Saturday, April 27, 2013

On the Road Again

 
 
 
Road trip !  California Daughter is moving from LA to Austin and she's asked me to drive out to Austin with her.  Lucky me!!  We're excited to explore the Southwest and have another mother-daughter adventure. 
 
This will be our second big road trip.  In 2007 we drove 3,120 miles (well, she drove and I sat in the passenger seat ) from her apartment in Boston to UCal Davis where she was about to start law school.  We had lots of fun exploring, talking, laughing, and  passing the time listening to A Confederacy of Dunces- "O, Fortuna, you desperate wanton".  So glad I apparently behaved well enough to get invited on a second trip!
 
Here are a couple of pages from an altered board book of our trip:
 

 
 
California Daughter's house is pretty empty since all her furniture is already on its way to Texas  (well, except for just enough stuff so her husband doesn't have to sit and sleep on the floor until he joins her in Austin), so we'll be heading east shortly after I get to LA.  Last time we went out in a baby Penske truck that California Daughter drove like a pro.  This time we'll be hitting the road in her Volvo- not so much of a challenge!
 
We're going  to see the Grand Canyon and The Painted Desert.  Check out where we'll be staying - El Tovar on the South rim of the canyon.   California Daughter is 6+ months pregnant, so no donkey rides down into the canyon this time!
 
 
And yes, we'll be getting some kicks here:
 
 
 

Plus I'll get to see her new house in Austin:
 
 
Stay tuned for scenes from the road!


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Boston Strong

 
 

 
 
We love Boston.  We love being less than an hour away from this great city. We spent  Sunday there celebrating our Boston daughter's birthday.
 
 
 
 
She called Monday afternoon from Boylston Street where she was watching the runners: "Mom, something bad just happened here at the marathon.  I'm OK, but it's bad".   Frantic searching for news led me to horrific images ; I wish I could unsee the picture of a blood-stained Boylston Street.
 
I am so very grateful that our daughter is safe and whole.  I cannot image the sadness and pain of the many families who were not so fortunate. 
 
It is too easy to begin to wonder about humanity and how much evil it takes to do such a cowardly deed.   It's too easy to think that the world is full of bad people.  Then I saw this on Facebook and took a deep breath:
 
 
 
 
Thank you, Mister Rogers, for still helping us be better people.  Now when I watch the news I focus on the helpers, the good people rushing in to help.  There are more of them than of those who would kill innocent people. We see what we're looking for, and I want to look for  goodness and hope.  There was plenty of that to be seen yesterday in Boston.
 
We were talking about the tragedy at work and someone mentioned the Newton shootings and named the killer.  A young woman with a degree in criminal justice stopped the conversation cold:  "Don't ever say his name.  Never give status to the bad guy.  Remember the victims, say their names, but never say the name of their killer.  Don't memorialize them by remembering their name".   More good advice.
 
And thank you Yankees for singing Sweet Caroline today. 
 




Monday, April 15, 2013

Playing with Gelli



It's been a while since I played with my Gelli plate.  I've been seeing the fantastic things people are doing with their Gelli plates and decided to give mine a go again.

I used way too much paint on my first attempts, so this time started with just a few drops.  Turns out my brayer had some dried lumps of paint on it, so I got some weird, inadvertent texture. I've since cleaned it off- every thing is a learning experience!

 

I found these cool foam stencils for $3.99 in the kids' section at Joanne's. Not sure what they are for, but they are perfect for Gelli printing!  Roll on the paint, lay down the stencil and pull it off, then lay down the paper to make the print.

I made a few prints on dictionary pages:

 
 
 
 
 
 
I've managed to muck up the right page of the last 2 journal pages!  This one was a doozy.  I wrote the quote directly onto the page - too black, too dark, writing looked weird.  I tried covering it with tissue paper and paint; now we've gone from bad to seriously worse.  Then used the stand-by rescue technique - covered the whole mess with gesso and pressed some big bubble wrap into it to mirror the circles on the other page. 
 

 
 
This time I wrote the words with water-color pencils and swiped a wet paint brush over it for a little color.
 
I want to spend lots more time with my Gelli plate! 



Thursday, April 11, 2013

DInner, Fresh Off the Boat!



We finally made it to the scallop boat at Rye Harbor.  The boat comes into the harbor to sell fresh-caught scallops .   There were several cars of people waiting with us - I thought maybe we'dd be the only ones there, but everyone else was a regular.  Why didn't we know about this sooner??   Here is the Rimrack, motoring into the harbor around seven o'clock this evening.

 
F/V Rimrack is a family-operated business, run by Padi and Mike Anderson. Their motto"  "Know your fisherman; know your fish".   Mike fishes off the Isles of Shoals to bring fresh scallops to locals and several area restaurants.  He makes daily trips out and back, so these are some seriously fresh scallops.  Bigger boats that stay out for days have to either freeze scallops or soak them in this ominous-sounding chemical - sodium tripolyphosphate (TSP).  Rimrack's are "dry" scallops; scallops soaked in nasty chemicals are "wet" - bloated with extra water that makes them hard to sear.
 
Scallop fishing is not for sissies.  Mike told me he went out at two in the morning - that's a seventeen hour day - and it was cold and blustery.  I was freezing just standing on the dock!
 
Last month, Mike pulled up a wolly mammoth tooth with the scallops:
 

 
 
Mike and Padi weighing and packing up scallops.  This is a low-budget operation - scale set up on the tailgate, plastic bags for transporting scallops, cash-only please and thank-you. They keep up a running commentary about the scallops and have an amazing amount of energy after a very long day on the water.
 
 
The Captain paying for our scallops.
 

Aren't theses some beauteous scallops?   We bought five pounds - two bags went into the freezer like Padi directed - add a bit of milk to the bag, press out all the air and freeze flat.  Apparently the milk gets into all the little air spaces so there isn't any freezer burn.  We also have some in the fridge -glass bowl with theses big beauties covered with a damp towel.  Mike is big on wanting his scallops to "breathe".
 
Thursday is The Captain's night to cook and tonight was his best -in-show!!
 
 
Notice the colorful sprinkles on the carrots?  We brought this back from Scotland - flowers, herbs and seeds.  It's  tasty and decorative .
 


 
Local seafood with a dash of the Highlands - a great dinner and a fun way to shop for seafood.  Also something to be thankful for - I don't have to spend hours fishing in the cold and dark.  Support local fishermen - they work really hard!
 

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