This is the archive for the ‘friends/family’ Category

Mother’s Day

May 10th, 2011

Went to VA to visit my Mom this weekend. Jonna and Diane were there and we had a wonderful time at Curt and Mary’s.

When we left we stopped at the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge which has wonderful wetlands which go right into the ocean. We hiked and photographed a bit, saw turtles, osprey and snakes.

As ever in that part of VA the quiet of the tall grasses and the beauty of the marshes is contrasted by the roar of the planes from the many military bases. My Dad was an air force test pilot and my Mom feels right at home. What others might find loud and jarring she finds quite wonderful and almost reverent.
The new header image is from Back Bay

The Distaff Side

March 16th, 2011

Since I’ve been blogging about handmade books, esp. accordion books, I thought I’d show one I made several years ago for my Mom. Titled “The Distaff Side”, it lists known women in my mother’s family and the number of children they had. A distaff is a tool for spinning fiber and since this was historically women’s work, the female side of the family is called the distaff side. (click on image for larger view.)

© The Distaff Side

The Distaff Side

This structure is based on an accordion book with separate back and front covers, allowing it to be read front to back and then continued back to front on the other side. The first side features my mom, her mom, two grandmothers and a great grandmother. Each image opens out to reveal additional information about each women. The back side lists known women alternating with block prints of a distaff.

Accordion Book

March 13th, 2011

My friend, Sally, asked me about accordion books and I think an image explains it better than lots of words. She asked about a 16 page book and this is a 6 page one but I think she’ll get it!

I made this years ago for another friend, Mary—we met when we were 13, and I was riding my bike trying to get up nerve to say HI to the new girl and found out later if I had gone past her one more time she was going to throw dirt balls at me! We’ve been best friend ever since!

© Bikes and Dirt Balls

Mary’s Book

Beaver Pond

June 28th, 2010

Beaver pond

New Beaver Pond in Connecticut.

Spent the weekend in CT visiting Senter and Bitty. They live in a log home over looking a wonderful pond and fields, where they have created a sort of sanctuary for lots of critters. Birds of all sorts, deer, wild turkeys, muskrats, frogs and, it seems, a beaver. Back in the back pasture, which Senter keeps mowed better than most front yards, off to the right is a small stream that beaver have dammed up, creating a whole new environment. Of course this required a trek through the woods to see it.

We also took a trip to the Fisher Museum at Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA to see their forest dioramas. That was more than a trek through the woods, but it was a beautiful day, through small New England towns. I had read about the dioramas when I was at the Arnold Arboretum a few weeks earlier with my garden gals. The dioramas were created in the 1930’s and are incredible. They have to be seen to be believed.

Later that day, my nephew, Senter, came for the weekend. He has a Mooney airplane which he gets serviced in NJ once a year. As he lives in Alabama, he used the trip as a chance to visit his folks. That was a bonus to the weekend we hadn’t expected.

On the way home on Sun we stopped at Storm King in NY for a few hours. I’ll save that for my next post. Right now I’d better get busy with work.

Garden Hoax 2010

June 15th, 2010

friends

This year my garden friends from Moore College of Art went to Brookline MA outside of Boston. Visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Wed and the Arnold Arboretum on Thurs. Sally couldn’t make it as she had horsey things to do and Jane had to leave early Thurs but here are Mike, me, Marge, Jane and Pam at the Arnold on a rainy day by the Smoke Bush!

(Several people have asked me about the use of the word Hoax. It comes from a friend, Joe, who used it for a trip which was mainly for fun. Our garden trips are educational but the true purpose is to have fun together. I suppose, today, getting away to just have fun is a bit of a trick.)

May’s Over

June 4th, 2010

Last entry said “School’s Over” Now, May’s over. Been a busy time—all the stuff I put off until school was over. Dr’s apt and the like. Visited my Mom for Mother’s Day and Fletchie for his birthday. To NJ to see Pam’s exhibit. Her work just gets better and better.

We’re part of a group that has theme dinners each year and we did “Spring in France”— made a Mediterranean fish dish and everyone brought wonderful things. Had drinks in the garden but the roses were best the weekend before – mind of their own!

Springtime in France, Theme Dinner.

Table setting for Springtime in France

Last weekend did a lot of cooking, food for a memorial day picnic, then house guests with dinner and a brunch, then another picnic. Lots of cooking for me anyway, anymore.

Had a quick Public Service Announcement Video to make in one day – not too bad but wish I had more time. Working on a pro bono job for a neighborhood organization, and teaching my self PHP coding. Revisiting our web site to add the video we’ve been doing. All in addition to my normal client work.

Next week I go with friends on our garden hoax to Boston. Will visit Holly and see Jane and Jane and Marge and Mike and Pam. Will miss Sally!

My goals for the summer are three fold: 1. Up my technical skills—working on php, 2. Work on creative skills—my drawing gets short changed during the school year, and 3. Get in shape. Been drawing and working on the computer—but getting in shape . . .

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