25 February 2013 - Full Snow Moon

The February full moon is traditionally called the snow moon. February typically has more snow than any other month. Here in Salt Lake it snowed on the snow moon. Just another snowy day in February. And we had many snowy days. 

Currently we have about two feet of snow on the lawns and even more on the roof, not to mention foot high ice dams around the edges. Water is backing up and dripping through the overhang onto the balcony. The icicles are huge. We have been trying to keep them knocked down as I think it must be a huge weight on the eves. It is scary how fast they come back and long they get. 


I know, yet another picture of snow on Mount Olympus. I'm almost through my second winter here, and I am still not over how gorgeous Olympus is, especially after a snowfall. the snow on the trees reminds me of the crystaline structures you could grow in water back when we were kids. 

 

When the sun is a certain angle, the deer trails are easy to see on the hillside. 

 
 

20-22 February 2013 - Pick Pack and Store

Today more fun and games. Robin and I tackled her studio which was buried in boxes, bins and huge canvas bags full of stuff. Much of it was material for her annual memory books that were yet to be completed. We found room in bookcases where train books used to be to store many of the binders. Then we spent several hours distilling file after file of information gathered on their trips. This incurred many trips to the recycle bin. After we had downsized the materials to a more reasonable amount, I suggested that she store what she wasn't going to use anytime soon in her storage area. 

After she quit laughing hysterically, she took me down to see the storage she has in the garage. YIKES!  A locked closet full from floor to ceiling. Fibber McGee and Molly would have been proud--as Robin slowly pulled the door open she had one hand up inside the closet to keep boxes from falling out.  What is all this stuff? And better yet-- why did I not take pictures?  It was spectacular.

We pretty much emptied everything out and sorted it into piles.  All the camping gear went into a pile for the Home Away kids. Tools and other odd things went in a pile for SCRAP, and yet even more went into a pile for Good Will. We hauled it all upstairs, cleaned it up and did more sorting. Then hauled it down to the car and loaded it to the gills. 

21 February
After a leisurely morning we started out to deliver all the giveaways. Home Away for the Homeless was thrilled to get the camping equipment. It felt really good to donate things where you knew it would be really appreciated and put to good use.  We wandered back across town to get to SCRAP. Robin has been telling me about this place for years, so I was happy to get to see it. First, SCRAP is an acronmyn for Scrongers' Center for Reusable Art Parts. It was amazing and such a hoot to poke around in that warehouse. They get lots of donations from businesses as well as people like Robin. 

I loved their swinging hand side outside the donation door. One whole section was filled with tile samples like you would see at Lowes or HD. Major Lust!  I could think of so many interesting mosaic projects and/or garden art that could happen with those gorgeous glass tiles.  I ended up buying a four inch high stack of metal samples. Yep, ooh shiny! Don't ask. I have no idea, but $5? What a deal! 

Many artists, art teachers, preschool teachers come here to get inexpensive stuff for kid's projects. The warehouse is filled with opportunities waiting to happen. And in case you don't have any ideas, they have some for you. Here is a room divider or hanging screen made of balls of leftover yarn. Not really for me, but why not? 

I liked a sample wreath made from book pages that were rolled into cones. I could see lots of possiblities with this concept, adding color or using magazine pages for example. 


 They had boxes of buttons sorted by color! And this was just a small part of the button boxes. It was a marvelous and overwhelming experience.

Robin and I were exhausted, cold and hungry so we ended our day with dinner out at a fish joint right on the water with a great view of the shipyards. 

Even though it was a fish place, I had a big fat burger and it was wonderful.  

 On the way home we passed a pilot boat docking area. It was fun to see all them all lined up. 

 
 

19 February 2013 - SF Day 4

What, you think a vacation is nothing but fun and games? Well, yes, but the definition of fun and games might vary. Yesterday we started cataloging Bennett's very large collection of railroad books, as he had requested they be donated to a train museum in Sacramento. 

I am so naive. I thought we could whiz through this in a couple hours. We spent several hours on this project on Tuesday and finished up this afternoon. Robin had some banker's boxes to pack them in, but with 200 oversized (coffee table book size and bigger) books, we needed more boxes. 

Off we went. On our way, Robin says "Oh my gosh, we are going to pass Arch. You must see this place!"  Arch is an art supply store that not only has more stuff than any one person could ever want, but also has a large section of whimsical, arty and curious gifts, cards, gadgets...you name it. 
 
What a fun diversion. It is housed in an old warehouse. The name was made out of bundles of wire.  I have always loved old hardware store displays and even have a very small one made out of old wooden cigar boxes. It sits on a pedestal and can spin around. The one in this store was beautiful, it still had the original cabinet base with all the cubbies.  The drawers had the original labels for screw, nut and bolt sizes. The entire unit was about 5 1/2 feet tall. Wonderful. 

A tiny bit of parking was available behind the store, and as you should know by now, I adore painted signs. This rather steam punkish passenger pigeon was painted on the corrugate sheeting. It was at least 16 feet tall. Loved it! Between the corrugate and the fading colors it was hard to get a good picture, but you can certainly get an idea of how fabulous it is. 

Continuing on our way to Office Max for boxes, Robin says, "We should stop! We are about to pass the San Francisco Center for the book. It has moved since you were last here and you should see their new location." Absolutely!  Not only was their new space incredible with lots of room for presses, room to work, a binding room for book artists, there were two areas for art shows. 

Currently on exhibit are broadsides and handmade artists' books made in response to the bombing of bookseller's row on Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. A grim subject with stunning and thought provoking pieces. Here are a few:

The director of the Center saw us looking and came over and talked nonstop for at least 30 minutes about the exhibit, the artists and their work.  Interesting, but exhausting. Robin finally got a word in edge-wise about our limited time and we made our escape. Back in the car and headed towards boxes--again. Next door to Office Max was a Peet's coffee. We decided we needed some refreshment before box hunting in a big box store. 

We settled on coffee and a cookie. Since it was warm and sunny, we sat outside. Looking around I noticed birds perched on and underneath every empty table and chair. My cookie bar was quite crumbly. I swept some crumbs from my lap and started a riot. Brown-headed cowbirds came in from all directions to snap them up. I pinched off a little piece of cookie and held it out.  

Two birds immediately landed on my hand and one snatched the crumb and flew off with the other in hot pursuit.  I amused myself feeding the birds for a while. They were sitting on my feet and my knee, even landing on my hand and arm. Robin thought it was pretty Hitchcockian. I thought it was fun until I got to thinking about the bird flu, so I went and washed my hands really well.

We drove home along the ship yards, and looking at the huge cranes, I had quite the epiphany. Think back to the original Star Wars. George Lucas and his Industrial Light and Magic were in San Francisco, and I'm sure they had this same view every day.

 It seems like a very logical step to see this crane and get to the Walkers. I still remember how scary these were in the first movie. 

We galumphed home with our boxes, packed up the rest of the books and ended the day with a call from the museum volunteers scheduling a pickup on Sunday. Great accomplishments and lots of fun. 

18 February 2013 - Bay Aquarium

Awoke to a chilly gray day. Today's agenda was to walk over to Pier 39 for TulipMania. The pier has full-time gardeners that plan and plant wonderful gardens throughout the year. February has thousands of tulips and daffodils planted in huge barrels. What is even more fun, is all the groupings are labeled, so if you really love that purple and white streaked tulip, you can find it by name. Nice!  All the groupings were different. Some in reds, or yellow and oranges, or white and blue. It was all beautifully done. It was hard to get photos for all the people looking at them.

But first things first. Pier 39 also has a carousel. What is unique about this one is that it's a double decker. Only place I have ever seen or heard of one. The smaller upper layer has two rows of horses.  None of the animals on this carousel are hand carved, they are some sort of plastic or plexi material that is a shell, their bellies are hollow. Nevertheless they are very nice and the ride is great. All the paintings around the top are places and scenes around San Francisco. It is quite lovely. 

  I quite liked the hare. The ears were wonderful. This carousel had dolphins, sea lions and even a panda: not your usual carousel fare. 

Next we wandered over to the Bay Aquarium. That was  really a treat! This aquarium only houses fish found in the San Francisco Bay, and what an amazing richness that is.  Inside were several floor to ceiling round plexiglass aquariums. When I am rich and famous, or after winning the lotto I swear I will have two of these. The first one I am lusting after was filled-- and I mean totally filled with  anchovies. Oh, shiny!

And the fun part is that they often open their mouths as wide as possible and just hold it that way for up to 30 seconds.  When they do this, the light glistens on their gills and it punctuates the tank with little lights. Cool!  The light reflecting off their faces made it very hard to get a good picture, but the sparkles of light would stop you in your tracks.                                                                                      

The many anemones gave a whole new meaning to an octopus's garden. The tiny little strawberry anemone was a delight! Bright and cheerful. 

One of the tanks had a decorator crab with a strawberry anemone growing on top of his head. Don't know if he planted it there, or if it just took root, but it surely was interesting. Maybe it was a she crab who wanted a pretty hat.                                                                      The second thing I am lusting over are jellyfish. Once again, a huge round tank full of jellies. They are mesmerizing. I could watch them for hours. If I ever achieved my dream of a huge tank of jellies it would probably be the end of my life as I know it. This tank of moon jellies had lights on top that changed colors, illuminating the jellies. It was pretty, but the natural translucent white is enough. 

 This was the tip of the iceberg. Other jellies on display included the Medusa. This picture is actual size.

And nettles:

 

There were many starfish, but what was neat was being able to see their bottom sides. Much of the aquarium was comprised of walk through tunnels, so we got a really good look at them. Loved it!

 I am wondering if this is the starfish's stomach. They eat by turning their stomach inside out and digesting theeir food from the outside in. If it is, well, it certainly is the prettiest stomach  I've ever seen.

 Another tank had abalones. I have eaten these and thought I'd died and gone to heaven, but this was the first time I'd seen live ones. They look fairly prehistoric--like I imagine trilobytes might have looked. 

 Robin and I were both surprised about how great this little aquarium was. We'd both go back in a heartbeat.  One of the last best things was a massive octopus. He was huge and his mantle reminded me of Manny the Mammoth in Ice Age. 

This ray was swimming overhead. His underside looks like a happy little face--something out of a Disney movie. Considering his eyes are on the other side, does this make him a two-faced fish? 

As we were leaving the aquarium I saw an elevated tank with a head bubble so children could get a fish eye view. Naturally I coerced Robin into crawling underneath. I was amused and Robin bemused when a little kid crawled in with her. The hole wasn't really big enough for two. 

All in all, it was another wonderful day.