Miscellaneous 01-30-10

Sometimes we all have selective vision - I know that I do. This image is basically ugly, but when I took it I saw the distant mountains, losing their fresh white snow covering very quickly since Wednesday when the weather warmed. I always clean up the pictures - show the very best I can get from them. But the all over images I take on the freeways are just - ugly!

Find a doggie? Yes, he is there, curled around his pillow, snoring away. Since he has lost his hearing he sometimes snores very loudly - I guess in the past he probably woke himself up, but now that he doesn't hear he just wakes me up! He is warm enough to not need his quilt which he pushes over the side.

"Pride goeth before a fall." was something my maternal grandmother liked to say. I have always been vain about my driving skills and auto knowledge, but I have now been put in my place. While I was at Corky's his mother arranged for their car wash guy to also wash my car, a lovely gift as he does a nice job. But when he put their BMW back in the garage he parked it so close to the walls that I couldn't use the regular door from the inside of the house. Opening the big door and walking around was not convenient, so I thought I would move the BMW (I could just manage to get the door open enough to squeeze my bulk into the driver's seat). I thought the "old fashioned" silver key was the one, but there is no keyhole in the dash! I had to call the Poodle Parents and ask for a driving lesson. The black rectangular gizmo is the actual key! It fits in a rectangular hole on the steering column and one pushes a button to start the vehicle. I did get it started, backed it out and re-parked it to allow access to the door into the house, but I was chagrined. Not to just jump in and vrooooooom! has taken my vanity down more than a notch or two. All these new fangled doodads - I guess I am just an old fashioned girl at heart.

Scenic Long Beach 01-28-10

When Corky and I went for our walk about 4:30pm the moon was well up in the east.

While the sun was just going down in the west.

This lovely soft color was nothing compared to the conflagration that came just a few short minutes later. But my camera battery 'was exhausted' and I didn't bring the charger! Maybe we will have more spectacular sunsets before the Poodle Parents return on Saturday.

Meanwhile, when I wasn't paying attention, the ornamental pears are suddenly blooming like crazy. It is an amazing climate in SCalifornia, isn't it?

Gum Kiosk 01-27-10

A few weeks ago I made the mistake of trying a 'Bacon-Cheese Panini' at the Corner Bakery and have become addicted! They are very good, but the crispness seems to vary at different restaurants. Those at the Brea location are perfect, at the Irvine spot on Jamboree a little less crisp and at The Block in Orange not quite crisp (and smaller)!

I had never been to The Block until I checked my GPS for a Corner Bakery in the area of Dr. Debin's office and doglegged my way around strange streets as directed. Once I found the place I felt that I was in a time warp which reminded me of the movie "Blade Runner". Something about the decor, I guess.

This is an open air shopping mall with strange light fixtures and wild colored walls. As I walked in from the parking lot the first thing I saw was this unattended kiosk with gumball machines neatly arrayed. I suppose I lead an isolated life, going to the same places all the time and not being exposed to life in the suburbs as much as someone with children or, at least, wider interests. I cannot remember when I last saw a gumball machine - many years - and this scene struck me as 'other worldly'. Especially with the be-suited couple in the background. There were LOTS of 'office' people going to lunch at the many restaurants. At the other Corner Bakerys (should that be 'bakeries' when it is part of a proper name?) I am more used to seeing people in very casual clothing, retirees and ladies-who-lunch in blue jeans. I did a lot of people watching - fascinating - and later realized that there is a courthouse and UCI medical center just across the street. Hence the business attire and the various colored 'scrubs'. I think I will go back when it is not so cold and I can sit outside on a bench and watch/photograph without being so obvious. Guess I will stop elsewhere for the panini.

"It Doesn't Matter" quilts 01-26-10

The fourth Monday of the month the "Stashbuster/Philanthropic" all day workshops are held by the Surfside Quilters Guild at "A Time To Sew" in Laguna Hills. Each month features a different project for the guild's philanthropic efforts. Not being a very prolific quilt maker I was delighted to discover I could just work on "It Doesn't Matter" quilts, or any of the other projects offered during the year. Which will allow me to finish at least one quilt before April - I hope!

I seem incapable of working on any one project at a time, so have started working on six different sets of blocks for six different quilts. Keeps me from getting tired of any one set of fabrics. This is a different set than the one I showed on my post of 01-22-10.Here I've put them up on the design wall just to see what other colors I might add - I decided to throw in some yellow and some turquoise, so each block will include fabric in those colors. When the squares have 'grown' enough I will cut them into "I.D.M." blocks and discover what results when I sew them together.

Just a closer view. And YES, I do realize that 'it doesn't matter' means not picking specific fabrics, but at this point in my life I seem to need 'unplanned random". Yes, it is an oxymoron, but life is full of those that we don't even recognize. Actually, my life is pretty much 'unplanned random' all the time!

Camera on the mountains 01-25-10

I could not get online last night late, or at 3:30am when I tried again. Do you suppose there are just too many bloggers on line at those hours?

On Sunday I drove off early to see if I could find some better viewpoints of the snow covered mountains. My intent was to try out the new Canon digital camera to get a feeling for the range of settings.

This and the next two pictures were taken at a spot about three-quarters of a mile from Bastanchury Hill. Here the barriers are more challenging due to the plexi-fence that completely surrounds the housing development below. After the fact, I thought I should have toted along a stool to stand on! This picture is the normal setting on my camera.

Turning on the telephoto option gives a closer view.

Turning the telephoto all the way on magnifies 16X the normal setting. Although the instructions say 10X is the max.

I drove south and east to try to find a better viewpoint. But this is the best wide angle shot I could take - at the intersection of Hwy 91 and Tustin Ave it is quite close to my house. Anaheim Lakes are just behind the white building on the right. Try clicking on the image to see the full wide range of the mountains.

I found a spot in Anaheim Hills that has a rather good view, but there is no parking on the main thoroughfare and trees/building block the view once I turned off that street. So, I parked in the median strip! The traffic was very light - I suppose a lot of good Orange County Christians were in church at that hour.

This area is all rolling hills and upscale housing developments - lots of gated communities, walking paths, luxury vehicles. I like the symmetry of this picture with the mountains arching overhead and the street dipping down in the middle.

The mountains look imposing here - rather like the front range of the Rockies. Now they even have the dense housing in Colorado. Hope they can control it better than SCalifornia has done. I had hoped to find an orange tree to show against the snowy peaks, such as the postcards showed fifty years ago, but no luck. There are very few orchards left - they have all moved to the central valley or Imperial valley. Mostly we just have backyard citrus trees and they are getting fewer and further between - much easier to buy one's sunshine at the market.

"Strip Tease I" 01-24-10

"Strip Tease I" Mary Leakey - San Juan Bautista, CA 2004 40"square

Mary and I took a Sandi Cummings class together at the Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA. Mary really liked the 'lattice' pattern that Sandi teaches and made a bunch of quilts using this block. This one is all decorator prints and I find the colors exciting - perhaps because it is not a palette I would use. The blocks are the same design as those in the "Autumn Trellis" quilt that I donated to the Surfside QGuild "December Fest - 2009"

After I had seen this quilt hanging in Mary's house I asked her if she would sell it to me - and she did! Beside being a visual treat the quilt has that friendship connection that makes it so much more special. I do like to get to know the makers of the quilts in the TCQC and I think it is a shame (and somewhat short sighted) that the artists don't add me to their mailing lists.

Mary doesn't have a website. But you might enjoy looking at Sandi Cummings' quilts at: http://www.sandicummings.com/

The lattice pattern is shown as "Garden Lattice" in Sandi's book written with Karen Flamme "Thinking Outside the Block: Step by Step to Dynamic Quilts" Publ: C&T 2004