Photos, Etc.

Roo's birthday was on the 8th. I've mentioned how beautiful the day was and what a wonderful party we had on the 6th. See?






Then we enjoyed a family celebration on the 8th. Here's how Roo looked that day.



Here she is a few days later enjoying the swimsuit from her cousin and the mermaid flippers from her great aunt!



And since I haven't included Buddy, here's a picture of him from Roo's party.



A few days ago, Buddy and Roo experienced a little hair emergency. It involved scissors, a few minutes of unsupervised time, and a rushed trip to the hairdresser. So the next pictures you see of Roo will be quite different, but still beautiful.

Now we are all in pre-travel rush-around-like-crazy mode. I have events all day tomorrow. And I do need to pack. Several days ago, I put my new swimsuit and underwear in my suitcase. I stuffed a night shirt in today. Almost ready to go!

I'll post pictures when I'm home - after the 28th.

I can't close this edition of my "journey" without talking about my time with Buddy and Roo this afternoon. What a nice time we had! Both kids finished encaustic paintings, and Buddy made a little book and two lovely little drawings of Hawaii.

The book is adorable and is titled "The Giant Fart." The illustrations are extremely clever, and, in the end, we discover a whale was the offender. I was instructed to write in the text he needed help with. We talked about the fact that maybe at school he couldn't use this topic. He agreed.

Today was his last day in first grade and Roo's last in pre-school! How can they be so old? Me, too!

Party Time

I have been busy working on our art center website, but have done my share, now,and have passed it on to others. So I think I will kick back and enjoy a little down time. I have meetings tomorrow, but, by and large, I have a mostly social week coming up.

To begin, Papa and I attended our kick-off party for our new round of gourmet club dinners. Check out these photos.

http://gallery.me.com/raydi2#100476

Papa is in the first photo and throughout. I somehow missed the camera. I took the "yummy warm dip" - a spinach, heart of palm, and cheese concoction. And it was yummy.

I am looking forward to brunch with my daughter on Tuesday and lots of girlfriend and daughter time on Friday.

Then on Saturday, we leave for Hawaii with daughter, son-in-law, Roo and Buddy, and the other grandma! I'm looking forward to warm breezes and lots of cooking, eating, and relaxing with family.

Roo's Five and Other Pleasures

Yep.....Five! Imagine that. We celebrated with friends at a park/pizza party on Sunday. What a great idea that was! Scads of kids, almost as many parents, great weather, beautiful park, creek, play equipment, and loads of pizza delivered right to the playground. I took a huge bowl of fresh strawberries - the kind that can be had only in this part of California. Daughter made fresh salsa to go with chips and took fresh carrots, too. Beer, pop, juice, water and sunshine rounded out the party.

Then today, the real birthday, we held the family celebration at our house. Reese likes salmon, brown rice, beans, plums, and carrots. And cake and home made ice cream. (Daughter bought the cake and made the ice cream, not me.) So that was the menu. I have to say that Papa grills the best salmon in the world, so I was happy with the choice. I roasted asparagus for the grownups and noticed that the kids even ate a little! Oh, I forgot the biscuits I made. They turned out well. And the best part of that is that I get to eat one with apple butter from Nashville, IN in the morning. Oh!!!!!! Can't wait. We drank good wine with dinner, bragged on the kids, opened great gifts.... all good.

After the kids left, we turned on the TV and watched election returns to discover that my candidates won their primaries. More good.

Earlier in the day, I had my hair colored and cut, pierced an ear, and bought more bark for the back yard. I spread the bark before cooking, then later commanded the family to admire the landscape and tell me it is wonderful. It is:) Tomato and squash plants look really good. Baby squash and tomatoes are visible, now. It won't be long before we can add them to the menu.

Today was just a really good day.

Worthy

A while back I wrote about my new role model, an 87 year old artist friend. A few days after I blogged about her, I learned that she can do push ups "all day" and that she is active in a Pilates class, putting women almost fifty years her junior to shame.

Then, on Memorial Day, she worked at the Art in the Park festival our art association sponsors. Volunteers spend four hours running around giving vendors potty/lunch breaks. Some volunteers are more energetic than others. Some sit more than circulate. My role model, of course, circulated. All afternoon. She rarely sat.

I am way impressed! Imagine. Eighty-seven and still willing and able. I know that I was tired when I got home. I hope she felt at least a little weary. Otherwise, she is beyond anything I can try to emulate.

I'm Happy

This is a small encaustic piece, Largo, that's just been accepted into the area Oil, Pastel, and Acrylic Group juried Brustrokes show. OPAG, thankfully, includes encaustics as well as mixed media in their group. The organization is part of San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, but the exhibit will be hung at Art Center Morro Bay in late July.

I enjoyed creating this piece - in part because I've included violin scores from one of Mother's old books. I've used her music several times, but this is one of the more successful results. As you can probably see, the painting was done on four permanently joined wood panels.

I'll be eager to see what else is in the show.

Writers Group

My writing group meets at my house tonight. Somehow lately I haven't made much time to write. But here's my stab at following a prompt I gave the group:

Summer Tapestry

Threads of light weave
A tapestry of red, orange and blue
Through the morning sky

Yielding as streams of hot yellow
Bake the homeward path
I walk at mid-day

And after bold blue splashes
Soak lawns, gardens, porches
And children in the afternoon

I hear crickets serenade
And train whistles moan
As they travel through black night

Until scents of purple clematis
Float through my window
And I sleep with sighs of satisfaction

Obviously - at least to those who know about summers in SC - Summer Tapestry prompted thoughts of the beach.

Beach Music

Waves play the cords
And seabirds squawk their tunes
While my feet beat a rhythm
In rough sand
Crunching tiny shells
Yes, humming along
In accompaniment to
Music of the shore

I'm not sure that these poems are done. Are they ever? More than likely I will work on them some more, perhaps not before the meeting.