The Sun, The Moon, The Planet Earth Aligned. Twice.

On August 21st, 2017 Mike, Paul, and I were in the Wyoming outback to see the totality of the solar eclipse.  I took this picture, which brings back incredibly moving memories.  It's a wild feeling, the physical stuff.  The wind stops and the temperature drops.  Also, I imagined the magnitude of the Sun, our planet and the moon align.  Being a human dot, yet a part of something so incredibly huge.  It was an exceptionally moving experience that stuck with me for that day and many days after.

Here's a TedTalk on it Ted Talk.

Then it happened again. 

The Wyoming trip involved planning, flying, driving and, okay, some fishing and hiking.  This time I saw the news it was going to be a blue moon.  And then I heard it was an eclipse also, and a third aligning, where the moon and earth were at there closest.  It's called a Super Blue Blood moon.  A lunar trifecta. I was planning to swim with my friends in the Bay for a viewing, then someone said fog was forecasted, and at my 4:30 am wake up I wasn't up for it.  I'm so glad I got up though! I could swim in the pool, and hopefully, see something along the way.  I looked out the back window, out the side windows before I left, and nothing.  I looked around the front yard and still nothing. So, I thought I missed it.  I jump in the car, pull out of the driveway and directly in the middle of the street is this! Only it was far more amazing in person.  I literally stopped the car in the middle of the street, put on the flashers, ran in the house and everyone came out to see it.  I've been tickled all day thinking about it.  I've been thinking about Kirsty, Patrick, and Kathy who shared it with me.  Which magnifies its effect even more.

From space.com
A Blue Moon is when two full moons happen in the same calendar month; lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes into Earth's shadow; and supermoons happen when the moon's perigee — its closest approach to Earth in a single orbit — coincides with a full moon. In this case, the supermoon also happens to be the day of the lunar eclipse.

I've been going about my day in an unexpectedly good mood.  Really grateful.  Like somehow the energy forces aligned through me or in me also.  Something good happened. And I'm running with it.  You never know what life will offer.  So, just keep showing up.  Get out there.  And enjoy.

Visiting San Francisco

The view at the Legion of Honor

Frances came out to visit in the fall and we went into the city.  I took her to one of my favorite spots, and let her explore the city a bit on her own which I think she was dying to do.  This is the end of the line on Hyde Street, just below the famous Buena Vista bar for Irish coffee, and just above South End Rowing Club, my favorite swimming spot.

Tourist!

I think she's happy.  Me too.  So happy she wanted to visit and put the effort into making it happen.  We really had a nice time.

This is where I was headed.  Aquatic Park.  That's Alcatraz in the background, about 1.5 away.  You can see a swimmer below the main mast of the tall ship.

Legion of Honor Rodin's Thinker

Love this view from the top of the De Young Museum.  See the Golden Gate bridge?

French countryside impressionists.

Nice front yard at the Legion.

Really can't beat the view at the Legion of Honor.

Art resembles life?

Ready for lunch.

Chinatown San Francisco

Happy Easter!

This is a slideshow from Easter.  I'm working with embedding slideshows.  You can speed up the slideshow with the fast button (recommended).  You can also click on any image to get a closer look.  If you click, you'll notice something happening, which is you going to my Smugmug site. There you will find a much better viewer, where you can look at the images as you like, in any size you like.  If you like the photos, it's worth a try. These pictures are some photos from my new-to-me camera.  (Thanks Nan!)  I'm really enjoying it, and these I braved the new world of turning off the auto settings.  I took a bunch of others that were either blurry or too dark to use.

Enjoy!  Let me know what you think!

Saint Patrick's Day (tomorrow)

Tomorrow is a big day around here.  Today is too for that matter.  Patrick is coming home!!  Moira too!  Moira arrived early this morning, and so we will all be here for Saint Patrick's day!  We are going to need to do some cooking, which means we will need to do some shopping.  I'm pretty excited about it all.

Here are a few recipes of interest:
Irish Colcannon
Roasted Vegetable Lamb Irish Stew
Irish Soda Bread
Vegetarian Mushroom and Barley Irish Stew

It's so nice to have the energy of the whole family together.  It's even more special, now that we have kids who don't always live here.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder.  :-)

Time for some Irish music too.  Chieftains, U2.  Who else? 

Casa Batllo, Barcelona

I've been to Barcelona a couple times now, and love Antonio Gaudi's architecture and style.  I'm not the only one.  All of Barcelona loves Gaudi, and Gaudi loved Barcelona.  This apartment building is one of his later designs at Casa Batllo.  Earlier in the day, we visited Sagrada Familia cathedral, a spectacular, if not seminal symbol of Gaudi.  Still yet, I was tingling virtually my entire visit to Casa Batllo.   It's on what might be opposing ends of the spectrum, both art, and architecture.  Or form and function.  And on both fronts, it's exquisite.  This is a photo of a little artistic note at the top of the staircase handrail.

When in Doubt, Plant Blueberries

I'm learning about different therapeutic techniques and one is, when stressed, turn to Mother Nature.  One trick I am trying to use is to have gratitude, and nature helps me there.  It's so frigging cool, what mother nature does!  As an example, I just wanted a little pick-me-up from the week, and so we went out to Half Moon Bay to the nurseries.  It's bare-root season, so honestly, I was thinking fruit trees.  I know, where are you going to put it?  And that's another story...

Half Moon Bay Nursery
The drive over to Half Moon Bay is beautiful in itself.  There are a few nurseries along 92 as you are headed into Half Moon Bay, and if you don't have time, go straight to Half Moon Bay Nursery.  It's the best in HMB, and maybe the best nursery in the Bay Area.  It's the first one on the left as you make it over the hill.  Anyways, for a few years, I've tried planting blueberries.  I've got about 4 plants that are either dead or almost.  I really think they should flourish, like everything else does.  I know people grow them in the area.  So, I'm trying again.  This time, partial shade.  Under the blue spruce, which it should like, and how I remember them growing wild in Michigan...  So, here it is in the kitchen. Sarah is lurking in the background.  See the Cape Cod glasss?  From our previous adventures...  Also on the Half Moon Bay trip, I got a grape, and a white raspberry.  Actually Sarah got the white raspberry.  We'll see how we do.  I also got a killer teak table from another guy named Tim.  Ask me about that one!

Jib Jab with Tim
I've been thinking how awesome nature is, and sometimes how easy it is to forget about it.  I'm pondering it more, and seeing what gems I can come up with.  Heading over the hill to HMB put me in a completely different and positive mindset.  It seems to be a common thread when in and around nature.  More later...

Draw Me A Story!

That's Malcolm at the Los Altos Art Museum.  LAAM brought in Malcolm's series of children's book illustrators from the Cartoon Art Museum.  Yep, he is the founder of the Cartoon Art Museum.  This  traveling collection has been all over the United States already.  The exhibit includes the work of various artists from the last 100 years; illustrators and comic artists show the breadth and techniques of the craft, from idea to art to print, and how processes and techniques have evolved over the past century.  It's a fascinating study of ways to tell a children's story.

Here's Malcolm with three generations, Kirsty, Sarah and Karen, none prouder than his daugher, Kirsty.  :-) It really was a fun day and an impressive collection and exhibit.

 Here is the art work for a book as the illustrator created it.  You can see all the reference colors and notes in the margins that get used for production.

Here is the final book cover.  Cool!

Here's a nice piece on some of Malcolm Whyte's history.  You can see how this exhibit is a good representation from his experience.  Pretty cool!

 Kirsty is featuring one of the artists from upstairs here.  She is a first grade teacher, and wanted to remember this image.  I think she has some ideas on how she may use this in her class.  Wouldn't you love to see this in your first grade classroom?

Sarah and Kirsty enjoying.

 There was a presentation from the curators thanking all the major donors, as well as the artists on-sight.  At the time, I thought this woman had quite a presence, showing an extraordinary amount of attention to the donor-curator love-fest so I took a picture.

 Later, Sarah and I were upstairs, looking at a comic strip, and the more we read it, the more we were laughing and enjoying it.  The comic is about this character reaching in the fridge for jam, and finding there wasn't any left, so she decided to make some, first, by picking cherry-plums from the neighborhood.  Then...there was a mention of a San Carlos park in one of the panels!  We both looked at each other, saying; "Oh!"  I was thinking, we make jam!  We live in San Carlos!  The more we looked and read, we began to realize the young award-winning artist who created this is from San Carlos, and is a 16 years old.  We liked her.

 Just as we were realizing these things, and loving the strip, this young dynamo, Emma came up to us to introduce herself!  This photo is vintage Emma.  She is a bundle of energy, with a contagious personality.  She's already giving back to the community, including teaching at 826 Valentia.  She's going to be fun to follow, and hopefully we will see her around town.  You can see her strip, the Chapel Chronicles on her website.

Mid-conversation she offered to make a sketch for Sarah, even in the midst of all this attention and goings-on.  It was really quite a generous gesture, from quite an inspirational young woman.  Keep your eyes out for Emma T Capps!