Taking the long way around 10-13-07

This poplar is on the canyon road just where Mary's driveway ends. It is my marker for how far along the autumn color is. It has yellowed considerably since I drove up on Tuesday. In front is a buckeye tree which is the earliest tree to change and drop its leaves - you can see the inedible fruit which dangles on long after the tree is bare. In back to the right is a large California sycamore - they don't usually show much color, but without the leaves the white patched bark is lovely.



















Still very cloudy 45 minutes later when I reach I-5 and head south. Many more trees have started turning color - these are almonds.

Still further south the sky is clearing and the haze has lessened. In the foreground is a field of asparagus that has gone to seed. It always makes me think of a great expanse of feathers.

After I was southbound on I-5 I checked my cell phone for messages (there is no cell service in Mary's canyon) and discovered that two people had called to tell me that I-5 is closed at the Newhall Pass (and probably will be until Tuesday at the earliest). What to do? I finally decided to turn off I-5 at Kettleman City and go west to Paso Robles to pick up Hwy 101. If I had just checked my phone at the bottom of the canyon I could have taken 101 all the way to the LA basin! There was more traffic than usual on state route 46 (known as the James Dean road, where met his early end) and then south on 101, but not terrible - guess some people had the same idea as I. But that increase in traffic and driving the extra miles turned the drive home into an eight hour trek. I needed to 'make tracks' because Corky was at his house waiting for me, so I did very little 'sightseeing' and just kept my eyes on the road. Not a fun way to travel, I usually like to 'mosey' a bit!

So, here it is almost 10:30pm - the van is unpacked and most of the stuff put away, but I am too tired to do any PIQF pictures. Tomorrow - I promise!

PIQF - 2nd Day 10-12-07

Another great, but exhausting day at PIQF. After all the time I spent getting pictures on my blog yesterday some of them disappeared! So, I re-posted the images, but not the signs. Instead I just typed in the name of the quiltmaker and the city where they live. Hope I was successful this time. Since it is so difficult to post images while using dial-up, I will post more after I am home. Which will be tomorrow (Saturday) evening.

Plans have changed and instead if taking care of the Poodle Prince at a Monterey Hotel, I am going to drive straight to Long Beach tomorrow morning, pick Corky up at his house and have him stay at my house until Tuesday. I think it will work better this way and his parents can have a leisure drive up and back for their conference.

Although the rain today was appreciated by all, I hope it has blown away for the rest of the weekend. There was rain most of the day - on again, off again - and on the way back to Mary's. I haven't driven in rain for a very long time, so I was extra careful - too bad everyone wasn't, there were three accidents on Hwy 101 between Santa Clara and San Juan Bautista. I will take it easy driving the 5-1/2 hours to LBeach tomorrow.

PIQF - Thursday 10-11-07

I am tired tonight after a long day at PIQF. It is a great quilt show, but not as good as some past years, in my opinion. One reason is that there seem to be many 'statement' quilts with dark messages or connections. The war in Iraq, African starvation and AIDS, child abuse, and even one quilt made to cover the quiltmaker's coffin someday (which is quite lovely I'm sure, but.....).

Thursday seems to always be the busiest day, so it was hard to take pictures in the crush, and several of mine were interrupted by moving bodies. But I will be able to retake them tomorrow along with seeing the rest of the quilts.

For years I have taken pictures of Angel Trumpet Flowers (Brugmansia) with the idea of doing a quilt, so I am always interested in what others have done. The Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection contains a lovely quilt (shown above) by Judy House with her interpretation of the plant (33"W x 42"L). And there are two Angel Trumpets hanging side by side at PIQF in the "New Quilts from Northern California" exhibit. One very realistic (about 30"W x 38"L) by Diana Roberts of Windsor, CA:


And one abstracted view (about 28"W x 20"L) by Gennie Becker of Sebastopol, CA:

More of PIQF tomorrow evening.

Moss & Lichen 10-10-07

My friends Mary and Joe live in the hills above San Juan Bautista, CA, surrounded by oak and madrone trees. Coming here in autumn brings back memories of my childhood years outside of Portland, OR. And although I haven't lived there for over fifty years, deserting those moist climes for the hard dryness of SCalifornia, I still miss the moss and lichens. The bright green moss on the oak trees, along with a scattering of pale green lichen is very beautiful and sort of reassuring to me. In years past I have done a number of stitcheries on this theme and one day, I imagine, I will find a way to present it in a quilt.















Tomorrow we will go to PIQF in Santa Clara. It is a large quilt show exhibiting quilts from all over the world and Mary and I get a creative charge every year. I'll try to give you a report in the evening - if I haven't fallen exhausted into bed!

I-5 north to San Juan Bautista 10-09-07

I drove up here to San Juan Bautista today, about a 5-1/2 hour drive. A gorgeous day with light traffic and only two stops! Usually I have to make three pit stops. I-5 goes over the mountains north of the Los Angeles basin and this time of year they are always very dry, but this year with almost no rain for fifteen months everything is extremely parched.

These hills face the south so they have very little vegetation except for the grass. I love they way they look like huge lions laying in the sun. The chaparral in the foreground is between the highway and pasture land. The sky was really this blue. Not much autumn color along the way which surprised me as I drive up about this same week every year to go to PIQF and there is always some change, but not this year.

Just south of Gorman, a tiny community at the top of the mountains (about 4200') the trees are all black from a brush fire that occurred several years ago. They are very striking against the tawny hillsides. In 1991 Christo's "Umbrellas" were spread over these hills - huge yellow umbrellas that glowed with the sun shining through the fabric. I still miss them!! I can't find a good website, but here is one that has a few pictures. http://www.tedsimages.com/text/umbrella.htm

Down on the floor of the Central Valley most of the crops are harvested and they are working on picking and baling cotton. The orchards are still green and most of the grapevines, but all the natural growth is grey or brown. The tumbleweeds will soon be dried enough for the wind to wrench them out of the dry soil and start them tumbling. This picture is of an oasis of sorts: Harris Ranch is located near Coalinga. In the 35+ years I have been driving this route it has grown from just a restaurant, to include a hotel, conference center, bar and gift shop (which sells Harris Ranch beef "to travel"). A nice place to stay and the food is good, but not cheap! Today I stopped to use their charming ladies room with colorful tiles, but I had to leave my hat in the van because the wind was really howling. Quite a cross wind going north from here, but eventually it died down. Mary says there is supposed to be rain tonight and tomorrow. Maybe I will hear the patter of rain on the roof - after all these months!

"On This Day" 10-07-07

One of the things I enjoy on my computer is a free subscription to
"On This Day", a daily e-mail giving events, births and deaths that have happened on that day. Reading about these things gives me a sense of my place in time. Why that is important to me, I don't know! I suppose it is a sort of 'grounding', a pause in the passage of the days, which disappear faster with each calendar year.
http://www.reference.com/thisday/