It’s Still Spring and Still Beautiful

If you aren’t quarantined or under voluntary house arrest, I recommend taking a walk. You might have to be confined to your own neighborhood, but it is Spring, and much is in bloom.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy, without unnecessary chatter.

shooting star
Caterpillar phacelia (THANK YOU, LEAH!)

not bush lupine
California poppies

little bitty lupine
baby blue eyes
bush lupine
redbud
redmaid
bird’s eye gilia

Who knows?
owl’s clover

A friend sent me this:

One final thought to cheer you up: As soon as The Thing appeared in our lives, all robo-calls disappeared! Is there a correlation? Don’t know, just thankful and relieved.

Mooney Grove Tour II

More photos of Mooney Grove Park, where I took a walk each day after I finished working on the murals on the Tulare County Museum.

Speaking of the museum, let’s focus on that treasure today. I’ve included pictures of the Pioneer Village behind the museum (entered through the museum) and 3 photos inside the museum.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at a bridge, not my favorite bridge (Oak Grove), but a simpler bridge in a true oak grove. 

8 Benefits to “Sheltering in Place” or Chin up, Readers

“Chin up” is a weird little saying, but it reminds me of my Very Wise Dad telling his “little ewe lambs” to be “brave little soldiers”. 

Please forgive me for interrupting you on Sunday. I hope to not do this again, but will if I think of something encouraging to share again.

There is lots of common sense to staying home, obsessive hand-washing, and “social distancing” for awhile. Here are eight potential benefits (besides the obvious one of slowing this Thing):

  1. Fewer colds and flu will be passed around.
  2. Time at home is always good.
  3. You will use less gas and not put many miles on your car.
  4. We will learn what everyone’s true hair color is.
  5. We are all thinking a bit more about people we care about and checking in with them more often. (Maybe not “all”, but more than normal.)
  6. We are getting the chance to be more resourceful and creative with our time and supplies. 
  7. We get to learn new technology in order to “attend” our regular meetings. 
  8. Take a walk, people, this is MARCH!! (I know, not everyone gets to live in Three Rivers, but Spring is beautiful everywhere.)

P.S. We bought ice cream.

Bonus and Random

Hi on a Saturday, Blog Readers. I’m wondering if you are stuck at home, or “sheltering at home” or “self isolating”, or “in quarantine” or “sequestered”. If so, maybe you need something fun to read today.

I’m having a few thoughts about the current state of events.

  1. Dave Ramsey said, “The fear is more contagious than the virus”.
  2. If you are bored staying home, watch the stock market – it’s pretty exciting.
  3. No bread in stores? I guess the virus is causing people to forget to worry about gluten.
  4. Such weird hoarding. In response to that, here are funny pictures that two separate friends sent to me. I don’t know the origins so cannot credit anyone.

And, just because this is a beautiful time of year AND WE GOT RAIN AND SNOW, here is another photo for you. (Excuse me for shouting – precipitation is very exciting!)

My final thought is a question to ask when something unpleasant takes place in life: What does this make possible?

I’d love to hear your answers.

Mooney Grove Tour I

This is a virtual tour. Enjoy it from the comfort of your easy chair. No viruses to be spread this way.

Mooney Grove Park is 100 acres of about 50 types of trees. The Valley Oaks (quercus lobata) make up about half of the tree population. The land was sold to Tulare County in 1909, with the agreement that only dead or dying Valley Oaks could be removed. Meanwhile, many new trees have been planted, a few of which I recognized, some that I learned about, some that surprised me, and all of which contributed to the specialness of this interesting and beautiful place.

It helped that I was working there during March, my second most favorite month. The grounds were green and many trees were in bloom.

Stop talking, Central Calif. artist, because we want to see some photos.

Okay. Photos. No more talk. Just pictures of a beautiful park in spring.

Any questions? To be continued Monday.

7 Things I Learned in February

  1. A Life Less Throwaway by Tara Button is a good book which encourages the reader to own less with lots of how-to tips. The main idea is that if we own high quality lasting goods, we go through less items, waste less, and have simpler lives. (The author probably cares more about the planet than our individual improvement, but it is good anyway.) I’ve thought this way for years, which is why I am still carrying the Coach purse that I bought in the mid 1990s. Tara Button wasn’t born yet. 
  2. Oval pre-stretched canvas is available, but I cannot show you the project until April because of the top secret nature of the job. Just another odd job, full of its own special challenges.
  3. It takes 6 weeks of exercising to actually build muscle; if an exercise gets easier before the 6 weeks, it is simply muscle memory. I learned this from Vance Physical Therapy, a place in Exeter with a terrific physical therapist named Josh Vance. 
  4. Did you know that old fire hoses make durable and beautiful purses and tote bags? I learned this in the book I read and was so curious that I looked them up. Elvis and Kresse Reclaimed fire hose (I’m not in the market – my purse from the last century is still just fine, thanks.)
  5.  Second date update podcast – Listening to this podcast is similar to wanting to gawk at wrecks along the road. It is horrifying and fascinating and will make you both shudder and laugh. Most of the troubles could be avoided by simply not drinking. . . are these people stupid? The rest of the troubles could be avoided by telling the truth. 
  6. Coffee beans cost less at Trader Joe’s than at Winco. TJ’s is .37/ounce; Winco is .43/oz. Too bad there are no TJ’s in Tulare County. No amount of petitioning can convince them that we are a good location.
  7. Acorn woodpeckers are what we have around here. I didn’t know their specific name until I painted one in the mural completed in February at St. Anthony’s Retreat in Three Rivers.

Random List

  1. Customer approved of this beginning arrangement on a commissioned oil painting.
  2. Thought I’d begin a new mural this week but life brought an annoying interruption and interfered with my plans.
  3. Someone bought this painting last fall and just finished making payments; she’ll claim it as her own this week. 
  4. The Queen Mary is beautiful. I’ll show you photos tomorrow.

Until tomorrow, . . .

8 Things Learned in January

As January flew by, I compiled another list of new-to-me facts, information, and experiences to share with you. Treasures, perhaps?

  1. People with barking dogs don’t care that their dogs disrupt the peace of any outdoor activity for the neighbors. They just don’t care.
  2. Eleven sets of variety pack notecards produced by me since the late 1980s? That was a lot of notes getting written to people. Maybe being in the Esses means one reminisces more about bygone days. (Two more posts about this to come next week.)
  3. I took a three mile walk along the length of Main St. in Visalia, beginning in the somewhat industrial east end, awed by the variety of downtown (Did you know there is a little store that sells nothing but succulents?? Neither did I.), admiring the old homes that are now lawyer and dentist offices, reminiscing a tiny bit as I passed my high school, on to the Courthouse area, through the office compounds, and past many beautiful Valley Oak trees. Walking is such a great way to really appreciate a town.
  4. Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City by Robin Nagle was a weirdly intriguing book. Two main facts stuck with me: 1. Sanitation work is the most dangerous job in New York and 2. New York doesn’t use trash cans –instead, people toss bags of garbage on the sidewalks!
  5. In a few more generations, the terms “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” won’t mean anything. That’s even worse than not understanding what it means to “dial” a phone or “roll up” a window in a car.
  6. Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper is another weirdly intriguing book (not finished yet) with a disturbing fact: dictionaries are descriptive rather than prescriptive. What this means is that they follow the trends of language rather than establishing it, so if a word is used enough in the wrong way, it becomes part of the dictionary. (I’m afraid to look up “irregardless” in case it has become a real word).
  7. Our national parks need employees.  The parks are more popular than ever, but some are so short-staffed in the HR departments that they can’t process applications to fill vacancies. What is causing this??
  8. Death Valley is weirdly wonderful. I wouldn’t go there if it wasn’t for a dear friend who is a terrific hostess and personal tour guide. Here are a few fun facts about DEVA: over 1000 miles of roads with only about 25% paved, maybe as many as 100 abandoned cabins, water all over the place in hidden canyons, and there are so many old mines that I couldn’t find the number. They were for boron, gold, lead, silver, zinc, clays, talc-soapstone, copper, tungsten, fluorine, pumice, zeolites, iron, manganese, uranium, thorium, antimony, sand and gravel. Probably more things too. But who could stand to be there in a place where temperatures can hit 130°??

 

And thus we conclude another month and another list of random items of interest to this Central California artist. I hope you also find this collection of odd facts fun and intriguing.