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On our way to the art reception on Saturday, we had to stop and re-admire the wildflowers that we saw a few weeks ago on the garden tour, especially since many more are in bloom. 

This picture was taken on  April 6.

So many more colors have exploded in the same spot since then.

Last time we missed the Chevy fly, so we had a chance to look at it this time.

Arboretum

When the Claremont Art Museum closed its physical doors, it did not cease to exist. Last night we attended a Claremont Art Museum event - the opening reception of a show at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden - Steve Comba: Arboretum. I believe this is the first art show in a new gallery space in the main administrative building. The space is one room, and this 8-foot painting titled Arboretum fills one of the walls. It took 8 months to complete this work, but years to gather the inspiration. He has envisioned "a line of trees" for many years, and this is the final work, completed in 2011. 

On the opposite wall pieces of years of inspiration for this work give the viewer a glimpse into the artist's mind, although I told Steve that I thought his mind looked too organized....

I asked Steve if the red spot on this cactus was an owl, and he said that he did not make it an owl, but it could be an owl in my perspective.

Congregation Ale House

When my sister arrived two weeks ago, we wandered downtown Claremont to give her a choice of dinner places, and she thought that Eureka! Burger had a great vibe, so we chose that place.

Now that she has finished up her two-week class in Pasadena, I looked on yelp to try to find a dinner place in Pasadena with a good vibe. I chose a variety of words to search, but decided that if beer or craft beer were search terms, maybe I'd find a good place. That lead me to Congregation Ale House, so we tried it out. It looked very busy when we arrived, but we found a parking spot in the lot (not always easy to find parking in Pasadena, let alone free parking). Turns out you order at the counter and then sit roadhouse-style (long tables that you share with complete strangers) to eat. We chose to eat outside since it wasn't too, too cold (a blanket over the lap from the car's trunk was helpful) and it was a little quieter.

They have 32 beers on tap, including Double Dude from our own Claremont Craft Ales, but we chose an Oregonian Porter that was smooth and delicious like our favorite Pomona Queen. The food was delicious - all of it. I had a Grilled Portabello Cap Salad, which I shared with H who shared his chicken and parmesan sausage and sweet potato fries with me. My sister had a pizza and house salad, both also delicious.

We will definitely return. We might even try the one in Azusa next.

Will You Go To Prom With Me?

As I drove up Indian Hill this afternoon, I saw this on the Laemmle marque. I wonder if Brittney D knows who is asking her to prom?

Library Exhibit Follow-Up

I just found out that the exhibit about the history of the Claremont Public Library is now online, so if you missed it, you can read about it here. 

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, I did not drive the car today. Of course, I rarely drive the car on Tuesdays....

Easter 2014

This Easter we were fortunate enough to have my sister and brother-in-law in town to help us celebrate. She is in So Cal for two weeks taking a class at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, and he has come out for a long weekend. 

After church this morning, we were joined by C and B who helped us put on a group-effort meal. H grilled the salmon, I made my favorite kale and brussels sprouts salad, C made the asparagus, B made scalloped potatoes, C also made a lemon tart for dessert, and A Kline made the dark chocolate truffles. 

The Marauder's Son - A New Ballet

On a lovely day-before-Easter, I decided to attend The Marauder's Son (based on Harry Potter and the  Sorcerer's Stone) at the Pendleton Dance Center at Pomona College. Emily Kleeman, a Pitzer senior, choreographed and put on this whole hour-long ballet, including fundraising for the event. The dance featured students from the 5Cs as well as a HMC professor (playing a Hogwarts professor). My favorite scene was the chess game. If you read this blog post today before evening, you still have a chance to see the free show at 7:00. Fun for the whole family!

Further Adventures in Swiss Housing

The day after we received the two choices for housing, we got three more choices. Two of those choices are next to the other branch of the campus and far away from where we want to be, so we did not even look at them. This one, though, seemed just fine for us. It is a 2-room flat (top floor, so look at those ceilings!) which means a 1-bedroom apartment. It reminds us very much of the place we lived on our first sabbatical in Brookline, Massachusetts - the top floor, small space, in a very nice residential neighborhood. This one, however, comes with a dishwasher, unlike our Brookline apt. 

We told the housing office that we would take this choice.

Housing in Zurich

The morning's email brought us these two photos, complete with descriptions and floor plans as the choices for housing for our upcoming Zurich sabbatical. Many things excited me about this information. First, both of these apartments are easy walking distance to the ETH (the Swiss Federal Technical Institute) and the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). This is very important as we will be car-free for the year and plan to make good use of public transportation. Also, we have learned that most grocery stores and other stores are closed on Sundays, except for the stores in the train station. If you want an idea of the mall at the train station, check out the website here.

Also, this makes sabbatical so much more real to us. I'm getting even more excited!

Rocco Raccoon is Ready for Easter!

Rocco the Raccoon was too easy to spot in Trader Joe's yesterday. It looks like he's ready for Easter!

Missing Tree

I could see more sky than usual as I walked up to Vista's music room today. It quickly came to me that a tree was missing. They must have removed it over spring break. Several years ago I blogged about how I always had to sweep up the pink flowers from the tree so that students would not slip on them on the way to class.

Apparently I don't have that issue any more, but I hope that they replace that tree with some other kind.

International Festival

I don't remember when I went to CMC's International Festival last, but today's perfect weather was a great excuse to walk through the goings-on.  At the Festival one can peruse items to buy, from books and other treasures to a great variety of foods from all over the world. The lines at Thailand were very long. One can also sit a spell and listen to storytelling or watch dancers, or try your hand at crafts. 

Claremont is hoppin' today, and among the other offerings was Nano Days at the library. You can read about last year's Nano Days here.

Unexpected Spring Break Activity

When people asked me last week what I might be doing for spring break, I told them I planned on just hanging out at home, reading and relaxing.

Then the dentist had another idea for me. I had scheduled a teeth cleaning, and the hygienist told me that it had been 5 years since my full-mouth x-rays. In the past 5 years, Dr. Valdez has gotten new toys in his office, so I actually took a few new tests to go along with the x-rays, including a full-head, 3-D scan. Pretty soon I was handed a referral to an endodontist for a root canal. Having heard horror stories about this procedure, my heart started beating fast. However, I am such a good patient, that I followed through immediately.

Yesterday I went in for a consultation with Dr. Shimazu and he asked me how my afternoon schedule looked, so without much time to get too worked up about it, I went home for lunch and went back for the 2-hour torture procedure.

I have to say, I had no pain whatsoever. I did not enjoy having to spend 2 hours with my mouth open, and I really did not like how much it cost (and I still need to get a crown on that tooth), but I found Dr. Shimazu very kind with clear communication about what he was going to do, and why it is crucial to take care of this problem.

I went home and gave myself the rest of the afternoon to just vegetate in front of the tv and eat yogurt and a smoothie. Today I am feeling good, but treating that side of my mouth with great tenderness and still taking ibuprofen.

California Fibers Art Exhibition

I organized a girls' day out with a friend to visit an art exhibit of the California Fibers group at Soka University in Aliso Viejo. How I even knew about this exhibit, let alone the University, is that another friend of mine has a piece in the exhibit. We had no idea what this exhibit might entail. Would we spend five minutes there after an hour's drive? Actually, we spent a good deal of time enjoying the 66 pieces from 22 artists before we took a leisurely stroll through the campus.

These first two photos are of my friend's work - a comprehensive photo and a close-up of Altarpiece. You can read about her work at her website here.

I was taken with many of the pieces which look one way from a distance and have amazing detail up close (like a pointillist painting).

A number of works seemed to draw heavily on biological themes.

Many works were large, and with all their detail, it must have taken hours and hours and months of work.

Orfeo

Not my favorite book.

This book is supposed to be derived from the Orpheus myth. I didn't see it, unless it's as simple as Orpheus being a musician, as the main character of this one is. Reviewers have remarked that Powers writes from his head, but not his heart, and I would have to agree with that in this novel.

Mostly I had a hard time with descriptions of music since I think that music is its own language with different truths. Here is just one clunky example from the novel trying to describe music. "The piece was simplicity itself: a triplet-driven, Phrygian figure in the high voices, while beneath, arpeggios moved in contrary motion, in wide slow waves. Each new entry took the evolving figure into higher registers. The blend strained toward something archaic, a folk tune an ethnographer might find in a remote mountain village of a failing monarchy, to bring back to his studio in the decadent capital and flesh out with volunteer harmonies."

I have no idea what that means. I mean, I understand what triplets, Phrygian, waves, etc. mean, but it doesn't tell me about the music. Especially since the paragraph starts out saying that the music was simplicity itself. The description doesn't sound like the music is simple.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that my biologist daughter would not approve of the science writing, either.

More Gardens

After enjoying RSABG, we toured 5 private gardens and here are some of my favorite photos.

RSABG Exhibits

This year's Garden Tour, a CUCC fundraiser, started out at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden. Even though I have been through the garden on countless occasions, there seems to be something new every season, so we had to check out the new sculptures, the wildflowers, as well as the fabulous exhibit in the container garden. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Twice into LA in One Day

When we first moved to Claremont, we rarely went into downtown Los Angeles. The freeways intimidated us, we weren't exactly sure what we might want to see, and we didn't have much extra spending money at the time. All those things have slowly changed over the past 28 years, and now we think nothing of either hopping on the 10 or buying a Metrolink ticket.

Yesterday I went into downtown twice. First time was with the CUSD string students for our 5th annual field trip to the LA Phil for Minimalist Jukebox: Toyota Symphonies for Youth: Finding Patterns in Music. As usual, we had a great time with the students, although some of them wondered "when the real music will start" after listening to the first few minimalist pieces. You can read about last year's field trip here.

We arrived back in Claremont around 2:00, giving me a little breathing time before heading back downtown for an HMC event at the California Club. I had never been to the exclusive California Club before, and I made sure to follow the strict dress code so I wouldn't have to sit in the car during the dinner. Once in awhile I enjoy getting dressed up and going to a fancy place to eat good food in interesting company. 

Vista's Green Team - Follow-Up

Last night two of Vista's fabulous 5th graders made a pitch to the Claremont Community and Human Services Commission for funds for the Vista Garden. Here they are, making last-minute adjustments to the speech they gave with the teacher leader of Vista's Green Team. I blogged about this project in January, noting that Vista was participating in the Grades of Green Trash-Free Lunch Challenge. As one of 23 schools in LA County, we found out recently that we were in the top three. Perhaps this video helped us get to the top....Yesterday the officials from the program visited the school and by the end of the day we found out that Vista had won first place! 

Council Chambers

Here is a video of the girls speaking before the commissioners. I am so proud of how they spoke clearly and with obvious enthusiasm for their work on the Green Team.