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I’m currently in England working; however, on Saturday Derry planned a drive to give us a day off.  We went to Wales.

It’s not my first time in Wales, but Derry told me he was taking me to a place I haven’t yet visited.  So, during the ride, I did what I generally do – take pictures.  The roads are very curvy, the scenery very pretty.

He’s not to proud to check his maps.

Our destination:  Caernarfon — and, like almost all Welch towns, I have a hard time pronouncing the name.  He says its Ca-naarr-fun, which I’m putting here phonetically as otherwise I will forget it.  It’s a town inhabited since pre-Roman times.

We went to Caernarfon Castle, which is one of Wale’s most famous castles (I have visited Powis Castle during another trip, and it’s magnificent).  It was designed to be a military stronghold, and it’s also where the first English Prince of Wales was born.  For more on the history and to see photos far nicer than mine, visit this site.  Caernarfon Castle is .

I couldn’t resist.

In the Castle there may many narrow hallways with small windows overlooking in interior and exterior grounds.  I love one-point perspective, doorways, hallways, windows, textures  and such, so this was right up my alley.  I took nearly 400 images.  Hopefully some will make its way into my artwork.

I like stone steps, any steps.  So much art inspiration going on here.

In 1969, the Investiture of Prince Charles of Wales took place here.

Many winding staircases result in lovely views.

The Seiont River.

Walking around the area.

Some of the city wall.

It’s Labor Day weekend!  Another summer is quickly coming to a close.  Luckily the weather was absolutely glorious – blue skies, mid-80s, touch of breeze.  It’s also block party time. (Confession: There is a block party in our neighborhood which we have yet to attend because there’s always something else going on.)   My brother plays in The Stormy Weather Band,  and for the past couple years they’ve provided the entertainment for this party held in Colonia, NJ.

They get a pretty good crowd. There’s lots of food (way in back), a barbecue with burgers and hotdogs going, and they even get the ice cream truck coming around providing free ice cream to all of the kids.

Since it was warm and sunny, Pat – the singer – was roasting.  Although he tends to put everything into his performances, singing the manly-man screaming  tunes of Bruce, Skynard, Allman Brothers, Joe Cocker — even some Pink Floyd.  In other words, he’d be cooking anyway.

My sister, sister-in-law, husband, mom, nephew, and I were there with my star-brother Mike playing bass and standing in the center.

Yes, I’m totally bias.  The vast majority of my photos was of Mike.  Speaking of which, my 18-200 Nikon DX lens fell apart!  No kidding.  I was sitting, listening to music, and suddenly all of the front elements just hit the ground.  My chest did a quick cease as I looked at the pieces.  Luckily the glass elements didn’t shatter, but they might be scratched, and I (well, my sister, as I was in stunned disbelief) picked up with various rings and glass that poured out).  I did have my little Nikon point and shoot with me, but wow.  I’ll send everything off to Nikon to see if it can be repaired.  That was my absolute favorite lens of all time.  C’est la vie!

I want to get more personal artwork done.  Instead, I find myself bogged down in work.  Smothered.  For the most part, I enjoy my work.  Lately, however, I feel the pressure of not having enough time for my personal artwork.  Tick, tick; ultra-aware that it’s all ticking by.  I look at the calendar and am staggered that September is almost here.  When I was younger I was told that as you get older, time whizzes by.  I am older.  It is whizzing.  I cannot seem to stuff enough of what I want to do into the minutes I have.

While at the Festival of Quilts show, I marveled at all of the beautiful work I saw.  But I had a mixture of feelings going on: happiness — from meeting some people and reconnecting with others, inspiration from a lot of work I saw, pride from seeing my quilt on display at the SAQA exhibit and finding a vendor who was selling my book — right to a claustrophobic almost depression wave coming over me because I just cannot seem to produce the way I want to produce and I feel left out.  Left out?  I have a quilt in the show and a book being sold.  How on earth can I feel left out?  A want to smack myself!

And so goes that internal argument bouncing around inside my head.  I hear myself saying that I’m being silly and have my  priorites out of whack.  I remind myself to reflect on what I have accomplished instead of pressuring myself over what I haven’t.  Yet then I’m right back to feeling the pressure of not doing enough.  But what is enough?

I read that in some cultures many are happy because expectiations are very low. Then, anything accomplished is a source of joy, a bonus.  All in the community are collectively happy.  Sounds good in theroy.  Yet here I sit, feeling like I’ve missed the train of excitment and am instead wallowing in a stagnant mush of ho-hum.   Oh what I whinner!  Stop whinning, start working.  Stop working, relax.  Relax. Relax.  And get some sleep!  Oh … it’s after 3 a.m. Maybe the best thing is to get some sleep and delete this post in the morning. It is morning.  Sleep, and then get working.  And relaxing.  And stop the whinning.  And make something already.  Please.

The next moring …

I woke feeling better.  And I remembered my post about egg timers and getting it done, which you can read here.  :)

My business partner, Derry, lives in the beautiful town of Bewdley in Worcestershire County, UK.  It’s such a pretty town that it’s often referred to as “the perfect small Georgian town.”   Running through it is the River Severn.

As you can see, it makes for lovely areas for people to stroll, sit and have a drink, or just relax in silence or with good conversation.  When the weather is right, the area is incredibly serene.  I was drinking in the calm.

This is “Thomas Telford’s Bridge” built in 1798.

As the evening went on, quite a bit more people were gathered than what shows above.

Going over the bridge takes you onto this road called Load Street. Way in the back you can see St. Anne’s Church which is over 250 years old.  Apparently there are records of a church on the same site going back to the mid-1400s.

More view of streets in Bewdley.

Me next to the Bridge with Load Street behind me.

Wednesday evening, Derry and I flew to the UK. We were upgraded to first class, which was fantastic and a first for any flight I’ve had to the UK.

Funny enough, originally we were in the last row in the back of the plane.  No one was next to us, the seats went back with no one behind us, and we were close to the loo.  In other words, I was content.  But any time you’re able to get an upgrade during an international flight, take it.

There is a menu with four different main courses.  The wine flows (although I tend to only have water when flying), and the ice cream sunday dessert was yummy.  Above is breakfast.

In truth, the food doesn’t matter too much to me.  I like the extra space and the seats are heavenly.  There are buttons to recline, for a footrest, and indivdual screens for watching movies and such.  There is so much more room.  Look, my legs are outstretched and I’m not touching the seat in front of me!

You can recline and actually get some sleep.  (Good ‘ol iphone, like a spy camera — but I did pixelate their faces).  :)

We’re about to land, heading to Birmingham airport.

After a meeting on Monday, I went to a nearby park to look for more butterflies.  Being the weather was in the low 90s, and it was sunny, I suspected I’d find a few.  Unfortunately, I only had an hour to spend photographing them.  I love the zen-feel of watching them circle, land, take off, and circle again.  I’ve learned to watch their flight paths and can pretty much can tell where they will land next.  I also know that photographing them prior to 5 p.m. means they will be far more active, bouncing from flower to flower.  After 5 they tend to stay put longer.  Alas, I only had an hour prior to five and then needed to head back to work.  Even so, it was a lovely break.  Tomorrow I head to England for a week.  When I get back, I look forward to spending a couple afternoons photographing more.

It’s August, and I’ve only had a couple opportunities to look for butterflies to photograph.  Normally by this time of year I have hundreds of pictures (granted, not hundreds of good pictures).  This year I went out a couple times but didn’t find many.  Yesterday evening, I went out and found a couple.  I need to go to England this coming week, and I certainly won’t find any there.  But hopefully when I get home I can continue on.

Derry and I flew to Columbus for a business meeting, and what a lovely welcome we received!

And here we are, after a couple flights and delays, we made it!  Luckily, gone are the days when jeans were a no-no. It was a good meeting, and then we off to the airport.

On the runway, I couldn’t resist taking these images (I like one-point perspective).  Again, taken with an iPhone.  I believe this was at Columbus airport.  Putting them side by side in a horizontal format makes for an interesting look.  Solid design base for something …

My business partner and I have a meeting tomorrow in Ohio.  Prior to leaving for the airport, there was a thunderstorm, and on route it was pouring.  By the time we got to the airport (Philadelphia Airport has the weirdest parking garage system; I’ll take Newark/Liberty any day!), it started to clear.  However, the plane was some two hours late taking off, including the fun 45 minute wait on the runway.

Because the weather was crummy and gray, I kept my camera in my carry-on stowed in the overhead rather than having the camera in my handbag, which I generally do.  When the plane took off, it went through a thick layer of grayish clouds.  The heavens were flat and dull, and the ride was bumpy. Every once in the while I peaked out the window checking to see if there was any weather change. At one point  I saw some clearing, an opening with some blue.  My excitement started building.  The opening widened, and the clouds and light were growing with drama.  The angle of the light was suddenly premo – not much glare and no exaggeration of the many window scratches.   I reached for my iPhone and started taking pictures, like 100 of ’em.   That little camera managed to capture a small piece of the visual magic I experienced.

As we got closer to Detroit (we had a connecting flight from there), the  magical lighting with the fantastic cloud landscapes began changing.

Here we’re flying over Lake Erie.

Voila.  We landed in Detroit.  We raced from one gate to the other, and just made our connecting flight!  I’d say we had five minutes to spare.  Here’s the kicker: This time I grabbed my good camera from my carry on.  And, guess what? I forgot to put a flash card in the camera!  No kidding.  By then the dramatic lighting was gone anyway.

Long ago I use to participate in exciting 10 mile rollerblade skates in Philadelphia. That was before I had a couple back surgeries. Since that time, I’ve missed skating but there’s no way I’m risking a back injury.  Instead I do yoga and ride a recumbent stationary bike while reading.   Both are good for me,  I know, but neither are particularly exciting and lately I’ve been falling out of the habit.

This past Friday while at a meeting at The Parkinson Alliance, I noticed a pair of what I thought were rollerblades. Carol, the CEO, said they were Kangoo Jumps, a very cool hybrid of a rollerblade-type boot with a low impact, springy, jumpy thing (very technical) attached to the bottom of the boot.”How low impact?”  She said very.

Eventually I had to try them on.  First impression: Stilts. I immediately grew in height!  They felt strange.  Sort of springy, but controllable.  I felt a bit tentative, but I started to get a feel for it.

Next thing, I was doing a slow jog down the hallway.  However, it didn’t take may steps to realize you can absolutely fly in these things!

Aren’t they wild looking?

Carol said she and others from Team Parkinson (another organization under The Parkinson Alliance umbrella based in California) went jogging in them.  Terri said she has a pair and loves them.  We looked at their website.  Once home, I went through it more.  Here is the official Kangoo Jumps website.  I bought a pair.  I plan on using them in the house.  The website says you only need a couple meters of space to get a good workout.  Carol says we’ll jog in her neighborhood.  Good.  I use to rollerblade in my neighborhood and some 14 years later people still say, “Aren’t you the person who use to skate around the neighborhood?”  I don’t need people asking me years from now if I’m the one that went bouncing by!  :)

I am currently at Quilting By the Lake being held at Onondaga Community College in Onondaga NY.  I’m studying with Fran Skiles, a warm, sharing person with a relaxed, approachable style who made a point of stressing that she is not teaching a quiltmaking class, nor will we be making any quilts.  Instead, it is a painting, printing, and collage class.

Today was about creating six cotton duck fabric bases containing texture and line created with mock French seams, reverse applique, and crude embroidery — meaning large, quick stitches using heavy threads.  Thus far the palette is white and black.   Color will be introduced later.  We also seamed together paper photographs (black and white)  to create a collage that later in the week will be incorporated into the work.  I love using photographs in collage, do digital collage practically daily,  and have been wanting to incorporate more of such work into my textiles.  My latest work, Witley Decay 1 and 2, uses my photo imagery.  One of my hope is that the class experience pushes me further in that direction – if even by creating a new body of work entirely separate from “quilted” textiles.

Each day will have a new objective, with each building on the prior.  It’s a very intuitive, spontaneous work approach and, again, I’ve no idea what I’ll end up with.  My hope is to enjoy the process and artistically grow from the experience.

On the Apollo front, I found these two links which are fun: Apollo 11 Live TV Coverage – you can watch it as it aired 40 years ago.  This begs the question: Do you remember viewing it the first time around?  I have a recollection of a black/white TV and “spacemen.” The problem is that I no longer remember if it’s my memory from the first time around or seeing it replayed over the years.  The Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal by Eric M. Jones.  The site contains a wealth of links, a one-stop site for nearly all things Apollo 11-related.

Wow! On July 20th, it will be 40 years since the moon landing!   I saw a piece this evening on BBC America about Alan Bean and his artwork.  “Alan Bean became the fourth man to walk on the Moon during Apollo 12 in 1969. After 18 years as an astronaut, he resigned from NASA in 1981 to dedicate his life to the art of painting his memories of Apollo.” Tomorrow there is an exhibit opening at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum called “Alan Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist on Another World.”

NASA has a special 40th anniversary celebratory section on its site.

That’s me some three years ago when I was at the London Science Museum.  I’m standing next to the Apollo 10 command module used to fly around the moon in May 1969.  The module is much smaller than I imagined it would be, and the exterior looks more like worn-in leather than cold metal.   My partner, Derry, was also there.  Derry is not only planning to see the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, but wants to be around to see the 100th anniversary!  Who knows, it could happen.

The London Science Museum is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing by presenting  the premiere of a new live arrangement of Brian Eno’s 1983 album ‘Apollo’.  There’s more information about it here. The Big Picture has a collection of 40 awesome images.  July 16, 1969, marks the  launch of Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. “The entire trip lasted only 8 days, the time spent on the surface was less than one day, the entire time spent walking on the moon, a mere 2 1/2 hours … In the words of astronaut Buzz Aldrin: “In this one moment, the world came together in peace for all mankind.”

“This video excerpt from the documentary Alan Bean: Artist/Astronaut. features Alan Bean in his workshop describing his artistic process and reasons for leaving NASA to make his Apollo-inspired artwork.
Video courtesy of Jeffrey Roth Productions.”