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5 Days in LA: Day 1
Oh holy night! 5 or so day in Los Angeles, and I'm on the final day. Earlier today I saw the 'Hollywood' sign from the Observatory at the top of Griffith park--a sight I didn't realize I wanted to see, until I did. Pretty darn cool. To be fair we didn't see much more than varying views of downtown LA for most of this trip, as me and my colleague are in town solely for the purpose of presenting at the annual conference of our professional association. Our topic was selected from over 4000 submissions. Last autu…
Coyotes in New York
Every autumn, without fail, as the semester begins, the health and safety office where I work, starts getting emergency calls and messages. The students are back, and... ...the coyotes are hungry. I shouldn’t joke, as being confronted by a wild dog can be quite scary. Anyway, I arrived to work on the second day of the semester to an email box filled with messages. One of which was that a coyote (a wild dog, kin to the wolf) was in Cascadilla Gorge biting people. Turns out that it was not rabid, just perturbed. The Casca…
Art-a-Day While in the UK ('25 '26)
This winter I booked us a 4 week visit to England, to tour London, North Yorkshire, Norwich, and back to London--before returning to the frost-bitten North Atlantic US coast. For my artworks, I worked on a few pieces over multiple days, or took photographs, or constructed a piece of *jewelry. Here's a bit of it. Line art tribute to David Bowie and Jilly Cliff: Amy Winehouse, coloured pencil: pen and ink scribble, stylized elephant: copy of south Asian sculpture (from postcard): The jewelry …
England at New Year
Starting about 2 years ago, I learned to make proper Yorkshire puddings. As a result hubby got treated to a few proper Sunday roast dinners, and I to a few more. Above is my roast (rotisserie chicken, sprouts, roast garlic, sautéed mushrooms, herbed potatoes, Yorkshire puds, and gravy). However, hubby has not had one here in England. So today, after we attended the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square in London, we popped into a Green King pub (two brothers) and got a proper pub tea. I got the half chicken and he got the sirloin st…
England at Christmas: Norwich Castle Museum
During this Christmas Break, I was determined to visit the taxidermy room ("Natural History") at the museums of Norwich Castle. BUT this piece caught my eye, and was practically the last thing we saw in the museum. This is brilliant. The Paston Treasure, by an unknown Flemmish or Dutch painter. This is a unique work portraying a small portion of the family's riches, the Pastons of Oxnead Hall. This style of showing off the family wealth is called Vanitas. Most Vanitas paintings include 1 or 2 g…
England at Christmas (4)
After Christmas, we legged it to Norwich, Norfolk, to spend New Years week with a friend I met in my online gardening group. Last January when I returned to the states from my annual England visit, Lindsay offered to host me during my next visit. Back in September I asked if she was sure and planned a stay in her home, with hubby during this trip. Not only does this woman have green fingers, she also has a way around the kitchen. Each day in our week-long stay, she made a fine cuppa, a breakfast treat...and then a stunning dinner m…
England at Christmas (3)
Merry Christmas 🎄 from Whitby!! 2 weeks in Whitby, from December 15 to the 27! I first visited Whitby last January and fell in love with wintertime there. It was mild and temperate (mind you, I have not been stuck in town when the area is cut off during a snow emergency). Whitby got substattial snow the week after I left. Anyway, I met a few lovely retired lads who made me feel completely at home (Digger, Dave, and Ed) so back to town I headed for Christmas. Hubby and I shared a karaoke Christmas eve with them at the W…
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