Good Grief! It's Raining Eggs!

HOW could I allow you to worry all this time about my electronic devices, my dear blog!?
I found everything - phone and camera - shortly after posting the picture of Sir Laurence and was actually going to immortalize him as a saint through some nifty Photoshop work ... but then that plan fell by the wayside. The universe did look out for me once more.
I had better post something tonight, however, because I have a meeting tomorrow night and may not have the time.
-The picture of eggs is from a magnificent collection at the Pioneer Museum in Tillamook, Oregon. Go if you ever have the chance.-
Today I listened to a voice mail from Barb in Michigan, one of my dearest, dearest friends and she said she reads this blog (oh, isn't she the dearest?) and she said it sounds as though I'm leading an interesting life.
I had to laugh since I have been feeling quite recently (yesterday) that my life is depressing and meaningless. I have been (still) reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi and in the book she quotes from Henry James' "The Ambassadors" as Lambert Strether, the hero of the novel, tells a young painter, little Bilham, whom he has unofficially appointed as his spiritual heir: "Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what *have* you had? I'm too old -- too old at any rate for what I see. What one loses one loses; make no mistake about that. Still, we have the illusion of freedom; therefore don't, like me to-day, be without the memory of that illusion. I was either, at the right time, too stupid or too intelligent to have it, and now I'm a case of reaction against the mistake. For it *was* a mistake. Live, live!"
And, yes, there were times when I was too stupid or too intelligent to take a different path than the one I'm on right now, and there certainly are some regrets. All the time I've wasted for instance. Some would say I'm doing that again right now, but not me.
The Mister and I spent Tuesday, Sept. 21, celebrating our 14th anniversary in Oceanside, Oregon. We walked through the tunnel carved into Maxwell Point and came out on the other side to dig through rocks to find another heart-shaped one for our collection. Lots of great finds and it was a beautiful day on the coast.
This Friday I am joining a friend to hit the Art Harvest Tour in Yamhill County. That area of Oregon looks a lot like Tuscany, only the hills are farther away from each other and the lanes are much longer and dustier with no impromptu boccie ball in the fields. And on Saturday the same friend and I are taking a travel writing workshop. This is our second one together and soon we will have to do some traveling for research on an article to $$ sell $$! Then we can take more trips.
And I've saved the best for last: On Oct. 10 I am taking Katie Kendrick's Art & Soul class in Portland, "Every Face Tells a Story." If I don't have actual artwork to show you after that I don't know what my excuse will be. Check out her blog if you want to see some of the wonderful work she's produced. So now I guess I'm not living a meaningless life. It's a self-directed life toward more art and travel - femminismo
p.s. The sunset picture, with fishing boat and gull on pole, was taken after dinner at the coast on Sept. 21, 2010, in Tillamook.

Self-Portrait Wednesday.

WOE is me. Something is wrong with the card slot on my USB port. Time to make a call to my own personal geek squad. (Peter!) I need to download photos!
How about if I post something I've meant to show you and then I finish watching "Dark Passage" with Bogart and his Betty?
Today was a day of manipulating files on the computer and figuring out tab settings. Haven't done that in a while and it was sort of fun. (I know; I'm an odd one.) Beautiful day today. I saw ducks in a field on the way to work and a swallow sailing through the sky. I saw a huge plane flying over our town. I saw a sign at a corn stand that said, "That's all folks! Thanks for your business."
I heard an ambulance and a train. I picked green beans and cooked them for dinner. I got an e-mail from a woman who thanked me for "being so kind." Touched my heart.
(Picture of me in Montana and leaves in Montana - September.)
I thought about home today: the smells of dinner cooking as I walked up the hill toward our house from the bus stop. I can hear the radio now and my dad laughing and asking if there were any "threatening letters" in the mail today. I never asked him - I don't think I did - who they might be from. The old percolator coffee pot on the stove. Hot coffee, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I always thought that and milk were the only beverages people drank with meals. "Dish rags," not dish cloths. Wash rags, not wash cloths. I remember washing my hair in an enamel pan sitting on an upturned apple box in our bathtub. Once my sister and I caught buckets of rain water to wash our hair. It turned out so soft!
Two photos from the Art Harvest Studio Tour this past weekend. This is Elizabeth Santone near Carlton. She made felted scarves (I bought a really pretty one called "Lavender Night" and she also made other items - potholders, rugs and hats - and did amazing watercolors. I had never seen anyone "felt" before. Now you have too - femminismo

Art Girl Heads For the Country.

IT TURNED out to be a nice day on Saturday for a drive in the countryside of Yamhill County. Last year was such a perfect trip on the Art Harvest Tour that I duplicated it almost exactly this year.
First off I went to visit Linda and Jim Hayes in Pike. (Check the Art Harvest link above to see them, under "artists.") The jewelry this couple makes is just breathtaking, and of course I was wearing my Jim Hayes earrings and my Linda Hayes bracelet while I viewed their new work. This year I had to settle on taking pictures of Jim's flowers - abutilon - which were delightful and I had some of Linda's special bread she served her Art Harvest Tour visitors. Yum! Visiting their little studio/house/shed with the warm wood stove is always a treat.
Next I headed for Sheridan, where Kim Hamblin and Landry Deese share a studio. Kim is up to wonderful new works of paper. Check her out on the Art Harvest Web site also. She is a hard worker, that girl, and is so beautiful.
A walking tour out the back door of the studio led me down a trail to Landry where he had a wood-fired anagama kiln heating up his latest work at 2,030 degrees, I believe. If I get back next weekend I should be able to see what he did. (Someone has to be awake at all times to put wood in the door to keep things hot. He had friends helping out - some sleep and some work, then vice versa.)
Lunch was at Nick's in McMinnville where minestrone with a heaping spoonful of pesto fueled my engine. I wanted a glass of wine, but I was driving. And me and wine just like a nice soft couch together.
Visited Marilyn Worrix's studio and marveled again at her magnificent house. She's on the Web site too. Doesn't she have nice neat shelves of supplies? A book artist must know where everything is, I suppose, and keep it all nice and clean and tidy. Can't have smudges on the books. And I believe she must have done every stitch ever known to a bookmaker. Marvelous.
Here is a Yamhill County hillside in Sheridan. What a wonderful day. I can't wait to do this again next year - femminismo