Trends

When you've lived as long as I have, you've seen your fair share of trends. Every generation thinks what they come up with is the latest and greatest, however, these days I think trends last a shorter period of time than ever, don't you? Viral one day, gone the next.

After my last post, as I had to go to the dry cleaners anyway, I decided to get smart and head into Ross to see if I could find some new shoes for gardening. When I began taking photographs in earnest, I discovered that my sandals didn't always cut it in some of the places I roamed. After an intensive search to find something other than tennis shoes I found my beloved Pr!vos made by Clark. Thinking about trends, I remember when the first velcro tennis shoes came out and my boys loving them so much. Of course, they were young. Now, they wouldn't be caught dead with velcro, but the same can not be said for their Mother. The new shoes were perfect, somewhat stylish, comfortable and slip ons with a modest velcro strap. Blushing here....

I began wearing them everywhere and if you can believe it, I got more compliments on those shoes than any pair of shoes I've ever worn. After several years of this I noticed they began looking not so spiffy any longer ; I had to resign them from public wearing. A gardening shoe was born!!

Is it any wonder that my feet got so grungy?

Ross had just what I was looking for--a slip on and cheap, as in $12.99. When I think of the money Bill and David spent on the trendy Ed Hardy clothes it makes me cringe!! I'm pretty sure this means the Ed Hardy craze has passed.

Silly me thinking that someone would notice my poorly kept nails at the funeral. That would have been quite difficult in the crowd of hundreds, as in maybe 700? It was pretty incredible as I knew it would be; when someone young dies there are many, many guests, including bus loads of fraternity brothers from FSU.

I'm wondering if I witnessed some new trends at the funeral. (see link to story about him)

• Shorts and flip-flops
• Guests arriving 45 minutes into the service
• Barely audible singing despite massive crowd
• Video presentation
• prayer read that a friend sent on facebook
• talking about hits to the Caring Bridge website (15,000)
• clapping after each person gave their remarks
• standing ovation for the deceased

and that my friends is when I made my exit. Note to friends and family: when I die, a standing ovation will be quite unnecessary even if it is trendy.

To go along with the new shoes, I finally began using the beautiful garden gloves given to me by Jane, Tom's mom, from Kew Gardens. I don't know about you, but when I receive such a nice gift, one from a ROYAL botanical garden no less, I find it hard to mess them up. Finally caved and am so glad that when I put in three trays of plugs early yesterday morning, my hands remained very nice and clean.

The back yard grass, such as it is, has given us fits. Despite new sod when we had the pool done, the area has looked ghastly for a long time. Much of what you see is the dirt I spread over the new plugs, hoping for a miracle!

I never left the house yesterday between gardening, photography, cleaning and a little painting. I don't know why, I just felt like getting out a few canvases and seeing what I could do with them. I used water color paints which I know probably isn't what you are supposed to do however, what the heck, I'm no painter which means rule breaking is a given.

I had this blue, green and white thing going which even I could see wasn't enough. I kept putting colors on, using the straw on the right to smear and, in general, mess with the paint.

Purple!! Too much purple! Looks like purple fish in the sea! After watching the Gehard Richter video I posted a few weeks ago, I've been intrigued by his scraping technique. Scraping is my word, he may call it nudging the paint for all I know. In an effort to use what I have in the kitchen I found this handy little tool from the Pampered Chef which allows you to scoop up a bunch of chopped vegetables at once. Great for making chili! And as it turns out, not so bad as a tool for making art.

Now that was fun. While it and another one, much wilder, were drying, I mowed the grass and all was right at the Peck home. Except for Bruce's absence of course....

Besides the paintings, I was working on a photograph of --surprise, surprise, some daisies!! As if I don't have enough in that category. Eventually they made their way onto my desk to keep me happy while I'm blogging.

After supper I crawled into bed to continue reading a new novel by Julian Barnes who is the polar opposite of Anne Tyler, that's for sure. According to the critics, I should be enjoying the book more than I actually am. Happily, while out today, I picked up Anne Patchett's new novel; I have high hopes.

Before I got to the library however, I stopped at an estate sale on the newer part of our street. Talk about trends, you should have seen the wallpaper still hanging from the early 1970's. An elderly couple made it their home for the last nearly forty years with what appeared to be few changes throughout that time. In many ways it seems sad to see whole lives of possessions sold off that way, don't you think? At least in this case, the folks are still living, just moving to be closer to one of their daughters in Arizona. It took all of about two weeks for the house to sell to a young family with one child and one on the way. Slowly but surely, the neighborhood is changing demographics.

Despite what I said about it being sad, I am happy to have found some fantastic Vera napkins which appear to have never been used. Cost--50 cents.

I can never see anything Vera without thinking of my own Mom which makes me wonder what will remind my children of their mother when I'm long gone. According to this , Vera began doing art work at her kitchen table in 1947. How about that?

So I didn't get the manicure done the other, instead a heavy work out with scrub brush and soap had to suffice because Helen was off for the day. I'm calling right now to see if I can become more presentable before Bruce returns although don't expect me to come home with trendy blue nails....

Picture Fest

Well, well, well. Things are looking up. As you can imagine, I was more than delighted to hear from Apple on Friday afternoon. All better now.

Plus, Bruce finally came home on Friday night. I'm bracing myself for more weeks like last one. This morning before he left I wrote down his slate of jobs which is extensive. 10, yes I did say 10 projects going on at once. One of those jobs is in Watertown, NY, the place of his birth. It just so happens to be one of the snow capitals of the United States. You get my drift? Alas, an unexpected pun!

The weekend was good. A movie and dinner date on Saturday night. I am, to put it mildly, a huge Robert Duvall fan so it was a given we'd need to see his latest in the theater. We were not disappointed in the slightest with Get Low. It's hard to imagine that RD is 79 years old. My, oh my. He just gets better with age, however, he was mighty fine in Lonesome Dove.

NEWS FLASH! I sold some things on Sunday. Except for a few drizzles, the weather was tolerable, with fairly decent traffic. Earlier in the day when Maria and Dominque came by we discussed that there are a lot of regulars and maybe they already have my stuff? Well, good thing for those regulars is what I have to say. A really nice woman brought a friend along and wonder of wonders, she bought a 20x30 canvas. Can you say delighted? Indeed.

As far as the title is concerned let's get to those pictures of happenings in the last few days. Here's one last attempt to show the glass before the new glass is installed. Maybe tomorrow?

Here's the way it's looked since last Wednesday:

I'm sorta missing my early morning sunshine.

In the last week it seems as if mushrooms have been popping up all over. Last week while walking Baxter along Pershing I came across this incredible display:

Yes, it really is that yellowy and there were many more. So big and strange.

Continuing the natural world theme. This morning while unloading a few groceries from the car I saw a hawk fly into Herb and Corrine's gigantic oak tree across the street. Naturally I ran inside to grab the trusty super zoom Panasonic FZ8 to see what I could do. If you look closely at the bird's mouth you will see blood---no wonder it stayed put for so long. I wonder what poor little creature became lunch.

Speaking of trees, the tree trimmers are cleaning up our place today. Both large oaks, a giant palm tree, and removing some dead limbs from another smaller oak that has grown up from an acorn in the last few years. It's totally astonishing to see it go from nothing to the present height of about 20-30' tall. As well, they are removing some ferns from the backyard to ready it for the new landscaping. Mind you, I've no real plan yet but not for lack of trying. That part of things is definitely a work in progress.

Moving indoors, remember last week how I was trashing all my school work? Well, here is the pile:

About the only things I kept were some papers. Don't ask me why I kept those because I've no idea. This morning after calling the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists my heart sank just a bit. I need 24 credit hours before 11/30. Six. That's what I've got now. Can you say discouraged? Indeed.

If you like female vocalists click on this link for a treat--

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127089755
Matthew introduced me to Tift Merrit some years ago. Apparently her style has changed somewhat but she's still terrific.

Big news--Bill started his new job this morning!! I know you join me in being thrilled.

Finally, here's a wonderful shade of Gerbera Daisy I found today at Publix:

You about tired of looking at pictures? I warned you now didn't I?

A Few Days in the Life of Gail

When last we met I was preparing to do the Art Stroll. I mentioned the possibility of rain, and indeed just as it was slated to begin, the rain came down. Not crazy amounts, but enough to keep people from venturing out, not to mention, that I had no tent with me. Doing those small events like that I set out a table with prints, have a table top easel, and my stand up sling. Fortunately I was just outside a large overhang which allowed me to keep things dry. Mr. Bruce arrived with Baxter in tow, grabbing an outside table at the restaurant I was adjacent to. He ordered a bottle of wine, and some food which made the evening quite nice. I only sold a few things, but at least it wasn't a shut out. One really sweet thing that happened was that a woman kept looking at my prints, one in particular. After a bit, she put them back, walking away without saying much. Sunday afternoon at Lake Eola a lady came to the booth mentioning her friend met me at the art stroll and kept talking about this photo she couldn't afford. Her friend bought it for her birthday which made me super happy. Proving once again that even when it looks like nothing much is happening, people are paying attention, and potentially will return at another venue.

On Saturday it was quite chilly--a 30 degree temperature swing. All the vendors had to laugh because the previous Saturday we were all moaning and complaining, not to mention sweating profusely, about the heat! Dana was kind enough to bring a new display rack that she hoped I could use. She's taken over Church Street Station for the real estate company and during the clean up phase she found it and thought of Out & About Photography. What a fantastic buy for us!
Look on the right side of my booth and you will see that I can display twenty (!) images at once. I'm declaring it a hit!

I was using what I named "my twirly thing" which worked better than nothing, but this is far superior for people deciding whether to stop. Because the weather was so chilly(don't laugh you Northerners!), there were loads of people out. All of the vendors were delighted, having hung in there all summer hoping for bigger crowds. They got their wish! I had a good sales day, and never once was I hot. As you well know, my little honey takes such good care of me. While setting up he realized that the wind off the lake was whistling through my back opening so he made a wind break that worked like a charm. No surprise there you think, and you would think correctly!

I managed to stay up until 8:30, then hibernated for the next ten hours or so. Bruce's flight was at 5:30AM if you can imagine. He's in DC for the final inspection of TCG which although I haven't heard from him yet to say for 100% positive, I expect went off without a hitch. If I hear otherwise you'll be the first to know.

Yesterday I was doing pool maintenance. It is times like these that make me wish we didn't have a pool--somewhat like the miserably hot last days of summer here in Florida--you get fed up with it. Anyway, I've discovered that the pool pump is losing it's prime; although the motor continues to run, there is no circulation in the pool. I noticed it was looking greenish on Sunday when I returned from the market and now I know why! It was not at all the blue pictured here:

Before I forget, I read this book last week,Tomato Girl. If ever a book deserved the description of Southern Gothic this one does. Bi-polar mother, cheating father, black magic, epilepsy, do-gooding neighbor, incest--well, you get the picture. I believe I was seduced by the cover photograph. Actually it was quite good, but I'll offer one caveat--it the idea of a mother keeping a miscarried baby in a jar of formaldehyde and trying to nurse it through the jar troubles you, maybe you should keep your distance.

After struggling with the pool yesterday, I struggled with my order for this weekend. I'm doing my first "art show" of the fall season: Winter Springs, one I did last year. They treated us so well I thought I'd give it another go, especially since Judy wants to help me. Because she is a beloved teacher at Winter Springs High School, she is undoubtedly a great asset, not to mention, just plain fun to be with! I've whined how desperately I need an editor, with no one has stepping up to fill the position, so it's just me! Let's hope I did good.

Finally, by popular demand I present the shoes for dear Sarah:

Kinda hard to show them in their full glory but I tried.