New Year

I saw this sign at the YMCA earlier this week. I like it.

Happy New Year 2023 and my best wishes for a good year.

Hello, and Who Are You?

I’ve neglected this aspect of my life for a while, the one in which I write about the everyday things that are really the important details that should be noted. I don’t know why. I admit to feeling a sense of tiredness that won’t go away – the past few years have had its effect on me the same as everyone else. It’s sometimes hard to adjust to the altered state of the larger world and my own smaller world.

On the other hand, those little details just keep on coming. I need to pay attention.

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A week or two ago, I was walking along the Green Ribbon Trail. It’s walnut season. They are dropping from the trees and landing in the path (where I take a lot of pleasure in kicking them along).

I was just going along, minding my own business, when I looked down and saw this little guy looking at me:

Yes, a walnut head, with a bit of a questioning look on his face. Hello! I said, took his photo, and left him there to greet others.

Happy Fall!

Another item added

…to my lost brake pad collection.

My husband spotted this one in a parking lot in Bryn Mawr, PA, on July 23.

It’s just a little baby! Here it is on its own:

And here it is with the rest of the gang. It’s the one on the lower left. Now you see how small it is in comparison with the others.

You may wonder how we come across these items. Well, we walk a lot, and over time we have realized there are places where these guys seem to find themselves. Look along the edges of parking lots (that don’t get swept a lot) or along the curb in busy roads where lots of trucks go (because I think trucks seem to lose them more than cars, but I could be wrong).

If you want to know more about this collection (and of course you do)… Look here.

A Refreshing Walk

A couple of days ago I took a walk on the “new” side of the Pennypack Trail, going from the parking lot on Welsh Road north. My goal was to walk 5 miles (out 2.5 miles and return trip) as part of meeting a ten-mile walk goal. I used to do this route in one day but I haven’t walked so far in one go for a couple of years, and so I planned it for two days, this being the first half.

Anyway, I headed out on a hot afternoon. It was a nice walk all right, and the trail was pleasantly busy with people always in sight, but never close enough to intrude. Here are two events from the walk.

Beaver pond

On the way out, I walked up the rail trail, but on the way back I crossed a bridge over the Pennypack Creek to take me to the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust lands on the other side. There is another trail there that parallels the creek; it’s much rougher and more secluded, making a nice change. And…I wanted to see how things looked at the beaver pond.

I turned off the main trail and headed up this one:

The pond is right there on the corner.

The pond was created by a family of beavers who were here a few years ago; there was a spring there but it was the beavers who set up the circumstances to fill up this swampy area and turn it into what you see now. Last fall, the hurricane that caused so much damage in our area severely affected the pond environs and washed out the trail. Things are now repaired and access to the pond restored for trail-goers.

I am not sure if there are any beavers still living here at the moment. They had moved on before the storm. Maybe we’ll get a new family?

I had stopped by here some months ago. Here is the same view slightly skewed to the right (you can see the edge of the sign in the left side of the picture). It’s quite a change from March!. Take a look:

After resting for a bit, I headed back down the trail and crossed back the bridge back to the rail trail.

Bryn Athyn Post Office

This post office is in the former Bryn Athyn train station on the rail trail, from when it was an active line. As I was walking by on the outbound trip, I saw this sign at the former platform area facing the trail:

I thought this was really nice of them to do. On my way back I stopped in and said thank you to the two women working there. Because I felt they needed to know it was appreciated. I went on my way thinking that yes, no matter what a mess the world might be in, there are still people doing good things everywhere we go. It cheered me up.

Well, that is the story of that little journey. It was nice to be out in the good weather and to revisit familiar places that I enjoy.

New Addition to the Official Brake Pad Collection

You may remember I have a brake pad collection, consisting of…brake pads lost in action along the road and picked up by me (or by my husband, a couple of times). Look here if you want more information on the history of how this whole thing got started.

This collection is small but it is growing! Here’s the latest member to join the gang, showing each side:

Yesterday my husband and I were walking along Greenwood Avenue in Wyncote, PA, which is a moderately busy road through our area. As usual I was scanning the ground for metal objects, because I know that along roads of this type, there will be a lot of debris lost from vehicles that attracts me. I like to make sort of sculptures with some of these items, in some cases, and other times…I just like the look of the metal object, whatever it may be.

Brake pads fall into the latter category. I don’t do anything with them but enjoy looking at them.

As I said, the collection is small. You don’t find a brake pad roadside every day. So when you do, you celebrate! Here is the whole group that I have right now, once again showing both sides. The new guy is at top left.

OK, that is where we are today. I’ll keep looking for more.

New Birds in Town

I always look forward to seeing baby geese each spring. I love their green fluffy look when they are so young, as these are that we saw on the Pennypack Rail Trail a couple of days ago. In fact, these are the first goslings we have seen this year. Here they are.

Art Quilt Show

Yesterday my husband and I visited an art quilt show at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, PA.

As you may expect, this show has been disrupted by the pandemic and I think this is the first time in a couple of years that it has appeared in person. I have never taken classes at this center but I know of it through art friends, and I’ve been on their mailing list for some time. I’m considering taking a class here, and if I don’t sign up this semester, I feel sure someday I will – so this visit also allowed me to check out the facility and get familiar with the location.

Here’s the info on the show. You can visit it online, so I won’t go through all the details. I’ll just give my personal impressions of the exhibit.

As you know, I did a lot of fabric art in the past, but not much since maybe about 2000 or so, with the exception of a few small items. I was interested to see where things stand in the art quilt world and I thought this exhibit would be informative.

The quilts were hung in two large galleries. I’ll show you overviews of each one. Let’s start here, as I sort of pan around the room from the entrance.

And here is the second room:

And here are a few of the details I found of interest. Note: I didn’t record the names of the artists or the quilts, since you can easily find them on the exhibit online page – I just went for photos of details or items that captured my eye.

I noticed that many, if not most, of the quilts utilized a quilting system of straight line stitching. I think this is because most of the quilts relied on their fabrics and colors for their visual impression, and not much for texture, so the stitching did not interfere with that objective.

I found it interesting how the stitching color affected the impression of color that the fabrics made.

I think the effect was even more pronounced in this quilt. Imagine how this detail section would look if the stitching followed the fabric colors in all cases.

Our favorite quilt, however, exploited color in its overall impression as well as employing a lot of texture. I also liked the pictorial nature of the quilt, and the idea that there is a story here. I also really like the construction technique and how it reads differently close up and from across the room.

One other quilt that caught our eye was this one constructed of mesh. It was displayed so that it hung in front of a window and could be viewed from both sides. Though I took photos of just this one piece, the same maker had another one right next to it (you can see a portion of it in the first photo, at the right) that used the same technique in another way.

I found these innovative and fun to look at, and also, I liked the idea that both sides of the art could be viewed.

I enjoyed the exhibit, but overall, I feel like I’ve seen similar work before and with the couple of exceptions I mentioned, nothing felt that fresh or different to me. I guess I have seen many very well-constructed quilts over the years and I now am looking for something that stands out and shouts out to me, commands attention. And something that is maybe coming from an unexpected direction or perspective. These quilts mostly felt pretty impersonal and almost detached to me.

Well, that’s just my opinion. I’m glad to have had the chance to see fiber art in such a setting. It’s important to see fabric work in person if possible as it reads so differently than when it’s photographed. And, it’s another step for me in heading toward my goal of rejoining the fiber art world, even in the small way that I have been contemplating, with my new sewing machine and my small stash of recently collected fabrics.

The Collection Grows

You may remember some time back I wondered when a number of objects could call itself a collection, and when do you even realize you have a collection? and that I evaded any hard and fast conclusions. But I did determine that I have a collection of brake pads lost in the line of duty and picked up where they fell.

Now that that burning question is settled, I can add to my collection and let you know all about it, with no ifs ands or buts.

Yes. Another brake pad has arrived, courtesy of my husband and his pre-dawn walks. This one was out in the street. Which is where you will find these things, usually, just as they fell off the vehicle, though I did find one in a parking lot once, but the same thing applies – they do just fall off.

Oh my goodness, this one has had a tough time. The metal is striated and grooved with friction. Even the edges of this item are sharp and damaged.

But what a beautiful look it has.

As you turn it in the light, the metal catches the illumination and is iridescent. Hidden colors suddenly jump out. Wow!

The collection is certainly enhanced by this addition, I think!

Art Drop-off 3/25/22

The weather is so fickle right now, some days very mild and others brrrr freezing cold, that my walks outside and consequently my art drop offs have been hit or miss. Here is one from this date, set on the info kiosk at Moredon Road crossing on the Pennypack Trail.

And here it is in place!

Library Picks! By Claudia

Guess what, exciting news. I won a raffle to set up two display shelves of books on any theme I wanted at my home library, the Glenside Free Library, Glenside, PA. It’s part of the Cheltenham Township system and the Montgomery County PA consortium. It’s located about a mile from my house and I have been going there for 30 years, ever since we moved to this township.

And so today I went to the library to select the books for my shelves. Since I was selecting only from the books physically on the shelves at the building (we are allowed to borrow books from any library in the county and I usually select from the catalog and have them shipped to Glenside for pick up), I decided that my theme would be – a stroll through the stacks with Claudia. I would choose books in many categories that had some meaning for me.

Emilie, one of the librarians, accompanied me around the stacks. She was patient with my trips down memory lane when I saw familiar titles and of great help in assisting me to make choices that might appeal to readers or introduce them to books unfamiliar to them (these were characteristics I wanted to emphasize in my selections).

It was so much fun to do this!

Well, with no further ado, here are my shelves. This is the main shelf:

This is the side shelf:

Here is a short explanation of why I chose these books with accompanying photos:

I loved The Sentence is Death and I chose it for itself as well as to represent all the books this author has written.

Four Lost Cities focused in-depth on ancient cities and their life cycles. I learned of some places I’d never heard of and this book fed my interest in how people lived in very different times from ours.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is a take-off on the Jane Austen book and I’ve read the print version as well as listened to the audio book. I think it’s hilarious.

Furoshiki and the Art of Japanese Gift Wrapping – I haven’t read it but Emilie picked it out and it’s just the kind of book I like to look at even if I will never try any of the processes described.

The City and the City is a book I have read several times. A detective story set in an intriguing world that I wonder how different really it is from our own.

Modern One-Act Plays stood out on the shelf to me because it was clearly not modern anymore and I was curious. The collection is dated 1950, but the plays are classics. It has been a while since I read any plays and I am resolved to do so again.

Art Quilts: Playing With a Full Deck is the record of a project where quilt artists illustrated a playing card in a prescribed quilt form. This book was influential to me just as I was getting started in art in 1994 when it was published, working in fabric myself. Also, there is a local connection – the librarian at my son’s elementary school did one of the artworks.

Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, I chose because I LOVE fairy tales and guess what? I have this same book at home so I know it’s a great volume for fairy tale readers.

The Woman in Black has long been a favorite of mine – I’ve read the book several times and I have also seen the play. It’s a mystery/ghost story – I need say no more as to why it appeals to me.

The Navigator was chosen to represent all the books by this author I have read or listened to as audio books. Perfect escapist thriller action-oriented adventure.

The other books are a biography of Billie Jean King (I admire her); Hiking Through History: Pennsylvania, which I think explains itself; the Fannie Farmer cookbook (I had one of these when I first left school); a book on grammar, Between You and Me, because I love a diagrammed sentence; and one of my poetry books, Spring Cleaning (the librarians suggested adding one of my own books and this one was my choice because of the seasonal theme).

And…here is the second set of shelves.

Barcelona and Madrid, a travel book – I chose this in memory of a trip to Spain I took 40 years ago in which I visited both cities as part of a 3 week journey that also included England, France, and Germany. This trip was a highlight of my life.

Knitting in Plain English is a book I also own myself, and the kind no-nonsense tone dispensing very clear information in this book helped me become a skilled knitter.

I chose The House on the Strand for itself (I am a fan of any book that involves time travel) and because I love all of this author’s work. I know I’ve read this particular book at least three times.

Peony was chosen because, well, I just think peonies are so beautiful, and this book represents my enjoyment of them and my other favorites, sunflowers, geraniums, and zinnias.

Lost in Translation is another book Emilie showed me and though I haven’t read it, I took a look through it, and it’s captured my interest. I’ve put it on my list to read.

Well, that’s it! Happy Reading, everyone!