Special Interest Group

I have mentioned before that I take fun/non credit courses for seniors at Texas Christian University. As part of that same program, they offer special interest groups. This semester I have joined The Art of Fort Worth.

Today they had a luncheon and free tour of the Modern Museum which also included a behind the scenes tour of the vaults...very interesting. The above work is by Jonathan Borofsky and is titled Big Ears...a self portrait. I might add that it is two stories tall.

Ah, no this is not Tom and myself playing like we are at the beach. It is an artwork by Ron Mueck. They are so life like that you expect them to move..

Although they are not life sized...they are huge!

You can read about Mueck and see some of his very unusual sculptors HERE

It was so greathaving a docent explain the art...especially since some of the pieces left me a bit puzzled. Our rains have returned , so it was a wonderful way to spend a not so nice the afternoon.

The Sunday Drive

A Sunday drive in the U.S. is not to be confused with driving on Sunday. From about 1920 to the 1970's families across our nation looked forward to a Sunday drive. The family piled in the car and you headed out in no particular direction....just enjoying being out of the house, together and discovering new sights.

Today is Sunday, and it is the first full day of sunshine in over a week now...so Tom and I piled in the car and went for a "Sunday Drive" ending up in the charming small town of Weatherford, Texas which is about twenty five miles west of Ft. Worth. It is the county seat of Parker County (more about that later) with approximately 25,000 people. It is a town with beautiful turn of the last century Victorian homes and the countryside is dotted with large ranches where cutting horses are king.

I did take several pictures...that is whenever I could talk Tom into stopping

and there were a lot of photo opportunities.

An abundance of large stately homes

and just as many of what would have been considered small homes.

I thought this old church was interesting, and could use some loving care.

I wasn't going to post this one. I was in a hurry...didn't want my ride to leave me in the street....and I cut off the peak of the roof. I was trying to show you that the post to tie up your horse was still out in front. I also attempted to straighten this...but it is on and hill...so the fence is not on even ground

Parker County was named after the Uncle of Cynthia Parker. Cynthia was the little girl who was taken by the Comanche Indians in a raid in 1836 when she was only ten years old. It took the Texas Rangers 25 yrs to find her. At that point she did not want to leave the Indians. She had married a chief and had several children. ...but the rangers forcibly took her. She even tried to escape once but was brought back home. She died a very sad woman. You can read about her HERE

Women's Ice Hockey

 With great delight I snapped a not so good photo of my T.V. this morning, when I heard that the U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Team had taken the gold metal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Pictured here with T.V. anchors of the morning NBC TODAY Show being filmed on site. in South Korea.

A far cry from the Women's Ice Hockey Team circa 1922

                                                    published by Vintage History

Have a great weekend!

Rain rain, Olympics and the new gadget

It has been raining here all week....and today it threatens to turn into ice. There is flooding east and west of here, but not in our part of town

Just a puddle in the beds outside the window. It has been a challenge to find things to keep us busy. Sorting, organizing and watching movies and cooking have been keeping me occupied at the moment...but running out of rainy day ideas.

We of course, as many of you, have been enjoying the Olympics.

One of our daughter's gave us this new gadget for Christmas. I am not sure 

Tom was ever going to take it out of the box....so I did and left it and the instructions on his desk. He couldn't resist and after a few confusing runs figured out how to connect it to Internet.I tried it out this morning. I said "Alexia play some soft music." I was so pleased that she did. I even said "Alexia lower the volume"...and she did. Wonder if I could ask her to make the bed, do the laundry, and cook dinner?

An Artist

I mentioned in my previous post that I accompanied my sister to a friend's house for a Zentangle lesson.

That friend (Paula) is also an artist

and I enjoyed seeing some of her paintings displayed throughout in her home.

I especially liked this painting (pardon the glare coming from the window) of  Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia made famous by the 1994 novel by John Berendt Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Do You Doodle?

Do you doodle? is the question that  my sister Polly asked me, when she invited me to an art event to be held one afternoon at a friend's house.

There was an instructor there who would teach us the art of Zentangle (which you should not refer to a doodling). Zentangle is defined as a easy to learn, relaxing, fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. The patterns are usually drawn on small squares of watercolor quality paper called tiles. Above is and example ....drawn on a bookmark size paper.

There are books being sold that show you how to make the different patterns which all have names and special pens that have very fine points.

It sure was a relaxing fun afternoon. Yes, those are the two little tiles that I did. 

Thanks Polly for the invitation

Discoveries Under the Sea

Since I retired...and moved to a new town, I am trying my best to stay busy as well as learn new things. In addition to the fun courses that I take at T. C. U. I have also joined The Lecture foundation, an organization (all women) founded in 1935. It's goal is to bring distinguished speakers in the field of literature, education, current events and the arts to it's members which are 800 strong.With so many members, the lectures are held a a local country club, meeting six times during the year.

Today's speaker was the world's foremost maritime archaeologist and author Dr. James Delgado. He has spent four decades exploring the world's oceans and in the process he has come across many treasures encased in ancient sunken ships.

He was a terrific speaker with the most interesting information and beautiful slide show. The audience was hanging on his every word. He told us that our oceans hold so many secrets and is only 8% explored. We know more about the moon, Venus and Mars than we do about our oceans. I would love to attend another of his informative lectures.

My Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas

Expressing Herself

When you were a child, did you have any say in what you wore? Not sure that I did, and I remember vividly having an argument with my own four year old that she could NOT wear the green t-shirt with the purple pants! Now...a few years later...I realize what a silly argument that was.

Meet Abigail my very precocious three year old granddaughter. No, she was not playing dress up. She is dressed for preschool...picking out her own outfit. I am happy to report it is just fine with her parents. Soon enough our world will dictate how she should look. But, right now she is free to be Abigail...or Princess Abigail or Wonder Woman or who ever her little heart decides she is that day :)

Back Home

Well, we never got to the beach. When I got the phone call that my daughter was back in the hospital, we headed for North Carolina and spent the week there. I am happy to report she is at home now and doing much better, and I do have a beautiful new granddaughter, Alice.

I did notice this unusual object not far from her home.

It is actually one of these. A cell tower that has been camouflaged to fit into it's natural surroundings.

This one of course is in a much more tropical setting....about as close as I am going to get to a palm tree at the moment. I am not sure the disguise is working. The towers still look odd sticking up so high above the other trees. Do you have a cell towers in your community, and has there been any attempt to camouflage them?
Oh, for those that were wondering, the beach we were going to is on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, where do hope to try and go next year.

Hello from Georgia

Well, Georgia is a far cry from a sunny beach...it is cold and rainy here today. You see we came to Georgia to visit a daughter in Atlanta before flying to the Caribbean. One thing she had planned was to visit Tom's grandson's at the University of Georgia.

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking around campus.

It is a large campus in the small town of Athens.

Grandson Charlie far left and Tommy third from left. The other two young men are long time neighborhood friends. It was so refreshing to be in the company of such bright focused young men.

This long mural depicting the campus was on a wall of the student union,

and this was a surprise. Apparently students can volunteer to train service dogs. They live with them in the dorms and even go to class. You can read more about it HERE

Our flight for the islands was to leave Sunday morning, but we got a call from our daughter in NC that she had been hospitalized due to complications from her c-section. Our trip is on hold....