Midwest Nature

Coming from the land of severe drought, it was refreshing to spend a few days in the humidity and rain in Iowa. While there we probably had around 2 inches of rain with thunderstorms that came and went.

At the Art Festival, we managed to eat our lunch during one of the downpours. H and I had a pretty good spot under the tent, but G was at the end of the tent and had a steady stream down her back. Yuck. She needed this guy with his two umbrellas protecting his wife while she ate.

I love looking at the thistles by the road.

Dramatic skies

Here is a little video of a cicada that got caught in the water at the Art Center. Listen to the sounds of the other 17-year cicadas in the background. I love that sound.

Des Moines Art Center

It was an art theme during our time in Iowa. The Des Moines Art Center proved to be a hidden gem. First of all, it's free. Second, it has a lovely collection of modern art. It felt to me as though the museum thought they should have one (possibly two) pieces from all my favorite artists. We saw a Picasso, Monet, O'Keefe, Rothko, Hopper, Matisse, Jasper Johns, two Calders, two Henri Moore sculptures, and many that I don't recall at the moment.

The website says that you are allowed to photograph the permanent collection, but the sign by the front door said otherwise, so I was limited to other kinds of photos.

I am assuming that all the museum guards were volunteers since there was no admission fee. These guards were extra vigilant in making sure that we did not touch the art. I didn't even make a move to get my camera out in the galleries. It makes me a little nervous to look at art when someone does not trust me not to touch it. I don't touch art!

This led me think that the International Art Museum Association (I made that up) should have a program like the TSA where they can prescreen museum guests and then give us a button to wear so that guards can relax when we enter a gallery.

One of the best things is an entire first edition of Matisse's Jazz collection. 

A photo of the Matisse Jazz brochure.

Des Moines Art Festival

Last summer we gathered our children, met up with a sister and brother-in-law to descend upon parents and another sister in Des Moines. This year we were missing five of those people, but H and I  went for one more visit before we head off for sabbatical.

This time we braved the scattered thunderstorms and headed downtown to the Des Moines Art Festival. We were impressed with the variety and quality of art available. Artisans from many places showed their wares, and it reminded me of Art Fair on the Square in Madison during our grad school days. 

This reminded me of Art on Tap, the differences being the smaller canvases and no instruction. Paint what you like!

Woven aluminum

New addition to the Pappajohn Sculpture Park. It has photographic possibilities that remind me of The Bean in Chicago.

I really liked this booth and the pieces that reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Tell The Wolves I'm Home

Books make excellent gifts, in my opinion. I gave this book to my friend for her birthday. I took a gamble because I had not read it, but I really liked the title and the plot description.

After my friend finished reading it, she gave it to me, saying, "I liked it." Now that I have read it, I have to concur. It is the first novel I've read this year that I enjoyed. (It gets extra kudos for being a debut novel that gets a star on my list.) My favorite part is the 14-year-old narrator's voice.

Now the book goes back to my friend so she can pass it along to her mom. This is the advantage of real books over e-books.

The Radish

I do not know what triggered this thought in my head this morning, but I remember a piece of graffiti in the Carleton tunnels. 

Back in the day, when Americans were less lawsuit-happy, students used the steam tunnels that run underneath the Carleton campus to get from dorm to class to dining hall in warmth during the frigid Minnesota winters. When I was considering Carleton in high school, the tunnels were touted as being "student decorated." That meant graffiti. Carls, known for their/our quirky sense of humor painting such sayings as, "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." Here is a photo from the Carleton archives of the Twister board.

Back to my morning mind flash. I was thinking of the phrase, "We have all had the radish." I read that on the wall nearly every winter day as I went to class, and I never knew what that meant. When I asked others, they had no idea, either. Well, now we have the internet, and now I know! I found a blog called "Had the Radish," and this is what it said.

The unknown artist must have spray-painted that during finals.

Coffee, Chocolate, California

We checked on Google Maps, and the distance from 91711 to Nevada City said 7 hours and 11 minutes. We took the slightly longer route up the 99 and with a stop for gas and lunch (which we ate in a cemetery next to the gas station), and made it in 8 hours.

Coming home was a different story. We wanted to make better time, so we opted to take the 5. I'm not sure why it took 9 hours to get home, but maybe it was the few stops we made. The first was for gas in Auburn where I spied a Dutch Bros. coffee. Lynn had never heard of this Pacific Northwest chain, so we had to try it out.

Then we had to stop at the Ghiradelli Outlet just south of Stockton on the 5. I know that we did not spend an hour there, but we sure had fun.....

Nevada City

Sierra Fiddle Camp is not all work and no play (and really, all the work IS play - literally and figuratively). On Thursday afternoon we had free time. Many people went down to the Yuba River, some went down to Shady Creek. A Prius-ful of women took a little trip into Nevada City (in California), just 12 miles from camp. One of the original Gold Rush towns (like nearby Grass Valley), this place has retained the charm of yesteryear. We spent several hours in the shops and drinking coffee and asking each other, "What tune is going through your head now?" 

Looking down the main drag

This building reminded me of New Orleans architecture

As seen on one bumper in Nevada City

Toni Carrion

Village Dance Arts has been the second home of our youngest daughter since she was five. After graduating from high school, she went off to study dance and now, for the past few years she has had the privilege of teaching alongside her mentor, Toni Carrion. Back when she was in high school, we kept telling Toni not to retire until our group of daughters had made it through her fabulous program. Toni has been a gracious, loving and encouraging with high standards for her dancers.

Now it is time for her to retire (although, really, she seems the same age as she did when we met her over 20 years ago), and on Saturday she was in charge of her final VDA recital - The Snow Queen. 

Here is a short video of some of her former students who spoke eloquently of their love for Toni. We will miss her terribly, but we wish her all the best that retirement can give.

Fiddle Camp

I just returned home from a transformative week at Sierra Fiddle Camp. This post cannot do justice to the amazing time we had, but I will try to cover the highlights.

For about 6 years now, my friend, Lynn, and I have been playing around with Celtic fiddle music. Inspired by the Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and his cellist partner, Natalie Haas, we have attempted to play tunes. You can listen to samples of their playing on their websites. I knew that we needed a step up in our playing, and Lynn had casually mentioned something about fiddle camp, so I looked it up online, and pretty soon we were registered, paid and ready to go.
            

In a small nutshell, about 200 or so campers of all ages (about 3 and up) descend upon the Shady Creek Outdoor School and Conference Center for 8 days of immersion in not only Scottish fiddle music, but other folk traditions. People bring cellos, mandolins, guitars, keyboards, harps, and even one set of bagpipes. I had three classes every day: Scottish, Swedish and USA music. The cellos (and others) attended these classes, and then we had two more classes. Cellos had their own class and I chose to go to singing. We chose our own level of playing based on how well we could learn music by ear. I chose the Moderate group which ended up being perfect for me.

Alasdair teaching the Moderate Class

To round out our days, we went to a forum to listen to one of our teachers talk about a subject near and dear to them, jammed, had morning yoga (some did Beyonce dancing for their exercise), and evenings were filled with dances, concerts, a talent show and singing.

What did I like the best? Well, I have a hard time choosing, but what comes to mind is that I loved having all the kids there. In the Moderate class we had about 50 people, and perhaps 30 of them were between the ages of 8 and 12. I loved learning the same stuff in the intergenerational setting. The kids impressed me so much with their long attention spans, love of learning music, energy and spirit.  I loved finding out that I am capable of learning music by ear! Being training in the classical tradition is one great way of learning music, but aural learning opens up completely new sections of the brain.

I also loved (loved, loved) singing. Our teacher was Moira Smiley who I heard at the 2013 Claremont Folk Festival with her group VOCO. We sang a Swedish song called Visa fran Jarna which you can hear a sample of here. Also Old Timey songs Leather Britches and Lazy John and another song which I don't know the name of.

Here is a plug for the banjo teacher, Jayme Stone, who has a Kickstarter project to record and bring to life songs from the Alan Lomax recordings. If you love American Roots music, you should at least check out THIS PAGE and watch the video. 

I am sad to say that Lynn and I had to leave the camp on Friday (she had to get back to start teaching at the National Cello Institute today), so we not only missed the Friday afternoon class, but also the big concert on Saturday. Now that I know people are leaving camp, I am less jealous, but also a bit sad that it's all over anyway.

We met some great people, made some new friends who I am sure we will see again since we definitely plan to return to fiddle camp in the future.

Moira Smiley leading us in singing

Yoga by the pool in the morning before breakfast with a little music

Fiddles waiting around while campers ate lunch

A Tomato Yard Sale

This way to an Hierloom [sic] Tomato Yard Sale!