Camera Day

Grammy, Clarence, Helen, a neighbor girl, Dad and little sister Doris

This is one of my favorite pictures taken in the 1930's.  Grammy wrote across the bottom in pencil "some happy days on the farm."  A camera was a cherished possession back then and photographs carefully stored in albums and boxes.  Grammy could have never imagined a digital camera, much less a time when this photo would be visible to anyone in the world with an Internet connection. 

June 29th is National Camera Day.  Pictures are memories of our lives, and year after year the camera records important events.  The camera captures the moment forever and creates the memories we share and look back on, happy and sad.  I've been watching news clips of frantic home evacuations in Colorado, and photographs and pets are the first things stuffed into cars when people flee.

Using a camera has never been easier and we take pictures at a fast click because it's "free." But digital photography creates different challenges for organization, access and storage.  There are all sorts of nifty programs and tools to help, but it still requires human effort and consistency. I have thousands of images stored on my laptop, and being a librarian I'm ashamed to say the organization leaves much to be desired.

On top of that problem, every image I've ever posted on the blog is stored somewhere "out there" on Picasa, a photo-sharing website owned by Google and similar to Flickr.  In three years of blogging, I've just managed to exceed my 1 GB of free space so now I'm a Google storage customer. I've started "renting" an additional 26 GB of storage for about $2.50 a month.  I think 26 GB will hold about 7,000 photographs. What a world.

My photos on Picasa are a horrible hodgepodge since I've never made the effort to create usable albums. It's complicated. John just ordered a book for me called Picasa Web for Seniors which is hopefully dumbed down enough that I can finally tackle the project.  If I can organize my digital photos out there in the cloud, I'll never have to worry about home backup again-- it's Google's problem.

We have a little scanner attached to the computer, and I've gradually been scanning old family photographs that have been tossed in a box for years. This is fun.

Susie and Marji

Punting with Baby Amanda in England

Our European transport in the 1970's

An English walk with Dad and Amanda

College girl

Amanda and Mom at Lincoln Park

Amanda and Cowboy

Prom night

Ah

A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. 

It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.
Sydney Smith

Home sweet home. I don't have much to write this morning because yesterday all I did was many loads of laundry, vacuumed, dusted, made granola and then got out the weed-eater in the afternoon.  Oh yes, and cut some lovely flowers for the house.  The garden is beautiful from all the rain.  We had one day of sun and 70 degrees, but today go back to cool temperatures and rain.  Amanda, Tom and Nova are camping out on the coast and the new tent will be christened with rain tonight.

If only we could share this moisture with Colorado.  My dad told me this morning that the authorities are setting up an evacuation center at the high school in Cripple Creek, so their little town high in the mountains isn't in danger now. But this fire has made everyone realize that the unthinkable does happen.  And of course we are anxious about relatives and friends with property in harm's way.  Hopefully today will be a turning point in fighting this awful fire.

You are lucky, if...

We're getting to an age where we don't want to rush when we travel. So after a nice lunch with John's folks on Monday, we headed out to the Columbus airport several hours early so we would not have to "hurry." Ha Ha.

We turned in the car and got everything hauled to the United Airlines counter where we bumped up against an ominous, slow moving line.  Grim passengers were having excruciatingly long conversations with the ticket agents.  What were they negotiating? I don't carry a smart phone, but the ugly rumor soon spread down the line that a flight to Denver was "delayed."  This was the worst possible news for us, since our connection time in Denver to Seattle was only an hour. Now we were going to miss our second flight.

Our turn finally came at the counter: a pregnant mom holding her squirming toddler and a pair of (already) fatigued-looking grandparents.   Would they take pity on us?  There was bad news, good news.  Our plane had "mechanical issues" and was still grounded back in Denver.  Now it would be a minimum of 4 hours until it could get to Columbus and turn around with us.  If at all.

The best possible scenario was 6 hours of waiting before our trip could begin.  But the good news was the agent reserved seats on another late flight to Seattle from Denver.  So it really paid off to be early in line, and with a few strokes of the keyboard he probably saved us from standby in the middle of the night or (gulp) having to camp out at DIA until the next day. 

We did the security thing and parked ourselves at the gate with an assortment of overpriced snacks, trashy magazines, bottled water and expensive kid activity books from the newsstand.  We ate some food from the Wolfgang Puck Empire.  John commented what a boon delayed flights are for airport business. There is no way to leave and no place to go.

Our departure time kept clicking back later and later until it finally settled on 7:10 and stuck. John commented (gloomily) that this "didn't mean a thing" but it "could mean good news" if the plane was finally headed out to Columbus.  That gave me more vague and depressing scenarios to ponder. This is what travel is like with an "aviation expert" along.

After a few hours of waiting Amanda looked tired and started explaining to me what her "normal"  Braxton Hicks contractions were. I did not want to learn about this from the nurse-to-be. Then Nova made it darn clear she was sick and tired of B Concourse. We all were. Then I had to take a walk, do some deep breathing, and drink a $5 Frappuchino.

And then! The happiest sight in the world. Our (hopefully repaired) plane arrives at the gate about 4 hours late and the journey home finally begins.

Nova was asleep  in her seat before we even took off for Denver.  Her little body didn't know if it was a late nap or an early bedtime. We didn't care. She was blissfully out all the way to Denver. She was a great traveler and didn't fuss a single time and was either sleeping or playing quietly with toys and books.  And Amanda was a real trooper-- we were proud of them both.

In the air, Boeing aviation expert John made casual remarks about flying on a plane that had a "serious mechanical issue" just a few hours earlier.  The pilot came on the intercom. Did I detect a note of concern in his voice as he described the extreme heat and cross-winds ahead in Denver?  On final approach the flight attendant said to leave everything behind in an emergency evacuation. Did they always mention that before routine landings? The flight attendant then said they were "expecting unanticipated turbulence."  Can something be unanticipated if it is expected?

There was a surge of adrenalin for me and Amanda right before the smoothest, quietest landing of the trip.  Go figure.  At least it woke us up for the next gate trudge. More airport snacks, more waiting.  

The sun set in a smoky sky right after we landed. Denver was still hot as an inferno in the middle of the night.  While I'm chattering on about petty inconveniences like airport delays, Colorado residents are fighting terrifying wildfires.  Parts of Woodland Park and Colorado Springs where I grew up have been evacuated, and although Cripple Creek is not in immediate danger the main highway is closed and the detour is hours long to get to the city.  Please keep our family back there in your thoughts.  Click HERE for a link to the Colorado Springs news station for the latest. 

After a 2 hour wait and the usual niggling delays and frustrations, our flight finally left Denver about midnight.  It seemed like such a long trip but when all was said and done we were just 4 hours late.  It must have been an exceptionally bad day for United. Or maybe it was just a typical bad day with typical delays.  Who knows?  But along the way we heard worse tales of travel woe.  We met a lady on our flight who had arrived in Denver 12 hours earlier trying to get to Wisconsin, but she was just giving up and going back to Seattle.

Nova finally fell sound asleep right when the plane pulled up to the gate in Seattle.  We transferred her to the stroller and she slept through 5 elevator rides, baggage claim chaos, the trip out to long term parking, and the drive home in the car.  She woke up the next morning in bed at Nana and Grandpa's house.  And so you see, we are the luckiest people in the world.

Thanks again to our wonderful family in Ohio.

We are home

We're safely home but it's a bittersweet feeling because we miss our Ohio family and all the happy times we shared the past four days.

Our journey turned into quite the epic airline adventure.  At this point, I'll just say we walked in the front door about the time most of you were waking up in Ohio.  Yes, that would be about 16 hours of travel time.  I'm still in recovery mode at this early hour, but will post tomorrow with all the gory details :-)

Amanda and Nova are sleeping, the house is quiet, and John and I have so much to be grateful for on this cool, rainy Seattle morning. What happened to summer?

City mouse, country mouse

Backyard pond and waterfall

As you all know, we live on a little postage stamp lot in the crowded city of Seattle.  Today we had a big driving excursion to the real country living in eastern Ohio, where John's brother and sister-in-law have built a house on a very secluded 100 acre plus "lot" near Zanesville.  Well, it was hard for me to imagine having so much property you haven't stepped on every inch of it many hundreds of times. 

Thanks Dan for the gracious escort and tour to the house!  I loved the nature walk and learning about all the eastern trees, flowers and critters. Nice to see John's nephew Nick visiting from Wisconsin.

Amanda, Nova, John, Rebecca Dan and Nick

Outdoor art

Rebecca's artist studio in the woods

Pond life was educational!

A delicious Sunday dinner

Thanks for the great day and wonderful hospitality, Dan and Rebecca.  Not to mention the very best wild elderberry pie made by Rebecca. 

We've had a fabulous trip and if the aviation gods are friendly, will be home (sadly) tomorrow night.  Where it is no doubt, cool and rainy :-(

Day at the Columbus Zoo

The first pony ride made Nana proud!

Checking out the fish...

Watching the animal show with Aunt Rachel, Uncle Ted, Nana and Mommy.

And making new friends in Ohio.

Warm, oh warm

Nana and Nova

And are we complaining? No, we are not--yet.  Today was a record  high (95?) for this June day in Columbus Ohio.  After all that cool Seattle weather you thought we would be whimpering babies in the Eastern heat but it was nice to go outside in soft warm air (gee, I could forget my jacket for a change) and swim in the pool at John and Wilda's condo clubhouse.  How many times can a little girl jump in a pool?  Answer: many

We are having fun.  Tomorrow the zoo.  Nova seems to be coming down with a cold but we'll all make it through all that.

John and Wilda

A sojourn

Flying cross-country sure takes the starch out of a girl.  But it's all worth it to meet your great-grandma and grandpa for the first time in Ohio.

I'll post more pictures as this special family holiday unfolds...

And no complaining, we are finally warm for the first time this year! 

The Juneuary solstice

This "ocean full of clouds" picture was posted on the Cliff Mass weather blog this week.  He said this is what June gloom looks like from outer space. The solstice is tomorrow but we are still in the murk.  Seattle is located at the most northern latitude of any major city in the U.S. (outside Alaska) so we should have 16 hours of daylight on June 20th. 

But the sun is trying its darnedest to burn through the clouds, making for some strange light.  Here's an observation from my brother Dave:

Reflecting on June gloom. If you woke up from a long sleep... looked outside and then checked the clock...  and it said anything between 4:30 to 9:30, you wouldn't know if it was AM or PM.  There's no sun for a frame of reference, just diffused daylight.

On the bright side, it does make for excellent flower photography at sunset.

The Rach 3

In the world of classical music, people casually refer to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 as just the "Rach 3." We went to the last concert in our symphony series yesterday and it was a good finale, featuring this notorious piece of music.  The Rach 3 was popularized in the 1996 movie Shine.  There's a memorable scene when the boy's piano teacher shows him a plaster cast of Rachmaninoff's gargantuan hands. Few pianists (living or dead) have that kind of strength and finger span, so playing the Rach 3 is still considered the Mt. Everest of piano.

The Rach 3 is so fiendishly difficult it drove the pianist David Helfgott into insanity, at least in the movie version of the story. After performing it in concert, Helfgott collapsed from mental and physical exhaustion and went into a psychotic episode that lasted several years.

I don't know how many people have been driven mad by Rachmaninoff's music, but the Rach 3 is one of the biggest and most demanding piano concertos. The concerto is respected, even feared, by pianists. 

Rachmaninoff composed this concerto at his peaceful country estate in 1909 and he premiered it himself in New York shortly after.  He dedicated it to pianist Josef Hofman who never "got around" to playing it in public saying it "wasn't for him."  And other pianists have steered clear, too.  Gary Graffman later regretted he did not learn the concerto as a student, when he was "still too young to know fear."

Proofing copies of the diabolical Rach 3 (1910)

It's a crowd pleaser.  And as they say, the pianist needs a flair for it. Steven Hough (a favorite guest artist) played it yesterday and everyone jumped from their seats at the finish in a roaring ovation.  We like doing that out here in Seattle. At times the orchestra could hardly keep up with him, but Steven walked away from the piano looking none the worse for wear.  And that was the fourth time he played it in the past four days.  If nothing else, you have to admire that stamina.

Happy Father's Day

You are the best! Special wishes this morning to our wonderful Dad in Colorado.

And happy Father's Day to all the great dads in the family: John Sr. and my John, Tom, Jordan, Brian, King and Dan.  

Hanging out with dad on a sweet, long-ago day.

Aussie illustration

Children in a Tree, Ethel Spowers, 1927

The beginning of the 20th century is considered the Golden Age of book illustration in America and England.  The Australian artists of that time are not as well known, although rare pictures from old children's books sometimes show up on blogs like The Pictorial Arts, A Study in Contrasts, Australian Fairy Artists and BiblioOdyssey.  It's an intriguing look at a different place and time.

This is a hodgepodge of Aussie fantasy work and illustration from the Golden Age.  It isn't comprehensive, but gives a glimpse of Down Under talent and creativity between 1890-1940.

Periwinkle Painting the Petals, Ida Outhwaite

Autumn Fairy, Ida Outhwaite

"She saw a little witch dance past," Ida Outhwaite
 

My Little Son Dandelion, Ethel Jackson Morris
 

"The beauty of the garden took her breath away," by Pixie O'Harris

Infant Welfare poster, May Gibbs
 

Magazine cover by May Gibbs

1890 Children's Book cover by W. Cole

Ocean Fairy, Howard Gaze

Water Fairies, Howard Gaze

Mermaids, Sea Imps and Ocean Baby, Howard Gaze

A few words about Australian artist Howard Gaze. He was a leading male illustrator in a field dominated by women. He had an interesting life, but not much is known about him although he wrote and illustrated nine fantasy works for children.  In 1927 he moved from Australia to Pasadena and lived there until his death. After several successful art shows in Los Angeles, he became known as the "Bubble Man."  Hum...they say his later works may have been intended for more mature audiences. Ya think?