Same Day Second Post

We've arrived at the Lake Quinault Lodge and I'm attempting to catch up on a bit of blogging and photo editing. I'll share a few more pics of our trip, beginning on Friday when C and I departed from Coupeville.

As we headed north toward Deception Pass, we stopped and bought these wonderful dark sweet cherries from a young man who was selling them out of the back of his truck:


I had never seen dark sweet cherries before, except in a can. These were especially good and sweet. YUMMMMM!

When we returned to Coupeville to take the ferry to Port Townsend, we once again passed Penn Cove, and there was the regatta:



Later that afternoon, we arrived at Domaine Madeleine, which is situated on the Straits of Juan de Fuca, between Sequim and Port Angelese. Here is the wonderful wildflower garden that greeted us as we drove down the lane:


I complimented Ryan, the gardener and son of Jeri our hostess, and he offered me seeds from his gardens. So, I am going home with a large baggie full of wildflower seeds! What wonderful memories will be blooming in my garden next Spring!

This morning we drove past Lake Crescent on our way to the Hoh Rainforest. It is a lovely glacial lake and I was captivated by its beautiful turquoisey/teal color. I hope you can see it in my pics.

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OK, so here we are at the Hoh Rainforest. Magnificent! Douglas Firs, Sitka Spruce, many ferns and loads of wildflowers blooming everywhere!



Look at these recently fallen giants:

By late afternoon, we were finally getting hungry after our sumptuous five course breakfast at Domaine Madeleine. Our sister-in-law Molly had told us that she had enjoyed a great meal at the restaurant in La Push just a month or so ago, so we thought we'd give it a try.



The special was Dungeness Crab, which C ordered cold, and I enjoyed the sauteed halibut. Another great meal.

Here are a couple more scenes from La Push.


All in all another very great day in Paridise!

PEACE

Another day in Paridise, er, Coupeville

This morning's breakfast in Paridise:

banana smoothie with blueberries, caprese on a whole wheat English muffin, poached egg/sausage on English muffin. The caprese was to die for, as was the smoothie. I'm not much of an egg fan though.

We learned about Tsutsugaki this morning. In this technique, dye is added to thickened rice paste, placed in the tsutsu, which is similar to a cake decorating tube, and then designs are drawn on fabric. Here is Akemi drawing with her tsutsu:


This is the stenciled piece that I was working on yesterday, after adding some stamping:
I painted the background on this morning, steamed it, and then forgot to photograph it. Hope I'll remember tomorrow!

This is my favorite piece thus far:

I like the contrast of the two colors and the optical illusion produced by the purple stamp on top of the orange stencil. I painted the background a lemon yellow, but also forgot to photograph it...more for you to wait to see.

Remember the class piece that we had stamped all over at the end of yesterday's post? Here it is after Akemi added the black background:

This is a piece that was done by Teresa. I love the swirls. If you enlarge it, you will see the wonderful effect that she got by painting over a screen.

Tonight the class went out to eat at the local Thai restaurant as a group. We had a great time. Our waiter was a real comedian and kept us laughing throughout dinner. We were invited to go for dessert to the home of Lisa, the administrative assistant at the Coupeville Art Center. She and her husband have a lovely, lovely home and garden, with lots going on. Here are a few shots from her incredible garden:

fireplace made out of recycled materials


stage for performances by their children and grandchildren:


treehouse:


babbling brook:



I'm sad that our four days of class are coming to a close, but C arrives tomorrow, and I am looking forward to touring around with him for a while!

PEACE

Today in Coupeville

Charlotte, our hostess at the Coupe de Villa, brings us a lovely breakfast each morning:


This morning Akemi demonstrated how to make potato paste resist, and then we added dyes to the mixture, and painted our backgrounds. Here, Akemi and Gerrie are putting the finishing touches on Gerrie's first piece:

I painted the background on my scarf and then Gerrie and my pieces were steamed, rinsed and hung on the line to dry:


I sketched and cut out this stencil and painted it onto another piece of stretched silk:

It is navy blue, but I am undecided about the background color as yet. I'd better hurry and figure it out, as it needs to be finished tomorrow morning! YiKES!!

After lunch, Akemi demonstrated stamping with rice paste on silk. She encouraged us all to stamp on the same piece with found objects that we had brought from home. Here, Nita, Akemi's class assistant is adding her mark:


This is the piece at the end of the day:

pretty cool eh? Tomorrow it will look even cooler, with a background color added!

Here's Akemi at the end of the day, with a few of our class pieces hanging behind her:



When we got back to the B&B, I wandered out into the backyard to check out what was happenin' on Penn Cove while Gerrie called home. I had left my binocs in the room but was too lazy to go back and get them, and I was having trouble identifying the little birds in the nearby Madrona trees. Suddenly, as if to make my viewing easier, I heard a rather loud squawk and screech and a huge bald eagle flew into view and perched on a large limb nearby! He preened and posed for me......but alas, I had no camera either! Suddenly a second eagle appeared and knocked the first one off of his perch! Gerrie and Charlotte, our hostess, both appeared from opposite sides of the garden, and we all admired Mr. Eagle for quite some time. What a treat!!!

We walked into town this evening and enjoyed steamed Penn Cove Mussels and Fish and Chips at Toby's a long established eatery on the water. YUMMMM!!!

Here's the svelte Gerrie with Coupeville in the background:

We walked 'home' past the Bayleaf and spotted this handsome clump of lavender:


Wish you all were here!

PEACE

Rice Paste Resist at Coupeville

Today was Day One of our Rice Paste Resist on Silk class with Akemi Cohn at the Coupeville Art Center on Whidbey Island. Akemi is a warm and knowledgeable teacher, and both Gerrie and I felt very much at ease in class.

Here is Akemi kneeding the rice paste resist 'dough' before steaming it:






the mixture after steaming:

mixing the adid dye to add to the rice paste resist

Gerrie drying her first layer of rice paste resist:

my scarf with layer one of the rice paste resist:



it's late, I'm tired, and so you can look at the pictures and figure out the rest for yourself tonight!

PEACE

The First Supper

After a rather horrendous and stressful check-in at the airport, I finally boarded my flight to Seattle. It was a full flight, but my seatmates were both "Microsofties" who were returning home after attending their annual week-long convention in Atlanta. They were exhausted, I was pumped up: so they dozed and I knit, listening to a very interesting book about the history of knitting on my Ipod. The five hours literally flew by and when we landed, Gerrie was there waiting for me! It was a gorgeous summer day in Seattle and we headed north to take the ferry out to Whidbey Island:

Whidbey is a much larger island than either of us had realized, and once we arrived, it was about another half hour's drive to the charming little community of Coupeville and our accomodations at the cute and quaint Coupe de Villa. I was feeling a little jet-lagged, and both of us were hungry, so we did a bit of unpacking and walked a short ways down the street to Christopher's for a lovely dinner of Penn Cove Mussels and Pesto encrusted Halibut, plus a glass of Whidbey Pinot Grigio: yummmm to all!


This is the view of Penn Cove from Christopher's:
We'll be off to our first day of Rice Paste Resist on Silk with Akemi Cohn in just a bit! WooHoo!

Happy Birthday to my honey, who is back at home holding down the fort!

PEACE

What to Wear???

So, as I told you yesterday, I am flying out to Seattle on Sunday to take a class from Akemi Cohn at the Coupeville Art Center on Whidbey Island. Gerrie and I have been planning this trip for ages, and I really cannot believe that the time is finally upon us! I sent out a big box of class supplies last week and breathed a sigh of relief to have that packing done. Since then I've been making little piles here and there with clothes and 'stuff'. Workshop clothes are always fun, but this year I'm a bit more challenged due to the difference in climate. I've decided that leggings may just be the answer! I have some black ones, and I found some white ones in one of my dyeing supplies drawers, just begging for some attention. I like these first ones best:

They have long legs and will keep me warm on the cool mornings! And then there's this pair of cropped legged cuties:

I don't know what possessed me to add that red down there at about the knees, but what's done is done! Gerrie may decide that she will go to her PT appointments and not join me in Coupeville after all! But Gerrie, I promise not to embarrass you at SeaTac: I'll be the one with the hatful of chartreuse, violet and fucshia petunias!!

Deb Roby and I were in a journal swap together a year or so ago and she ended up sending a lovely journal to me. I'm slowly but surely filling its pages (the paper was handmade in Africa!) and here is the latest entry:


I was playing around with bees wax and some old photographs that I had copied. That is my great grandmother Petronella on the left, surrounded by parts of a letter written to her by her son Carl, who had come to America from Sweden. On the right is a baby picture of my Mom and one of my Uncle Eldon, better known as Pete. I found the dragonfly in my studio and the flowers are from the garden. I want to see how long the flowers and dragonfly will be preserved under the beeswax. Anyone know?

Show Me the Money!!!
My husband C (actually C3) and his two siblings C1 and C2 are very fond of movie watching, in fact his sister (C2) used to write movie reviews for a newspaper! After we watched the Coen brothers movie "No Country for Old Men", she emailed C3 and challenged him "where did the money end up?". Well, we adore the Coen brothers, so it was no problem for us to watch 'no country' again. We started it a couple of nights ago and finished it last night, but then went back to rewatch many key scenes. If you can get over the unabashed violence (you pick up your knitting when Chigurh picks up his gun!), it is a great flick! Some of the lines are hilarious and the photography is fabulous...and I was knitting while I watched! So, my guess is that Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, ultimately ends up with the money........what do you think? Tommy Lee Jones is, as always, fantastic in his part as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, Josh Brolin is great, and Kelly Macdonald as Carla Jean Moss is incredible...whoever would have guessed that she is Scottish! I have to say that my favorite scene is the one with Kathy Lamkin, as manager of the Desert Aire has her brief encounter with Javier Bardem. She is fantastic!!! OK, C2: what do you think? Did we get it right? Where do you think the money ended up? Comments, anyone????

I'm off to pack!

PEACE

the Joys of a Small Town

I often struggle with a very strong desire to move to the city where the fast pace, anonymity, and easy access to museums, theaters, great dining,etc. is so appealing to me. Then there are times like today when I know that another part of me is so very fond of my little town and all that it has given and continues to offer me. I am always thankful for my church, not only from a spiritual aspect but also for the deep friendships I have developed there over the years. We also have a terrific theater group here and C and I never miss a production. The art center is a fabulous addition to our community, and provides many of us with creative stimulation. Today the knitting group that has so graciously adopted me met at Inman Perk, a new coffee shop on the downtown square....the square being something that all self-respecting Southern towns cannot be without! The group that gathered made me aware of another aspect of the positives of small town life: we all know eachother, and we share such history! Sally was the long-time owner of our local quilt shop, and where I took knitting lessons two years ago. My Mom and I used to spend very pleasant times in Sally's shop, just fondling the fabric and discussing/dreaming about projects. Sally always asks after my Mom, and that is so nice and thoughtful. Sally's daughter and my daughter ran their first marathon together at Disney World several years ago. We have history! Tommye was also at the knitting group. Her husband and mine worked together for years, and Tommye also worked at the quilt shop, so we saw eachother often. Bonnie joined us this morning. Her daughter and mine were school chums, and Bonnie used to sing in the choir at our church. I miss seeing her smiling face there. Karen was also there this morning. She was K's gifted teacher in the 5th grade and I credit her with teaching K how to really study. Karen recently ordered one of my ComplexiTees, and I delivered it to her this today. It was pretty neat to see it on her, and then to spot her later crossing the downtown Square to meet friends for lunch, still wearing my tee! So this morning we knit (look at the fabulous article on knitting on Wikipedia) and chatted, and drank a bit of iced coffee.......it was a great morning in this small town! But we missed you Roberta!!!

C and I both spotted 'our' Pied-Billed Grebe, returning after its short migration to who knows where. It was almost impossible for C to snap a picture of our little darling, as she dove and then resurfaced a ways away, as is their custom.

I doubt that I would see my Grebe if I was living in the city fulltime, and I dare guess I wouldn't have my little veggie garden either. Here's what I've got growing right now:

an Ichiban eggplant

Roma tomatoes

Stargazer lilies

Gerber daisies

I leave on Sunday to fly to Seattle where I will be met by my Blogger Buddy Gerrie. We are taking Beyond Kimonos: Color Rice Paste Resist on Silk at the Coupeville Art Center and will be sharing accomodations at a nearby B&B. I am really looking forward to meeting Gerrie in person and getting to know her better, learning another dye process on silk, and to spending some summer time in the Pacific Northwest. WooHoo!!! OK, so I'd better go get packing!

PEACE