Paul and Me!

Looking good, sounding great!
















On one of 2 pianos

Bear with me, I'm telling a story here. We drove to SF in plenty of time, wanted to visit Coit Tower murals. Traffic up Lombard was horrendous so we hit the Wharf instead. What a mistake! Saturday in the summer - the streets were so full you couldn't move. Off to North Beach. Almost as bad with tourists. So we decided to find a good place for dinner and ended up at the Mona Lisa restaurant. After a glass of De Loach chardonnay, I had a plate of Osso Buco on a bed of fabulously flavored polenta. Heavenly for this Italian mama wannabe chef! A damn fine meal and I'd recommend this place to anyone who likes real Italian.
So then we're off to ATT park via GPS directions. Well, it was obvious that GPS wasn't raised in The City. A roundabout route took us to our destination. Thousands of people already milling around the front of the park! We should've skipped all our gallavanting around and gone straight to the park very early. Finding parking was a fright. $60.00?? You've got to be kidding! Several blocks away from the park and we settled for a $30.00 space in a garage many blocks away from the park.
Now to hot foot it to the park. Well, this was interesting for me and I went the farthest I've gone on foot since my stroke. Good exercise tho. We finally made it to the park with plenty of time to spare. Here we spent a lot of time being pushed and shoved around as others jockeyed for their best position. I can't remember how many times I almost fell and wanted to cuss out the rude pushers and shovers. Oh well, concentrate on the concert! We finally made it in. I took my first escalator ride in years and did fine. We had to hike aways around to get our seats, but were grateful to find our box well under the overhang which cut down on the wind. SF in the summer is not too warm.

Long story short, the concert was all I wished for. I took well over 100 photos, called friends to let them listen and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I wish I could've shared it all with you. So this is the best I can do.

I love you John




















Song for Linda

Crab!
I was lucky to have a fresh caught crab before the season ended. A friend and my son-in-law went ocean fishing and decided to drop a crab pot. I think they didn't get any fish, but the crab pot was so full they had to return many to the ocean. Look at the gorgeous color! I will try to capture this somehow in my art.


Pair of Bullock Orioles

I've been so lucky to watch this pair of Bullock Orioles make their home on my property. I've been trying to photograph them for weeks now, but today I got my shot. I can't wait to paint them. I love the brightness of the male. I'm hoping to see little ones in the future.

I spent most of yesterday and today machine quilting some charity quilts. And I did it on Mille, my big APQS machine. It took awhile to feel comfortable with the long-arm, but I was able to free-motion simple stitches. Next I'll try a laser image.

Tomorrow I'm off to San Francisco to see Paul McCartney and am really looking forward to seeing him in person after all these years since I saw him in their first SF show at the Cow Palace. I hope we're allowed to take photos. I'll share if I can.
Leave me a comment!

Crookneck Squash flower

A promise of yummy things to come. I really enjoy the delicate taste of these squash, and to make this art-related, I plan on painting a few of these!


Female Oriole

I've been watching a few pairs of Bullock Orioles feeding at my hummingbird feeders. I've yet to get a photo of one of the gorgeous male birds, brightly colored yellow-orange specimens, one larger than the other. I will definitely be using them in future artworks if I can ever get a couple of good shots.


Peach Segments
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I couldn't help drawing there darker peaches that I segmented to eat. They had a wonderful scent and great flavor.