sunday
Dave and I drove to West Reading so I could give Alison the lapidary equipment and stones, and Dave had some fishing stuff for Johnny. We got back this afternoon. All went well. Though I had my usual sleepless night last night and got up at 4 am with the DOOM thoughts.
"Getting Old". Expressing my thoughts with art this morning... Drawing this picture somehow made me feel better though. That's "art therapy".
*****
On our way to West Reading on Friday we stopped to eat at a Thai restaurant in Danville (something we always do - a regular part of the trip now) and then when we got to West Reading in the evening we went out to eat at an authentic Indian restaurant. We all ordered different things and shared it all around. I love eating exotic foods. On Saturday morning Alison made a delicious mushroom, cheese and potato quiche with the eggs I brought and then for lunch we went out to a Japanese place. It was very different. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet (sort of). You checked off what you wanted on a menu paper and they brought smallish servings of it. Your server came back to the table every few minutes to check to see what the next thing was that you might want from the menu list. Lots of individual little serving dishes. I liked it a lot compared to eating at a normal buffet. I find that kind of disgusting - you have no idea what former customers have been touching before they use the serving spoons. After eating we visited the Goggle Works - a super art school where they hold classes in hot glass, warm glass, ceramics, glass blowing, painting in all mediums, wood working, jewelry fabrication, lapidary, etc. Just everything. The Reading area is so lucky to have such a thing. We have nothing like that around here. Alison has taken many classes over the years and that was what got her started in the jewelry work that she's doing now. She recently took a lapidary class and loved it. That's why I decided to give her my equipment. On Saturday evening Johnny took Dave and I to Blue Marsh Lake to show us where he wants to start taking his new (to him) kayak. Blue Marsh Natural Recreation Area is a very beautiful place. We sat near the beach area at a picnic table first and people-watched for a while then we drove around and visited a couple different boat launches. This morning (Sunday) we went down to the farmer's market and got baked goods for breakfast. I ate peanut butter and jelly cookies and carrot cake while we walked around. Everyone else ate ham and cheese croissants. Came back from that and Alison and I got the lapidary equipment set up and going. When Dave and I left she was making cabs with it. We had an uneventful trip home. Here's a bunch of pictures - taken with the full spectrum camera, not that sharp for some reason. I might need to find out if I should to do different settings for long range landscapes:
Alison.
Johnny.
Their front porch. Row houses. I had the IR Chrome filter on for this picture so all the trees and grass are red.
Still IR Chrome. Dave and Johnny getting in Johnny's car.
This is at the Goggle Works - the warm glass studio. I switched to a "regular" filter on the camera and all the rest of the pictures look normal.
I liked this.
Another view of the warm glass studio.
Glass blowing.
In the store they had little tiny watercolor sets for sale.
All handmade colors.
View of the Goggle Works store.
This was at Blue Marsh Lake - the beach area.
Sitting at the picnic table people-watching. Dave and Johnny.
The family beside us was taking pictures of each other so Dave walked over and offered to get a picture of them all together.
Then Johnny thought it would be funny to get a picture of me taking a picture of Dave.
After Dave got pictures of them the fellow in the group offered to take our picture. Nice. :-)
We drove around to the other side of the lake and got this view from a high hill.
Near one of the boat ramps.
This morning - Dave, Alison and Johnny getting baked goods to eat for breakfast.
So now back to regular life again. Hiking, piano practice, playing with yarn, eating boring food. I was inspired by the Goggle Works and want to clean up my ceramic area in the basement and do something with that soon. I did miss my little Rainy Day. It was very good to see her again.
"Getting Old". Expressing my thoughts with art this morning... Drawing this picture somehow made me feel better though. That's "art therapy".
*****
On our way to West Reading on Friday we stopped to eat at a Thai restaurant in Danville (something we always do - a regular part of the trip now) and then when we got to West Reading in the evening we went out to eat at an authentic Indian restaurant. We all ordered different things and shared it all around. I love eating exotic foods. On Saturday morning Alison made a delicious mushroom, cheese and potato quiche with the eggs I brought and then for lunch we went out to a Japanese place. It was very different. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet (sort of). You checked off what you wanted on a menu paper and they brought smallish servings of it. Your server came back to the table every few minutes to check to see what the next thing was that you might want from the menu list. Lots of individual little serving dishes. I liked it a lot compared to eating at a normal buffet. I find that kind of disgusting - you have no idea what former customers have been touching before they use the serving spoons. After eating we visited the Goggle Works - a super art school where they hold classes in hot glass, warm glass, ceramics, glass blowing, painting in all mediums, wood working, jewelry fabrication, lapidary, etc. Just everything. The Reading area is so lucky to have such a thing. We have nothing like that around here. Alison has taken many classes over the years and that was what got her started in the jewelry work that she's doing now. She recently took a lapidary class and loved it. That's why I decided to give her my equipment. On Saturday evening Johnny took Dave and I to Blue Marsh Lake to show us where he wants to start taking his new (to him) kayak. Blue Marsh Natural Recreation Area is a very beautiful place. We sat near the beach area at a picnic table first and people-watched for a while then we drove around and visited a couple different boat launches. This morning (Sunday) we went down to the farmer's market and got baked goods for breakfast. I ate peanut butter and jelly cookies and carrot cake while we walked around. Everyone else ate ham and cheese croissants. Came back from that and Alison and I got the lapidary equipment set up and going. When Dave and I left she was making cabs with it. We had an uneventful trip home. Here's a bunch of pictures - taken with the full spectrum camera, not that sharp for some reason. I might need to find out if I should to do different settings for long range landscapes:
Alison.
Johnny.
Their front porch. Row houses. I had the IR Chrome filter on for this picture so all the trees and grass are red.
Still IR Chrome. Dave and Johnny getting in Johnny's car.
This is at the Goggle Works - the warm glass studio. I switched to a "regular" filter on the camera and all the rest of the pictures look normal.
I liked this.
Another view of the warm glass studio.
Glass blowing.
In the store they had little tiny watercolor sets for sale.
All handmade colors.
View of the Goggle Works store.
This was at Blue Marsh Lake - the beach area.
Sitting at the picnic table people-watching. Dave and Johnny.
The family beside us was taking pictures of each other so Dave walked over and offered to get a picture of them all together.
Then Johnny thought it would be funny to get a picture of me taking a picture of Dave.
After Dave got pictures of them the fellow in the group offered to take our picture. Nice. :-)
We drove around to the other side of the lake and got this view from a high hill.
Near one of the boat ramps.
This morning - Dave, Alison and Johnny getting baked goods to eat for breakfast.
So now back to regular life again. Hiking, piano practice, playing with yarn, eating boring food. I was inspired by the Goggle Works and want to clean up my ceramic area in the basement and do something with that soon. I did miss my little Rainy Day. It was very good to see her again.