February Snow Day

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The snow was falling before sunrise. By the time I could see our backyard, it was covered in snow. A bush that needed a trim had collected flourishes of snow on the longer branches.

The cast iron table showed that there was at least 2 inches of snow everywhere. I bundled up to take a short walk outdoors.

Every plant – even the ones with no leaves – was holding the wet snow. Pine needles were capturing snow, and the branches were drooping with the extra weight. Even the tops of the fence posts were capped with snow.

There were already indications that the snow was melting….some drips on from the deck onto the patio below and my footprint compacting the snow all the way down to the concrete (snow to slush happened very easily).

I made my way to the tennis court….pristine snow…and started walking a pattern. I retraced each line 3-4 times. The repetition and the wetness of the snow made the ‘lines’ more distinct than my previous attempt back in January. I was pleased with the result. Maybe we can get a small drone to get pictures of my creations?

As I walked back through my back yard to get to the house – I stopped at one of our pines to photograph the way the needles held the snow…and pinecones almost buried in the snow.

Later in the day, the wind had blown some snow off the trees and the snow had melted on darker surfaces like the stepping stones away from our patio…..and the tennis (my pattern was gone).  

It was a great day to be at home…and take a short break for outdoor photography and patterns in the snow!

Ten Little Celebrations – January 2024

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There are so many little celebrations every day. Here are my top 10 for January 2024.

51 years of being married. OK – perhaps this one is not ‘little.’ We marked the day by getting a special meal (picked up, eaten at home)…but the more significant part of the celebration was the savoring of being long marrieds…of always being supportive of each other, particularly when things are stressful.

Spider lily bulbs. I celebrated getting spider lily bulbs (and some iris rhizomes) planted before the very cold weather in mid-January.

A fragrant candle. I finally used up a very fragrant candle I had moved from Maryland (in the car since they are not permitted on moving trucks). When I entered my office each morning, I celebrated how it smelled from the candle I’d burned a few hours the previous evening!

Being home. Being away from home for 7 weeks and then leaving again for Texas 2.5 weeks later for a few days gave me several opportunities to celebrate coming and being home!

Braum’s Strawberry Poppyseed Chicken Salad. Yum. I had about given up on finding something at a fast food place that I liked…so I celebrated this discovery. The greens are fresh, the grilled chicken tender, the strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple make it special.

First Snow. I celebrated being home for snow…not on the road between Texas and home!

Patterns in the snow. I celebrated my first pattern walks in the snow…hope to try it again soon.

Old friends. I celebrated that two old friends (that I hadn’t talked to in years) contacted me just when I needed to talk to them…before I even realized how wonderful that would be.

2 years cancer free. Celebrating a 2-year mark of a 5-year monitoring regime for cancer after surgery…and all the checks are indicating no cancer.

Being indoors. When the temperature is single digits or below zero…it’s worth celebrating an indoor day in a warm house.

Patterns in the Snow

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A few days after photographing the snow activity around the patio, it was a little warmer (in the teens) and the sun was out. I ventured out at mid-morning to look around the yard and neighborhood. I noticed tracks in the snow. Squirrel?

My real objective was to walk patterns on the untracked snow of the tennis courts. It was my first attempt…and a learning experience.

  • I had chosen 2 simple patterns from my Zentangle experiences. The free form curves worked better than the “straight” lines.

  • The contrast between shadows and bright sunlight played havoc with my line of sight. The poles at the ends of the net worked well but the other corners were more nebulous.

  • Even though I tried to retrace each line at least twice, additional retracing would have made the lines more solid. Maybe wearing snowshoes would make that easier although I am not quite ready to make the purchase (yet).

The tennis courts are an optimal surface to walk patterns in the snow – flat and with ‘posts’ for orientation.

  • The snow was a good depth…2-3 inches.

  • It was cold enough (teens) that there had been no melting.

After I finished on the tennis courts I walked along the path a bit – made arches away from tracks made by others. Some had melted through to the asphalt. On the bridge over the channel into the ponds, there had been more traffic and the snow had fallen between the planks.

My winter gear kept me warm enough (down filled coat with hood, tube scarf over my head under the hood, mask, snow pants, hiking boots with wool socks, battery powered heat in my gloves). But I was ready to head indoors!

The Delineator from 1890 – 1932

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Internet Archive has 39 volumes of The Delineator magazine from 1890 to 1932. It was published by Butterick Publishing Company – the same company that I remember from the 1960s and 1970s for patterns; I was making most of my own clothes at that time. The magazine always included patterns for clothes but as I gleaned images for this post – I also included advertisements, covers, educational displays. Click on any part of the mosaics below to see a larger version. Links to each volume are included…the historical perspective from browsing these volumes is worth it!

The first mosaic contains images from the magazines published in the 1900s. Some of my favorites are the ad for FAB flakes (Babes in the wools), the October 1922 cover full of fall foliage, covers showing active women (golfing and skiing), aquarium fish and Christmas trees. The most thought provoking was the one with a woman and, presumably, her two sons in miliary uniforms from the January 1919 issue; I wondered if the one on the left looking less serious was the younger brother. A peace conference was being held in Paris that month…but waves of the 1918 flu were happening around the world…and the US.  

The second mosaic contains images from the 1800s. The last color images were in 1897. The magazine was also more skewed to fashion/patterns than in the 1900s. Huge sleeves, corsets, and elaborate hats were in vogue (note that this was also the time when some birds were almost wiped out to get feathers for hats!). How did anyone really swim in those bathing costumes from 1894?

Zentangle® – August 2023

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85 square Zentangle tiles…picking 31 for this post representing August 2023. I decided to challenge myself to use black ink (i.e. no colored inks) in August. I did enjoy colorful cardstock tiles though.

Another challenge to myself was to use a mono-pattern (i.e. “Crescent Moon”)providing some variety with different ‘threads’. 11 of the 31 tiles are that pattern.

Last but not least – I started with a string of 8 wedges and then filled in the edges in varying ways. I made 6 tiles with that strategy!

I realized that using only black ink when I travel makes packing trivial…so I might make tiles that way any time I am away from home ---- but I am looking forward to colored inks in September!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Zentangle® – March 2023

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31 days in March and 31 Zentangle tiles. The habit of making a tile (or several) every day is entrenched at this point. Seeing patterns in my environment or in the books I am reading…using them as prompts…often surprising myself (in a good way) at what emerges on the tiles.   It feels good while I am creating each tile and then looking back at the month’s production. This month there were a few tiles that carried over from the ‘5 circles’ pattern from February…but ‘7 circles’ or ‘9 circles.’

I continued to prefer the rectangular tiles….and enjoyed a variety of patterns and colors (some new pens). I tended to use the paradox pattern in quite a few places. I spent the two hours it took to get my car serviced making Zentangle tiles…got so involved that I didn’t read the book I had on my phone at all!

There was only one square tile the whole month and I liked one side of it enough to select it as the 31st tile!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Beautyberry as Zentangle® Prompt

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When I was at Mount Vernon in December there was an American Beautyberry growing at the edge of the bowling green. I took a picture of the bush then zoomed in on a stem with berries.

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Nature is a great source of prompts for tangle patterns…and the purple clusters of the beautyberry are one of the easier examples. There is not much deconstruction required…the pattern is just some parallel dashed lines for the stem and filling the spaces between the stem lines with the tipple pattern. Easy!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Zentangle® - July 2019

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There was quite a lot of variation on the Zentangle front in July. There was a challenge on the long road trip days and then being very busy the rest of the time. Some days there was plenty of time to make several tiles…other days were too short to do anything other than on the critical path to get my daughter moved to Missouri! In the end – I still had a lot of tiles to choose from to come up with 31 tiles for July. The normal variation is seen in this first group made on the iPad with the Apple Pencil using the Procreate App. I found the iPad the easiest to work with at the end of a long day of driving.

I started experimenting with some square paper coasters for tiles early in the month.

There was also a series that were created with a spiral string then a single pattern….all on the iPad.

The most different tiles the samples I made using the butterfly tiles I used with the summer campers last week. It was fun experimenting with the shape and working with symmetry.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Biltmore Providence

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The Certified Zentangle® Trainer class was held in the Biltmore Providence (recently renamed to Graduate Providence). The high ceiling and glass/brass elevator in the lobby are vintage 1920s when the hotel first opened.

I started seeing patterns in lots of places in the hotel. In the room, it was the wallpaper on the upper part of the bathroom walls (shells with sparkle), the bathroom floor tiles, and the carpet.

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On the floor where the class was held (ballroom and snack area) there were fixtures and fabrics…some the original vintage of the hotel and some very recent. I felt I was immersed in a pattern rich place – but there are many places that turn out to be pattern rich when we look closely.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Celebrating Butterflies – Part 2

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Continuing my August post about butterflies in the Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy exhibit --- what a difference lighting makes. Both pictures below are the underside of the malachite butterfly week. The most colorful butterflies often have reflective/physical color rather than pigment…and so light makes a tremendous difference.

I looked more carefully at the color patterns on the butterfly wings and noticed that the ribs of the wing play a role in the pattern of some butterflies

And others where the ribs were not part of the pattern.

Another two butterflies were the ribs are part of the pattern – and even are boldly outlined on part of the wing – are the Queen

And the Monarch butterflies.

There is always something new to notice in the butterfly exhibit!