Snow in Slippery Rock! Christmas 2012

(Above:  Female Downy Woodpecker.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

On Christmas Day Steve and I got up very early and traveled north through dense fog in West Virginia and all the way to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania ... in time for Christmas dinner.  It was GREAT!  We opened presents afterwards ... including the one I bought for my sister Sonya and brother-in-law Vipin. 

Okay, I admit it!  This found-object artpiece was really bought for their little pup Lulu ... for this photo op!


(Above:  Lulu and the Christmas crab!)

The next day snow storm Euclid dumped plenty of the "white stuff" and we went for a walk by the ice covered lake and through the woods.  We also spent plenty of time watching the dozens of different types of winter birds eating at the feeders outside my parents' sliding glass doors.  A dozen turkeys wandered by as well.


(Above:  Snow covered cat tail reeds at the side of the lake.)

We are now officially snowbound ... and loving it.  It is an excellent excuse for staying inside and stitching!  I posted 29 photos on a Flickr! account ... HERE or HERE FOR A SLIDESHOW!


(Above:  View to my parent's house from the workshop/garage.)


(Above:  Me in my mother's winter coat ... the one she called Nanook of the North.)


(Above:  Steve ... as we approached the bird feeders ... where I took the photo of the woodpecker at the beginning of this post.)

(Above:  Mathias, age 17.  Summer of 2005.  ABT summer intensive.)

I have a "google alert" on my elder son's name.  Yesterday a message appeared and I found this photo of Mathias.  I knew he looked "young" ... or at least younger than his current age of 24 ... but WHERE was this photo taken.  I emailed Mathias.  His answer:  ABT summer program.  He also told me about a gallery of photos from last week's triple bill.  These great images are on Dance Europe's website.  They're embedded into the site in such a way that I can't "grab" them and post ... but here's the link! 

Mathias as Puck ... from the BRB Facebook Photo Album

Grandpa's Slides, 1953-68

(Above: LoraDell Baker in Atlantic City, 1966. Click on image to enlarge.)

In March 2012 while I was at an art residency in Key West, Steve took digital photographs of slides taken and organized by my grandpa, Connel A. Baker, Jr. I've finally uploaded them to Flickr!, a public site. Using Photoshop, I've "played around" with the two photos in this blog post in order to minimize the look from the slide projector screen.

Suitcase # 1 is HERE or as a slideshow HERE. Total 1,613 images ... all with Grandpa's captions.
Suitecase # 2 is HERE or as a slideshow HERE. Total 1,786 images ... all with Grandpa's captions.


(Above: The seven grandchildren, 1967. Click on image to enlarge.)

Steve's blog post from March 8 reads:

The head mouse, Susan, is spending the whole month of March at The Studios of Key West as one of their artist-in-residence. Today she is teaching her famously "Hot" class to 12 eager students (a class that had 8-10 people on a waiting list). She is spending this month creating faux stain glass fiber pieces and more InBox pieces for an upcoming show in Fredericksburg, VA in June. Needless to say she is having a great time away from me and the business. I will join her on March 29 and we will return on April 2.

One of my duties ( it is actually my pleasure and honor) in her absence is to record and document the hundreds of photographic slides that Susan's grandfather, Connel Baker, created during the years from 1954-1968. I never had the pleasure to meet him because of his untimely death in 1978. The slides contain photographs of his trips (with the love of his life, LoraDell, still alive and kicking at 93) all over the United States and Europe, family photos of his children, grandchildren, immediate family members and friends, and everything else in between. He even took slides of President Lyndon Johnson's Inauguration in 1965. There are no fewer than 95 boxes of slides with 36 slides per box. Every slide was named and dated, and each one was enclosed in a metal case. The metal slides were placed in a Airequipt automatic slide magazine and viewed using a Argus 300 Slide Projector. This was cutting edge technology before the invention of the Carousel projector that most people of my generation would remember.

The vast majority of the slides are in incredibly good shape with crisp colors and clarity. Many have not been seen in 50 years or more, and many of them have never been seen by Susan's family. Before Susan left for Florida, she set up a tripod with my digital camera and movie screen borrowed from her sister, Sonya, in our living room upstairs. We set up the Argus Projector, and I began taking digital photos of each slide as projected on the movie screen. Each container and slide is named using Connel's descriptions and stored on the computer. Although the quality is not as good as the slide itself, one can get a reasonable idea of which ones may need to be scanned for better reproduction (and believe me, there are many that warrant this!).

Lyric Pieces ... a photo I found on-line

(Above: Members of Birmingham Royal Ballet dancing in Lyric Pieces, a new work by choreographer Jessica Lang. I saw this work during my spring trip to England. It is WONDERFUL and Mathias was wonderful in it! Here's a video of Ms. Lang talking about her commission.

Family Photos from our trip to Munich

(Above: My Dad, my sister Wanda, my elder son Mathias, my husband Steve, and my Mom ... all in front of the Stadtoperhaus in Munich. Shortly after this photo was taken, we were all inside the theater watching Mathias' stunning performance as Puck in The Dream ... aka Midsummer Night's Dream. What a treat! Click on this or any photo in this post for an enlargement.)

I'm a week behind in my blogging ... but I'm determined to catch up! I also got some flak from family members for not posting here on "My Family Blog" ... which isn't just for family but is primarily the blog where silly family photos and non-art related things find there place.



So ... here are the family photos in no particular order ... starting off with me riding in the train as it cogged its way down the Zugspitz.



Here's Steve ... taking his own photo. He loves doing this! Now ... for all the photos we both took, saved, color & contrast corrected, and shared, please visit my Flickr! site. Nearly 400 photos cover the week in Munich and surrounding areas. These are just some of them. The Flickr set can be viewed HERE. As a slideshow, CLICK HERE.



Steve and I went down the Zugspitz on the train ... but we rode up with Reinhard on the cable car.



The people selling tickets thought I was nuts ... because I was wearing flip-flop sandals with this dress and sweater. Obviously, I wasn't going to ski ... and this inappropriate footwear didn't bother me at all. Steve and I made a little video of our ride from the summit to the glacier slopes just below. It is HERE.



Here's Mom and me back at the bottom of the mountain.



We went to Oberammergau on the same afternoon. Dad had both Wanda and me taking all sorts of photos of these unique, wooden bird feeders. Hopefully he'll soon be making some like these.



Day examining the feeder and instructing Wanda on the shots he needed!



Wanda was quite obedient ... so, Dad, when are we getting bird feeders like these?



Here's my best photo of them!



Steve and I visited Olympic Park ... and really wished that we could join the kids in these hamster-like plastic balls on the water. What fun! Steve shot a video of this too. It is HERE!



We visited the Munich market ... and I insisted on a photo of Steve by this silly lobster.



Here's Laura-Jane, Mathias, and my parents in the market. This is now our computer's screen saver.



Okay ... whose going to make these furry things?



On another late afternoon, Steve and I went to Nympenburg Palace. It wasn't open but we enjoyed the gardens.



Here's Wanda and Reinhard in the Hofbrauhaus!



She was also sitting beside Dad!



Here we are before the performance ... in front of the theater ... after a marvelous meal.




This is Mom and Dad in the Marienplatz.



What we really did best was eat and drink! The weather was so wonderful that most of our meals were enjoyed outside!






So ... Here's some German food!



These photos sure explain why we ate and drank better than anything else!



Another lovely meal!



Dessert ... Wow! This was a selection that included bite-sized portions of all the desserts on the menu! We shared, of course!



Almost too pretty to eat .... NOT!



This was supposed to be "mouse ice cream". It didn't look like the photo in the menu. I guess they were out of round cookies for the ears ... so I ate it.



Apfelstrudel ... nothing more needs to be said when four utensils are diving into it!



I love semmelknodel!



More ice cream!



We stopped along the Isar River to view this unique rock installation. We know nothing about it ... so, if someone has information, please leave a comment or email me at mouse_house@prodigy.net. I also created a little blogger video. It is HERE.



We laughed and laughed about all the frog crossing signs. Yes, this is a big deal in Bavaria!



Here I am on a bridge near the Bavarian/Austrian boarder.



It was Mom's apfelstrudel ... but we all helped her!



The alpine water is so clear and beautiful!



Steve and I enjoyed the snow too!



Of course I had to wade into the water. It is cold ... really, really cold ... just like the melting snow and ice ... straight off the mountains.



This is more snow than we saw all winter in Columbia!



Back along the Isar with the rock installation.