For years I kept journals -- in composition, spiral bound, and French graph paper books. This blog is an attempt to get back to writing and documenting the world around me using photos, newspaper headlines, and other articles.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Back home

Back home.  Back to reality.  I was scheduled for overtime coverage yesterday.  I had the second time slot of 11:30 am to 5:30 pm.  On the one hand it was good to go in and see all the work from the previous week that was waiting for me.  Yet, it was a beautiful afternoon and I would have had more fun being in the garden.  At least I was able to plow through 1/2 of the back log of review boxes and get some audits done in between moving work from the 4th floor to the 1st.  I am better prepared for the week, having had those six hours.

In the garden department, my daffodils are still blooming.  My favorite, the white exterior and peach interior, opened up while I was away.  I know I planted more than one of those, but only one has flowered.





And I don't know what is up with the tulips this year.  I've got lots of big green leaves, but only one flower that is about to pop any day now.



I watered the quince and I hope that will encourage these clusters to open up.




I need to take out some of the dead sections of this plant.  I like how it has spread out from such a small original planting.




The rhubarb came back!



I need to start the tomato seeds that I ordered this week.  Since I can't put the plants in the ground for another four weeks, there is still time for me to get them started.  I need to buy a couple more bags of good soil.  Then I can plant a few kale seeds directly in the ground now.  And I should look at the spinach and find out it I need to start that in a starter flat or if it is hearty enough to go straight into the ground.

I've been unpacking from our few days away.  I unwrapped my mugs and silverware from Fishs Eddy, and my saucers from Kalustyans.  I love having kitchen souvenirs.



But today I need to focus on laundry and making dinner.  Tomorrow I can stop at Agway on my way back from the market and spend time outside before nap and work.  This is going to be a tough week.  I've got closing duties and we are open until 2:00 am.  I don't anticipate getting home much before 2:45 am.  Ugh.  At least I'm coming at this week feeling rested and energized.  I'm going to need every extra hour of sleep that I banked last week!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Final day of my real vacation

Selim and I slept in until 6:45 am today.  Around 7:15 or so we wandered downstairs and sat in the sun room.  We took pictures of Dante and orchids before sitting down to breakfast.  Nathan had gone out last night after we went to bed and bought Selim's favorite breakfast cereal.  How sweet is that?!  I think Selim really appreciated having a familiar breakfast and he ate two big bowls.







Afterwards we packed up our car and with Ann, headed up I-684 to Katonah.  There, we went to the Katonah Museum of Art to see the their exhibit Beyond the Bed: The American Quilt Evolution.  We pulled in to the parking lot just as Heather, Mom, and Joshua were getting out of Heather's car.  Perfect timing!  The museum is just the right size for two small boys and not a lot of time to browse - two rooms of quilts and one big room for kid-friendly activities.



The quilts were amazing.  There was a crazy quilt that was flat on a table with a protective glass over it.  That was nice because it had so many small pieces that we pointed out to each other, and having the glass made it possible to  really show what you were looking at.  The first room we entered had the more traditional block style quilts.  Detailed.  Tiny stitches.  Most were made with the intention of being used to keep warm.  Much more time consuming and intricate than the types of quilts that I make, but in the same vein of the the quilting I have done.  Inspiring.

The second room had more contemporary quilts.  Pictorial.  3-dimensional.  Vivid.  Story-telling.  Fanciful. Scenic.  Not made for a bed.  Artistic medium, not for practical use.  Out of the box thinking.  Meant to be seen in a vertical way.  Also inspiring, but in a different way.  I wish I had pictures.

I loved the room that had the kids activities.  On the tables were trays of markers, colored pencils, scissors, and glue sticks.  Then there were the tubs of fabric scraps, cut strips of paper and cut out paper triangles.  They had six different quilt type of activities that kids could work on: crazy quilt, geometric, star, The Quilt Book Cover, log cabin, and story quilt.  Selim started with the geometric square in marker and colored pencil.  When Heather came and sat down, they worked on their own crazy quilt square.  This is Heather's.



And here are Selim's efforts.



The templates are such a good idea!  Joshua tacked his geometric print on the bulletin board where other kids had left theirs.  In the room was a big bulletin board type space covered with felt and tubs of fabric below where kids could make patterns that would stick to the board.  Selim and Joshua worked together on that activity.




Both Joshua and Selim have grown up in houses where home / hand made quilts are on all the beds. That is the norm.  I think that is one of the reasons why they were so comfortable in the kids room making quilt squares is because it is not a foreign concept to them.

The last room on the ground floor was the Quilt Lab.  I went in when Heather was with the boys making crafts.  On one wall was a series of templates for Log Cabin and other traditional quilt blocks.  They may have had a class recently because there were a bunch of fabric squares pinned up together.  On the back wall was a collection of collages with paper and fabric.  They reminded me of paintings by Romare Bearden.  I could have sat down and really studied those for a long while.  I love mixed medium collage work.  I wish I had that vision and the ability to execute with skill.  I am in awe of that talent.  The people had said no photos in the two gallery rooms, but I didn't hear anything about the lab.  And I did ask one of the women and she waffled, but then said it was OK.  So I took advantage and took a few pictures before she changed her mind.






Outside was an installation of ladders.  I didn't read the literature on them, but I did enjoy looking at them.  I appreciated the whimsical aspect of an impractical looking ladder.






We had planned on staying an hour, but we extended our time by a 1/2 hour or so.  We left at 11:30, sorry to say goodbye to everybody.  I'm grateful for all the time we have been able to spend with Heather, Joshua, and Stan.  I'm so aware of the preciousness of being within driving distance and for our boys to get to know each other.  These days are so important for us to keep connected as a family.  I'm thankful that Stan's work has brought them to the east coast, for as long as it lasts.




As I was looking through my pictures this evening, I realized that the night scenes from the hotel are really reminiscent of quilts.  If I had the aptitude for applique and working with tiny pieces, I might consider trying to make a small quilt about our view.  It would be a special remembrance, of a spectacular vacation, for sure.


Real vacation: day 3 a day late

All the walking on Thursday caught up with me on Friday and I was too tired at the end of the day to write.  I managed to get Selim in the shower and into his p.j.'s before falling into bed.  I may have fallen asleep before the end of the bedtime song.

But what a great day we had!  In the morning, we checked out of the hotel, even though Selim wanted to stay and stay.  




Luggage trailed behind us as we walked the few blocks to Grand Central Station.  I made us stop one more time for a few more pictures on the steps of the NY Public Library. 




I just had to laugh as we walked along 42nd Street and Selim kept asking me if I knew where I was going.  "Have I gotten lost yet this trip?" I asked him.

     "No."
     "Have I ever gotten us so lost that you were scared...before this trip?"
     "No."
     "Then please have a little faith in my ability to get us where we want to go."
     "OK.  But are you sure you know where you are going?  I don't really think you do."

We went back to GCS because Selim had seen a cool gift shop that he wanted to revisit.  I told him the night before that he deserved a little extra something have walked over 6 miles.  But we walked around and didn't spot the shop he remembered.  I was willing to explore the shops some more, but after ten minutes or so, he said we should just get our bus and go up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to meet the rest of the family.  At least I got another chance to take a few more pictures of the awesome lighting inside.  






The buses going uptown are found on Madison, just two blocks away.  We hopped on the M4 and headed up Madison Ave.  Around 50th Street, we talked back and forth about getting off and going to see the Balto statue in Central Park.  That was on our original list of things to do, after Selim had spent a social studies unit studying the Iditarod in school.  We got off at 69th Street and walked over to Central Park.  The statue was a few blocks south and we found it no problem.





After taking some pictures we exited the park on 66th and walked back to Madison and got on the M2 bus and rode it up to 82nd Street.  Just as we were walking between Madison and 5th, Heather called saying that the ladies car was at the Museum.  We hurried to the street corner and met the car Ann drove.  Grateful to stow our luggage in the trunk, we waited for the boy's car.  Soon enough, Dan pulled up and we said goodbye to Selim as he joined Dan, Stan, Robert, and Joshua for a manly manly outing.




It was a bit strange handing off Selim to others, as we had not been separated since Wednesday morning.  At the same time, it was nice to be with the ladies, Mom, Heather, Ann, Jen, and Hannah -- seeing an exhibit entitled Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity.  



Since it was a new exhibit and the catalog for sale was $40, you could not take pictures within the show.  There were a few postcards in the gift shop, but not too many of my favorite dresses or paintings.  I really liked the paintings in the last room of the show, by Jean Beraud, A Ball, and Sunday at the Church of Sainte-Phillipe (they are on the back wall, on either side of the Gustave Caillebotte's, Paris Street, Rainy Day).  And of course, they are too small to see in this picture and they are not included in the highlight's on the web page.  I liked the smaller brush strokes and the fine detail.  There was something intimate about them that I responded to.  The other painting I liked was on the wall behind, A Windy Day at the Pont des Arles by James Tissot, I think and also not in this picture.


Somehow I managed to get separated from our group as we meandered through the rooms.  I walked through it faster than everybody else.  After I finished, I hooked up with Mom and Heather and strolled with them as they went through the last rooms.  My two favorite dresses were in different rooms.  I really liked the white dress with the roses in the picture above.  The waist is tiny, but it doesn't appear to be as abnormally cinched as some of the others.

The other dress was in both painting and in fabric.  In the painting, In the Conservatory by Albert Bartholome, the woman is wearing this great purple and white polka dot dress with fringe.  I just loved it.  The dress was in a case right by the painting.  So cool to see the painting and the real life dress at the same time.



Looking at the dresses, it is hard to imagine women being that tiny.  Included in the show were gloves and shoes.  Oh my goodness, it was like looking at doll accessories.  The dresses were intricate and lovely, but not calling out my name saying, "wear me, wear me!"  I wouldn't be able to catch my breath all tied up tight like that. 

After that exhibit, we stayed with the Impressionists, but moved to the landscapes to get out of the intimate and into the vast.  I had favorites there as well.  They were the usual suspects: flowers by Van Gogh,




interiors by Pierre Bonard,




"Scrumptious" Vuillard, said Mom,



the joy of Matisse,



And a softer style of Edvard Munch.



From that wing, we made our way down to the cafeteria for lunch and a much needed rest.  For some reason, I was having shooting pain in my ear, similar to last summer when I was in London.  At times I felt off balance and my shoulders were tired from wincing when the pain got worse.  I took a couple of aspirin with lunch and I think that helped.  Fortified, we went back up to the second floor and into the Islamic Wing.  On November 1, 2011 it reopened after an eight-year renovation.  Someone in our group called it "eye candy" and that is not a misnomer.  Stunning is what comes to my mind.

The area is set up so that you move through time in relatively chronological order and at the same time, by region.  The first pieces that caught my eye were incense burners, shaped as animals.  There was a big cat-like figure, and three birds.  The birds are from Iran, the 12-13th Centuries.




The rooms where I lingered longest were devoted to the Ottoman Empire / Turkish metals, rugs, and tile.  Are you kidding me, so gorgeous!  My photos do not do the rugs justice at all.




The nautical motifs on the ceramics reminded me of my hubby.


  

As I stopped at gazed, I was reminded of the time that we went to the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul.  I was so enthralled by the tile on the walls that I wasn't paying my full attention to the jewels and gold in the display cases.  Nedim tried to show me all the gold, but I kept showing him the tiles that made up the rooms.  He got exasperated with me.  Our conversations went something like this:

     "Look at this gold!  Isn't it amazing."
     "Look at the tile!  It is so beautiful."
     "No, the gold in the case.  You are missing the point."
     "But the tiles!" me, looking everywhere but inside the cases.

I must have been an Ottoman Empire tile worker in one of my past lives.  At the end of that gallery was a prayer room reconstructed from one in Damascus, Syria.  I wish I had a room like that in my house.  As I was looking and taking pictures, I sent a prayer to modern day Syria.  I hope that all the bombs and fighting don't destroy all the physical treasures that the country holds.  Obviously, I'm not meaning to minimize the human suffering at all.  The devastation of war is such a tragedy.




In the India / Pakistan / Bangladesh area was a jeweled Ram's head dagger.  Just what my little boy would love -- a combo of weapon and jewels.  What could be better?




Realizing that the afternoon was getting on and if we wanted to get out of the city at a reasonable time, we left finishing that exhibit.  We said goodbye to Jen and Hannah and got out of Manhattan before the real rush / crush of rush hour began.

We finished up our day with a sweet meal at Heather and Stan's.  The boys had enjoyed their trip to the American Museum of Natural History.  They saw the whale and butterfly exhibits and they revisited the big dinosaur skeleton. There were nine of us and then Nathan joined us just after 7:30.  After dinner, Selim and I followed Ann and Dan over to their house and spent the night.  We slept in Rebecca's room, surrounded by soccer photos and posters.  So sweet to see the one of Rebecca and Selim a few years ago, taken after the game in Boston.

It was a jam-packed, uber sweet day.  If we had still been in the hotel room, this would have been our view.