, "Ooooo, look at those photos...". We were in the same place, having the same thoughts about these lovely, majestic giant trees. I'm grateful that one of us got out the words that really need to be said. Go and click on over, and enjoy a visit with the giant Sequoias.

You'll thank me. And you'll thank Alissa (thanks, Alissa!).

Summer of the Big Trees: Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:17:00 +0000

Our first trip of the summer was to Kings Canyon / Sequoia National Park. We'd wanted to go to Cedar Grove, but the Kings river was running too high. With the record snow levels during the winter and the warm temps in mid-June, we could only imagine the river running higher during the days. Getting stranded on the other side of the bridge would be an adventure (!), to be sure, but not one that we were real keen on. So we turned back and camped at Grant Grove (flush toilets, running water, but no showers).

We did two hikes during our stay and saw a bunch of bears. Unlike the Yosemite bears, they weren't scrounging around for people food (we've had to scare them away from stealing our breakfast at Yosemite), and seemed pretty content to munch down on bear food in the meadows. All the same, I didn't feel like stopping longer to gawk and take photos of them. They were plenty close enough.

After our dinners, we'd head over the Grants Grove at sunset, to finish off our Heinekens or ice cream and photograph the big, big trees, the giant sequoias. It's hard to imagine how big the trees are, and just as tough to capture their size of the trees in photographs – – J and I took quite a few photos, trying to capture the golden rays of sunset bathing these majestic trees. None of mine do them justice. I suggest you go to see them in person!

Knowing we'd be visiting the redwoods in a week afterwards, we decided then and there to dub this our Summer of the Big Trees (SOBT).

The camping trip was a great chance to test out some of our gear for future trips. Right before we left, J splurged on REI 3.5 self-inflating camp beds (air mattresses). The REI product description says: “With an ultra-cushy 3.5-inch thickness and soft-touch stretch fabric upper surface, the REI Camp Bed 3.5 provides plush comfort for base camping.” So the '3.5' stands for thickness! Brilliant! We tested lying on them at the local REI, and yes, the 3.5's were way more comfy than the 2.5's. And, no, we weren't even going to worry about trying the 1.75's. During the trip, they were fantastic. Five stars and two thumbs up from both of us. I'd remark, every night: "Oooo, so comfy! So … zzzzz".

As an extra bonus, squeezing the air out of them when you roll them up gives you a chance to get in some weird yoga-like moves / stretches, if you were worried about not being able to keep up with your practice. Sorry, no pictures of that, either.

Here's TheBigBear, making up dinner:

One of the Pudwill berries we brought along. Little comforts from home:

The view from our hike above Crescent Meadows (Sequoia National Park). Click on it to view it bigger at Flickr! :

A sketch of the meadow at Grant Village:

What I did on my summer vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:30:00 +0000

In June, when summer vacation started, I thought of hanging up a sign on TheFridgeDoor that said, "Gone Fishing" to let you know that it would be a summer with lots of time of us being away. Except that, well, we'd have gone camping, but you get the idea.

But the idea of telling people online, the whole Internets, that we wouldn't be home creeps me out, so I didn't.

So we went camping, saw a bunch of bears, then came back for a week. I don't think either of us was able to download our photos onto our computers to edit and post; we were doing mountains of laundry and re-packing for another trip!

A short week later, we went on our big trip (without a laptop) and camped for almost 2 weeks up and down the West Coast.

Imagine the pile of laundry from THAT trip! And all those photos! Yes, there were (are) lots of photos.

We had just about finished up the last of the camping laundry loads, and barely started to think about going through photos and paintings … then one of us got inspired and we: emptied out my storage unit (no small feat) and then reorganized the whole house (even bigger feat). The WHOLE house. I think we each took out ALL our stuff, edited it down, then re-stored everything. EVERY. Thing. Clothes, shoes, kitchen gadget, art, photo, sewing, quilting, camping, books, stuffed animals. Everything!

For almost 3–1/2 weeks.

NON. STOP.

J also cleaned all the windows (the outsides, too. You should note that we live in a two-story place), blinds, put in new fixtures in one of the bathrooms, built and installed a row of work cabinets in each of our offices, vacuumed out the dryer exhaust line, reorganized the garage (he does that every summer, though) … and a whole humongous list of other things. We delivered car loads of donations to the point that the guys at the local Goodwill recognize J. We shredded decades worth of old documents, processed and got rid of a ton of STUFF.

For almost 3–1/2 weeks. Straight.

We ate a lot of In-N-Out Burgers and had lots of chocolate shakes, too, for whatever that's worth.

So, J is heading back to school, and >poof< that was the summer. Wow, that went quick.

Everything is mostly in its place, and the dust has settled, so to speak … (we dusted, did I mention that? Yeah. So, I guess, technically, the new dust hasn't actually settled) … and we're finally (maybe) going back and reminiscing about the summer trips, along with a lot of other memories we unearthed during the whole housecleaning whirlwind.

There's a lot to share, coming up. But that's where I've been.

Distracted

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:13:00 +0000

Here's the 'next post'. You totally expected me to leave you hanging, right?

So the last EDiM (Draw something Every Day in May) topic was:
Draw something round.

And I thought, OMG. Something round. Like: A sphere. A hockey puck. A roll of tape.

Cylinders and spheres. Part of the basic geometric forms. I've drawn them. Over and over and over and over, in school and in teaching demonstrations. In pencil, in markers, in chalk. Core, shadow, shade. OMG.

(Yes, I know. These are cylinders, not spheres.)

My brain cramped up and I went, "No. No roundy things today."

I decided to draw my craft punch, which creates round things. It's kind of like drawing the negative space. Sort of. Look, it worked in my brain.

I didn't punch all these circles out. I just drew in those ellipses.

While painting in the ellipses, a lightbulb went off ('bing!') and I went "Hey...". I got my flower craft punches and went to town to execute an idea that I've had marinating for a long time (Wow. I have a lot more work that I need to post in my Creative Journal Altered Books set. Stuff to do, stuff to do.).

I've been playing around with some ideas, flipping them over in my mind, and the punched flowers and the negative spaces left when you punch out the flowers totally pushed me over the edge.

There was a flurry of cutting, ironing, painting, ironing, finding my embroidery stuff.

I've been working on a few quiltlets. Here are a few very coy photos:

They're not done. I'll post pics of the whole quiltlets when I'm done.

So, J looked at me, as I sat on the sofa, ~~watching~~ listening to 'X-Men', hand sewing very intently. He's used to this whole flurry-of-activity mode and knows it's best to just stand back and let it all happen.
J: "These are really different."
Me: "Yeah, I've been thinking about them for a long time."
J: "Hm. They're elaborate."
Me: "I'm thinking of selling them."

J: "You want to get rid of them?" He looked concerned.

Me (I was surprised. You'd think he'd be glad that I'm thinking of getting some of the art clutter out of our house.): "I think if I make a whole BUNCH of them, I won't feel bad about letting some of them go. This is part of my Plan. That I was telling you about. To make Craft items and sell them. To make money."

He looked at me, then at my little unfinished quiltlets, and blinked.

And then 'X-Men' suddenly got really exciting.

That's right, people. I might sell them. OMG OMG OMG. This is part of the larger plan that's been marinating, that I've been turning around in my brain. What do you think? I have some reading up on Etsy that I need to do and business-planning I need to finish...

Stay tuned.

Every Day in May, update

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 03:24:00 +0000

So, how far did I get on the list of things to draw, one a day, every day in May?

I was trucking along. I was ambitious and drew the facets of our salt shaker:

I drew something tart (akaume):

(I'll admit: The temptation to draw people was hard to resist. Something 'tart', eh?)

Drew a bowl:

and then started to get a little, ehm, bored with the subjects. I took liberties interpreting a shopping cart or basket (here's one of my grocery bags):

and something green:

(I would have preferred fresh herbs, but didn't have any on hand. This is what I had on hand that was green).

And then I got to 'Draw something ugly you love and keep for sentimental reasons' and looked at my collection of pajama pants and decided what I really needed to sew up some new pajama pants instead of draw them.

So, I did.

(this pic especially for Hashi. This is the last of the three that I've made; they're all in bright Hawaiian prints.)
Okay.

And then my computer started to run really slowly and my internet connection got even worse. And because I'm cheap and tired of dealing with stupid Sprint (I could stab my eyes out), I've let this situation fester to where it's become sort of irritating to scan images and upload them (and it's impossible, too, to do that when you're blind because you've, you know, stabbed your eyes out).

And then I got back to the list, took liberties with one more drawing and got totally distracted and totally derailed from the whole 'Every Day' part EDiM. I got half of the days done, which is actually better than my normal stick-to-it rate. I'm still distracted (see next post) but sort of ready to get back to the list and try to finish off the list. Keep tabs on my EDiM Flickr set is here.

A new (ugly) addition

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Wed, 11 May 2011 19:02:00 +0000

She: “Look what I got!”

He: “From the graduates?”

She: “Yes! Isn’t it so cool?!”

He: “It’s kind of … ugly.”

She: “Yeah, it’s an (reading label) ‘Ugly Doll’. I think 'ugly' is the whole idea.”

He: “Hm. Here. Put it up on the TV [note: that’s a place of honor around here. We don’t go leaving just any ol' stuff out on display, nilly willy, I’ll have you know]. Lean it up against my ‘Teacher of the Year’ award, so we can enjoy it...”

Everyday in May

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Wed, 04 May 2011 17:37:00 +0000

May 2: Draw a power plug

Isn't social media great? You can keep up with what everyone's doing (you're going, "Duh, Wendee"). On Flickr, even though it's all about the images (ie - I have to wait for the blog posts to get the nitty gritty details in words), I can keep tabs on where people are camping, painting, eating gelato, stitching up, or drawing. When there's a group project, I find that I slowly start to notice a trend, drawings or photos of similar things here and there.

"Oh, isn't that fun?!", I think as I wave off the temptation to join in.

And then sometimes, things just snowball to the point where I just cannot stand by, uninvolved. Karen Blados and Liz Steel's work pretty much pushed me over my tipping point. I haven't drawn much at all this year. Even though I'm already needing to catch up with a couple online courses as it is (ahem), the everyday drawing always does me good.

May 3: Draw some exercise equipment

See everyone's sketches at the EDiM2011 Flickr group, here.

More info about the daily list here.

Sketches from Spring Break

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Wed, 04 May 2011 17:14:00 +0000

Tenaya Creek, during our Mirror Lake hike:

After the strenuous calf-killer hike to see Yosemite Falls:

Stopped, on the way out:

Spring Break

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:58:00 +0000

I think this is the first year that we've both had Spring Break at the same time. We took advantage of this and headed off to Yosemite. We usually go at least once, maybe twice, a year, but didn't go at all last year. Not at all. Can you imagine two more growl-ly, homesick bears? I think not.

We stayed in a canvas tent cabin at Curry Village. It's a big step up from pitching your own tent, which we typically do, but the end of April is a little too cool, even for J. We stayed in a cabin with a heater, which improves the experience even more. Two thumbs up from both of us.

Outside, we had a bench next to our bear box. We managed to cram three (count 'em, three: food on ice, dry food, and food-prep) of these coolers in the box. I had to disassemble the handle off of one of our coolers to make room for the box latching mechanism to get the box to close securely, but we got them all in there. It pays to be mechanically-inclined. Our food was all safe and secure, out of reach of squirrels, chipmunks and bears.

We'd intended to eat mostly only our own food through our stay, but discovered that the room rate for our tent cabin included the breakfast buffet. Scrambled eggs! Toast! Oatmeal! Muffins! Fresh fruit! Country gravy on biscuits! Bacon! Sausage! Passion fruit – guava juice! HOT!! COFFEE!! We were good with our granola bars, oranges and PB&Js for lunch and ramen noodles for dinner, but breakfast is, after all, the most important meal of the whole day.

Nom nom nom.

We did a pair hikes. One was far and mostly flat; the other was shorter in distance, but with a 1000 foot vertical gain.

The hike to Mirror Lake was a good warm up for our legs. At one point, we discovered that the wide expanse of boulders that people normally sit on to stop and eat was transformed, filled with hundreds and hundreds of cairns – – is that the right term? Little piles of stacked stones – – everywhere. This must have happened in the past year or so; and no one seemed to have the heart to clear away any of them. It was both humorous and deeply compelling at the same time. You could sense a want to participate, the number of piles building and growing over the months, the want to leave ones mark and be a part of that community. There were elaborate piles that included branches and pine needles that protruded out. There were piles everywhere. It was quite an unexpected sight that captured the attention of almost everyone, a surprising detour stealing attention away from the huge expanse of nature around us.

Here's a photo with a sketch from our other hike, up to Yosemite Falls. I think it's best that that's all I say about it; I might start cussing. I'm still not a fan of the whole traversing-uphill thing. Geh. Something to work on, I guess …

On our way out, we stopped at Tunnel View and took our obligatory photos across the valley.

We drove for five hours, got home and woke up early the next morning to watch the Royal Wedding and start in on the mountain of dirty laundry … wistfully looking forward to the next trip...

Almost done

noreply@blogger.com (Wendee) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:04:00 +0000

My absence may be explained in part by these things in my life that are almost done:

- My taxes (yeah, April 14. I know what day it is)
- Spring term at school (Final projects need to be sanded and painted! Acrylic sheets need to be laser-cut! Final presentations! Grad Show Set up! Interviews! Graduation! Students sleeping in the hallways! zOMG!). We are finishing up Week 13 of 14. There's lots of stuff to cram into these last 7 days.
- My laptop (dire)
- My usb internet modem (even more dire)

I've been camped out at the bigBear's computer, with its luxurious DSL connection, trying to finish up my taxes and my school responsibilities for the term.

And maybe checking my Google Reader feed and Facebook.

Maybe.