Sometimes the Art is in the Architecture

There are so many paintings etc. that I really like at the Art Museum.  Every time I go I promise myself I won't take too many pictures of my favorites, but I tend to take a lot any way.  Here are a few of my favorites from our recent visit.

This is a "Cincinnati" painting, with the Tyler Davidson fountain in the left of the picture.  I like looking at all the facial expressions, the activity and clothing of the people.

When I look at this next painting, I think of the little girls who perhaps posed for this painting.  How their faces and expressions are still here for all to see.  I love to look into their eyes and wonder what they were thinking.

This is a painting of St Thomas of Villanueva Dividing His Clothes Among Beggar Boys.

For some reason, I seem to be drawn to the sad, or dark paintings.  I kind of get lost in them.

I thought these three pieces were beautiful and interesting.  I really like the way the one on the right seems to be floating.  How did they get that bowl in the center of the sphere?  The piece in the back is made up of beautiful colors and designs.  I also like the architecture of the Museum showing in the background.

Of course art museums are filled with beautiful paintings, historical artifacts, pottery and sculptures.  Sometimes, the art museum itself is a work of art, and I wonder how many people are so focused on the "art" on display that they totally  miss the architecture that surrounds it.  Here are a few of my shots.  I wanted to get more, but the museum got crowded and was difficult to get clear shots without people passing in front.

This is a shot of the main entrance with the Rio delle Torreselle Chandelier by Dale Chihuly

And, of course, I couldn't go without taking a picture of some stained glass. 

A Little Color Along the Way

I'm back to hiking again with my little dog Finn and have taken a few pictures along the way.  They are nothing spectacular, but just a little color along the way.  These three are from the nature trails that I hike.

This next beauty is from the paved trail we walked.  We walked the paved trail after two days of heavy rains, we knew the nature trails would be muddy.

Although these are not actually flowers, they are just as beautiful.  I like the moss and the greenery surrounding them.

I found this pretty little orange and white moth sitting on the door of my daughter's house.  I had never seen one before...I guess I just don't pay enough attention.  My husband said, he's seen these before...oh who believes him anyway!  Haha! My granddaughter thought he was pretty!

Cats - Real and Imagined.

It's been rainy here the last several days, so on our 45th Anniversary we decided to go to the Art Museum.  I love going to the Art Museum.  On the dreariest days, it can lift your spirits in many ways.  There have been years, when I'm feeling down, I go there and come out feeling so happy.

Much to my surprise, they had a special showing called, "The Modern Cat"!  Of course, we had to head to that gallery.  I'm sharing a few of my favorites here.  There were a few of Charley Harper, who is a famous local artist, I did not take any pictures of those, as I already have them in one form or another at home...books, calendars, and note cards.

This one called The Frightened Cat made me smile for sure:

And a few others that I really loved:

This one is just a little bit different:

I have to add that one of my own kitties has been under the weather recently.  We took her to the vet yesterday and he called today with her test results.  It seems she has Inflammatory Bowel Disease along with Pancreatitis.  From what I've heard and read this could be quite a bit for us and Sedona to handle.  I'm not feeling good about this.  The vet mentioned something about perhaps doing a biopsy in the future, if this doesn't clear up or becomes more chronic.

We don't have a lot of money, so I know when it comes down to it, I'll be torn between the costs and what I feel that we all owe our pets to make them well.  Sedona is 8 years old.

I love cats (we have 4), but the one thing I hate about them is medicating them.  Sedona is the hardest one to medicate.  We have a liquid medication to give her, and I think we got MOST of the first dose in her.  Hopefully, tomorrow's dose will be easier and get all of it in.  Keep us in your thoughts, so that at least, we do the best for Sedona.

Latest Happenings

I've been busy with my usual stuff:  hiking, crocheting and the normal day to day stuff.  Nothing fantastic to blog about, but thought I'd share a few pictures and stories to go along with them.

Usually every Saturday morning I watch my 9 year old granddaughter, Emmi.  She's never any problem at all.  She brings stuff along to keep herself occupied.  She watches Saturday morning cartoons in her Mom's old bedroom and she eats all the waffles that we have in the house.  She's a joy to have around.  However, this past Saturday when she packed up to go home, she forgot her long time friend "Sheepy".  She's had him since she was born.  There he is peeking above her bottle.

Around 10:30 Saturday night, her Mom texted asking if I could send her a picture of Sheepy because Emmi missed him.  So I sent her a picture of Sheepy all tucked in and ready for bed. Sheepy was happily retrieved the next day.  "Faithful Companion" on the pillow fits Sheepy for sure!

I finished another Christmas gift, this time for my grandson.  He's 20 years old and would probably never ask for a pillow for Christmas.  However, he has a great sense of humor and is very proud of his Mexican heritage from his Grandpa's side of the family.  His facebook profile picture is of him wearing a sombrero.  He has his own apartment, and only being 20, he doesn't have a lot of "stuff". so I'm sure he can put the pillow to good use somewhere.

My son-in-law's daughter was married back in May and she recently posted some wedding pictures.  I consider Kayla to be my granddaughter too...so bear with me while I share a few pictures.  A few family members are missing from these pictures.

L to R: Drew, Josie (my granddaughters), Joe (son-in-law), Kayla, Calvin (Joe's son), Beth (my daughter).

Josie, Kayla, Drew (sisters!)

Paul (my son, who lives in Florida) and Drew.  Paul always has Drew laughing.  I wish this picture was in color.

Kayla and Jeff.  Again I wish it was in color.

I guess when you're my age, you remember all those old black and white photos from years ago and even though they're great and nostalgic, the color photos have so much more "pop" to them!

A Trail with Obstacles and Heat!

Another humid sweltering day in Ohio.  Our hiking plans for today were to try and go around twice on the Kingfisher Trail in Winton Woods.  Twice around was our normal routine back before I had knee surgery.  Since my surgery was so successful and I am without pain, I'm hoping we will eventually be able to go even longer than twice around.

We started out before 9 am this morning hoping to beat the heat and hopefully not run into many people.  We could hear noise in the distance as though someone was working in the area.  Sure enough, a crew was working on the lower portion of the trail.  Unfortunately, they were pretty much blocking the trail.  Not only do I have a new knee, but I'm just naturally a klutz, so I always feel I need to watch where I'm going, and have plenty of space to get my big feet through small spaces.  Here is what we needed to pass.

As you can see they didn't leave much space for people to get by.  Finn decided to hop over the rails and go down the hill.  Then, of course, he couldn't quite hop back up and over the rails.  I had to brace myself, bend down, reach over and heist his fat little body back on the trail.  Thank goodness, I kept my klutziness in check.

We continued on and headed for the steps to move to the top portion of the trail.  Another partial blockage greeted us.

They could have pulled their vehicle a little more to the right as there is a level path that runs through.  No, they don't want to make it too easy for hikers.  We got by, and continued on up the hill to the upper portion of the trail.  I didn't want to go back down to the lower portion so I decided we'd stay up top.  When we finally got to the top, my plan was to do the top portion 3 times.  Walk to the end, then go back and forth on the top portion 2 more times.  However, Finn was starting to pant pretty much, so we did a shortened version of the last 2 times.  Since he wears a "winter" coat all the time, I knew he had to be hot.  He will get a haircut later today.  Here is a short video of Finn.

I've also been busy doing some crocheting.  A few scarves for Christmas gifts this year.  Some of the colors do not show up very well.  The scarf on the far left is a soft lilac color.  The second from the right is gray.  I love the little purses I found to match.

Hiking Buddies Once Again!

I decided to take Finn along with me today on my hike.  He had ACL surgery back in November 2015.  Since my knee was bothering me so much after he healed I didn't go hiking any more until after my surgery.  I knew he would be all excited about going hiking again after such a long time, I was a bit afraid he would pull me down the hills.  I don't mind when he pulls me up hills, that actually helps.  I was very surprised he took it easy going down hills today.  I've also forgotten how often he likes to stop and sniff everything too!

It was a very hot and humid day today, but we started our hike at 8:30 am.  It wasn't too bad, and best of all we had the whole trail to ourselves...that's always nice.

My first attempt at the upper portion of the trail.  The steps going up, followed by a long uphill trek.

We didn't see much wildlife, but did hear lots of birds. 

Just a few pictures of simple flowers and a web.  Nothing spectacular, I guess we've missed a lot of the early summer blooms. 

 

 

Before I know it, it will be fall and all the leaves will be turning.  I'm not too bummed about it though, I really didn't expect to be back on the trails at all this summer.  This surgery has surprised me in many ways.  My recovery has been much quicker than I expected.  The only pain I felt today, was in what I used to call my "good" knee. It's not near as bad as the other knee was, so I'm hoping I can put off surgery on my "good" knee for as long as possible, possibly forever. 

Tomorrow will be my last session of outpatient therapy!  Yay!  It will be good to have my days back where I can plan or not plan what I want to do.  The therapists, Katie and Linas were wonderful to work with though, and I appreciate all they've done for me and to me!!

Back Out on the Trail Again

Decided to go out and get some fresh air yesterday, so I headed to one of our county parks.  Farbach Warner is a small park with a short (.6 mile) trail that is mostly paved but has a short portion that goes into the woods.  You can bypass the wooded portion, but I decided to see if I could manage on my new knee.  Here is the downhill I had to navigate.  I didn't have any problems at all.

A little bridge and then up the hill.

Back up and along the paved trail I saw a few interesting trees.  This first one is one that toppled over,and I thought it was pretty interesting looking.

I love the twists and turns of this tree from it's roots up to it's branches.

And, of course, I'm always on the lookout for critters.  I took a picture of a bluebird, which I don't get to see very often, but it was taken at a distance and not very clear.  I wanted to share it, but the quality was not good.

I love these squirrel pictures.  I love the expression on the squirrel's face as he peeked out at me.

If I had hiked this trail last year, I wouldn't have even walked out of my way to take pictures of these flowers.  My knee would have been hurting so bad, all I would have wanted to do was get to my car and sit down.  This year, I stopped to smell the flowers and take pictures of them too!  I felt I could have walked all day...but didn't...too early in the healing process yet.

I went to the surgeon today and had another checkup.  All is good and I go back again in 6 weeks.  Also, had physical therapy....7 sessions down, 5 to go!

Look at my knee now!!  I can even cross my legs again!