November 24, 2011 – Thanksgiving Traditions

If you were expecting a Norman Rockwellesque image of a turkey being carved, forget it. In my family the turkey tradition was all about a bad cat in the kitchen sink. No matter how you tried to stop her, every year Tara managed to get at the turkey while it was thawing. And every year there was a nice gouge in the back of the turkey like some sort of wound. Yum, raw, cold turkey.

The dinner guests had no idea, and what they didn’t know, didn’t hurt them. Plus Tara was a great cat. She lived nearly 20 years. This was back in the days when coyotes were unheard of on Cape Cod. She loved being outside and patrolled the neighborhood. Most every morning, except in the coldest months, she left a treat for us on the walk. No mouse was ever found in the house, nothing messed with the garden and the squirrels knew their place. Tara earned that hunk of turkey. Happy Thanksgiving!

October 16, 2011 – Magic Carpet

Today’s inspiration for the 2011 Project is the result of a morning walk to the de Young Museum. I took in a new exhibit from their large collection of Anatolian kilim carpets. I love the show for the color palette alone, and I always like the meeting of art and pattern. Kilims are rooted in traditional weaving and textile art that goes back thousands of years. The source and origin of the patterns is uncertain. One of the things I notice as I see various pattern-based art from around the world (baskets, ceramics, textiles, weaving, egg decoration, etc.) is that the same patterns reappear over and over. One begins to suspect that we humans have some built-in, universal patterns that given the opportunity, we utilize in various forms of art.

May 29, 2011 – Just Over the Hill

One of the many pleasures of living in the Bay Area is our immediate access to nature. Places like Big Sur and Yosemite are all of four hours away, but so many incredible places are much closer. You can just go right across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Headlands. Today we were just the other side of Oakland. Just over the hills, a few miles from downtown, hidden away is Redwood Regional Park. We stopped for lunch at a crowded shopping center in Emeryville on the way. By contrast the park was quiet and uncrowded. It was a beautiful day with mild, sunny weather and why one would choose shopping over nature is always a mystery to me. The park is a beautiful place t with a remote feel. As you stroll down one of the shaded trails, you have no sense that you are in the heart of an urban area with over 7,000,000 people.

Oddly, last night I had dreams about a giant, 3 foot tall grackle. I just thought it was a ridiculous dream. Okay, I didn’t see a big grackle, but my brain must have been picking up the signal from the wild turkey and her chicks that I met on the trail.