Winter Walk

What passes for winter in Three Rivers would make a Minnesotan weep. On Trail Guy’s birthday, we went to a foothill area of Sequoia National Park that most visitors don’t know about. It feels like trespassing, but it isn’t.

We parked at the Rec Building near Ash Mt. He said, “We had a lot of good parties there.” I replied, “Yep, and a lot of boring ones too”. This is the place where I used to attend retirement parties for Park people that I didn’t know until I figured out that attendance wasn’t mandatory. The building is long, narrow, and very loud.

Next area was a boneyard of equipment and non-photogenic stuff, then the corrals.

I appreciate the signage at the corrals. (Cowboy humor reminds me of Cowboy Bert. It’s been a little over a year since we lost him. Heavy sigh.)

We stayed on the road until we got to this little creek, appropriately named Sycamore Creek. From there, we took another road that led down to who knows where. Trail Guy said, “Do you think we can make it back up this?” I said, “It might be too hard, but we’ll have to do it anyway.”

He noticed that thing in the tree and said, “There’s a bar – I wonder what it’s for?” I said, “You want a beer? Or maybe you need a lawyer?” Turns out it was some sort of a microphone with a solar powered box, maybe to record animal noises. I don’t think we accidentally uttered anything subversive.

These little plants will turn into irises in about May. It will probably too hot to go find them then.

We saw a few mules doing what mules do. Horses too. This is a horse. (Thank you, Trail Guy, for straightening me out.)

I found this round thing and decided it must be a tuit. Might come in handy.

While Trail Guy poked around in the boneyard piles of old Park equipment, I studied oak branches, preparing for my next mural.

This might make a nice painting, although I never know quite how to handle the gray matter of leafless oak trees massed together.

This might be a better view.

There I go again, turning every outing into a business trip. That’s the way it is when one is an artist.

Sunny in Three Rivers

The Central Valley of California is known for its heavy winter fog, often called “tule fog”. I haven’t seen it as bad as I remember growing up. My sister would be driving the family wagon, and after the intersection of the closest avenue, we’d roll down the window and count the reflector bumps on our road. Exactly at bump #17, we’d do a hard left to turn into our driveway. That was the only way to find home.

Three Rivers is usually above the fog. One day last week, it was brilliantly sunny at home, but I had to go down the hill. I pulled over to the usual overlook vista point for this one last look at the sunshine.

Wowsa. This wants to be painted, but I’d emphasize Alta Peak with the snow more than it appears in this photo.

Then I looked down canyon to see what was ahead.

Oh boy. Looks like sweater weather down there, never a bad thing for a Knitter with more sweaters and scarves than there are days to wear them each year.

Mildly Interesting

Happy Birthday, Trail Guy!

Trail Guy and I drove down to Lake Kaweah (The Lake) to take a walk one morning in December before the rain turned it into a quagmire. At one point as we bumbled along, Trail Guy said to me, “Isn’t this exciting?” I responded, “No, but it is mildly interesting”.

The day was overcast and the colors were dull.
In spite of being the last day of Autumn, the sycamores were holding their color in the various drainages that lead down to The Lake.
Cockleburs are abundant and obnoxious. They are native to many places in the US but I didn’t care enough to find out which areas.
Cockleburs love socks. (Yes, I did knit those – thank you for your interest!)
I always notice blue things. There are many blue caps to various beverage containers.
I only photographed these and left many others undocumented.
It’s pretty trashy in the lake bottom. I never remember to bring a sack; maybe it is because it feels hopeless and because it will be too heavy to drag around.
Trail Guy likes to go poking around in the boulder clusters; he says he thinks he might find a body there. I think most bodies found in Tulare County are in orange groves.
There were no bodies, only a pair of abandoned socks. I didn’t inspect them for cockleburs but I wonder if that is why they got left behind.
I found a treasure!

8 Things I Learned in December

I spent many hours during December just sitting in my chair by the wood stove and the window. Tucker and Jackson kept me company.

December was a month of random life lessons and thoughts.

  1. Open studio events aren’t for me. Although I enjoyed visiting with each person who came, and the sales were decent, my studio is just too small, and I’d rather be doing other things than sitting inside, listening for cars so I can go help people find their way up the steps to my little shed. 
  2. Christmas decorating no longer interests me; in pondering my indifference and reluctance to participate, a pattern emerged. It isn’t just Christmas; I am satisfied with how our house looks and would rather put my energy into other things than fitting in some seasonal tchotchkes. Good to know it isn’t just Scroogism.
  3. It is very important to pay attention to all notes and messages from a customer before gleefully announcing that something is finished. Maybe I can call this the Remember Hockett Rule. (This post tells all.)
  4. I rarely go to Starbucks – neither Three Rivers nor Exeter have them, and when I am in Visalia, my list is too long and my time too short. But these are interesting: (clickable link that will open in a new tab): Starbucks hacks that can save you money
  5. Eyelashes are a big deal; 2 different friends told me about getting fake eyelashes, and suddenly I began noticing them everywhere. Someone even invited a “lash technician” to BNI, my business networking group – that’s a real job title? (Hint: mascara is easier and costs way less.)
    A random photo of Jackson to break up too much text.
  6. Note to self: ALWAYS check the dates carefully before scheduling a post. Note to subscribers: When I first scheduled this post, I used 2019 instead of 2020 – ugh, confusing to the subscribers. I’m sorry.
  7. Christmas can be as hasslesome or as simple as you want it to be. Very little is truly mandatory, and “No, thank you” is a complete sentence. Once all those shows and events were finished, my holidays became simple, with time to crack walnuts, paint a mural, help friends, read a stack of books, write letters (yep, I often write personal letters in response to some of those Christmas newsletters), visit with neighbors, and just enjoy what passes for winter in Central California.
  8. Adulthood feels stronger in the S’s. There is a new confidence when dealing with difficulties and customer “service”. Recently, I’ve encountered big mistakes both with the DMV and our phone company. Instead of accepting the default first answers (summarized as “Too bad, Chump, just deal with it”), I calmly pushed through the layers and levels until the bureaucrats did the right thing. Yippee-skippee for adulthood!

Neighborhood Beautification Project

For about 12 years, I was on our neighborhood water board. Volunteers are how things work when you live in a rural unincorporated town. I got on the board as the recording secretary because I can type fast and spell, but ended up helping to make decisions about things that I knew almost nothing about, standing in the middle of the street watching water leak away and having no idea what to do about it, taking phone calls from people who were mad about their water bills or wondered why there was no water AGAIN, reading water meters, attending way too many meetings, driving around the neighborhood knocking on doors to hand out Boil Water Notices, calculating distances between wells and the road, measuring tanks and figuring out the volume of water, helping to tear down the old treatment plant, writing articles for the newsletter that no one read, putting locks on the meters of people who wouldn’t pay their water bill, removing the locks when they decided to pay.

It was hard. I learned a lot and made friends with the other board members, 2 benefits from the experience.

Two years ago I resigned. Meanwhile, I would walk past the treatment plant and think about how nice it would be to have a mural on the doors.

This building NEEDS a mural. 

Now that I have recovered from being water boarded, I want to give the gift of a mural to the current water board members and the entire neighborhood.

It took two years to decide what to paint. I used a card I drew back in 2001 of a made-up river scene, complete with Alta Peak and Moro Rock. This meant guessing the colors, and stretching things a bit.

Oops. It is actually 9 feet high, and the step stool is not high enough.
My blue ladder has a fold -down tray. It matches the masking tape, which marks the center of the doors and masks the lock and doorknob.
More blue. No backing out now.

 

To Be continued. . .

10 Things I Learned and Did in November

Honeymoon Cabin, 18×36″, oil on wrapped canvas, $1200 + Calif. sales tax

Did I learn anything in November? It is my busiest month. Lots happened and perhaps I learned a few things:

  1. I joined BNI, Business Network International. The Visalia chapter isn’t official and won’t be until there are 20 members; I was #12 to join.
  2. I taught a drawing workshop to 5 eager learners at a gallery in Visalia called Arts Visalia.
  3. St. Anthony’s Retreat hosts a great event each year called “Festival of Trees”. I’ve been a judge of those fabulously decorated Christmas trees for all 5 years, and it is very difficult and very rewarding, especially with my fellow very thoughtful and careful judges. Who knew??
  4. The annual Holiday Bazaar wasn’t well attended but the attendees were all committed shoppers; I see evidence of a growing economy, for which I am thankful.
  5. The Kaweah Artisans have been together for about 20 years; we continue to be a very compatible group who put together simple and enjoyable boutiques in Three Rivers.
  6. I can paint large; maybe 18×36″ isn’t large in the Art World but in my world it is practically a mural. It is much slower than a mural, because of the many layers and amount of detail and amount of time for each layer to dry.
  7. I went off my fiction fast with a vengeance and slammed 9 books, all fiction. The top ones were: One of Us (audio, Tawni O’Dell), The Lightkeeper’s Daughters (Jean E. Pendziwol), Fair and Tender Ladies, (Lee Smith), Harriet Beamer Takes the Bus (Joyce Magnin), and Flatshare (Beth O’Leary). Hmmm, perhaps I was trying to escape the busyness.
  8. In order to refresh a garden, the old stuff needs to be removed but it can be transplanted elsewhere instead of throwing it on the burn pile. I replanted the area around my studio, about 18 years after first planting anything free that would grow fast. Back then, I also spent money on real plants, and probably killed 3 times as many plants as have prospered.
  9. One of my favorite podcasters is Don Miller; I subscribe to his daily Business Made Simple tip. One day in November he advised this: “Do not be confused about something that is not confusing. (sounds dumb, eh?) Ask yourself, “If I wasn’t confused what would be the obvious thing to do? Am I afraid of letting someone down? Do I really not want to do this thing?”
  10. Somewhere online I read about a thing that allows an old car to play a cell phone’s podcasts (or whatever else your smartphone is playing, like the talking lady telling you how to get places) through the stereo speakers. It goes in the cigarette lighter— IT WORKS AND IS EASY TO USE!

What did you do and learn in November? Want to share in the comments?

Thankful (a short list)

• RAIN AND SNOW!

• Blog-reading friends

• Supportive husband who helps me set up boutiques/bazaars/fairs/festivals/shows, keeps the home fires burning, and fixes dinners

• Pizza for Thanksgiving dinner

• A great family (who doesn’t mind if we have pizza for Thanksgiving)

• Three kitties

• Tulare County library reservation/delivery system

• Terrific drawing students

• Fast internet

Friday Fun

Trail Guy went to Mineral King last week. This is how it looks at this time of year.

Farewell Gap with the Crowley Cabin from the bridge at the end of the Mineral King Road. November is bleak and colorless, waiting for snow.

That hardly qualifies as “Friday Fun”. What does? How about Pippin in the leaves!

Look hard. Might need to enlarge the photo to see Pippin, camouflaged in the leaves. Very very camouflaged.
Can you see him now?
Pippin!
Pippin didn’t want to share with Tucker.

See you tomorrow at the Three Rivers Memorial Building for the annual Holiday Bazaar, 9-4!

Finally, Finally

This is a longish story about a drawing student/friend.

Gina took drawing lessons from me in Exeter before I closed my studio there in December of 2001. She began a drawing, and then left lessons to return to school and become a nurse.

In about 2016, we listed some old roofing on Craig’sList (actually Cowboy Bert did it for us because we were not versed in that particular method of selling things), and someone named Gina answered the ad. We talked on the phone, and I gave her directions to our house.

When she and her husband arrived, Trail Guy went out to take care of the roofing transaction. He came into the house and said, “You need to come out here and meet these people”.

It was a happy reunion! Gina didn’t know where I had moved my studio or if I was teaching any more. She immediately said she wanted to return to lessons, because now as a nurse, her schedule is flexible.

Imagine my shock and awe when she returned to lessons and pulled out the very drawing that she had begun way back when!

Three years later, (or is it two? four? I didn’t write it down), Gina finished her drawing. It is possible that I am even more excited about this than she is!

Title ideas: Bob’s Borrowed Bike, When Dad Was Young, My Dad

When she began this drawing, we were both in our early 40s and could still see little things. Still, the rule is “no faces smaller than an egg” (and by now, I’m thinking ostrich egg). I discouraged her from drawing a face this small, but she is independent-minded and did an excellent job of capturing a likeness. This is her dad on a Harley.

Gina spent months researching Harleys, looking at each separate part of the motorcycle to get everything as accurate as possible. She spent weeks trying to discern what model of car that was. (It is a Kaiser, something we’d never heard of.) Together we spent years inching this drawing along, figuring out how to handle the various parts and textures.

Finally, finally, almost done, and then Gina decided to put clouds in the sky. She spent weeks looking at clouds, and each week she would announce, “I really don’t know clouds at all”, and all of us of a certain age would snicker.

The moment of completion.

But wait! There’s more! As Gina and I got to know each other, we learned that we both had been on the staff of Hume Lake Christian Camps in our late teens. I was in the mountains; she was in the foothills. I tossed or lost my staff photo decades ago, but as we have learned about Gina, she carefully preserves things. Recently, she sent me this, and WE WERE ON STAFF AT THE SAME TIME!

Nope, you won’t be able to spot us in this photo, purposely shown at a small size, so there.

P.S. Michael Smith-Jenson, I got your email. Thank you. I found you in this photo. I lost your email. I’m sorry. (I’m not nearly as careful or organized as Gina!)