Lot's to tell. This is a quickie once over. More pics and details will be posted in the next two entries (if you dare...).
A week ago last Friday, on the 19th, Tom and I left for for San Francisco to morph ourselves into woodshop elves to help Dylan meet an important deadline. We do this from time to time. It's fun. And we hope that our "help" doesn't set the project back too much.
On the way, we dropped by the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield to observe by what magic all those little flavor-bombs are made. Turns out there's a lot of cornstarch involved. And who knew that licorice is the third most popular flavor? Astonishing information ("buttered popcorn" is one or two. I forget the other one, but I vote for coconut). I hate black licorice (the "liver" of candy), but Tom loves it, of course. It's better than throwing mine away, I guess. In the gift shop at the end of the tour, we bought fudge, naturally. Because when you have a choice, really...
Meanwhile, in our absence, a giant storm was raging in the mountains. We've had a few, already this season, and our rainfall totals are twice the average. But this one was packing. First snow, at our elevation, several weeks earlier than "normal". I thought I had prepared the front patio...
So, back in SF that Friday, we got to meet Rachel, Dylan's Most Capable Administrative Assistant, which was cool. She's great at quite a few things where Dylan is, well, needing help. Tom and I got very busy sanding solid walnut table pieces. Later, Rachel, the Amazing Sister, came by and helped, too.
Weekend over,Tom had to return home to work, so he left Monday morning, whilst I stayed on for a few days. The table--a gorgeous dining masterpiece with three leaves--had some innovative design elements that needed a bit of extra time to smooth out. I hoped to provide a little support along the way.
The table got finished and delivered Wed. morning, looking fabulous set in Jessica and Alejandro's dining room, ready for Thanksgiving. Dylan and Roomie/Woodshop Assistant, Stephanos then dropped me off at the nearest BART station. I, then found my way to Richmond, and from there hopped the Amtrak to Sacramento, where Tom picked me up mid-afternoon. I love the train!
At home, I had time to shower, roast some yams, eat dinner (frozen DiGiorno--just the ticket, in a pinch) and run off to choir practice. I could hardly help but notice that a., the Subaru was perched at a jaunty angle off the driveway in the snow, b., the patio umbrella was snapped in two, and, c., my little bonsai trees were frozen into the drifts, the table they had been sitting on having collapsed in the storm. As for the Suby, Tom had slid right off the side of the snowy driveway as he arrived home around noon on Monday. There's a bad pitch to the pavement, there, and just maybe the tires have a little less traction than they should. A tow truck saved the situation. Chains, next time.
Come morning, I made the roasted-sweet-potato cheesecake and hummus appetizer I'd promised, packed, and we were off to Diana and Dick's home in Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving. The dinner would be on Friday, thankfully.
It was an easy, uneventful (no trucks on I-5!) 8-hour trip to SB (Dylan and Rachel were, by that time, out of state for their holidays). We spent a wonderful, quiet Thursday evening with Diana, Dick and Tom's mom, Ruth. On Friday, Eric, Rachel, Grace and Lilly, Lisa, Carl, Ben, Luke and Joel, Katherine and Jean came to liven things up for the day. First meetings with 9-month-old Lilly and somewhat older, Carl (Special Friend to Lisa), made the occasion even more fun.
Saturday morning, Diana had arranged a special service for the five of us (D & D, Mom, T & me) to bury Ken's ashes under a little oak tree in their yard--he passed away a little over a year ago, now. It was truly lovely and meaningful and, appropriately, took place on what would have been Ken's 55th birthday.
Afterward, we, loaded down with a big box of home-grown Granny Smiths, started our way back home, though the rain. Indoors, at our house, the temp was 49 when we arrived. Winter is here, for sure. Patchy snow is everywhere and not in any hurry to melt. Fine with me.
Next posts will expand a bit, if you're interested...
Three days ago, I snapped a couple of shots of the beautiful trees in the shopping area nearest us. Love the yellows and oranges. But this maple on the parkway behind the newspaper office (The Union) cranks the color up a notch or two. Is that crazy stunning, or what?! Not sure, but it might be an October Glory.
However, generally the fall colors are beginning to fade, now, a week before Thanksgiving. The storms hasten the process, a bit. Tonight, for example, a big one is moving in to stay for the weekend and there are consistent predictions of the first snow fall of the season at our elevation. I hope so. I love the snow. It's hard to bid farewell to the colors, but I love snow.
You see where I'm going with this, right? It's colder and that puts me in a mood for knitting. I don't remember the last projects I posted, but I'm pretty sure I haven't displayed the two most recent scarves I made to play with the new diagonal pattern I learned. I made them last spring, actually, and gave one to my sister--though not sure which without running upstairs to see which one I have left. This technique shows off the colors in "printed" yarn.
I'm mostly interested in playing with colors, these days. The first project of the season was a pair of mukluks. You might be able to see that they are not the same because I was testing out some color-pattern techniques I found on the internet (which is where I found the instructions for the slippers) so that I can plug my own ideas into a given project.
First, I made the socks and could have just left it at that. But I found the soles at Ben Franklin (near the red maple--see how I weave a theme in these things?) and then, after cutting them apart and resewing them so as to fit the socks (and, incidentally, my feet), I laced them together. I think they're fun and will be very toasty this winter.
Tonight, I will start on a cardigan to learn how to work colors into a pattern that doesn't call for any decoration. That's how I watch TV. By the by, we think Modern Family (Wed. nights) is the most perfectly-crafted comedy we've ever seen. Cracks us up every time, but it also carries a theme throughout the half-hour so brilliantly that I'm always left in awe of the show at the end. Seriously. It's funny.
That's all, for now. But--oh, yeah--also check out Terriers, if you haven't had a chance, yet. Funky--takes some getting used to. Might have to see it from the beginning of the season to get the gist. And it's in color (see?).
These days, as you can imagine, the colors of autumn just have my head spinning. Tomorrow, for example, I will drive to a parking lot in Brunswick Basin, 15 minutes away because I must take a picture of one tree we saw today--a fabulous red maple of some sort.
But sometimes, it's a simpler, more mundane sight that grabs my attention.
A couple of years ago, after having just taken a couple of hard-boiled eggs out of the hot water and set them on the counter in the sun, I couldn't believe how beautiful they were! The shapes, the colors! I grabbed the camera and took a few shots.
Recently, I thought I'd work up some studies of those eggs in different kinds of media. Just for fun.
The first one is a colored pencil drawing on gray paper. I was as interested in the shadows as much as I was the subtle coloring of the brown eggs, themselves. Pencils allow for very fine detailing, but there's a limit on "workable" nature of the color. It's difficult to modify. I left out the context (counter, etc.), so they're kind of floating in the space.
I did the second piece in pastels, which is a medium I haven't heretofore explored well. I had some fun with the layering of the colors and enjoyed the bright, thicker lines and the speed, after the more tedious pencil version.
Third up was done with watercolor. With all the work I've done with gouache (opaque watercolor) on calligraphy, I've worked very rarely in transparent watercolors.
I plan to do more. It's the least forgiving. Watercolors go down quickly, but there's no recovery if it's not what you want. On the other hand, the surprises are fun and sometimes better than the planned ideas.
Lastly, for a completely different effect, I did one panel in mosaic. Just an experiment, and I'm not sure how successful, but it was interesting to try it out as a contrast to the other media.
The last shot shows them all hanging together in the dining area. Odd, I know. I think it might be a temporary display, but it's fun for the moment. One egg, two eggs, three eggs, four.
Meanwhile, a bit of quiche sounds good right now...
It's a classic rainy day. Not quite as heavy as the deluge we had a couple of weeks ago, but a nice, steady soaker. If it's anything like last year, the ground won't quite dry out again until June. I can already see the mushrooms popping up everywhere--I'll probably be taking even more photos of the same varieties I've taken before, as excited to post them as if it were a brand new topic. I'm the one walking around with my head down, afraid I might miss one.
Same with the colored trees (when I think to look up). Between the storms, we have these bright, intensely beautiful days and the red, orange and yellow leaves standing out against the solid evergreens just gets me every time. I can't take enough pictures. I have my favorite trees around the area, and I might shoot them over again each year, as giddy about it as if it were the first time I'd ever seen seen them. Have you seen an October Glory maple? 'Nuff said.
These photos, here, though, start with our front patio.
Our American Tulip Tree is all bright yellow right this very moment. That's a leafy close-up, right there. A longer view is next, with the Japanese barberry and Japanese maple in the foreground. I'm constantly out there, just staring at them. Sometimes, there's a camera in my hand.
Yesterday, one of those postcard days, Tom and I took a lovely drive to Grass Valley and Nevada City just because. They're each only about 15 minutes from here, so it wasn't much of a journey. I took the next photo on East Bennett Dr., which is the way to go to Grass Valley from our house. It's always beautiful, but when the big-leaf maples are bright yellow, it's magical.
We tried to get a little bit above the town of Grass Valley to get a long shot of how it looks with the autumn colors. Not easy to do, because, well, the trees are always in the way. This is the best I could do.
We got out to walk around Nevada City with our ice cream cones. That's Tom popping his head out of a traditional Maidu nation dwelling which is set up, along with a very well-used grinding stone, on a tiny corner plot that was ceded to the tribe to keep as their very own. So generous, we are. You're welcome.
We headed home after also enjoying an artisan show and a co-op art gallery. I cannot seem to decide which arts organization with which to affiliate myself.
Standard Time is finally back. It's always a huge relief, for some reason. I love Standard Time. Why so much DST? My morning walks have been indistinquishable from those I might take around midnight, lately. This morning, though, I could actually see the doe I frightened trot away in her graceful consternation. There's a buck that's been hanging around, of late, no doubt looking for her. He's also been munching on some of my plants, even the one's I've "protected". He just rips the little cages right off. Ah, well.
Right now, as soon as these pictures load, I'm going upstairs to stoke the wood stove and start pizza dough for dinner. Next time, I'll either post my newest art (think hard-boiled) or my fun with knitting. Hm. How to decide...
