Last of June, First of July...A Busy Time

We have had a good summer...

Our son, Ray, and his wife, Gretchen, visited with us the last week in June.  They have been in London, UK for the last year.  It was good to see them.  Afterward, Tom said, " Do you realize that is the longest visit Ray has had with us since he started college?"

I think that was a bit of an exaggeration but it is true we haven't had him stay overnight for an extended period for a long time.

We didn't do much over the Fourth of July.  We did watch the traditional People's Fourth of July on PBS.  I realized I do not know the popular singers of today.  I did recognize the Muppets!

The prairie flowers are blooming.  Tom's little patch beside our driveway is beautiful.

The same kinds of flowers but about a million more of them, and other flowers, too. are blooming at Huffman Prairie.  The butterflies are enjoying both places.

I saw a bobolink at Huffman Prairie.  I like walks by myself but when I see a bird I don't see often, it is even more special when I share the experience with a friend.  And Jeanne was with me.

Happy Birthday to Me...The Rusty Bucket, Huffman Prairie, Hofbrauhaus, Cincinnati Art Museum

I count the short visit with Ray, our oldest son, as the start of my birthday celebration this year.  He was here to pick up his youngest son, Steve, and take him back to London, UK for a visit.  Tom, Ray, and I had lunch at The Rusty Bucket where Ray's oldest son is the chef.  Afterward, Ray continued on to Steve's apartment.

Tom and I drove to Huffman Prairie where the Wright Brothers conducted many of their flying tests. This is the time of year when sometimes we are lucky enough to see bobolinks on the prairie.  We saw two.

Tom didn't have his camera with him so I used my little Olympus Tough to get a picture.  Seeing the bobolink made me smile the rest of the day.

June 13 was alternately rainy and overcast.  Since we were inside during most of the rainy times, the rain didn't  stop our plans.  We ate lunch at the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, Kentucky which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.  Both of us enjoy German food.  Tom bought a piece of German chocolate cake to take home for a late afternoon snack.

Newport has been building a lot of expensive-looking high rise condos and apartments in the area.

The Newport Aquarium is near by and so are other restaurants and shops and entertainment.  

We always admire this beautifully carved cabinet just inside the front doors of the Hofbrauhaus.  The dining area is set up for friendly, casual meals.

After lunch we drove back across the Ohio River to Eden Park.  The Cincinnati Art Museum is high on a hill there.

The Burning Man exhibit has been at the museum for some time.  It was in the special exhibit galleries for several months but now the various sculptures are spread among the museum's regular exhibits. Coming up on the sculptures is a bit of a surprise.  There is no mistaking them.  They are unique.

The first one we found was The Five Ton Crane.  It reminded me of an old-time movie theater set up in a street car.  It was an interactive piece of art.  People could climb up into it, sit down and watch movies mimicking the silent films of the twenties.

Since Tom is in a power chair we watched the movies while standing beside the structure. The movies were projected on a screen beyond The Five Ton Crane as well as on the screen with the green curtains framing it.

A "professor" instructed us via a blackboard on what might cause a woman to float into the air after a discreet kiss from a lover....

                                             1. Gravity Allergy

                                             2. Electro - Magnetic Polarity

                                             3. Blood Holds Helium 

This was just one of many silly demonstrations continually flipped through as we watched.

Tom and I stopped to look at some of the museum's regular exhibits, too.  Tom especially liked a painting of sailing ships in a harbor because it was so precise and true in the details.  I liked this one by Robert Henri.

One of the Burning Man sculptures that has been used a lot in the publicity shots is this one.

The dancer is made of triangles covered by a translucent skin. Here is a close up of her thigh.

This photo gives you an idea of her size.

The Burning Man is a temporary art installation set up in a desert between two mountain ranges.  It's name comes from the effigy of a gigantic man which is traditionally burned on the last evening of the exhibit.

This is an facsimile of the effigy.  It is bigger than life size, but not as large as the one that is burned.

The day following the burning of the effigy the entire art exhibit is taken down and moved away.  The goal is to leave the desert exactly as it was before the exhibit. If you google "Burning Man" you can find out much more about the mindset of those who participate in the exhibit each year.

Tom and I wandered around the museum for a little less than two hours.  By the time I have looked at exhibits for a couple hours, my brain is stuffed full.  So many ideas, so many ways that art can be presented.

The drive home was sometimes drizzly. Sometimes rain was pouring down.  We were happy when we arrived home. 

In the mailbox I found birthday cards from my sisters.  Better still were the letters enclosed in the cards.  I am glad I am part of the generation that writes letters.

Tom and I ate our piece of chocolate cake and I enjoyed reading the notes. 

May 16, 17, 18, 2019....Lake Erie...Howard MetroPark, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Magee Marsh

Tom and I spent three days at Lake Erie birding in some of the parks along the coast.  Howard MetroPark has been open since last year.  It is part of the Toledo MetroPark system.  The park personal are in the process of turning the Howard farm back to its natural marshy state.  Already, the birds have found it.

Tom and I have seen Horned Larks in the past but we have never seen one as close as this one.  For a while it perched on a big rock and sang its beautiful song.

Later, it, or another one, sat on the gravel beside the van as we ate our lunch.  We looked at it and it looked at us.

We got really good looks at its tiny "horns".  

Another bird we rarely see up close is this Caspian Tern.  Usually we see them flying.

We saw lots of Trumpeter Swans. Trumpeter Swans are one of the successful Conservation projects  in this area. For many years there were none in the area.

Tom is good at spotting Snowy Egrets. If you click on it, you can see the red between its bill and eye which only appears in breeding season.

This Great Egret has the distinctive green patch between its eye and bill. The patch and fluffy feathers tell us it is in breeding plumage. This one has wet "fluffy' feathers so they are stringy, not fluffy.

The bird I was elated to see was this Yellow-headed Blackbird.  They nest in the area but they are not often seen.  The last one I saw was years ago at Cheyenne Bottoms in Kansas.  Tom had to take this picture through the front window so it is not as clear as it might be.  The situation was beyond Tom's control.

Our next stop was Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge.

One of the most noticeable birds was the Eastern Kingbird.  Tom took some photos that showed the entire bird better but this one shows the identifying white band across its tail best.

We drove the Ottawa dike drive on Thursday and again on Friday.  On both days we saw many Eastern Kingbirds and also large numbers of Trumpeter Swans and Great Egrets.  We heard Yellow Warblers all along the drive and toward the end of the drive we came across this one in its nest.

The boardwalk at Magee Marsh is the place to see a big variety of warblers.  Sometimes the warblers are close to the railing.  Other times they are further away.

Sometimes they are high in the trees.

Below are portraits of some that were close enough to see without binoculars.

Bay-breasted Warbler (male)

Chestnut-sided Warbler (male)

Magnolia Warbler (male)

At all three locations , we saw families of Canada Geese.

Roses, Lunch and Ducks...February 22

It's been fifty-eight years that a dozen red roses have arrived for me on April 22.  This November, Tom and I will have been married fifty-eight years.  Tom and I had broken up in 1960 and we hadn't seen each other since that fateful day.  Tom said when he sent the roses he really didn't think I would reply but he wanted me to know that he would always remember me. I had been remembering him, too.

The flowers arrived in late morning.  At noon, we went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday's.  Our daughter had given Tom a gift card for Christmas which he used.  After choosing salads from the well stocked salad bar, Tom had meaty ribs, so tender and well cooked that the meat fell off the bones.  I had grilled chicken with a honey barbecue sauce.  Dessert was apple cake with ice cream.  We were pleased.

The day was chilly but sunny.  This time of year "sunny" means the day is a good one.  Tom drove us to Englewood dam, one of the five dams built in the Dayton area after the devastating 1913 flood flooded downtown Dayton up to the second floors of many buildings

The ducks were too far off for Tom to get good photos but we got good looks at Canvasbacks, Redheads and Ringbills

The usual Canada Geese and Mallards were there also.

Tom decided to check out Eastwood Lake.  That was where we saw our first Bufflehead of the year.  The next stop was Eastwood Metro Park.  There we spotted two Hooded Merganser males and one female. 

Tom finally found a bird close enough to get a good photo...a Great Blue Heron.  He already had a nice bib of mating feathers.

Seeing the ducks means Spring is on its way and that brings smiles to our faces.

Black-throated Green Warbler...A Painting from Tom's Photo

I have been doing a lot of pencil drawings lately...our grandson, John...

from this photo...

and our granddaughter, Samantha...

from this photo...

The sketch of John turned out looking the age he was when the photo was taken but the sketch of Samantha came out looking older than she is in the photo.  The proportions of faces change as we age.  In this case, her eyes should have been drawn lower on her face. Changing the position of her eyes would then affect the positioning of all her other facial features. I decided it would be best to leave this drawing as it is. It will remind me to measure more carefully next time. 

The trick is to think in terms of comparative relationships.

I painted the Black-throated Green Warbler from a photo Tom took at Magee Marsh on May 15.

I did not draw the bird before I painted it.  Instead, I measured with my eyes as I painted it, noting the proportion of the width of the green back to the width of the wing to the width of the breast.  Length proportions are measured against one another in the same way. The following progression from the second session to the final are below.

At this point I sent a copy of the painting to an artist friend who often critiques my work for me.  She reminded me that the eye needed a spot of life.  A dot of white carefully placed adds life.  She also suggested that I define the leaves a bit more.  I didn't want them to become as important as the bird but they should be more important than what I had them at this point.

Here I have made the leaves more important but I still wasn't satisfied with them.

This is the original photo again.  I didn't like the arrangement of the leaves so I am using my imagination, my "artistic license" and that takes a bit of thinking.

This is the final painting.  I played around with the faint hint of leaves in the upper left portion.  I also made some tiny touch up on the foreground leaves.