So what are you doing this weekend?

Remember when I used to do more than watch television and work? Yeah, I do too. Vaguely. I would tromp around in state parks and gardens and such and take pictures. I loved that. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a pretty prime day for a little of that so I'm thinking about doing a little...if I can find my camera.

My current planned destination: the Jonquil Festival at Old Washington State Park. It's a place with old buildings, actors in costumes, and I love those places. And when I was a young whippersnapper, I went to college not too far down the road. And the single elective Home Ec class led me to Old Washington. We were invited to decorate the gym for a function but we could only use historical pieces. As I recall, that meant lots and lots of quilts. I really wish I had taken a photo but you just don't think at 21 that someday quilts will loom large in your day to day to work and back life. You just sign up to take a fun class which features drafting a design for your dream home and decorating it by judicious study of the color wheel and all its schemes. It was a fun class. My best friend and I took it together and it was taught by a very tiny little lady who showed us videos which said "Most Georgians are large and made of brick" and having never met anyone from Georgia, we would snicker...tee hee. If we'd known any real live Georgians at the time, we would have teased in such a manner as to be funny to no one but us. As it was, we would crack ourselves up occasionally by throwing out the line. (Georgians, not necessarily large and certainly not made of brick... architecture, yes, people, no. And it really disturbs me a bit that this sticks out in the limited spaces of my memory the way that it does.) She was also the one who, after seeing a photo of a baby flash, said, "That baby's just u-g-l-y" in a drawl and tone so sweet that you could also hear "Bless his heart" even though she didn't say it out loud.

I really wouldn't mind a drive down that direction.
If I can find my camera.

Anthony Chapel

Just a few more photos from Garvan. I also got a new toy before I left, close-up filters for my camera. Because of my camera type, I can't get a macro lens so close-ups are limited to not-very-close-at-all. So with the filters I can get up to 7x closer but focus is harder. I took them out to play with them a little. The first shot is the most interesting. The second shot is of Beauty Berry, just in case you were wondering. And the other shots are of Anthony Chapel.

Bathing Beauty

Warning: weird dog mom post again but you knew they were coming, right? These are the Darcy pictures. I like the first one...it sorta looks like she leaves magic sparkles in her wake. The third one shows how she swims...the middle of her back never gets wet but she ducks her head under over and over. She's not really a distance swimmer. And believe me, if none of these strikes your fancy, I have more. This is the first time in her life she's been unleashed...it was the perfect place, bounded by the lake on one side and a very steep hill on the other. She kept peeking over the edge of the dock and over the edge of that grass (bounded by the rock wall and then a drop into the lake) like she wanted to jump. She's never jumped off a dock in her life. And I have a very strict no-swimming-in-water-that-looks-like-it-might-have-fish-in-it for myself so I really wasn't looking forward to jumping in to save her. I managed to convince her to go down the boat ramp instead, but it was close a couple of times.

And then, because there are clearly fish in that water, she smelled like wet dog/fish water for mostly the whole time we were there. But that's OK. It was worth it to see her Bo Derek impersonation. Someone asked if we had a good time, and I said that we both came back with a limp so we must have had a good time! It was a lot of swimming, jumping, hiking for two old dogs like us but we kept going.

Saturday and the Big Dam Bridge

So after I spent an unholy amount of time unloading, detrashing, washing, drying, waxing, polishing, de-dog-hairing my car on the off chance that a certain visiting quilt designer might have to ride with me while she's visiting, I decided I needed a short top-down trip to make it all worthwhile. I drove out to the Big Dam Bridge, the world's longest pedestrian bridge...the brocure says so. And it was hot out there on that bridge but it was a neat experience. Since I stayed firmly to the right and was not murdered by a cyclist. It was a little touch and go every once in a while. So here are some photos I shot while I was there.
Shots of the bridge from the bank, while I was trudging uphill or upbridge, and of the I430 bridge (the one we use to drive across the Arkansas headed north).

Me, trying to be artsy

Since I've had such wild success getting my photography published in our iSeries books (it definitely helps to know important publishing professionals), I occasionally search for "artsy" shots when I'm out scouring the ground for snakes. And sometimes I make them up. Here are a few of those attempts. All along I'm thinking, "Surely MJ can find a great quote to go with that." I haven't yet reached the point of staging my own beautiful natural shots. At this point, I'm still all about the creative cropping.

The snake silver lining

To finish up my beautiful Saturday morning, I stopped at Lake Degray to go on a hike, snap a few photos, see what I could remember. I made the mistake of telling a guy that I was going to get out since it had cooled off a little. I took a break from the woods to give the snakes plenty of time to do whatever it is that snakes do without meeting me. I'm a city girl. What do I know about these things? Cooler weather means slower snakes as I unserstand it. And then he says, "Well, this is actually the time of year the snakes are moving." Oh, good. So I missed lots of things at eye-level. I did get to see a pretty butterfly. And I'm pretty sure the second picture is of the frog/toad that made me jump 3 feet in the air. I think I'll go back in a couple of months so I can see more of what there is to see than the ground in front of me.

There...I think I'm all caught up. Happy, MJ?

The easiest trail ever

To anyone that might need to walk approximately 1 mile in the woods for some reason...this is the easiest trail ever. My book rated it 1 hot dog. And I agree. You have to be able to finish strong as the last part is uphill, but it's mostly flat, all shady, and you have views of Lake Degray (through the trees until winter) on all sides...Island Trail at Lake Degray. I think this is my new favorite. It includes a sandy/rocky beach. In Arkansas.

And if you're not keeping both eyes peeled for snakes, you might see a bald eagle. I wouldn't know.

Knit Unto Others

I had a big Saturday this weekend. The weather was P-E-R-F-E-C-T for a road trip so I drove down to Arkadelphia to visit my old college campus, to see a new yarn store that just opened up, and to do a little light hiking. I stopped at OBU first (and you'll get to see a kazillion of those photos, too), and then I drove over to Knit Unto Others. It's a new shop, just open a month, and the yarns there are unique...lots of "other" fibers...corn, bamboo, soy, alpaca from Peru (and anyone who knows me knows that Peruvian stuff gets my attention quick. Although I never really met an alpaca. I did see a Peruvian sheep shearing...that's another story.) Anyway, I had a nice conversation with the owner (friendly staff, we know how much I like that) and made some purchases. I like the emphasis on unique fibers and charitable knitting. They are right now accepting hats for the Children's Hospital Knitting for Noggins campaign (more on that coming, save the date October 14). And so now, I have to make a hat. And I had to buy something great. I'm an excellent supporter of my local (or not-so in this case) yarn store. So here are my purchases...


And if you're knot into knitting (get it?), she also carries cross stitch and needlepoint canvases.

LA's Rock Stars

And the photos you've all been waiting for (I have a kazillion photos so I figured 2 posts would be better than one and that means I'm posting Friday early. It's never too early to celebrate Friday, right? As I am an equal opportunity offender, I thought I'd post all the rock star photos today. I usually have to chase down people to get shots of them, but I am a diabolical genius and now I have photos of several dressed for the par-tay. I'm sure the captions are going to get away from the photos. Maybe this will be like a game!

Our guest of honor: Sandra and some super famous rock star that dropped in for the day with her orange guitar. She's a total rock genius and actually painted her rock like an orange (see yesterday).


Design girls: Lori and Kim with Becky looking on. How did I miss Anne?


The Artists formerly known as Art; Rhonda, the shy one with the guitar, is in charge of that bunch. And she sings too.


Mundane Jane: Here she is with her little turtle friend.


The management: Here we are. We also go to meetings.


The Beach Boys...or Girls: OK so here we have quilters Jean and Frances, artist Lora (see Picasso's rock yesterday) and MJ. They were just looking for an excuse to wear shorts and flip flops to work. I admire that about them.


They're Crafty: Christina, Laura, and Kathy pose in the lunch line. They got some ink just for the party. Rock on.


Yes, the letters are sticking: And this is the reason I feel justified in posting these photos. If I'll put one up of me, looking like this, then I feel OK about putting up nice pictures of everyone else. I'm not sure what to think about the fact that I got so many compliments while I was dressed this way. It must be all the makeup. Maybe I should actually put some on when I come in to work. I think I look more like Bad Sandy (Tell me about it, stud) without the cigarette.

And then the lake shots

Every morning and afternoon, Darcy and I got out to take a walk. We had 2 paths, one along this side of the lake and these docks and the other around that side and those docks. Each ended at the boat ramp where Darcy took a quick dip before we trudged back up the hill. Nice and easy. We also did a little off-roading, but we're both more "follow the road more traveled" than less and prefer pavement to undergrowth.




I took the boat pictures for Jean. She hopes to live on a boat someday. I told her I was having some boat envy myself. As I would never be able to work the trailer required to get the boat into the lake, I'm sure my boating will never be. But I did envy all those boaters who sped off for the open water while I was sittin' on the dock of the bay.

Ready for a vacation

So we're back to Home Sweet Home, safe and sound. Darcy's doing her best impression of a furry rug in the middle of the floor. And I'm checking work e-mail. From home.

I think I need a vacation.

(pop)(pop)Happy July 4th! (pop)(pop)

Those are firecrackers in the title, in case you were wondering. I just got back home from the holiday cel-a-bray-shun over at my brother's house. He has a new pool...no concrete around it, only mud, but still a new pool. It was a perfect occasion to break it in. On the way back home, I stopped by the courthouse get a patriotic shot for today. It's all bedecked in flags. I really like a couple of these.

Something red, white, and blue

This is another one of the shots I took this weekend. Obviously, when I got bored with the camera I started messing with the photo editing software to see what I could do. I'm using it get a jump start on my Fourth of July celebration.

Cool and dry

In the effort to stay both cool and dry, I stayed in my house all weekend with quick forays out for food only. And I enjoyed every minute. I did sew just a little (because you know how non-sewing folks see that you have a machine and believe that you just absolutely live to help them hem something or attach something or make something from scratch just for grins. You know how that works right? And since I was home, I was an easy target.) Mostly I knit like a maniac (the only way I know how to knit) and annoyed my dog. I decided to play around with my camera a little to see if I could get some of those shots...you know, some bloggers have just outstanding photos of things. So far, my photos have all been nature-related.
Last week I wrote a letter from the editor (if you see it, act surprised) about family heirlooms. What makes a family heirloom? A fortune in silver, priceless works of art, ancestral homes...probably not for most of us. For me, it's the stuff that has a good story. These cars were my dad's. I found them when I was looking through a box of photos. He was still alive then and I was sitting in the floor in our living room. I asked him if I could have them and he said yes. My brothers were scooped and they didn't even know it! Anyway, then he started telling stories about the pictures, lots of pictures with a horse and his old dog Smoky. My dad grew up in Little Rock, but it was a very different Little Rock.

This is a button jar that was my grandmother's. I think all grandmothers must have had a button jar. She was a professional seamstress. She was the first person who got the hemming, then my mother, now me. Still, I got all of her cool sewing notions too. Looks like I should have cropped this shot a little better. And I had to lighten it because, otherwise, you could see what I used to get the fabric behind the jar. You could read the words through the fabric somehow.

Arkansas history

Today I'm cheating by posting facts about Arkansas Post, but I think they're sort of interesting...oldest European settlement west of the Mississippi, founded 1686, first capital, site of Revolutionary War battle (the Colbert Incident) and an amphibious Civil War battle (or War of Northern Aggression, if you are from south of the Mason-Dixon and prefer it). The path shows where main street would have been.



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Arkansas Post was the first territorial capital (1819-1821). Little Rock was the second (1821-1836).
Arkansas Post, Arkansas was the first permanent French settlement in the lower Mississippi River valley and was the first territorial capital of the State of Arkansas. It was also the site of the only Revolutionary War combat in Arkansas as well as the site of an American Civil War Battle.
Arkansas Post was founded in 1686 by Henri de Tonti at the site of a Quapaw Indian village name Osotouy near where the Arkansas River enters the Mississippi River. The site was a strategic point for France, Spain, the United States, and the Confederate States at different times in history.
During the American Civil War the Post became an important strategic site as it was the confluence of two major rivers. In 1862 the Confederate Army constructed a massive earthwork known as Fort Hindman named after Confederate General Thomas C. Hindman. In January of 1863 Union forces conducted an amphibious assault on the fortress backed by ironclad gunboats and destroyed both the fort and the civilian areas of Arkansas Post.