Spirits and Sparrows

A new series of one of a kind figures - each featuring a sparrow detail. Cheryl has a lot of fun creating these..... she is happiest when she only has to make one of something! Her mom's favorite hymn was "His Eye Is On The Sparrow", and the tiny sparrow on each of these is a reminder of this great old tune...... refrain below

I sing because I'm happy
I sing because I'm free
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me.

Complete lyrics - click here - music seems to have stopped working.

Beauty in unexpected places

Looks like it could be shown on that Astronomy picture of the day site, but this was in the parking lot at the drugstore yesterday. Somebody has a car leaking oil..... a sort of perfect storm of a light rain, an old car, and perfect light. Moments later it was gone, a tiny oil slick heading for Lake Ontario via the storm drain a couple of feet away. Multiply by millions of tiny drips, and you begin to realize why the planet is in trouble. (click on picture for a bigger image)

Maya Thursday

We played "hide Maya under the blanket" today. That's the blanket flying in from the right. And below, after she pulls off the blanket, Maya is very pleased. How wonderful that kids can turn us back into kids ourselves!

Spring!

This year's daffodils are emerging! Click on the picture for a closer view!

Easter

I've often said to people who ask what kind of wooden toys I made ------ "think of a wooden toy --- I probably made my own version". About 30 years ago, give or take a year or 3, I made wooden rattles. Several different versions, including the wooden ring with a sliding bead teething/rattle toy shown above in Maya's mouth. Little did I know that one of those rattles would end up being happily "chewed" on many years later by my own granddaughter! Cheryl found it around the house somewhere, and put it in Maya's Easter basket.

And, as shows better in the image below, Maya is wearing one of Casey's old t-shirts..... one he wore around the same time that I made the rattle! How cool is life!

Come into the light!

I'm often drawn to light and shadow patterns. Reflections, projections, light that has passed through something colorful, reflected from the side of a moving truck onto the cement median - hard to photograph that one, but I remember it vividly - on the way back from Detroit last summer.

The above is light that has passed through a wonderful piece of hand blown glass created by Matt Seasholtz . I'm sure Matt would be happier if I took pictures of his wonderful glass, but I really like the light on the pedestal under the glass --- go figure.

For Maeve and Wyatt who think I'm pretty old!

I can remember sitting in the auditorium at Fairport High an incredibly long time ago, being told we needed to make plans for a 5 year reunion! Five years??? We'll be done with college by then! I'll be 22 or something! Who cares? Mr. Witty wasn't going to let us leave until somebody raised their hand and volunteered to plan and execute the all important 5 year reunion. Somehow, my level of discomfort sitting there in silence, must have been greater than all the other members of my class..... the social ones who usually orgainzed the pep rallies, etc. Where were the cheerleaders, and the team captains? Why was the first hand to go up, after what seemed like at least 2 hours, mine? The very same hand that finally went up after a similar long silence when the Civil Air Patrol guy asked us to sign up after another event in that same auditorium. ( I actually joined the Civil Air Patrol, and un-joined after a few weeks of marching and watching films about the joys of military service )

The five years went by. The Vietnam war was on ...... I was a pretty hard core activist by then. A lot of things seemed a lot more important than a 5 year high school reunion! I felt pretty guilty, but I never did organize that first reunion. As far as I know, nobody else stepped into the breech either. The 10 year reunion happened --- I didn't go ---- I figured somebody would probably remember that I had messed up the first one. Sort of the same misfit, nerdy, socially inept feeling that had characterized most of my school years. Why did I raise my hand that day? Mary Ellen and I did go to the 20th ( I think it was the 20th ) We enjoyed each other's company, but our few favorite folks from High School weren't there.

Now I'm 62 years old --- grey bearded ---- my baby brother has died --- I'm a cancer survivor. I think I actually turned out pretty cool. I've owned my own business for 36 years, made lots of great stuff, and made a lot of true friends. I'm a father, a grandfather, an uncle, a husband, a son, and a friend many times over!

Why does that silly post card from Angie and Sue bring up all those old feelings of sitting there in that auditorium trying so hard to keep my hand from going up?

Maybe I'll go and see how many Barack Obama pins I can sell! Or just walk around with a picture of Maya pinned to my vest? Or tell everybody to get their PSA checked, and to go ahead with that long put off colonoscopy! Mine came back negative yesterday by the way! Or just maybe, if we can all put aside those old high school feelings, some of us would discover that we turned out to be pretty decent folks who might like each other!

The family cat

Meo resting on the bed..... one of many favorite places around the house. I've had cats as part of my life as long as I can remember. Ethel, Martin, Shalom, Willow, etc. Meo is the current favorite. She came to us after wandering into a bar one night....there must be a punch line there somewhere?

First evidence of spring outside our back door

I've seen fresh green earlier this spring, but I was a bit further south --- Philly and DC, but here is what I found hiding behind the snow shovel when we got home yesterday afternoon! It won't be long and I will be able to post a picture of the daffodils. The following was posted 369 days ago.....http://louisesdaughter.blogspot.com/2007/03/blog-post.html

Famous Urinals!

I'm not sure why I so often find bathrooms interesting...... regulars may remember my "electric toilet seat" entry not too long ago........http://louisesdaughter.blogspot.com/2008/02/odd-uses-for-electricity.html . Here is another interesting bathroom shot. The men's room this past weekend was probably the cleanest I've ever encountered..... so clean in fact that in 3 days I waited about 6 times while the attendant finished her job, so that I could do mine. My slower than expected recovery from prostate surgery finds me visiting these porcelain beauties more often than I would like, but these were worth the visit! I'll label this entry with my "Thank You" label!

Paradise City

The love of my life!
Another close-up of a new piece!
A view of our booth while booth sitting in the booth across the aisle from ours!

Happy Birthday on the road in Marlborough, MA

A colorful new piece adds a bright spot to our booth in Marlborough, MA this weeked. If you see this, and are in the area, stop by and check us out.... go to Paradise City website for how to find us! And ---- Happy Birthday to Cheryl!!!!!

Snow Geese

While on the way home last weekend from Philly, we saw that appeared to be several thousand white geese with black wings. I had never seen that many geese, nor had I seen white geese with black wings. My friend Marty Schlabach suggested they were probably snow geese, and a search of the internet showed our birds! Also seen on the trip home --- a lone Bald Eagle.... my first definite sighting outside a zoo! My apologies for the borrowed picture.... didn't seem safe to stop on an interstate for a picture of my own!

No picture on this one for obvious reasons!

This would fall under a new category I guess. My blog mentor/friend Salena of The Daily Rant would love this one.

Actual weather report heard on the radio --- "Cloudy tonight, but you won't notice because it will be dark"

And ---- another --- since we are on the topic ---- Sign we drove by on a trip to Washington DC ---- "George Bush Center for Intelligence"

Lisa Rawleigh

Lisa has been our angel for a week shy of 2 years! She kept us organized. She packed and shipped, and kept track of who owed us money. She could do most anything, do it right, and do it quickly...... we learned not to speculate about something we might like to do, because Lisa would probably have it done the next morning! If we weren't really serious????? --- too bad! She was pretty much always cheerful --- always ready with a smile and a hug!

Somebody else found out about her, and she now has a new job! She left us for better pay, benefits, and a shorter comute! (30 minutes instead of 75?) Now why would she do that?

We wish her all the best that life has to offer! That is us in the front row, and Lisa in the back with Jim --- her wild and crazy really cool guy! We're smiling because of the great barbeque we had for lunch - not because she was leaving!

We love you Lisa!

Maya Wednesday

Maya in her bouncy thing - notice the smile! And notice the fancy foot work! And that is Grandma Cheryl urging her on in the background! The Maya skeptical look seemed to be missing today too!

This might be useful, or just silly???

It looks like you can now call me for free by clicking on the blue "Grand Central" phone box right below the Flickr pictures to the right --- you will need to scroll down a bit. Looks like it might take a double click? Enter your name and phone number in the spaces that will appear, click the call me box, and they will call you, and me, and connect us at no charge, or you can leave a message. We will have to see how this works, or if I will need to remove it? Could be a neat way to communicate? Just keep the calls to 8am to 9pm Eastern time?????

5 Days without a computer!

True we were a bit south, but a bit of green showed up! On the road again..... pretty good sales at the Germantown Friends School 24th annual craft show in Philadelphia. Lots of new friends, connections with some old ones, over $600 raised for Obama! And below, I love odd patterns of light and shadow. Some of our wooden spirals leaning on the other side of the wall, created a neat picture..... I also discovered that using the flash pretty well ruins a picture of some shadows!

Maya Wednesday

Wednesday is take care of Maya day. We are doing our best to make sure she absorbs the right politics - see above. Below, Maya clicks to send her first e-mail! It sure is an amazing world --- I was about 7 years old or so when we got our first black and white TV.... of course we didn't define it as black and white because there was no such thing as color TV. One generation later Maya plays with a computer! How different her world will be! Correction (3/7/2008) Sister-in-law Anne reminds me that it is actually 2 generations. She and her kids love to remind Uncle Don how terribly old he really is!
If you are following this regularly, smiling is now part of Maya's life. The ever present skeptical look seemed to be missing today! She even smiles taking a bath now..... and especially for the Cohocton crowd ---- note the rubber ducky!

Odd Uses For Electricity????

One of my "hobbies" is collecting odd things that we add electricity to..... up to now my favorite was the battery operated lollipop spinner - probably intended to limit wear and tear on the tongue???? Now my favorite is the electric toilet seat cover --- an endless plastic tube moved to a new position each time a new person arrives in the stall! And it comes with a sign reassuring the user that the plastic tube is destroyed as it enters the uptake side so that it cannot be re-used! Now we can waste plastic and electricity while flushing biomass into the water supply! Now use some more electricity by clicking (I think twice) on the video below!

Kennedy Center

Camera is acting up pretty bad, but Louise's Daughter debuted at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC this weekend! We have been selling to The Kennedy Center gift shop for several years, and in conjunction with a wonderful series of performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, we sold our work in the lobby right beside the bust of John F. Kennedy! We made many new friends, sold quite a lot of work, and got to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre too! There was even a page in the program about us!

Below is a view of the Presidential Box - We watched the performance from the box right next to this one!
I'm not trying to brag ---- only to convey how exciting this past weekend was..... and in addition to all that, we got to visit and see the grandchildren of our best friends of many years!

Maya and Grandpa

Ever the curious one, Maya loves to look out the window...... and Grandpa, always looking for an opportunity for another picture, just rested the camera on the edge of the window, and here we are! We were lucky enough to be home between shows for the weekly babysitting stint today! We're out of town a lot this month, but nothing makes you feel at home like looking out the window with your granddaughter!

Baby it's cold outside

It may be cold and blustry outside, but inside, the mushrooms are growing very nicely in Cohocton,
and in Rochester the tomatoes are almost ripe. Greetings to all those who grow things!

Slight negative note -- Due to a comment left by an unknown person that contained "Spam/virus" stuff, all future comments will go first to me, and then be approved if legit. The "evil" comment has been blocked. I love comments as it lets me know somebody is actually reading this! I do have a counter - heading quickly for my 3000th view, but comments are better than checking the counter. Thank you all for your continued checking of this blog!

Walter

Walter Johnson
Good friend
Philadelphia
Good picture
Thank you

Arial View

Not the best picture..... it was taken through an upstairs window during set-up at our lastest show. Central area is the booth of our friends Nan and Bill Bolstad - wooden box makers to the stars. Bill and Nan are handing out buttons claiming 50 years of "making sawdust". Turns out Bill made his first birdhouse at age 12???

Just another view in the ongoing saga of the traveling adventures of Don and Cheryl! I'll see if I can get an arial view of our booth..... but I need to get permission to get at another window!

Just think, you are not here by chance

My grandparents - William and Pearl Olney My other grandparents - Earle and Florence Drake

On Friday, I went to the funeral of Edna Bontrager Schlabach, mother of one of my two best friends, along with 6 other children, 20 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. I think of her, and her husband Levi (still with us), as my third set of grandparents. Turns out that makes me special, but also not so special, because Edna and Levi have always treated most everyone like their own children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren - a lesson that if learned by a lot more folks, would make the world a much better place!

A big thank you to Edna, Florence, Pearl, Levi, Earle, and William!

And definitely not forgetting Violet, Louise, Melburne, and Clyland!

And on back into history - how many thousands of others?

Latest Da Vinci Robot!

The newest version of the Da Vinci robotic surgery system has arrived in town. I missed it, but it was available for public viewing and playing at Rochester General Hospital yesterday. The one that worked on me is 4 years old. In dog years, that is 28 years old. In technology years, who knows. From the video, and pictures, this one looks a lot smaller and less scary than the one that I met. Click here for a short local TV segment on the new machine. Not sure how long the video link will stay on-line -- let me know if it stops working.

Spinning Top Collection

For some reason, I thought I'd put some pictures of my top collection on a new Flicker site. The above piece is a wonderful hand carved and turned old fashioned toy vendor selling tops, 9 pins, diabolos, etc. It was made by my old friend Eric Horne, from Topsham, England.

Maya or Cheryl?

Cheryl seems to lack Maya's skeptical look, but otherwise?????????? From Cheryl's baby book found recently.

Green Beans

I've never been a big fan of baby pictures with food spread all over the place, but hey - I've never been a grandfather before either! Maya's first green beans. Deanna claims she ate half the jar, but looks like a good percentage went elsewhere. She actually seemed to like the beans, and the sweet potatoes a few days ago. In keeping with family tradition, peas did not go over so well!

Clovis

You've heard about Maeve, Wyatt, and Anne ---- here is Clovis! Just seemed like a really nice shot, and he is always glad to see me ----- unless Cheryl is along!

Friday nite pizza before addition of heat!

Thank you Beth.

Who are you voting for?

People often "know" our home by the figures on the porch, in the windows, and on the front door. I guess now they'll know who we want for president too. A couple of young people delivered our Obama yard signs on Sunday afternoon. We got them up immediately! Hidden in the old milk box by the door - just to the right of the Eve figure in the picture - are some handmade wooden Obama campaign pins. Leave $20 for each one you take, and we'll send all of it to the campaign!

Be sure to vote! We really don't care which party or which candidate you support - though we'd love the chance to discuss the possibilities. It is very exciting that both parties are discussing the issues, and making choices. For the first time in a long time, there are real decisions being made on both sides of the fence, and there may even be some holes in the fence, which is a very good thing!

Progess

Another sort of grey day, but here are 2 of the 4 completed wind generators, and there are about 10 other bases up along the ridge of the hill off to the left - patiently awaiting their blades. A total of 50 wind turbines are planned for this area to be installed by this fall. If you question my "nature in the back yard" tag on this one, these 50 wind turbines will help save a lot of nature for the coming generations!

Wyatt and Maeve and I had a great day Saturday. We went to Naples for lunch, and Maeve drove home. She is really getting quite good at this driving thing!

And for those keeping track -- my PSA is officially ZERO.

In case you thought things haven't changed much

You will want to click the above image to get a readable size. I was 9 years old when this was published..... a lot has happened in 52 years! Hillary isn't my first choice for president, but you can be sure I think it is really cool that she is running! And her chief rival is a black man! John Edwards expressed astonishment in the Democratic debate last nite that as a southern white male, he is the odd one! ;-)

Maya's first art show!

Maya showed up for her first art show, and grandma - who usually spends every minute of such events talking to everyone in sight - just stopped and held Maya! Everyone had to enjoy the art show alone for a long time!

Generations Art Show again

Generations II

2008

Once again, we bring you wonderful art from amazing Rochester Artists of Color- younger and older.

May we all continue to remember and honor the past.

May we all live fully, clearly, and appreciatively in the present.

May we all look with hope, “eyes wide open” to the future and thepromise of these young people and future generations.

Don and I personally dedicate this year to our first grandchild,Maya Louise Sams.

Born July 19, 2007

The 5th generation on my father’s side born since slavery,

or as written in her great, great grandmother’s Bible,“since freedom.”

To Maya and to all young people of color, we echo what her parents have written on the wall above her crib.

“Dream Big, Little One”

The spirit of Sankofa lights the way.

Cheryl and Don Olney

We express much gratitude to the participating artistsand to those who helped with the “on the ground” work of making the show happen:Jean Pope Boyle and the Valley Manor/Seniors First StaffFrancine Conwell, Krystal Thombs, Faruk Kaiyum, Michelle Cardulla (Museum of Kids Art)and Sharon Turner (Community Darkroom)

If you are in the Rochester, NY area, visit the 1570 Gallery at Valley Manor - 1570 East Ave, Rochester, NY --- now through February 28th

Winter Blossoms

Searching the web for "Mother of Thousands" will give you lots of information about this unique plant. I have had mine since I was a kid. As a science nerd kind of kid, the fact that every leaf of this plant produced tiny plants complete with roots that drop off and grow pretty much anywhere was just plain wonderful. A couple of years ago, one of mine blossomed! Not sure why in probably 50 years, none of mine had blossomed, but it was very exciting. Turns out these blossoms do not produce seeds. However a plant that, like the christmas cactus, blossoms in the heart of winter, is truly a joy. Most of mine are direct clones from that original from childhood, but I also have a new variety that I got from a friend a couple of years ago. If you would like a few of the little plantlets to try, just let me know.

And, just arrived in the mail ---- about 25 seeds to try my hand at growing some sensitive plants ----- the leaves fold up rapidly when touched. Another childhood plant memory!

New Idea

Don't know if this concept will become part of the line, but it is very exciting to have created a new piece! My mind has been doing all sorts of other things for the past couple of months, so creating the above piece over the past couple of days has been wonderful. I think she needs some work, and with Cheryl at the Atlanta Gift Show, our usual suggestion/argument process will have to wait a few days, but hopefully a new type of piece may arise. We've been thinking about people relating to furniture for a while........ so......... who knows?

Getting tired of this.

Another sign that life continues! This Gerber Daisy in our kitchen window has sort of risen from the dead. After the frost, I brought in this flower I got for Cheryl last spring and put in the kitchen window. The leaves looked pretty dead, but I brought it inside anyway. About 5 leaves seemed to revive a bit over the coming weeks, and like the sentimentalist I am, I kept watering it. A few new leaves rewarded my effort, and then, about the time I came home from the hospital I noticed a tiny flower bud emerging from the dirt. Above is that flower today.

I haven't written much recently, and pretty much no pictures either. Recovery for older folks is quite a bit slower it seems. Hours of watching I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, MASH, and history channel stuff is surprisingly interesting, but pretty much uninspiring! I've gone to work a few times, but seem to only last for a maximum of 3 hours or so. A few good ideas seem to pop up here and there, but the energy to follow-up seems quite limited. Cheryl and Lisa have gone off to Atlanta for a show, and I'm home alone ---- another source of lack of inspiration?

Anyway, the doctor says my pace of recovery is not unusual --- I think they forgot to tell me that in advance? I continue to be very pleased to wake up everyday, and I'm trying to remind myself that all this time sitting around is a lot better than not being here to sit around. Each day definitely seems a bit better, and I'm looking forward to making more stuff, making more friends, taking care of all the old friends, and growing older with Cheryl!

Hug everyone you love soon, and maybe even hug a couple of strangers?