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Goodbye Wildcat Dog Park

Late last fall Bearbear and I discovered a wildcat dog park near the multi-use walk/bike trail in our neighborhood.

There is a large park along the path; last year it was being rebuilt and redeveloped. At the edge of the park was a very large grassy area that was sectioned off with portable chain-link fence. It was sectioned off for months, as improvements in the area were made, and it became a wildcat, improvised and illegal dog park for a handful of neighborhood residents:

I suppose the fence was for keeping people out. It turned out to be a great way to keep people and their dogs in. The fencing was easy to get through. The only people who ever brought their dogs were very friendly, as were their dogs. Personally, I’d never bring Bearbear to a city dog park; there is such a decline in public civility these days, and there are some very aggressive dogs.

As you can see, Bearbear really loved the wildcat dog park, what a smile!:

The wildcat dog park was a fun place to chat and watch the dogs. It was fun to briefly meet and catch up with folks and their animals and watch the sunset. It was mildly subversive; because of course it was illegal. So I won’t say where it was, though the photos make it obvious. Here are some of the regulars:

Above is Maya and Kiwi, and unlikely pair that actually live together. Bearbear appeared to have a real attraction to Maya.

Sometimes there was a bit of action, often with my dog opting out, he prefers one-on-one engagements, preferably with older females (clearly, he knows that age and experience count). And then there was just a lot of wandering around:

And a lot of attentive watching and compulsive smelling:

Here’s a shot of Jazz; Bearbear would try to provoke her so he could chase her but she was generally too smart for him, she is quite the attractive girl:

And here’s Kimba, whom I met just once, a very lovely dog:

And Kiwi with  Skateboard:

Kiwi, who for such a small dog really can hold her own:

Here’s Fernie, Skateboard’s litter-mate; I hope I haven’t mixed them up, I could never keep the 2 straight:

Through November and December, we all wondered when the fences would come down and when our dog park days would end: we knew it was inevitable. And then it happened, right before Christmas: one day, the fences were gone.

Now at sunset Bearbear and I walk past the park and the grass looks inviting. It’s far enough away from the bike/pedestrian path so that dogs could run around and not bother anyone; but without the fences up, it’s not safe: there are coyotes that live nearby, and some dogs like to chase them. And there’s an equestrian path, and some dogs like to chase horses. And then there’s Animal Control. It’s illegal to have your dog off leash. I never saw them; but other folks had. The fine is not inexpensive.

It was fun while it lasted. To everyone I met at the wildcat dog park:  Bearbear and I had a great time with you and your dogs, and we hope to see you again sometime, if only as law-abiding and on-leash citizens.

Transcription Ambition: Organizing the Impossible

Yesterday, Sunday,  Gordon and David and Roz came over and we had some tunes around the dining room table; sounded very good. We’ll go at it again before Christmas.

I’ve been trying–slowly–to transcribe some of my favorite really big and juicy tunes:

The notation is like a scrapbook of where I’ve been tune-wise and where I’d like to revisit: since I’m neither a child prodigy or a teen fiddle phenom when it comes to Irish music, I need something to remind me of what I once bothered to learn–because tunes just go in and out of my head, it’s ridiculous, regardless of how often I may hum, lilt or play a tune.

So, writing them down helps; but it doesn’t entirely stave off the entire Second Law of Thermodynamics, as it applies to Irish music (which it does, I’m quite certain). The tunes I’m writing out now are  simply THE best tunes I’ve ever gotten, so I’m really motivated to try and retain them; they’re from Beanie Odell (of the band The Red Wellies)  in Asheville, NC. Beanie she is a very gifted performer and teacher of Irish fiddle, and she’s been kind enough to share with me not just many of her tunes but also her ideas about how I could improve my playing.

Beanie herself writes down tunes and her transcriptions are very nice indeed.  I’m not the only one trying to create some order out of the loopy endless curlicues that are Irish  tunes.

I hope I can move to Asheville one day. From an Irish fiddle standpoint, it would be just amazing. I’d have both fiddles and potatoes coming out of my ears, 24/7.

Another go at cloud fabric

I was so excited about the results of the fabric I dyed a few weeks ago that had cloud shapes on it, thanks to flour paste resist.

Sadly, as cool as that fabric turned out, it’s just not going to fit into the design of the new art quilt I’m working on.  Now I have a new idea, and I think it will work; I used reverse applique to make clouds: this design element will run on vertical pieces of fabric on either side of the piece.

Here are a few photos of one small part of the art-quilt-top in progress: the appliques are on the right side, they’re not that clear but it’s the general idea:

What I’m thinking as a successful design element doesn’t look all that outstanding here:

But I think it will look good once I have it assembled.

Resistance, is, well, futile

Someone really smart told me once in an art class that in almost every circumstance when making art, your first great idea is usually your worst idea. It was in a drawing class I took at Pima College once. I realize that sounds a bit extreme, but it’s true; it’s easy to be attached to that first somewhat intoxicating sense of inspiration when you start a new project, but by letting that first idea go, there’s more room for more inspiration to come on in. Too much attachment and insistence at the beginning makes for rigidity, which is the antithesis of anything creative.

So, it was with some…resistance that I put away my flour resist cloth. It just isn’t going to work this time around. Right now, this is the general look for the quilt top; my initial idea was to put the cloud fabric over the gold flower fabric, but instead I resurrected some screen printed fabric of clouds to put on the sides instead:

Flour Resist: For Surface Design, It’s Irresistable!

OK, I apologize for that bad pun.

After several days of either staring at the TV or holed up in my bedroom with only a chugging steam vaporizer and damp magazines for company, I pulled out the fabric and set off to make some cloud-themed fabric for my new art quilt.

Flour resist is a great, cheap way to get excellent results when it comes to designing fabric. I love it. I first read about it in the February/March 2008 issue of Quilting Arts magazine, and then again in more depth in a fantastic book by Jane Dunnewold, “Improvisational Screen Printing”, which I got myself for Christmas last year. I think I like this technique because it’s quick. Sometimes I get tired of the idea that art has to take forever!

I painted a mix of one part white flour, one part water onto cloud shapes I drew onto fabric:

If you don’t pin down the fabric at the time you apply the flour paste, the fabric scrunches up like this:

However, this didn’t bother me because I wanted an uneven, scrunchy surface, because that would make the dye pool in unpredictable ways when I applied it:

Technically, I think you’re “supposed” to apply paint or at least thickened dye…..because of course the more wet the pigment, the quicker the flour resist will break down. I think though that if you want an impressionistic design, or if you’re theme is organic–like plants, sea, sky–some unpredictable breakdown could be really attractive.

Here’s what it looked like the first time around; because, of course, I knew I’d have to over-dye it a few times to get the result I wanted:

So, I did the whole thing over again, applying paste and then squirting on dye with an eyedropper and letting it set in the warm sun for an hour….

After the second time around, this is what the clouds looked like:

The weather kind of took  a nose dive, and I wanted a bit more distinction in my cloud shapes, so for the third time I stapled the fabric down to keep it even, painted on the resist, and carefully sponged on dye, this time in my dining room with a lot of drop-cloth fabric on the floor and heater on to make sure it was nice and warm for the dye to set:

This is the finished piece; it’ll be the top bit of the quilt:

I’m piecing together all the screen-printed and dyed fabric today that will be the “quilt top”; and from that point on, the reverse-applique and applique will begin!

Back from Boston

It’s been a week since I got back from Boston, where I went for my cousin’s funeral. My little garden really went crazy while I was gone, thanks to my neighbor watering it for me:

I returned with what felt like was going to be a full-blown case of flu, but after I hammered myself with Emergen-C, zinc lozenges, Oscillococcinum, Wellness Formula and a diet of mostly fruit and juice I ended up with just laryngitis and a hacking cough at night. No turkey dinner for me last week.

I think I started losing my voice the night in Dorchester where I had the great pleasure of meeting half a dozen second cousins, in the home of Patrick (if I understand it right, he is my paternal grandmother’s brother’s grandson, making him my second cousin) and his wife Joanne; they could all speak (or, yell) louder than I can; I thought I had a loud voice, but when it came time to leave I was told I’d have to speak louder next time!

I wish I had a photo of all my new-found relations; but, a camera was the last thing on my mind when I packed for a funeral. There was a disposable film camera in the room; if I get a print, I’ll post it here.

Michaela: Rest in Peace

I learned my cousin Michaela died today in her home, with family who loved her at her bedside; she had breast cancer for 3 1/2 years.  She had a lot of guts and, as is the fashion of so many of my kin on my dad’s side of the family, was quite the smart ass and additionally, very gutsy. I’m saddened to hear she’s gone and because I wish I’d known her better.

Rest in Peace.

Here’s a photo from May 2008 when I was in Boston, this was in Milton, MA: from left to right:  my cousin Michaela,  Mary (her mother), Michaela’s  husband Bill, Evvy (Mary’s long-time partner), Bill Jr., Michaela Mary, my cousin Megan, her son Kevin.

Michaela and her family--blog copy

Catalina State Park

BearBear (a corgi mix) and I went to Catalina State Park Sunday afternoon; the weather was stunning and hardly anyone was there.  It’s exactly 30 minutes from my house to the trailhead during non-peak traffic. I remember going up to Catalina State Park when it first opened, when I was in high school; then it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, and it was such an adventure to get to that part of town: there was nothing there! Now when you leave the state park, the first thing you see is a giant walmart.

Oh well.

These are some views from the nearly 3 mile Canyon Loop Trail:

catalina state park 1

Below is a lovely view of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness:

catalina state park 2

Then when the trail turns a bit east there’s this great view deep into the Catalina Mountains:

catalina state park 3

BearBear looks a bit pooped at this point:

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It’s at this point I realize I’ve left my car keys 1/2 a mile back; but after a run back up the trail, they were exactly where I’d left them, on an observation bench. Shows you how many folks are out on a Sunday afternoon! I was very thankful to find them.

DSCN1608

OK. So then we went back down the trail again, which takes a little dive into a small wash….great when there’s water after rain/snow in the mountains….

catalina state park 4

…where some of the last very hardy fall flowers are blooming….

catalina state park 5

Getting outdoors, even if for a small hike, is just so restorative!

Art Quilt as Blog Banner, or, Birth of a Blog

I’ve wanted to blog for a while, but always found a reason not to.  I first thought about blogging during last year’s ginormous financial meltdown, when the only person (surprise) providing any real useful information was John Stewart. Does anyone remember that episode when he found the conch? That summed up so accurately the spirit of desperation then. When I saw that, I thought: I really need to have a blog.

Then, a few months later when Capt. Sully Sullenberger landed that plane in the Hudson, I thought: I should be blogging! That was absolutely brilliant and heroic. I was really annoyed with myself then that I didn’t have a blog.

So at that point, I started thinking about what my blog would look like.  If I blogged.  And I started to build the art quilt that would be my blog banner. I took my time, of course; I don’t like to rush; and, more importantly, I really favor a more introspective approach to blogging. And I wanted things to look right.

So, to start, I turned to my trusty overhead projector:

birth of a blog 1

As you can see, I still remember some Palmer method from grade school. I colored in my cursive; then I added in a free-hand fiddle, button accordion and sewing machine to sum up the tangible blog-themes I could think of:

birth of a blog 2

Then I realized I’d forgotten the bow:

birth of a blog #3

Then I took it outside and sponged on dye. I had to dye the fabric and throw it in the washing machine a total of three times before I got the look I wanted, which was something like this:

birth of a blog #4

After I was done dyeing the fabric, I quilted it together and–voila!–my banner was finished. As were my excuses. So, welcome to my blog!