Small Town Summer Concerts

Each Wednesday evening, in the summer, there is a concert in the Pioneer Park Pavilion in Florence. Local people of all ages show up with drinks, picnics, chairs, dogs, etc. to enjoy the music and visit. The Senior Citizen organization even barbeques and sells hot dogs, hamburgers and popcorn at very low prices.

Tonight a local old fashioned country gospel group, The Coffee Family, provided a rousing selection of bluegrass, and other styles of gospel music to a happy crowd, in spite of wind and spitting rain (the rain never got to the serious stage but we did get some wind blown spatters where we were sitting in our own camp chairs under the pavilion).

Jim and Star Coffee, their son, Mark, and daughter, Grace play many instruments, including guitars, bass, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and tambourine, as well as singing. They even wrote some of the pieces that they belted out. They used a microphone and amplifier, but had powerfull voices that could probably be heard without assistance. They travel to concerts around the country and you can often see their motor home parked next to their home on Eight Mile Creek where it flows out of the Pikes Peak Massif, north of Florence, on it's way to the Arkansas River.

Joe and I so enjoyed their music, and it was also fun to see all of the expressive faces of our neighbors; a great place to people watch. While the adults sat and listened (and some did needlework), the little ones tended to run, crawl, climb and ride bikes all over the park.

I wish I could provide some of the Coffee's music for your enjoyment, but at least her are some photos I took. Excuse the fuzziness, my little Canon Elph doesn't seem to take very clear digital zoom photos any more, and my tremor is getting worse. I seem to do better with the Canon Power Shot Pro, but it is too big to carry in my pocket, and I am still figuring out how to use it.

These concerts are one of the benefits of living in this small town; we have lots of community events throughout the year, based on history/antiques, art, music and holidays. Little did we guess, when we moved here 21 years ago, how this community was going to develop into such a great place to live and/or visit.

Art Exhibit

For those of you lucky enough to live near, or will be traveling to, New York City, I just got notice of an exciting new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

"Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí to Dalí March 7, 2007–June 3, 2007Special Exhibition Galleries, The Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor

The first comprehensive survey of its type ever mounted in America, this exhibition explores the diverse and innovative work of Barcelona's artists, architects, and designers in the years between the Barcelona Universal Exposition of 1888 and the imposition of the Fascist regime of Francisco Franco in 1939. The exhibition features some 300 works, including paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, posters, decorative objects, furniture, architectural models, and designs. Barcelona and Modernity offers new insights into the art movements that advanced the city's quest for modernity and confirmed it as the primary center of radical intellectual, political, and cultural activities in Spain.Accompanied by a catalogue. The exhibition is made possible by the Caixa Catalunya. Obra Social and the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Additional support is provided by Angelo, Gordon & Co.
The exhibition is also made possible in part by Jane and Robert Carroll and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
It was organized by The Cleveland Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in association with Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona. "

Since in Art School at CU Boulder over 30 years ago, I have adored the architecture of Gaudi.

Speaking of Modernity, have any of you seen the intro art on the "Ghost Whisperer" on CBSTV? It's the best part of the whole show!

Art Exhibit

For those of you lucky enough to live near, or will be traveling to, New York City, I just got notice of an exciting new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

"Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí to Dalí March 7, 2007–June 3, 2007Special Exhibition Galleries, The Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor

The first comprehensive survey of its type ever mounted in America, this exhibition explores the diverse and innovative work of Barcelona's artists, architects, and designers in the years between the Barcelona Universal Exposition of 1888 and the imposition of the Fascist regime of Francisco Franco in 1939. The exhibition features some 300 works, including paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, posters, decorative objects, furniture, architectural models, and designs. Barcelona and Modernity offers new insights into the art movements that advanced the city's quest for modernity and confirmed it as the primary center of radical intellectual, political, and cultural activities in Spain.Accompanied by a catalogue. The exhibition is made possible by the Caixa Catalunya. Obra Social and the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Additional support is provided by Angelo, Gordon & Co.
The exhibition is also made possible in part by Jane and Robert Carroll and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
It was organized by The Cleveland Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in association with Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona. "

Since in Art School at CU Boulder over 30 years ago, I have adored the architecture of Gaudi.

Speaking of Modernity, have any of you seen the intro art on the "Ghost Whisperer" on CBSTV? It's the best part of the whole show!

Six Weird Things Meme

Thanks so much to Deb of Cold Feet Quilter for tagging me on this. Why do you suppose she

thought there might be something weird about me?

THE RULES:
People who get tagged need to write a blog entry of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says you have tagged them in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. When I was a little girl, I had weird white (unpigmented) spots on my knees and ankle bones. In spite of all the skinnings I gave those parts they survived until adulthood. I remember lying in a graceful position on the birthing table at a hospital when the doctor asked me if he could ask a personal question. Here I am with absolutely no secrets from this guy, what horribly embarrassing thing is he going to ask me? Well, I was relieved when he only asked if those spots were scars and I was able to explain that it was something I was born with. Some time between then and now they have disappeared.

2. I grew up on several tenant farms that had no running water. We did get electricity while I was fairly young, but didn’t get indoor plumbing until I was a junior in high school. Then it was served by water in a cistern and we had to use it sparingly. We had to keep the privy for my maternal grandfather who couldn’t understand what this world was coming to; people eating outside and going to the bathroom indoors!!! This was in the early 1950s when all the small farmers in SE Colorado started to put in plumbing.

3. Like Rian, I have a phone phobia; it has always been hard for me to pick up a phone and call someone. I think I was always concerned that I would catch them at an inconvenient moment. But I love e-mail!! I didn’t know it but I was a nerd waiting for a computer with an internet connection, even if it is still dial up.

4. I met Joe at a country western dance class in Denver, my husband and his wife had died in the past couple of years and we found we had a lot in common. Most of the other dance students were much younger than we were. One night while dancing at a county and western bar, where we were all taken at the end of class, while doing some wild twirls, I missed Joe’s hand and ended up under someone’s table. And I never did drink very much so that was not the reason.

5. I love my garden and the little creatures (well, most, the grasshopper plague I could do without) that visit it, so I talk to the creatures as well as the trees and plants. So far none of them have answered me in English.

6. I am my stepson’s mother-in-law! My middle daughter, Kat, and Joe’s oldest son, Greg, met, after we were married and they were already living on their own, fell in love and married. So, though Joe and I have no children together, we are blessed to have three grandchildren together. We laugh a lot in the family about “I’m My Own Grandpa”.

Are there still 6 people out there who haven’t been tagged with this? You are tagged!

Merry Christmas

WIP Wednesday

Well, I see we're no longer Blogger Beta but the New Blogger! We're all in the same boat again.

This is the first Christmas since we moved to this house, about 4 years ago, that I've put up my nativity scene and my Santas. Their boxes were stored in the storage shed until this fall when Joe cleaned it out and found them for me. I'm so happy to be able to use them to decorate the house again. The nativity figures originally belonged to Joe's Mom; they are plastic but were made in Italy and I like their design. This year I bought a little stable to house them in. I now want to find a star and some sheep to add to the scene. It is important to me to keep in mind that we are celebrating the birth date of Jesus Christ at Christmas. It is so easy to get overwhelmed with all the shopping and preparations instead of sitting at the feet of Jesus and accepting the peace that he came to bring us.

We've just finished studying the sisters Martha and Mary of Bethany in our Women of the Bible group and I tend to be a natural Martha, except that I'm not that great at keeping house and cooking anymore. I am good at driving myself and becoming resentful about making myself so tired and guilty about what I don't get done. So it is good for me to have the nativity scene around to gently remind me to relax and enjoy. I also have an old King James version of the Bible, opened to the birth of Jesus in Luke, on the shelf next to the nativity scene.

The small collection of Santas have just attached themselves to me over the years, starting with the little celluloid Santa Christmas tree lightbulb, from when I was a child. The big celluloid Santa belonged to my Granny. I get a big kick out of the 2 Santa's elves that were made in Occupied Japan and have faces straight out of a Japanese folktale. These and the similar Santas as well as the tiny house and brush trees came in a box purchased at auction when we had our antique store about 18 years ago. Some things were just too good to sell to someone else.

I'm also making some Christmas quards with the family photo my son took at Thanksgiving printed onto fabric. I'm simply fusing these onto stiff stabilizer, backing them with some lovely new metallic polka dotted fabric and satin stitching around the edges.

In addition to the small nativity scene, above, I have needlepointed all the figures for another nativity. They've been hidden away in a drawer in my studio-bedroom for several years, which is a shame, because they are fantastic. Every year I forget about them until too late in the season to get them done. Finishing them is one of the goals I'm adding to my 2007 list.


Monday was Joe's birthday so I made a pot roast and biscuits dinner topped off with German chocolate brownies and ice cream; Joe's had a candle on top. I gave him a couple of Theodore Roosevelt's autobiographical books because he recently told me about the big old Roosevelt autobiography that he used to read from at a relatives house years ago but never managed to read the entire thing. I couldn't find an old copy like the one he read, but I found the recent reprint of the autobiography and another book he wrote about his experience on the ranch. Now he can read the rest of the story.

Thank Our Troops this Holiday Season

Remember my neighbor, Crystal, who was injured by schrapnel in Iraq early this year, so I made her a flag quilt with the logo of her Engineers batallion as a token of my appreciation. Now we can send thank you e-mails to military personnel on this Thank the Troops site. Thanks to Teri and Debra for this link.

Update on Crystal's condition. She is now sporting a bandage over most of her head, as she recuperates from surgery to repair the damage to her ear drums. They waited to do this surgery until she had healed from the schrapnel injuries and strengthened her body with physical therapy. Hope when she heals that she will have her hearing back. It's ironic that she lost her hearing from the concussion of this explosion; her older sister was born deaf and the family all converse with her in sign language.

We owe so much to these military men and women who are protecting our freedom from those who despise us and our freedom.

A side note: I just read that 1000 survivors are signed up to attend the Pearl Harbor 65th Anniversary Reunion this week in Honolulu.

Rian, You're On

Rian and I had a discussion about women's purses on her blog. In response she published a photo of her purse and contents and threw down the gauntlet for all of us to bare all about our purses. Here's mine.

I've always had to have a shoulder bag because I hate to have my hands tied up holding a purse; I also insist on an outside pocket that is big enough to carry a file folder and a book, I go nowhere without a book. It takes me so long to find a purse that meets my specifications that I buy a good one that will last a long time and I almost never change bags, no matter what I'm wearing. [I love being 68, I can dress and act the way I choose no matter what the fashionistas say.] This bag is a Fossil woman's heavy leather briefcase that I found at Foley's (now Macy's) over a year ago. I don't think I could wear it out if I used a hatchet.

In it I carry a wallet that holds money, checkbook, credit cards, an ID, and one colored and one sheer lipgloss, and has a shoulder strap if I need to pull it out and take it and leave the rest in the car (right after I purchased it my youngest daughter's puppy chewed the strap in two, so I knotted it and use it anyway); an Ipaq that takes the place of the memory I used to have (Joe gave it to me for Christmas a couple of years ago to take the place of the huge Franklin planner I carried); a brush, mirror and small flashlight; a package of Kleenex; bubble gum; 4 pens & pencils and an emory board; a tiny folding magnifying lens and a tape measure; a small pocket knife and a baggy with Darjeeling tea bags (my kids never have tea bags).

For waiting rooms, etc., I carry the book I'm currently reading (note the name of this one, "Women's Work, very appropos) and a plastic case holding a small needlepoint project and folding scissors.

Then comes the stuff that most people don't have to carry and I used to not have to (please do not comment on my grammar, or lack thereof). The plastic makeup bag with a red cross on it carries emergency medical supplies: a glucagon filled syringe and glucose tablets in case of low blood sugar because I'm on insulin; nitroglycerin tablets; a rescue inhaler; and emergency meds info. Another plastic case carries a pill holder, cough lozenges, and dry eye drops. There is also a folder for the front pocket that holds other emergency medical info for both me and my parents, since I hold heir medical POA.

And I cannot forget my keys and my small digital camera as well as a book of matches. I think that's everything. Whew! Needless to say this all gives my kids fits, and Joe threatens to buy me a little red wagon to carry it all.

Had to edit to add that I arrange the items in my purse as it I were blind; every item in my purse has it's own spot so I can find things in the dark by feel. I hate the idea of having to dump everything out to find something.

And then to make it all more impossible, when I am away from my home oxygen concentrator and 50 foot tether, I travel with Ursula Oxygen, who is an over the shoulder pulse dose oxygen supply.

Years ago, one of my work colleagues asked me if I had been a Girl Scout since my motto seemed to be "Be Prepared". All my friends and family know that if they need something, they can come to me and I probably have it in my handbag.

I was never a lipstick and American Express card in my jeans pocket sort of girl; my personality tests always suggested that I might try to prioritize better. But my motto is really "ABUNDANZA!!!"

I admire your small purse, Rian, but I have no idea how you do it.

Have a Thankful Thanksgiving