How Fast?

Walking Partner and I noticed something different a week or two ago here in Three Rivers: new speed limit signs on a private road.

This is one post. 15 mph heading upstream, 5 mph heading downstream. (This is along the river—could you guess that?)

Here’s another one: This time it was 15 mph going downstream and 5 mph going upstream.

And here is another on the same road: 5 mph both upstream and downstream, but this time there is an explanation for those heading up. “Slow blind curve ahead” could apply to the bulk of the road.

And at this intersection, it is 15 mph regardless of the direction you head.

Never mind. Let’s look at some wildflowers along the walk.

This is the kind of sign I’m used to. Custom. Interesting enough to perhaps cause someone to notice.

Walking Partner and I walk about 3.5 mph, in case you were wondering. We used to walk 4 mph, but we’ve never been this old before.

(Neither has my friend GE. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GE!!)

Walking in Three Rivers in Autumn

Another set of days without the internet sent us on a walk in the middle of the day. When virtual life isn’t accessible, try real life.

The star of autumn in Three Rivers is the Chinese pistache tree.

Excuse me? This is indeed a peculiar sight.

The Remoria*l Building has tremendous Chinese pistache trees.

This is the largest flowering pear tree I know of. It is the first to bloom (usually mid February) and the last to turn in the fall. There are a couple of tiny hints of red near where the big cable emerges on the right.

Rumor has it that this former playground for children will become a playground for grown-ups. (You can’t see in this photo, but the sparkly thing I hung on the gate last week is still present.)

I commented to Trail Guy that the abundance of acorns is rather remarkable this year. He said, “Oh yeah? You ought to look behind our work shop!”

So, I did.

We hear them hitting the metal roof and rolling down at night.

Finally, here is the largest buckeye tree I know of. It turned bronze in late June, or maybe early July. These native trees run on a different schedule.

Simply Home

Red Barn, Big Oak, 16×20″, $650

*Remorial is how our neighbor taught us to say “Memorial” when she was 9.

Walking in Three Rivers

Walking isn’t as easy as it used to be. I walk shorter distances more slowly than I used to, wearing Crocs instead of these shoes, which I now have listed on eBay.

Until the time change, my friend and I walked in the dark. Sometimes it felt adventuresome, as if we were getting away with something. On the days when her schedule isn’t tight, we still go 4-5 miles, although that’s nothing compared to when we trained together for a 1/2-marathon. Still, we are happy that we can walk and can do so in places without traffic, traffic lights, or sidewalks.

In the predawn light
During daylight hours
In the predawn light
During daylight hours

One day recently, Trail Guy and I poked along our street where he pointed out a peculiar sight on our neighbor’s lot.

Not real, mighty peculiar, and completely without an explanation.

I found a small sparkly on the ground, which I ended up securing to the fence of the former day care at the Presbyterian Church.

While admiring the view from the Catholic church, I wondered what the bright red was in the distance. It most likely is a truly spectacularly bright tree. We weren’t so fortunate when we chose our own Chinese Pistache trees, nor when they created volunteers on our lot.

I’ve always admired this barn across the highway, and being November, I also admired some red trees in the distance.

Walking more slowly and going shorter distances does increase one’s awareness of the surroundings. That is a good trait for an artist to cultivate.

P.S. Yeppers, two churches in our neighborhood, neither one “ours”.

SIMPLY HOME

Walnut Orchard, 10×10″, $200

CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.

Tuesday, November 12, 6:30-7:30, I will give a demo/talk called How To Draw at CACHE. It is full.

Fighting Fires From Three Rivers

A friend with property in the line of the current fire (Coffeepot Fire) called on Tuesday to say that fixed wing aircraft were dipping water out of Lake Kaweah. Trail Guy said, “Do you mean helicopters?”

Friend said, “No, fixed wings”.

Trail Guy told me, and I said, “Do you mean helicopters?”

He said, “No, fixed wings”.

I said, “Let’s go see!”

So, we did.

We weren’t sure where to stop around the lake and tried a few turnouts, eventually picking a road down to the water. Trail Guy felt certain they’d be dipping from closer to the inlet than the dam, and since he was driving, that’s the viewpoint we chose. (He is usually right about those types of things.)

We sat on the tailgate waiting and watching.

Almost immediately, 2 planes arrived. I circled one in red so you can pick it out here.

Almost exactly ten minutes later, they returned.

We sure do know how to have a good time around here.

P.S. This is how the fire looked from LookOut Point yesterday afternoon: 3123 acres with 915 personnel. They could have stopped it at 1 acre!!!

An Odd Job Before Christmas

A friend was remodeling an old house, one I have admired for many years. The porch had pillars, and it would have been a terrible waste to put those 100-year-old handmade wooden objects in a dumpster. So, I remembered a friend’s son who likes architectural pieces for his antique store, and then asked my remodeling friend if I could have the pillars to pass along. He agreed.

We loaded them into the pickup, took them home, and learned that the antique guy didn’t want them.

Oh-oh. A pickup full of pillars, needing to be stored? Nope. 

I made a list of things that they could be used for. Then I gave half of the pillars to my very creative neighbor.

The first item on my list needed to be done before Christmas.

I used a few miles of painter’s blue tape, wrapping in a diagonal pattern. Next I covered the pillars with 2 coats of white paint. When I peeled the tape off, it was a little tricky to see where to put the red paint, because the new white paint wasn’t that different from the old white paint.

Remembering that no one was paying me and no one really cared, I painted the red stripes without taping. There was a great deal of covering red wobbly and hairy lines with white paint, and then recovering white wobbly and hairy lines with red. 

 

Because the pillars are actually tapered, a couple of times they fell over while sitting outside to dry.

Finally, we carried one to the abandoned fire hydrant at the bottom of the driveway and dropped it over the pipe. (Trail Guy sawed off the pieces that were in the way so it would fit.) I’ve been wondering for years what to do with that old thing. You can see that the stripes are a bit wobbly and unevenly spaced; this is the result of pantsing the project.

I carried the second one to another neighbor’s house and dropped it over an abandoned address post that lost its numbers several years ago. (We seem to have abandonment issues in our neighborhood.)

 

Mineral King in January

I didn’t go. Trail Guy and the Farmer went for a day. Here are three photos for you, along with a peculiar sight.

That is the Honeymoon Cabin. (If I painted it this way, no one would buy it in the summer.)

This is the Crowley family cabin with Farewell Gap in the background. The snowy lump to the right is Big Rock.

This is a Trackster. (I think we have outgrown ours and are now willing to sell it. Are you or someone you know interested?)

Finally, here is a peculiar sight. When Trail Guy handed me his camera to put the photos on my computer, I said, “Did you mean to take a photo of a snow doughnut??”

Peculiar Sights

Remember Peculiar Sights? I used to post peculiar sights as a regular feature on the blog, but somewhere along the way, I either stopped noticing or everything became normal. 

The photos from Mineral King were taken in late August and early September, obviously pre-fire; I have been waiting for awhile to gather enough peculiarities to put together a blog post.

  1. This little concrete building is the object of much speculation in Mineral King. One day someone is going to tell us what it was for and then we will know. It is up to the older generations to pass on their knowledge and up to the younger generations to keep track.

2. Yes, that is a cat. I was stunned. After I confessed to a possible Cat Disorder, the cat man graciously allowed me to take this photo. (A trailhead ranger turned them around – pets are not allowed in the National Parks on trails or in the backcountry).

3. This dog was just covering trail as if it had the right to be there. It wasn’t until I looked at my photo that I saw he was wearing socks. (Also turned back by the trailhead ranger).

4. Can you see the cat tail below the sparkly skirt? Is this peculiar, or is it the fact that this little bitty trooper walked 9.5 miles (and then wrestled with her brother and rode her bike when she got home)?

5. I don’t know what this is, which is what makes it peculiar. It is in Orange Cove, photographed in February of last year.

6. This is no longer a peculiar sight; turkeys run amuck daily in our yard (counted 36 on a march last week), but at the time, the scene struck me as something worth photographing.

7. This deer has an additional spike (look closely).

8. Excuse me??

And thus we conclude a look into some of the more strange scenes of my little world as a Central California artist.

More Peculiar Sights, here, here (9 years ago!),and  here (almost 10 years ago!!).

Peculiar and Annoying

My website/blog is being peculiar, and now I am being annoying by bothering you twice in the same day.

Several of my blog subscribers have let me know that the photos aren’t showing up. In addition, many spammers are slamming my email with unwanted solicitations through the contact button. Then, the “platform” that the site is built upon “migrated” everything to a new location in the stratosphere. (I have no idea what all this means). The cherry on top of this mess is that my web designer closed his business to take a regular job; an employee is taking over some of his clients (ME! PICK ME!!) but she is overwhelmed and thus somewhat nonresponsive at this time.

(I’m fine, just fine, thanks, why do you ask??)

If you are a subscriber, how about following the link in this email to the website. If it doesn’t show the photos on the blog post, go to this link and resubscribe: Jana’s Blog  

If you have trouble, please email me. I have disabled the contact form so IF my link above takes you to the correct version of my website, you will not have a form to fill out. (and neither will the Spanner Slammers). But since your Central California artist is trying to navigate this all by her lonesome, it may or may not solve the problem. As with everything, more will be revealed.

Thank you for reading through this annoying information about my peculiar website. You may resume your nap now.

P.S. Sometimes the titles of the blog posts don’t show; other times there are weird spots in the titles because the word “cabinart” is going over the top of the titles in white, which matches the background and further confuses the viewer. (I just work here. Sort of.)

 

Peculiar Sights

Strange and vaguely interesting although peculiar sights have crossed my path lately.  Before I show you these, there is some confusion about “site” versus “sight”. A site is a place; a sight is something to see. I saw these things, so they are sights, at various sites.

Hey Central California artist, will you just land that plane already?

Yeah, no. 

Have you noticed how many people use this absurd expression? Now that I have alerted you, you will hear that the airwaves are filthy with this strange verbal juxtaposition.

Are you going to show us or not??

Just having fun in February, my first favorite month.

Odd Sort of Job

My two favorite ways to spend time with friends are either taking a walk or working on a project. While in Mineral King, my friend had a project and allowed me to help. If it had been a job, I would have called it an “odd job” to be sure.

We used every tool at our disposal. She brought some up the hill, and we both had other supplies to dig into.

What in the world??

We spent about 3-4 hours working on a project that I would have NEVER chosen to do, but was happy to help. She had the ideas and did the prep; I had the skills. We worked together like a well-oiled machine, and these were our results.

I hope the attendees at the bridal shower are impressed. These are Pinterest and Instagram worthy, eh?

P.S. I almost NEVER go to bridal showers, never go to baby showers, and the idea of decorations and tabletop centerpieces does not enter my mind under 99% of my circumstances. Ever ever ever. But working with a friend is always rewarding, and no attendance at a shower was required.