Precious time with Amelia

Time with Amelia is getting frighteningly precious these days, now that we know she's going off to Cal Arts in Fall. She works two jobs, goes to school, is in a band, takes bass lessons and has a social life, so time with her is limited these days. But this week it's Spring break, so we've had lunch together 3 days in a row. She even let me buy her some clothes yesterday!!

Today we went to a gorgeous garden called "Sonoma Botanical Garden." You'd never know you're in Sebastopol once you step foot inside. I want to go back next month when all the rhododendrons are in bloom - they're just now starting. Camellias are the big thing right now, and they had some pretty spectacular ones.

A few of my favorite art blogs

I just thought I would mention a few blogs and websites of people who's work I admire. I look at these sites regularly for inspiration, motivation, and just to be wowed.

My amazing (former) boss Dennis:
http://www.dennisbolt.com/

Dennis's equivalent at the Seattle Times, Gabi Campanario:
http://gabicampanario.blogspot.com/

Enrico Casarosa, Pixar story artist, Founder of Sketchcrawl and new Daddy:
http://enricocasarosa.com/wordpress.1/

Martha, amazing watercolor sketcher from Berkeley:
http://trumpetvine.com/sketchblog/

Blog of a graphic designer whom I do not know. But we share a passion for all things Orange:
http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/

A felter extraordinaire (see "filz")
http://www.annettetotzauer.de/haupt.html

Another felter extraordinaire and daughter of our friend Ruth:
http://www.amber-rose-creations.com/

Ernie "Hardware Wars" Fosselius
http://www.ernietown.com/

and last but certainly not least,
The amazingly talented SuperDaughter Amelia:
www.gogeckogirl.blogspot.com

Lifestyles of the unemployed

I haven't been to Oahu in years, and I've been trying to figure a way to justify a trip over there for Judy's birthday in June. Well, a couple of weeks ago a postcard came in the mail offering us 2 roundtrip tickets to Honolulu with accomodations if we listened to a one-and-a-half-hour sales pitch for a Vacation Club. We've never done anything like this before, so I asked a few friends who have done it what it was like. They all told us to expect the hard-sell, but you do get a nice gift at the end. I then went online and tried to dig up dirt on the company, and basically only found some people who had bought into it and were not happy with the deal. Well, we decided it would be worth the torture, so today we drove over to Napa to listen to the schpeel. I tried to envision what the sales technique would be so that I would be prepared, and my guess was pretty close. Those poor people couldn't have invited 2 less-likely-to-buy people! We were both totally turned off by the deal. 5-star resorts do not appeal to us, sorry. Plus we sort of lied about our income, and told them our last two vacations were to the Eastern Sierras and Baja (oops, forgot about that France trip) so they didn't even really end up pressing us too hard. We walked away with a voucher for a trip to Oahu! Now, we shall see if we get the dates we want -- but we both felt it was fairly painless and worth the drive. Afterwards, we drove through Napa and visited our old college where we met and my old house. Then we drove up valley to St Helena and had lunch and bought some Easter goodies at Woodhouse Chocolate. We drove home over Spring Hill Road/St. Helena Road, which was gorgeous and mellow. A very nice day!

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Lunch (the second course):


French radishes from the garden:


On Thursday, I got to tag along with my friend Michele on a private "Culinary Tour" at Chalk Hill Winery. Michele is a food writer, and is doing a story on these $150 tours for the next issue of Savor magazine. Talk about lifestyles of the rich and famous. Gheeze Louise. Chalk Hill is a 1400-acre estate winery. On the property is lawyer-owner Fred Furth's estate, the winery/tasting room (open only by appointment), 7 guest houses (to bribe, I mean host distributers and prominent wine-club members), an organic garden complete with 10 chickens, vineyards, lakes, a chapel, an one of the largest equestrian centers in the Western U.S. The equestrian center is for Fred's wife Peggy and her trainer. Apparently there are six horses. Six. I never saw hide nor hair of one of 'em. We were driven down to the organic garden, where the gardener gave us a tour. We got to sample from a gorgeous array of freshly picked spring vegetables that he had laid out, including white asparagus. Then we were taken up to the equestrian center at the top of the property, where they also have their culinary center. The horses on this property live better than most people (they have their own jacuzzi) and have names such as "Lord Chalk Hill" and "Lord Frederick." The floor of the humongous indoor arena is composed of FAKE dirt. (Real dirt would stir up too much dust.) They've planted 1400 tulips outside the barn on either side of a flagstone path leading up to the culinary center. The full-time French Chef, and his sous-chef prepare meals using foods primarily from the organic garden. We were treated to a private 3-course meal, paired with wine. The meal was incredible, and the chef came out to meet us afterwards. I was surprisingly comfortable, considering how out-of-my-element I was. Fortunately, the two young people showing us around were nice and un-pretentious. Plus it helped that there was a dead bunny rabbit on the flagstone pathway through the tulips.

This is the indoor arena, where they once had a fundraiser with the Russian National Symphony. The dirt is fake. It's composed of cork and something else; I forget what. The timber for the building was a gift from Alaska after Fred Furth represented the state against Exxon. They closed Hwy 101 in the middle of the night in order to transport the beams up to the estate.


The 1400 tulips. (I didn't photograph the dead bunny)

She's gone.

It's really hard to fathom. Our red chicken was attacked and killed on Monday by some unknown vicious animal. I feel terribly, terribly guilty because I was home when it happened, and I heard her squalk. I even went outside to check on her, and could not find her. So I assumed she'd just scared some faral cats away like she'd done so many times before. But when Amelia came home from school, she found her body on the front lawn. Dave thinks it was a dog; I think it was one of those stupid cats that have been stalking her for years. We buried her in the back yard. She gave us 7 great years of companionship, and I will miss her so much. Now we have no chickens.

Booby Ruby Schmooby Jooby

Isn't she cute?

I just love this chicken. She's like 95 chicken-years old now. You'd never know it, though. She even laid an egg the other day. I love to watch the feral cats out in the backyard. They just stare at her. They know she's a bird, but they also know that she'd kick their butt if they tried anything. So they keep their distance.

No News was Good News for awhile

For a whole two weeks I was able to have hope about that job, but you can only say "no news is good news" for so long, so I finally e-mailed the art director whom I interviewed with to find out the status of the job. She wrote back saying that they've hired someone. No explanation - she'll "keep my resume around." What a bummer. This was the job I really wanted; of all the jobs I've interviewed for. This gets old and depressing after awhile.

I do have a couple of little freelance projects going. And I'm taking a super-wonderful class at the JC called "photo restoration." It is the most advanced Photoshop class I have ever taken, the teacher is amazing, and comes from a photography background. Most of the students are super smart professional photographers, and I feel like I'm finally using photoshop to its full potential after all these years of just scratching the surface.

Tonight I had hula, which greatly helped ease my misery. Hula is incredibly fun these days, as we're learning a fast-paced sassy choreography to Amy Hanaiali`i's "Hale`iwa Hula." Also our little `ukulele group is having a lot of fun and picking up speed a little.

So all-in-all life is good, and I've decided to beat myself up too bad about the job. There's some reason it wasn't the right job (I just wish I knew what it was.) And I have hope that something better will come along, and I'll look back and say, "Man, I'm glad I'm not commuting to Petaluma."

Visitors with Aloha

I love blogging when I have something to blog about, and boy do I this week! No, I didn't hear about the job yet; this is just plain fun stuff. I'm gonna embarrass the Hell out of Amelia, but sometimes a parent just has to do it. She'll never tell anybody I have a blog.
Earlier this week we had visitors from Hawai`i. Our old friend and hula sister Judy, who used to live in Forestville, came with her friends Led & Sharon Ka`apana and Mike & Malissa Ka`awa. Led & Mike were doing a West Coast tour. They'd just played Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Sunday night (great show!) and had a couple of days off before their next gig, so they came up to Sonoma County. We went over to the Napa Valley on Monday and toured the new Castello di Amorosa; a winery in Calistoga. Apparently the winery owner is a Medieval Architecture fanatic, and had this castle built exactly as the castles in Tuscany were built. The architect and the artists who painted the frescoes all came over from Italy, and it took 14 years to build. You can't see it from the highway, which is good, because it is pretty extreme. Something like 107 rooms, 7 levels, even a torture chamber (yuk) Although flamboyant, it is authentic and artfully done. Under the castle are 35,000 square feet of tunnels for wine barrel storage. Yeah, they really make wine there, and it's good. The acoustics alone are amazing in these rooms made of stone with arched ceilings. Something to see if you're in the area.
Then ... Then!
On Tuesday night we had a party for Judy with all her old hula friends. We had it at a great little English Pub in Railroad square called "Toad in the Hole." We had hula class that night only a block away, so after hula everyone walked over to the pub. Led & Mike got up and played music and we got to dance. After 15 years of studying hula, I can honestly say that dancing to Led live doing "Ikona" was my hula hightlight. By far, bar none. I don't usually like to perform, but this felt comfortable because it was mainly just us, the lighting was low, and there were probably 10 or so of us who jumped up to dance. There was very little room, so we were dancing all over the place. They took a short break and then invited Amelia and a couple of guitar players up to play with them. Oh Wow. Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Dave & I must have been beaming! (Although, if Dave were writing this, he'd mention how they didn't have the sound right.) She just jumped in and knew what to do. I asked her later if it was hard, and she said it was pretty easy. The worst part was the nervousness before going up. She did so great, and I know that it meant the world to Judy too, to see Amelia up there with her buddies Led & Mike. I was a lame photographer that night, because I just didn't want to miss the experience, and besides our friend Peter was shooting left and right. I don't have pics from Peter yet, but here's one I took, just to prove it really happened - oh, and a few from the Castello too.

--click to view larger--

Schollenberger Park

Today after my interview I drove down the road, changed my clothes and rode my bike around Schollenberger Park. I was in birdie heaven. I can't believe I've never been there before. The interview went well, and I really want the job!

There were white swans, Canadian Geese, Sandpipers,

and Redwing Blackbirds!

Looking towards Lakeville

Finally got my portfolio online!

Finally, finally, finally!!! I have been wanting to put my portfolio online for years now! I've been putting it off because I am not a web guru, and it just seemed like such an insurmountable task to learn Dreamweaver (not to mention expensive.) Especially when I have so much else to learn about everything else! And when I got laid off this time, it was one of my first goals - no excuses now. I was going to have it done by January. Around mid-January, I remembered that I hadn't started yet. Thanks to iweb, I finally got it done. I've been consumed by it for the last couple of weeks, barely able to tear myself away from the computer, working late, late, late into the night and giving myself eyestrain headaches, but... finally it is done. If you would like to take a look at it, I'd love some feedback. It's at http://web.mac.com/nancylorenz

Job Interview!

My last job interview was really disappointing. I'm sure that he was as disappointed as I was - not a good match. BUT! Next week, I have an interview here:

http://www.dauphinepress.com/

I love their stuff. I'm super excited.

Nice Weekend

Enrico and Marit, needle-felted

Saturday was the 17th Worldwide Sketchcrawl. I went down to SF with Amelia and a new friend whom I met in my Architectural sketching class, Diane. We spent the day in Chinatown & North Beach. Aproximately 65 sketchers gathered in SF, with many more groups gathering around the world. Diane is an architect and does amazingly beautiful buildings, street scenes, trees, people, shading, you name it. And she's fast. Amelia did probably her best sketchcrawl work yet. I intentionally left my camera at home so that I would sketch. Most of these people are art students or professional artists, and the work we saw at the end of the day was simply amazing. My sketching is nowhere near the same league, but I try not to beat myself up too much about it. I don't like to share my work at the end of the day. Fortunately, only a couple of people asked to see my sketchbook. Diane & I both felt like it was such a gift to just dedicate an entire day to sketching. What fun. It's sort of like shutting out the rest of the world when you're concentrating on drawing, and I love the peace that it brings.

I had a little gift I had made last summer for Enrico and Marit, and this was the first time I'd seen them since then, so I was finally able to give it to them. Enrico is the mastermind behind Sketchcrawl. I had made little needle-felted likenesses of them, based on Enrico's charicatures in The Venice Chronicles - a cartoon documenting their trip to Italy, ending with a proposal of marriage. I was so charmed by it, and by the couple themselves, that I made them these dolls. I think they liked them. Since I made them, I learned that Marit is pregnant with a baby girl. So I'll probably be adding a little pink bundle of felt in the near future.

The Venice Chronicles: http://enricocasarosa.com/wordpress.1/VeniceChronicles/
Sketchcrawl Forums: http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/

Mail truck ... it drove away before I finished, but that's ok. Colored in Photoshop




Francis Ford Coppola's "Zoetrope" building, Columbus & Kearny. Colored in Photoshop.
We had soup at "Nanking" across the street - reputed to be the best Chinese food in SF. Soup was great - will have to go back there again.

Today we went to visit Jo at her new place in Sonoma. Dave & I brought our bikes & Amelia brought her new scooter, so we rode from Jo's to the square, and met her there for a little lunch at Basque Boulangerie. Now I know where General Vallejo's home is and the Sonoma Overlook trail. I love being a tourist in my own county!

Missing Jim

This week marks a year. Here are a couple of pictures of Jim doing his favorite things with his favorite people. These pictures are from our last visit with him. We had so much fun.

Doni, Jim, Lindsay & Kyle in the studio


Paige & Jim going into "It's a Small World" for the 2nd time in a row

Weathergrams

I had never heard of Weathergrams before I saw some hanging on Velva's tree by her front door. They were really sweet, unique and obviously hand-made. To me, they called out for you to stop, and take some time to read them. They're a little bit quirky, and reminded me of the book "Remember the Night Rainbow," that we bought Amelia when she was 3. Velva's Weathergrams were made by her neighbor Judy Brooks. When Judy heard from Velva how much I liked them, she made some for us.

These have been hanging in our Oak tree out front for the last year or so. I don't think anybody but me appreciated them, but I think they are sweet. They were beginning to get tattered and torn, and I found a couple on the ground, so I rescued them. I will probably recycle them as gift tags or something. If anyone would like to have one, let me know, and I will pass it on. Click to zoom in and read them:

The weathergram is written on paper cut from grocery store paper bags. The strip is 2 1/2 x 10 inches. Current Cursive Italic is the letter-form for the weathergram - not formal calligraphy. Acrylic vermilion is used for the initial, & Higgins waterproof India ink for the rest. The writing will last as long as the paper does or longer. Any other color or ink will wash out or fade away.

Here are some excerpts of information that Judy included for us, from the book "Weathergrams" by Lloyd Reynolds, Reed College, Portland, Ore.

The Weathergram is a very short poem of about ten words - or less. It comes as a sudden insight; & hence brevity is essential. Furthermore, no one will stop to read any lengthy statement while standing in the wind & rain. The Weathergram is hung on a bough or branch in the garden, at a campsite, or along a mountain trail. Raw & incomplete when just written, the weathergram needs the graphic touches of wind, rain, sun and ice - depending on the season. It may fade to an off-white, old bone color, & ragged edges gie it some of the qualities of a faded leaf. The origins of the weathergram go back to 1926-27, when I first found translations of Far Eastern poetry. After developing weathergrams I discovered that the idea had been anticipated much earlier & with great artistry, by the Japanese, who send tanzaku with thank-you notes or exchange them with friends. Like weathergrams, they are given away & are strictly non-commercial.

"Daddy went winsnurfing"

That's what Amelia used to say when she was a little girl. Today Dave worked from home in the a.m., and then went out to Doran before going to work.

First storm of the season

This is what happened at 4am Friday at the end of our street. It was a Douglass Fir. Fortunately did not fall on a house, but snapped the power lines, and we were without power till mid-day Sunday. Dave hooked up the generator a few times to run the refridgerator and the well pump, so we got showers and kept food from spoiling. Our trusty wood stove kept us cozy warm. More storms forecast ahead, and now that the ground is saturated, everyone's nervous about all the rest of the big trees around here.

Backyard rendezvous

Happy New Year!

Bodega Harbor Sunset 12/31/2007

I consider any year that has no death in the family or no major illnesses a very good year. I have many dear friends who did not have such a great year in those regards. Here's to all of us having a wonderful and healthy ʻ08. I celebrated the last day of 2007 by taking my new car out on my favorite drive - to Occidental, then Coleman Valley Road and down the coast. There were lots of people out there enjoying the last of the light of 2007. It was sunny and nary a breeze. The sunset was unbelievable. We considered having a few friends over tonight, but after having 29 people here for Christmas, we're done with that for awhile. We'll go out to the front porch at midnight and blow the conch shells.

I live on Coleman Valley Road and I am wearing my winter coat.





"Mommy, some lady's taking pictures of me."




It looked like somebody airbrushed a squiggly in the sky



Last sunlight of 2007 on the town of Bodega Bay.


Sunset on Bodega Bay

Egret or a Heron? Must learn my birds.


"X" Marks the spot.