Beneath the Wraps

           I’ve seen many landscapes in different view                    from my friends houses                    Medford pear orchard and during drives beyond city limits and touring the coast or McMinnville              I have missed some views such as the solar eclipse two years ago               but the skies were filled with smoke from the fires that had burned that year           I have missed seeing stars due to the heavy clouds and rain though my view of the sky has been spectacular this year Fog can be eerie – not much of a view when it envelops us     I’ve seen both nature and manmade...

      Jenna and I first met Chris just over a year and a half ago.   We met him at Millsite Park.   Jenna and I had been walking around and Chris was looking for the perfect stick as he had a request for making a cane similar to his (see this post)       I thought that would be nice to have a custom-made cane for myself, and thought I would start collecting words that might describe me and ask him how much he charged.   Chris said he walked in Millsite all of the time.   That was the only time that I saw him.   I don't even know his last name.         When Roland was playing Friar Tuck in Hi, Ho, Robin Hood , he had stripped one of our wild junipers to make a walking stick for the character.   I decided that when he was through with it, I would adjust it to my own needs.   I would strip the wood, sand the stick and start a decoupage.   I decided to use...

                My appreciation for art is so-so.   There are certain paintings that appeal to me for various reasons - and perhaps on a subconscious level, it is the lighting and balance and whatever other techniques are used by the artist.   Usually, it is the subject of the painting.   That is what I am focused on, not the colors, tones, hues or layers for example.   All the detail that is put into a professional painting seems overwhelming to me and actually seems to detract from the beauty that I had seen there initially.             In college, I once took an art appreciation class - just to force myself to understand and hopefully appreciate it more.   It backfired. I was so put out by the symbolic gestures and the history, it's a wonder I didn't drop the class.   I would struggle with these foreign concepts and tri...

                        Roland has two daughters, age 22 and 20.   When they were younger, Frances liked to draw and paint - mostly paint, but she learned a variety of artistic methods.   Pamprin was very theatrical.   She enjoyed singing and performing.   Both were skilled at what they enjoyed.             Their biological mother had enrolled each in various classes according to their interests. Pamprin had performed in the Salt Lake   children's choir.   Her mother also drove her to several auditions for commercials. Frances had entered several of her paintings into contests.   One she had painted of Adam and Eve.   It hung on our wall for a few weeks before she took it down to enter in another contest.   We never saw it again.     ...

            I actually received quite a few compliments on how well Super Saturday went and how many enjoyed themselves.   That’s nice.   But I really can’t take credit for any of it – except perhaps the date change.               I thought the first activity I was in charge of had a better turn out – but maybe it was the same.   I didn’t interact the way I had with the first.               We had four stations – two tables with fabric and sewing machines; two tables that held blocks and paint; my station was a single table which held journals, journaling ideas and hand-outs; was it two or three tables spread out for the popcorn ball demonstration?             The older sisters watched as Sharon demonstrated how she makes...

Jenna has so many interests.   She enjoys dancing, singing, telling stories, arts & crafts, drawing pictures, coloring . . . Butterfly on a sunflower my Mothers’ Day gift this year          When I was younger, my mom had me enrolled in dance lessons, piano lessons, swim lessons . . . I wanted that for Jenna.   But we could never seem to afford much.          I did find an inexpensive dance class and tumbling class through the school district.   She saw it as an opportunity to socialize and didn’t take her dance seriously but did enjoy the tumbling part.            I had her in an inferior swim class.   She learned more about swimming when she was only a year old and the two of us took a class together.   I had also enrolled her in a theatre class as I figured there was dancing and si...

We had scheduled a dentist appointment for Jenna on Friday afternoon.    Fortunately I had contacted the school the day before.    Jenna noticed the bus go by and I took my cell phone out to see what time it was.    It went off in my hands.   That was weird. I saw that it was the school calling.    I was told that Jenna’s class would be going on a filed trip and wouldn’t be back at designated time and that I might as well keep her home.    When I repeated the words “field trip” into the phone, Jenna started crying.   She wanted to go. I called the dentist to reschedule and Jenna and I got on the next bus and she went to her field trip and not to the dentist. She explained a little bit about her day – not with great detail as she does sometimes.    There was a piece on the news about “Dreamathon” – where she had gone on her field trip....

          I’m not good at taking notes at conferences or Spiritual meetings.   I get so caught up in trying to get the exact quote or comment or whatever that I end up missing on so much more. Last night there was a Relief Society stake activity called “Women of Righteousness” featuring artist Megan Rieker.   I didn’t think the event well advertised   - at least in our ward.   I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Turned out to be a truly eventful night.   And I learned things – not just about the artist paintings but discoveries within the past as well as my own self. I’d taken an art appreciation class several years ago in order to appreciate fine art more than I do.   It backfired.   I often rolled my eyes when learning about contrast and balance and was more unappreciative about the entire fine art world long before the class was over. I started looking at paintings and wore less-than-flatteri...