weekly photo: Larsen lake 1/31

I'm late posting last weekend's photo, which is just as well, as I didn't get photos this weekend because I'm having a delayed reaction to having surgery. I'm spending a few days curled up in my pj's and reading rather than doing much of anything. But, last weekend, I took some photos at Larsen Lake. The first one is another interesting one of the great blue heron. It's official, I am obsessed with him.



The second is a possible starting point for a piece based on "urban decay". It's not really the typical urban shot, but Larsen Lake is within sight of a major street, and in the middle of a city, so that sounds pretty urban to me. I like the reflections on the water and may end up using it for something else if I find something more appropriate for the urban decay piece.

Going green: high speed rail

While we're looking at spending money on national infrastructure and building the future green economy, here's some thoughts about how we can try to catch up with others who already have high speed rail. The source of this excerpt, Plan B 3.0 by Lester Brown, is one of the books being used by the folks in Washington and other places to push for a comprehensive restructuring of the US economy. I think they're aiming in the right direction so it's worth checking out.

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch11_ss5.htm

Weekly photo: Larsen lake greenbelt, 1/25

There's been a great blue heron at Larson Lake around the time I normally walk about half the time over the past 2 weeks. He likes a stump that juts out of the lake fairly close to the pier I go out on when I walk. But he doesn't like people being too close. So when I go on the pier, he flies across the lake to the quieter part on the other side. I've been using my photos of herons a lot lately - I seem to have a thing for them right now. I'm already planning how to turn this photo into a piece. I like the lines and colors of the bare branches and the reflection of the light on the lake.




Since the heron shot was at a distance, I decided to do a closeup shot of something. I'm in a facebook art group that's talking about texture right now so I tried to find something that showed the texture of the woods in winter. Here are 3 shots of the same spot with the log shifted in the view. I'm trying to decide which I like best as a composition. Comments on your choice are welcome.

First, I spotted the log, liked the texture of the cut end, and the moss growing on the side. So, like any snapshot, I put it in the center.


Then I decided to focus on the moss, so I shot it with the cut end to the right side of the view.


And last, I decided I liked the parallel line of the snag in the background so I shot it with the mossy log on the left.


It was definitely an interesting exercise in looking closely and thinking about composing with the camera. I think I'll learn a lot this year from doing these weekly shots. And it should be a fascinating look at how my local spots change over time. My opinion: I think #2 is the most effective composition, but I'm not entirely able to say exactly why.

Art: Working smaller, adding texture

I sent off a piece to the SAQA 20th anniversary traveling exhibit yesterday after facing an interesting couple of challenges in creating something for it. I had 2 new constraints: an 8" limit on the size of the final image, and a square format. I usually work in a much larger rectangle. But, this is an important exhibition to participate in, so I dug in and went to work.

First of all, here's the piece that went off, Tiny Dancers #1. It was my second try at a subject after I was so unhappy with the first one. I feel that I managed to work smaller with this piece and still have my love of color and sense of design show well. I've also combined motifs from two earlier works so in addition to working smaller, I'm doing a series. That's a realization from hindsight.



The idea came to me in that foggy pre-sleep time in bed on Friday night. It was fused, stamped, stitched and photographed by Sunday noon. This working smaller could become addictive...

Also, this finished at 9.5" square and will be matted so that only 8" shows. I'm hoping they realize they should cut off the bottom of the globe, not the outstretched hand of the dancer. At least, that's what I'd do. I'm looking forward to seeing it in the exhibit of work by all us studio art quilters.


My first try at a piece was completely unsatisfactory. I didn't take a picture of it and now wish I had so I could show the before and after. I started with a photo of bushtits in my backyard. I loved the texture of the lichen on the tree branches and the way it echoed the color of the tiny bushtits. And I loved the way the 4 little birds were almost doing a puppy pile. But, when I cut the photo printed on fabric up and fused it to the background hand dyed fabric, it was all a monochromatic blur. I wasn't happy. And running it by my husband, the red green colorblind family member who aids me as a tonal viewer, verified that it was impossible to see anything but a dappled green square. So I set it aside, and fretted about what to do, and then had my aha! moment which resulted in the Tiny Dancers #1 piece above.

As part of Tiny Dancers, I pulled out some fabric dye crayons and stamps and texture plates to pull things together a bit. The spirals I added to TD this way aren't as noticeable because of the richness of the background fabric. But, I liked the effect enough to start wondering if this wasn't a way to rescue the poor bushtits. So, I went to town, experimenting with everything that seemed likely and using lots of different colors. I really like the result. The visual texture I added between the photo pieces highlights the lichen texture on the branches that I absolutely love. And the orange and navy bits make the green and grey less bland. It's still a calmer piece than is usual for me, but I no longer want to burn it so I'm calling it good.



It's 11" square right now, so there's quite a bit on the edges that I was considering excess. I'm thinking I'll put it on stretcher bars so it finishes to the 8" square size that is intended. And then move on to the next experiment using this photo and see what else I can discover about how I work.

Going from greed to green

Today's email brought an article "7 Fixes from the Green Economy" which I thought worth sharing. There's a discussion of what to do as individuals, how it fits into a bigger plan, and how to pay for the changes without furthering damaging the economy. Since one of my goals for this year is maximizing energy efficiency in our house, I'm interested in sources that relate to that. This looks like a good one.

2009 Goals

In the course of a wide-ranging discussion of New Year's resolutions, one of my fellow quiltart members recommended a book entitled Your Best Year Yet. I checked it out of the library and found I already knew most of the material, but realized I hadn't been applying it as well as I'd like so I decided to come up with a goal list for this year. And stick to just those goals. My problem being that I tend to overcommit my time and energy.

Here's my list for this coming year, focusing on the major 3 areas I want to work in:

ART

Redo webpage using plone or other cms

• Add galleries with thumbnails
• Create separate blog for sales or add shopping cart to webpage

Increase productivity/skills

• Work in studio daily
• Take classes (digital camera, painting)

Produce income

• Teach classes
• Add shirts for sales
• List small pieces for sale online

SELF

Take Reiki Level 3 training

Chakra owner's manual work

Lose 20 pounds

• Return exercise to base level
• Cut back on extras in diet (less wine and chocolate)

Declutter life

• Focus on main roles/goals
• Get rid of stuff that's not being used or creating beauty in my life

HOUSEHOLD

Increase food production in garden

• Plant perennial veggies
• Increase food preservation skills

Maximize energy efficiency

• Garage insulation
• Energy audit

Paint exterior

• Get quotes
• Estimate labor/costs to do ourselves

Investigate IRA land possibilities


The book recommends 10 goals and I've exceeded that limit slightly. How typical. However, all progress is made one step at a time so this is my first step.

Weekly photo: Cougar Mtn Park

This year, I'm focusing on doing more fiber art using photos printed on fabric. Mostly I'll be using ones I take of birds and local landscapes, with a few bird shots from a couple of bird photographers I'm hoping to work with. In order to do this, I have to take pictures. So, one of the things to do to accomplish my goal is to take weekly pictures on my walks at either the greenbelt (Blueberry Lake) or Cougar Mountain Park. This week's photos are from Cougar Mountain. Some of the spring plants are budding out, but mostly there's the winter sparseness. And the winter water so that the streams are still running. I looked for things that might inspire me to interpret them or incorporate them into a fiber piece. This is one of the possibles from this week. I liked the way the water glimmered between the dead leaves and the stark tree trunks.




The second photo is from Coal Creek which runs along the meadow restoration site. I'm fascinated by the creek and the very narrow footbridge crossing it. Today, a fern next to the bridge caught my eye.

Going green, national level plan

I get a lot of email from a lot of different sites about what they're doing, and today brought news of The Real Deal, from the Post Carbon Institute. I've skimmed it this morning, and it looks like it's written at a reasonable level, both in covering why we need to act and what there is to do. I'm glad to see a coherent plan laid out, and equally glad to see they're getting name endorsements so it stands a chance of getting publicity. It's only 24 pages long which is also a big plus.

Check it out: http://www.postcarbon.org/real-new-deal.

Reinstalling my computer - or what I did with my weekend

My computer crashed. I was forced to realize how much I rely on this technology to stay connected to the people in my life. I'd been thinking of reinstalling because something went wrong with the computer writing to CDs so this just sort of moved everything up. I first tried to avoid it by cleaning up the drive and defragging which took all day Saturday, and I'll just note that the defragging shows a really pretty colored display showing before and after. I'd just recommend that people do this for their machines a little more frequently than every 5 years. Today was spent admitting defeat, and reinstalling. The problem with reinstalling is that you also have to reinstall all the software you want to continue to use. I'm about halfway through that, and have a couple of things to recommend, just in case you want to avoid the pain I'm suffering. First, keep all the installation disks in one place, including any drivers you've downloaded, especially if you keep hardware until it dies and the drivers might no longer be on the websites of the manufacturer. Second, do regular backups and keep those with the installation stuff. Third, a list of software you've installed from downloads would also be a good idea. We had to create the lists for all of these items and I'll just say how happy I am that my darling husband is a professional in the computer field and very knowledgeable about Microsoft. Otherwise, I have no idea how long I'd still be doing all of this. I'm still not done, there's a bunch of stuff to reinstall, plus restoring the backed up data. But I'm past the worst of it, especially the frustration of not being able to respond to comments, or even read my email.

Gaia's Dance - first art of 2009

I finished a piece that's been in the works for over a year. Finally. And I'm really happy with the results. I'm submitting it to the Sacred Threads show but won't hear if it's been accepted or not until the end of March. Here's the full size photo of the piece.




And here's a detail shot of the quilting. I did a post earlier of the trial piece for the quilting so some of this should look familiar to anyone who saw that post.


For those who are interested in the technical details, the piece is 38" wide and 47" high. The little dancing people are cut from several different fabrics and were individually hand cut (hence the long elapsed time as after cutting them all out, I needed to take a break). The globe and the lotus blossoms were printed on silk using my epson cx3810 printer.

I'm really pretty happy with it and I'm looking forward to applying some of the things I learned to future pieces.

Winter Holiday 2008 & wool batting quilt

We are having a wonderful visit with our daughter Allie who is with us for Christmas. The snowfall just before Christmas was incredible, as seen in the photo below. Every branch of every tree had 2-3 inches of snow on it. If you click on the photo, you should be able to see amazing detail. Fortunately, the roads cleared by Christmas Eve so Allie could drive down from Bellingham after digging the car out of a snow bank.




For her present this year, I made a lap quilt with wool batting. This is the first time I've used a wool batting so of course, I asked on the quiltart list for advice on using it. I got the usual expert advice and proceeded to make what appears to be a quite cozy quilt. Allie is sensitive to the cold, and Bellingham gets colder winters than we do here in Bellevue, so I thought a nice wool lap quilt to cuddle up under would be just the thing. I also had bought the Betty Boop on motorcycles fabric intending to make something cute for her. I decided to pick up the black and white check motif from the Boops and used an asymetrical log cabin style block. I think the Boop side came out nice.





For the back, I had intended to run to the quilt store and buy some stylish retro black and chartreuse fabric as she loves those colors. The snow kept me from going shopping so I had to fall back on my stash. Looking at the black and white cat fabric (visible in the closeup photo),





I decided to use the Burch cats, and the green polka dot fabric that went with it. I wanted something quick as I was running out of time and didn't want a complicated quilt. The big strips of fabric (5.5" wide) worked well and gave me a good idea for some quick quilting.



I didn't quite get the quilting finished before she arrived, so I wrapped it up, put it under the tree, and included a note promising to finish Christmas Day while we did our traditional lounge around & watch videos marathon. I got it finished by dinner time and she slept with it last night. A great finish to a wonderful day.

Here's hoping your winter holiday was as satisfying!

Hummingbird in the snow

Okay, we're getting even more snow. I'll have to check what the record is, and see if we've broken it. So, more pictures which won't impress anyone who lives where there's real snow every winter but for those of us who live where 2-3 inches is a lot, this is impressive. The picture below is from the street side of our deck, looking downhill toward the stop sign (barely visible at the end of the clear snowy part that is the street) and encompassing what's called "territorial views" in the local real estate ads. The tree covered hills in the background are locally known as the Issaquah Alps.



I took the hummingbird feeder in the night before last, and overslept so it wasn't out there when Bob, our backyard hummingbird, came looking for breakfast yesterday. He didn't show up all day so I was worried about him. Fortunately, I was up early today and refilled it with the sweeter wintertime solution and got it hung outside in plenty of time. He's pretty much sitting on the feeder most of the time today giving me an excellent opportunity for pictures. These are taken through the glass in the french door leading to the deck so I am amazed at the clarity of them.

This is the corner of our deck where the feeder hangs, mostly in the shade so the solution doesn't go bad when it's warm. Not that we have to worry about that right now...



And this is Bob, being so kind as to pose for a nice snapshot. The light is overcast and dim enough that it's not easy to see the colors on his head but the darker head part is the iridescent part of his coloring and it changes colors in the light when he turns his head.



I'll probably be snapping lots more pictures over the next few days as I have a quilt design bubbling in my brain about all of this. Not sure just what form it will take so better to take more pictures than I'll need rather than not enough.

Hope you're warmer than we are!

Snowfall and cookie baking - Happy Holidays!

Today is the day after a huge snowfall for the Bellevue area. We got 7 inches according to a neighbor's measurement of the snowfall in her yard. This is the largest we've had since we moved here in 1999. While I was baking the extremely tardy gift cookies today, I snapped some shots of the backyard and the hummingbird who is guarding our feeder zealously.

This shot of the backyard is taken from our deck which is on top of the garage. The yard also slopes downhill from the house so it really is as down as it looks from the photo. I particularly like the look of the ferns and the oat grass covered with snow. I'm going to have to go out and check how the hardy fuschias have done once the snow clears but I don't hold out much hope for them as the forecast is for more snow and icy rain on Sunday with unusually cold temperatures through the next week. (We're spoiled and used to it being in the 40's or 50's this time of year.)




We have year round hummingbirds here but it's clear they treasure the feeders in the neighborhood when we get the serious cold spells in late December and early January. Here are 2 shots of our bird, sitting in the plum tree in the backyard. He's seriously fluffed up so he'll stay warmer. I wish I'd been able to get a shot of him when he buzzed me this morning. I forgot to bring the feeder in last night, so it froze up and I had to bring it in and microwave it to thaw it out this morning. He was not amused. This one was taken through the greenhouse window in the kitchen.





This one was taken from the deck at more of an angle.



We'll be celebrating Solstice tomorrow and then Christmas later in the week. I'm looking forward to happy time spent with my family and I'm wishing you the same. Happy Winter Holiday of your choice!

test driving the Zap Zebra electric car

This has been an eventful couple of weeks here. I had surgery on 11/25, 2 days later was Thanksgiving, 3 days later our daughter got cut off on the freeway and totaled one of our cars. Somewhere in there, my husband and son came down with a bad coughing cold but that's background. So, once we got past the immediate "are you okay?" panic (she's fine) and the initial insurance phone calls, we started thinking about what we really needed in a second car.

We live within 4-6 miles of Jeff's job, the grocery stores, the drugstore, and a small shopping center so the thought of trying out a neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV in the trade lingo) was just too tempting to pass up. So, this last weekend, jeff and I trotted off to the Green Car Company (now in downtown Bellevue) and test drove the Zap Zebra. It's a three wheeled vehicle, with a back seat, fully electric and recharged by plugging into a regular outlet. If I were even 15 years younger, I'd probably have bought it right then and there. Pro's: It's cute, zippy, fun to drive, all electric, and can go just fine in regular traffic around town. Cons: It's small, doesn't heat up the interior very well on a cold, wet day, can't handle really steep hills without upgrading some of the equipment, and the pedals are a little to the left of where both of us expected them to be. Jeff found it uncomfortable to turn enough to use the pedals. I was fine with it, but I'm shorter and that may have been a factor. Jeff was also concerned about the safety factor as it hasn't passed vehicle crash tests. Well, technically, it's a motorcycle so it doesn't have to. I do have to say, though, if we lived in a warmer climate, and we weren't living on an extremely steep hill, I'd have been tempted because the list price is $12,000.

If you've been thinking about it, go give it a test drive. For half a car, it's a good idea. And just think, no more gasoline, ever...

My life, new art, and relocalizing reference list

I'm through the first of the kidney stone surgeries I'll probably have. It went well, the largest stone was disintegrated but doing so required the maximum usage of the zapping machine so the smaller stones will have to wait for next time. After several days of sleeping and a nice thanksgiving dinner provided by the effort of friends and family, I'm raring to get back into my studio. I hope to have some new things to show by the end of the week.

Part of recovering from surgery is reading a lot. One of the blogs I follow (Relocalizing Vermont by Carl Etnier), posted a request for books to put on a reference list and gave a short list to start. I've read several of the books he mentions and thought the list was worth sharing. Click here to see it.

Hope & optimism

I go in for surgery tomorrow so I'm looking for hope right now. This quote is from the author of one of the most hope filled books I've read on the topic.

“Climate change says we should change, whereas peak oil says we will be forced to change.”
-- Rob Hoskins, author of The Transition Town

I also thought I'd share this link about health care myths. I firmly believe we should be copying the French or Canadian systems where the health care systems are designed to keep people healthy rather than make the insurance companies profitable. This is an article from the Washington Post, a very center of the road, fact-based paper. I found this very worth my time.

Read about the myths here.

Cars: green electricity, not natural gas

Today's email is from earthpolicy.org, an organization focused on building a sustainable future as well as providing a plan for how to get there from here. Maybe it's because I live in the Pacific Northwest where hydropower is plentiful, but I think they're right about going toward electricity which can be generated from wind, sun, and waves. To read their thoughts on why we should go toward plug-in electric cars rather than natural gas (which T. Boone is promoting) go here.

Transition Town: Sandpoint Idaho

Today's email brought a link to an article in the London Times about Transition Towns. This is a movement begun by a permaculture professor in Ireland (Rob Hopkins) that has grown to over 700 towns in 2 years. His book is a step by step handbook on building local resiliency and organizing the community to be as independent as possible.

Read the full article here.

I particularly liked the quote I've copied below because I'm a firm believer in doing what I can in my little corner of the world:

In Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia, people started readying themselves in June. Their two-year low-carbon diet is under way, they have met state Anna Bligh, the state premier, and are consulting on a Queensland Government report entitled Towards Oil Resilience. Bush tucker trees are to be planted around the city.

Maggie Johns, a Hervey Bay Transitioner, signed off her e-mail to me thus: “Before, it all seemed so futile. What was the good in changing a few light bulbs? There are ice-shelves breaking off, for goodness sake! But when you know that more and more towns are coming online with Transition, and each has an army of dedicated volunteers, it seems much more do-able.”

National Security & Oil

I know I'm always talking about going green and that's because I'm a long time tree hugger. Not everyone shares those values so for those who don't, here's another perspective on why reducing our dependence on foreign oil is a good thing. This is quoted from the Wall Street Journal, from the first in a series of articles about dealing with our oil addiction. The article continues with recommendations for action and is worth reading. The following is a quote from the article by Stacy Delo published November 12.

Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett
(R., Maryland)
Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Defense Energy Working Group and Congressional Peak Oil Caucus

DIAGNOSIS: American transportation is more than 95% dependent upon oil, a proportion virtually unchanged since the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Americans will have spent $700 billion on oil imports in the last two years. That is more than we spend annually on defense. If that money stayed here, it would generate $7 trillion in economic activity. Clearly, lower oil prices are better for Americans and worse for the governments of OPEC countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as well as Russia's military resurgence.

If we reduce our dependence upon oil imports, we eliminate our greatest self-imposed threat to Americans' future economic prosperity and national security. Especially in the absence of price signals, we need leadership at all levels to inspire Americans to continue conserving oil and to innovate to shift our transportation and manufacturing sectors off oil.

The importance of green activism

I've read Bill McKibben's book, Deep Economy, and found it insightful and optimistic while discussing serious issues. So I'm pleased to post a pointer to a column he's written in Orion magazine, Multiplication Saves the Day. I'll also echo his plug for websites to pay attention to: 350.org, 1sky.org and wecansolveit.org. I believe president-elect Obama is correct in saying that we're just starting the hard work and I'm pleased to see someone laying out how individuals can contribute.

On a more personal front, I'm scheduled for surgery for the kidney stones on November 25, just in time to make sure I don't bake pies this year. Here's hoping this surgery resolves my medical problems.