Friday Food - Ice Cream 06-28-24

Anytime, any season ice cream appeals to many of us.  When I am on a road trip Diary Queen is always tempting.  Locally there are a number of local or chain ice cream shops.   The boys and I have tried quite a few, but after trying a new place we always go back to Rich Farm, which is the closest to our houses.

Julian likes the "candy" ice cream that always seem to be blue or green.

This may have been "cookie monster". 

Some Japanese restaurants have green tea ice cream.  This with chocolate  streams and powdered  sugar sprinkles was at my favorite in San Diego - Ikiru.

After a delicious salmon dinner at a Los Alamitos,CA, seafood place.

There is a chocolate fish propped on top.. 

The gelato case at Whole Foods.  Decision, Decisions.

At home I prefer Talenti's Coffee Chocolate Chip or Lactaid vanilla.   I don't  need a  "dairy relief" pill after the Lactaid, but I always carry some with me in case of a sudden, overwhelming urge to stop for ice cream!

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Ruth B. McDowell 06-24-24

I am very sad to tell  you that Ruth B. McDowell died on Saturday,June 22nd, she was just 79.  The cause was Multiple Myeloma.  She wasn't sick very long, but how would I know?  She was never one to complain.  When I learn more I will post any information.  

This  is a professional image used for some of her exhibits.

The best teacher I ever studied with, as she was for many of her students.  Here she shows the picture a student has decided to work with. 

The last class I had with her was her last session in Kalispell, Wyoming..  

Here she is talking about Susan Hillsenbeck's eggplant flower in progress. 

Ruth at the demo easel showing how to trace the sewing lines onto tracing paper.

Ruth and Pippi, her grand-daughter, take a walk.

"Conversation on the Porch"  Ruth B. McDowell   1993   37.5"L X 54"W

Cotton fabric, thread,and batting.  Machine pieced and quilted.

This is the first of Ruth's quilts I added to the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection in1994.  It is my favorite.

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Out to Space 06-24-24

Another Space X launch from Vandenberg last evening about 8:45pm.  They do have slight differences, but are always interesting to watch. 

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Automobiles 06-19-24

I notice unusual cars, although I am not a car "buff".  Mostly I  see the models from years  past.  But the other day this one was in the parking lot of a restaurant.   When I left I stopped to take  pictures,  but didn't get out to walk around  the back of the vehicle.  I thought it must be a custom model and wished I could see it on the road.  Only four days later I saw it, or another one, on the road.  I was so startled I didn't think to follow it for a better look.  Mentioning the sighting to a friend and showing her the photos, she knew it was a Tesla and said one lived two blocks  from her.  I Googled  it and found that it is Tesla's New Cybertruck, which Google  says will be released  in 2025.  The base model will  be $60,990 and the "super-duper" model will be about $99,990 and will reach 60mph in just 2.6 seconds.  And reach 130mph.  

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                    "See the USA in your Chevrolet, America is asking you to call......"

Also in a parking lot - a 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo almost like it just came off the lot.

BIG difference from the new Tesla, huh?

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Friday Feet 06-14-24

This just shows  that KoKo is willing to sleep on anyone's lap if he is tired.

The dearest baby feet - lifted from Internet. 

One of my shoe loving friends can wear fantastic sandals. 

This is a shoe for a GIANT, or maybe a basketball player. 

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Flowers 06-13-24

I realize that every year about this time when the kangaroo paws start blooming, I post a picture.  The blooms just fascinate me, they are just so different from any other  that I have seen.   They must have been  imported from Australia in the last twenty years or so and are now everywhere in Orange County, CA.  They may be growing across the USA, but these days I don't go much of anywhere else.  I do see them in San Diego  County on my infrequent  visits there..

This plant is in the  parking  lot at a  Dana Point restaurant.

The shapes of these "petals" do resemble kangaroo's paws.

In  the upper center you can see one of the unassuming little flowers.  Looks a bit like a  multi-pointed star with a ring of stamens in the center.  I have never detected  a fragrance.

There are also many red plants.  Here you can really see a flower.

This pink bush at Trader Joe's was one of first plants I ever saw  and pink  is not very common. 

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Sidewalks 06-10-24

 Summer has arrived and some schools are adjourned, which gives children time to play outdoors.   There are several young girls who love writing on the sidewalk with chalk.  And Barb, who I think is eleven, has outdone herself.  I cannot get high enough (maybe I need a drone) to show her guided pathways.   There is a  vine  with large leaves to follow, stepping on each leaf.  And a trail of the planets each marked with the correct names.  Quite a layout, nicely done.   KoKo is not impressed, but I am .

This is where  we are to start.  The blue is KoKo's leash held in my left hand.  He wants to GO.

These handprints must be a stencil as they are all the same. Why she didn't give herself a head I can't imagine.  The odd black dot is the tip of my cane, it helps me keep my balance and could serve  as a  coyote beater should  one comet  too close. 

Big square guy, smiles, rainbow, multi-colored dots, bored doggo.

Always sign your artwork. 

Dear to my heart. 

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12"X12" quilt from Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection 06-09-24

Here another of the 12X12 quilts in the  Collection, purchased in 2012 from the Visions Quilt Museum in San Diego, CA.   I follow Carol Larson online and enjoy her work and her flower photos from her daily walks.    This Blogger post is a repeat from 01-13-13.

"Currents #18" Carol Larson - Petaluma, CA  2012  12.5" x 12.25" 

Carol's statement on the auction site:  "Linen dinner napkin, hand-dyed and screen-printed with embellishment of silk remnant (hand-dyed, screen-printed, foiled), African and Japanese batiks."
www.live2dye.com
 

Some of the edges are stitched with zig-zag and some are not. 

This is copper colored paint - it doesn't photograph well, but it is beautiful. 
 

Nice Nancy Crow fabric on the back.

I added the size and year on the label.

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Art Stream meeting 06-08-24

I drove to San Diego this morning for a meeting of an art quilt group I belong to  - "Art Stream".  There are six in the group, all of them live in the San Diego area. I am the only "outlier" with my two to  three hour drive down about every other month. We meet in member's homes, except for when it is my turn and I find a place down there to accommodate us. We usually have an assignment, all of which we choose at the beginning of the year.  Therefore we can get started  anytime on  any of the projects.   Somehow I never do that and am frequently unfinished or even just lacking.  Don't know why  they put up with  me.   This month the subject was  "Cut-it-up", using an unsuccessful previous work or parts rescued from UFOs, Everyone had a different idea so it was an interesting discussion. 

My incomplete project  was  using the cut offs from trimming previous quilts, I have a large box of them saved over the years. Also including some I have rescued from fellow students trash bags.  The black represents  the black already quilted pieces that  I  have cut to  "sash" the blocks.  The pieces are butted edge to  edge  and  zigzagged a la Paula Kovarick. 

"D" created a background of gently curved strips, which  she but into wide slashes and then fused this  fantastic fused bird.  Love those  blue mum  petals for wings.

"JWT" experimented with raw edge rectangles arranged on a background of similar prints and quilted with meandering vine like lines. It gives a soft meadow feeling.

"N" used a quilt with abstract appliqued forms that she never thought worked.  She arranged  various colored triangles over the previous applique and heavily over-quilted with more vertical lines.  The different widths of spacing makes a great texture.

"A" started out with a  strip woven background she bought long ago at a quilter's sale.  She had some large flowers from other fabric which she cut and fused along  with  the vase shape.  The  texture was lovely, but she found the heavy thickness  difficult to sew through.  

"E",  as usual had a beautiful complete quilt.  She does exemplary hand work and there is a lot of that on this piece.  Cut out flowers, fantasy flowers, leaves, squiggles, and vines, along with  just on folded rose bud, are  applied to a fabric printed with tiny  dots.  

It was a lovely meeting and so interesting to learn from each others experiments,  decision making process, and how they solved the problems they encountered. 

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Friday Food 06-07-24

 Here is one of my favorite light meals, good any time of year.

Fresh broccoli microwaved just to crispy.  Two soft scrambled eggs. A grating of sharp cheddar.  A sprinkle of paprika. Eaten usually with unsalted matzos. 

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Doctoring #2 06-06-24

This morning was spent at the Hoag Surgical Center on Sand Canyon Rd in Irvine, CA.  My patient and calm driver, Dick Bednar, picked me up a  little after 7am, just as we returned from our morning walk.  I checked in at the facility at 7:40am for my 8am appointment and had to fill out papers identical to those I did by phone yesterday. Because I had done that, I did not take my medical file, knowing they already had all that information. Finally about 8:45am they took me back to the pre-op room with all the individual cubicles draped in tasteful cloth curtains.

These are different than those I photographed last June.

And the side curtains were different than the front curtains.  

I always request the front curtains open,  a slight case of claustrophobia,

but it gives me a chance to see what goes  on in a operating"lobby". I was right across from the organizational hub (nurses station?) which usually had two or three people working.  There were only three males, all in surgical outfits, who came and went.  Finally after laying ready to go in my bed since 8:45am they took me into surgery about 1030am.  The procedure  takes about 20 minutes, then I had be in bed to decompress.   So, about 11:30am we were on the freeway home.

Poor Dick is a trooper, waiting all that time in the parking lot.

I  slept off and on all day.  Took KoKo out for a piddle and we did half a walk this  evening - about a thousand steps added  to  the  2000  this morning.

I am  not  hungry  but ate some noodle soup.  Expect I will wake up starving  in the morning. 

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