Circuit

From August to December, Terry takes a vacation day each week to volunteer with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory. They band and record raptors flying through the Marin Headlands for scientific information about migration patterns. Even though I could join him now that I am retired-mmm, raptor talons, not so much for me. In the off-season, though, I am always up for a quick trip to Marin, because of the collateral benefits. Saturday was over the Richmond Bridge, south toward the Golden Gate, but stopping before the actual committment to go to SF. A pause for the 5 minute one-lane tunnel

Inside the 5-minute tunnel

Here is an even more altered version, because I kind of liked that photo:

Extremely altered tunnel

There was a reason they used to say “Go west, young man.” As a California native, every time I get as west as I can get, there is a pluck on my heart. At one point I fell in love with Santa Fe and thought it would be a wonderful place to retire to, but when I thought about it further, I realized my brain would have a chemical reaction to not knowing the ocean was so close.

Where the road ends and the sea begins

The mission was to clean equipment up at the Townsley bunker. (Actually, that was Terry’s mission, mine was to take photos…) I jumped out of the car to open the locked gate and got this picture of some Blue-eyed grass near the gate post. It is actually not a grass, but a member of the iris family.

Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)

Up to the bunker:

Townsley

Aged bunker door

With views of the sea on a beautiful, clear blue day to refresh your psyche:

Down the hill to the headquarters building to wash dishes (I actually helped with that), and then onward to the next part of the circle. On the road back out, I took this picture of a Great Blue Heron with my Canon instead of with the iphone:

Great Blue Heron

Onward to the collateral benefits. I am more than willing to wash equipment in exchange for a quick run into the store at the Heath tile factory. Sausalito is inches away from that five-minute tunnel we started out the adventure with.

Heath factory store window

Please note the poster that trumpets committment to quality handcrafted goods. Heaven.

New spring glazes

For the first time I physically restrained myself from venturing into the overstock room for mosaic supplies. (Lots of boxes at home to use up if I am honest with myself!) However, got a really good deal on this sweet milk pitcher. Chez Panisse pattern, second’s price with an in-store additional 20% off. Nice with roses from the farmer’s market. Score!

Then for lunch, a bowl of clam chowder at Fish restaurant just across the street. This was the view from their deck:

Sausalito

On the last part of the circle now. Back over the bridge through Richmond to Annie’s Annuals for a touch of color.

Annie's Annuals

Down San Pablo Dam Road with a few raptors cruising overhead and then home, all before 1:00. We are very efficient! We had the afternoon to plant what we got from Annie’s.

This is how I use Heath overstock tile in my garden:

garden ornament

The Art of the Decorated Page

I took an online course called Printed Patterned Painted Journal Making taught by lk Ludwig, over the past month. This coincided with my investigation of my “rivulets” pictures from Yosemite. I realized I wanted to dedicate the pages I was making to one theme to hold these particular images. Here are some of the decorated background pages before I put the images on top, and also the binding. I used Fabriano Artistico paper and it was luscious to work with, it just seemed to love having the paint scraped across it.

I bound the book like this:

Put my first Photoshop layered image from DJ Pettitt’s Photoshop class on the cover:

(I’m kind of liking the way these women are using their initials of their first names, I think I have just become LR Mead!!) At 63, one always needs new identities…

Took the book with me to show Chris Cozen when we went to Morro Bay. A few nights after we got back, Terry and I went out to dinner, only to come home to this (taken with camera bag ap on iphone):

This sweet thing had chewed off the bottom of the cover because we had just been leaving her alone too many times. Cliff does not cut it as a companion to a self-respecting K-9:

And now after all those years of being a public school teacher (when I would never accept it as an excuse, mind you) I can finally say “My dog ate my homework!”

The awe and ahs…of the Ahwahnee.

My history of decorating the abodes I live in has included stenciling, stained glass, faux graining woodwork, covering counter tops and walls with sheet copper, tiling stair risers, and using concrete to make spheres for mosaics in my garden. I like to create, and am usually motivated by wanting handmade things around me but not wanting to pay someone for labor on something I have a strong desire to learn to do myself. The first house we bought was built in 1900, and the longer I lived in it, the more I learned and appreciated historic architecture and period interior design.

In December, I walked into a building on the National Register of Historic Places, in one of the most beautiful natural environments on earth, and as far as my eye could see were the arts and crafts that I love. I did not read about the building before hand, so each new thing I discovered was a surprising gift. I was in such awe of its beauty. You can read about the building here: http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/harrison/harrison15.htm

We checked into our room and found a framed print on the wall of a sketch by Jeanette Dyer Spencer. It was her pattern inspired by California Indian basket design for the area over the the fireplace in the elevator lobby next to the Hotel Great Room.

From this :

To this:

The basket theme also appears on beams as stencils. Original iron light fixtures still hang from the ceiling.

The floor uses battleship linoleum (remember lino block prints?) for its design. Weathering the footsteps of Presidents and Hollywood stars, these floors are battleship tough since 1927. (Got to learn that technique, now which room in my house needs a new floor…?)

Sawn wood relief on the desk counter with stenciling and a Persian carpet on wall behind:

Framed decorations on walls, from watercolors to Persian carpets:

The massive great room with stained glass windows designed by Jeanette Dyer Spencer, again. I wish I had known her.

It was difficult to get a good image of the stained glass, because the exterior roof sheltered it from light coming in on its back side.

And a feature of the room is authentic Indian baskets. Up until the 1970′s these were evidently propped around the room, but now they are kept behind glass. This is a really big basket, probably three feet high.

The solarium and its view of the meadow:

The main restaurant. Reservations and a dress code! Concrete logs, painted to simulate real ones support the roof, a view, and mocha to die for….There is a tiny glimpse of the hotel china pattern.

The writing room holds a copper hooded fireplace with a painting on linen that looks likes a Renaissance tapestry. It shows the flora and fauna of the Yosemite Valley.

One of my favorite discoveries was the floor of the dining room, with its stained concrete, geometric/quilt design, patina, and beautiful Andy Goldsworthy fault-line type crack. Oh, California, you and your earthquakes.

This building is almost fireproof due to being made mostly of concrete, rebar, and boulders. On the exterior there are large boulders interspersed with what looks to be wood but is really concrete poured into forms with the texture of wood and then stained with colors. Most of us have trouble maintaining rotting beam ends, but not at the Ahwahnee!. Concrete takes care of the problem of rain soaking and rotting the ends of rafters.

And a lovely stairway down to the pool that we will have to use the next time…

Interesting facts I learned were that the working men installing the boulders were instructed to place four-man rocks at the base and then work up to two-men rocks at the top so that the eye of the onlooker sees massiveness at the bottom. (You can bet that my good friend Rick Alatorre, garden designer, is now going to hear from me that that moss rock needs to be a three-man size, etc.) It is based on how many men it takes to lift the rock. Paints need to be named after Ahwahnee awning teal and Ahwahnee siding terra cotta. Boulder grey, also. And if you have transition lenses in your glasses and you go outside in the daylight, your glasses freeze in the dark mode and when you get back inside it takes a half and hour to be able to see again. But the photos were worth it!

Here are the massive boulders and the gate to the hotel.

Now that Terry has had a chance to read this, he is saying “no battleship floors.” But, the back of my mind is saying, “I may need that concept someday.” Filed away with the thought of concrete counter tops in a kitchen, which will probably be painted that Ahwahnee teal I mentioned.

Good Will Toward Men

December 24, 2009. When I was growing up in the ’50′s in Pasadena, my father was president of an organization called the “Print Maker’s Society of Southern California”. This group had been very active during the ’20′s and ’30′s during the heyday of Craftsman and Art influences in Pasadena, but my Dad, being the youngest member, was president by virtue of having the energy to do the job. The membership had become older and there were not a lot of young printmakers coming up through the ranks. (Growing up, the lithograph press in the garage was thought of with awe, rather than thought of as strange. Although, nobody else really had one.) The group had yearly meetings that I remember even though I was less than ten. My mother would do the refreshments. Fossilman’s was a South Pasadena ice cream store where she would make a special trip to pick up punch. (I can still remember the taste of it-citrusy, with foamy stuff floating on top and a gorgeous pink/magenta color) and there were always lemon cookies with lots of powdered sugar on them. The meetings were held in a building overlooking the arroyo near the Rose Bowl. It was called the La Casita del Arroyo. Why do I remember that the ceiling of this building was made from the velodrome wood from the 1932 Olympics? It was glorious to play outside around this building and jump from stair to stair down its exterior staircase. This being the arroyo, those stairs were large stones and boulders from the same area. I was so happy that I did not have to stay inside and watch the old man with silver hair demonstrate how to make and print an etching.

Turns out he was the renaissance man named Harold Doolittle. He made craftsman-like furniture, his own printing press, and made beautiful etchings. (He is referenced in California Design, 1910, the catalogue of an exhibit at the Pasadena Center in 1974.) And my parents received Christmas cards each year from him and his wife. In the things my mother gave me after my father’s death, were three years of cards. I matted and framed them and they stay on my wall year round. (Where I live, you plan what you will throw in the car if you have to evacuate during a fire. They are right by the front door, and they will be the first to go. oops, Cliff is rubbing against my leg, reminding me that he and Katie will be the first, but these prints can be second. Second oops, Cliff and Katie, pictures when the kids were young, then the art from the walls.)

He made an etching each year for his cards and then hand lettered a greeting. Yes, and a little gold leafing, also. I want to share this one with you even though it is hard to get a picture because it is framed behind glass:This is what it says: (envision hand-lettered script)

“I wish there were some new way to say Merry Christmas.” Twice today I have overheard that remark. And each time I have said reverently to myself: “Thank God, there isn’t.” The spirit of Christmas is as simple as the heart of a child. It needs no new slogan & no special sales effort. No advertising agent can lend new glamour to its ancient magic. It is as elemental as the sun & the wind & the rain, as the stars that glowed on Galilee one holy night & now shed their same steady light on an older and perhaps a wiser world. No, there is no new way of saying Merry Christmas. Nor would we want one. The tree you will deck is the same as all the trees of its kind that have stood on all the hills since the world was young. The joy in a child’s eyes on Christmas morning is the joy that has filled the eyes of children since Christmas became an annual institution. Back of the gifts and the gaiety is an immemorial spirit of good will to men. Christmas is still Christmas. In a world awry with changes let us give thanks for One Precious Permanency. -Merle Crowell. MERRY CHRISTMAS Vestina & Harold Doolittle
This was probably sent around 1955. The ampersands are exceptionally beautiful.

So for 2009, may your heart be like that of a child.

Here is a bonus picture for Terry’s children, siblings, nieces, nephews and friends: Terry talking to Santa, c. 1949.Merry Christmas!

A finish…

Put a button on this pillow this morning, so I can finally say is it is done. I made Spoonflower fabric with an image of some sterling silver that my mother gave me. The silver is so incredibly beautiful with its flowers and swirls. More beautiful, I think, than any other utensils that I own. Almost afraid to use them. And then to top it off they are beautifully inscribed with dates of importance to my ancestors. Whoever you were that did such precise engraving, I honor you.

I must be fixated on the beauty of the silver today because really the only time they are brought out of their box is for big holiday fancy dinners and since we went to a restaurant for last Thursday’s dinner (our first experience with that sort of thing) we missed one of the two times for this year. Who knew that ennui would be the collateral damage of the nice dinner out. So I guess I will celebrate that I took out the antique heirloom silver, polished it up, marveled at its beauty and took a picture of it.

This image of these objects creates my own personal thanksgiving…

Healdsburg

Last Sunday’s day-trip had terrific, clear weather and the theme of the day was organic and sustainable, even though we had to drive in a car to get there. We were off to have some fun. First needing to eat, the choice this time was Barndiva Restaurant. The space of this restaurant is very intriguing because of the care with craftsmanship and the sparks of art. We have only been here early in the day, but it seems like light must have been part of the architect’s plan. Do architects know what the light is actually going to do before they build the building, or is it a surprise for them, too?

From the outside:

it seems very plain, but then you start looking at the details

This is one of my favorite rock walls of all time, with thyme and native grasses

Gottta admit, white roses at the base of the entrance sign are a nice touch:

Light is really a feature in this room, along with art and the sense that a craftsman has been there before you. Handmade vases with toyan and wild roses on each table

Glass to look through and reflections to see

the strange shapes are on window sills behind my head. They are being reflected in frosted glass panels in front of me. Behind the glass panels is faintly seen wine storage. A cool visual feast.

Glass sculptures which are light fixtures on window sills

The logo of the restaurant inlaid in wood on each corner of the table.

Wire sculpture

and food:The Reuben omelette bit the dust, but my heart was palpitating because of the handmade plates.

Then we walked up to the plaza of Healdsburg in order to stop in the fabric store (definitely not a version of Joann’s) and the bookstore (best selection of magazines ever.) The planners of this town were so smart to put a center park in the middle of it (and then to preserve it for more than 100 years). Then drove toward Geyserville to Quivira which has developed a garden to supply restaurants around Healdsburg with organic produce..

We had to check up on their chickens, raised beds, water features, and garden art.

Some people may look at this chicken as a dinner or an egg producer, I want to make it into a fabric design, hmmm…

Some are required to work when they go on day trips. Don’t cha know the jacket would definitely not be touched. This lovely pet did a regal job of protection. Terry picked up some Steelhead Red, a zin, from this winery. It is named for the restoration of their creek. So a toast to the fishes!

Then on to the best winery ever, Preston of Dry Creek. Organic wine, farm stand, olive oil, fresh-bakesd bread, olives, and nice people;

Sundays you can pick up some Guadagni jug wine.

Some who work, must rest during the day, since their organic rodent abatement lasts all night.An image, through the olive trees out to the grape vines at Preston. And it was a lovely day…one last picture inside the restaurant: