Japanese Woodcuts

I was signed up for a Japanese woodblock class with Andrew Lorish but it got cancelled because of Covid.  I was thrilled when a new date was set for this summer and it got cancelled too because Andrew got Covid.  Several weeks ago the class was announced for this weekend and I think I'm the first person to sign up.  I'm so out of shape.  I really needed something to kickstart me.

The class was held in the Studio 6000 in Sisters Oregon, just a half hour north of Bend.  Much of the equipment was from Bend Art Center which closed about four years ago due to financial woes.  That was a sad day.  A half dozen of my friends from previous classes were also there so it was a bit of reunion too.

Ian says I "spread out" when I'm working but this was worse than normal.  I wanted to carve a second block but only had 30 minutes to do it in.  I worked like a mad woman and made a huge mess with the shavings everywhere.

Andrew rolled out plates of transparent cyan, magenta and yellow.  We used Caligo ink with lots of extender, about five-to-one extender to ink. We inked our plates and printed our cut-to-size Hosho paper with a barren.  He had us print one direction then do a 180 turn and repeat the process with either the same color or different to see how it worked.  These are the first prints finished.  We had four sheets to print and three hours.  We had to work fast.

And some more.

And these are mine.  I like the block I carved in 30 minutes the best.  I printed with just two colors, and l'm not sure I like the prints with three. You have to click for big to see how the colors worked together, just yellow and cyan.

I came home energized and ready to do some more carving.  I have a couple of wood blocks left before I have to order more and I have a head full of ideas.  This is just what the doctor ordered, something to look forward to on the long gray days of winter.

Visit to the Library

My granddaughter Alexia and I paid a visit to the library last week, mainly to pick up the two books she had placed on hold, but I came home with some books too, two that I had already read but didn't remember.  That's not a good recommendation at all.  This is Alexia's last summer visit with us as she moves into her dorm room next month to start her freshman year at the University of Nevada, Reno.

My eye was caught by a book on the "new books" display and it was so good that I read it in three days.  Paradise Falls: the true story of an environmental catastrophe.  Most often the nonfiction books I enjoy fall into the Dewey classification of the 900s, the subject classification for history and geography.  I avoid the 300s which is the social sciences, and especially 364 which is true crime - yuch.  This book was 363.738, almost a sure thing that it would be boring but I liked the cover.  What can I say?  Sometimes I can be very shallow.

I didn't realize until I got home that this was the retelling of the Love Canal and it wasn't boring at all.  Beginning in the 1940s Hooker Chemical began dumping barrels of unwanted chemicals into an old abandoned canal. They made no record of the contents once they were disposed of.  In 1977 residents in the Niagara Falls subdivision, with a playground and affordable homes, began experiencing pungent odors inside their houses.  Lois Gibbs, a housewife with no education past high school, began to organize residents and appeal to the authorities to fix the problem.  I realized as I came to the end of the book that ll homeowners agitating for remediation were women and all the authorities were men who dismissed them as "just" housewives.  Sound familiar?

Dr Beverly Paigen, an outspoken scientist, saw the crisis and led toxic waste studies in spite of clashing with state officials who subjected her to a harassment campaign that drove her and her husband from their major research posts at what was then Roswell Park Memorial Institute.  They relocated to California where they continued their research, and it wasn't until 1992 that she was vindicated.

Not all of the protestors were residents.  Sister Joan Malone was an activist who approached protest a different way, by buying stock in offending corporations so she could vote in the annul meetings.  Keith O'Brien, author of Fly Girls, has written a nail biter - two thumbs up!

 

Back to Books

 

I've decided to change the focus of my posts to book reviews only.  All is well in the Campbell household but I was boring myself and suspect you were just as bored.  So books, here we go!

Metropolis by B.A. Shapiro

It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a book that I literally could not put down. I think the way the story unfolds around six individuals and placed in six-story 100-year-old storage unit would make a great play. A near fatal incident in one of the elevators begs the question - who is at fault and is it an accidental or planned. I couldn’t read fast enough!!

True Biz by Sara Novic

This book is centered around a school for the deaf in Ohio, and even if you know someone who is hearing impaired, I promise you that you’ll see those lives in a different way. The challenge for me was to keep track of the multiple storylines: the head mistress who signs and her wife who does not, a teen whose mother forces her to wear an implant but refuses to learn to sign, the deaf teen whose family has a thread of genetic deafness and what happens when a baby is born hearing.

I came away with some unanswered question. What would it mean if a patrolman shouts at a deaf teen to stop, but they keep running? Of if they do need help but have no way to call the police. Of if a child in Child Protective Services declines to have a cochlear implant installed and the authorities overrule them. I think the movie CODA has given us all a lot to think about. The bottom line is - how can we effectively communicate.

I thank NetGalley, a book clearing house of sorts, for providing both of these books to me as advanced reader copies, so appreciated.  Two thumbs up to both!

April !!

It seems like months pass before I think of something to blog about.  Once upon a time I was rabidly adding to my blog but it was a period of discovery, dyeing and spinning wool and learning to weave.  I'm past the period of discovery and am more about recollections.  The most recent time of interest was a trip to Reno for Delaney's third birthday party.

I haven't seen Delaney since October.  She and her daddy were watering the flower boxes in the front yard when we arrived.  I was thrilled when she saw me, ran across the front yard and jumped up into my arms.  After six months I was afraid that she wouldn't remember me.  She was transfixed by my sunglasses.  I was tempted to leave them with her.

The party was at her Aunt Katie's house where she played in the same sandbox that her college-age cousin played in.  She had to think about it.

Her mommy and daddy coaxed her on what to expect so she patiently waited for that special moment - opening presents!

She had also been coached in how to blow out her candle and she didn't want to share one second of it with anyone else, not even her uncle.

We were only in Reno for four days so ate out every night.  This meal was at the Golden Flower, our longtime favorite.  Alexia will be spending July with us again this year, her last summer before going to college in the fall.

The weather forecast was dire so we left a day early.  I was driving on this stretch and at the Summer Lake rest stop, two travel trailers pulled back onto the road into increasingly buffeting wind.  That's dirt, not snow that I'm navigating.  He put on blinkers and we limped along until the western edge of Silver Lake.  The dusty wind was blinding, a first for me.

We got home on Monday and on Friday I went with my friend Kathi to pick up her new loom from the Eugene Textile Center.  We shopped at Cosy, an aptly named yarn store, and ate at a nearby Chinese restaurant.  The weather was starting to turn so we called it a day and not a minute too soon.  A new front was creeping over the Cascades.

Kathi is a new weaver and her enthusiasm is catching.  It's been a while since I've put a project on my eight-shaft loom and I find my back tiring and needing frequent rests.  I've started using the elliptical trainer at the nearby rec center and boy do I need it.

I've started a second project on my four-shaft loom using silk that I bought from Little Knits out of Seattle.  Again, my back tires quickly so I'm inching along until my back gets stronger.

Then on Saturday we got this photo of Alexia and her band director acknowledging her as first-chair flute in the all-state band.  I wish we could have stayed the extra five days to see this but once again, the weather was calling the shots.

The next day we got this photo of Alexia and her prom dress.  They have been shopping for a while now and came up with this gown from Junkee's, a vintage shop.  It's the prettiest and cheapest - $24.95.  She doesn't have a prom date but is going with several friends.  

Books, Books, Books

 The Swimmers, Julie Otsuka

I struggled in the beginning to engage with this book. Otsuka narrated in the third person plural as she had in her first two books so it seemed kind of formulaic. I swam a mile before work for years and never connected with any of the other swimmers, so I didn’t get it and I just about gave up, until I realized this was Alice’s book, her story, and then I couldn’t read fast enough. I’m of an age where mothers are requiring memory care units and I have never read such a personal description of what one of those facilities is like, for the resident, for the family. Deeply moving.

Love and Saffron:  a novel of love, food and friedship.  Kim Fay

This slight volume is a tale of friendship told in alternating voices by the exchange of letters, beginning October 1962. Mrs. Imogen Fortier has written a monthly column for ten years about life in the Pacific Northwest which appears in the Northwest Home & Life magazine

Joan Bergstrom writes from her home in Los Angeles to congratulate her on her 10th year anniversary of the column and to let her know what an avid reader she is. Though she is 27 years old and Immy is 59, they become fast friends as the miles and the years between them evaporate. They challenge each other to explore foreign cuisines, share their feelings and recommend books.

Set in Seattle and Los Angeles in the early 1960s, the story unfolds against the backdrop of current events. They experience life in a slower pace, one we forget about, like driving into the city to see if the favorite bookstore has a book and then order it - no online, no Amazon! To say more would spoil the way the author slowly reels us in. I read it in one sitting, which the author had wanted readers to do. It’s like a satisfying meal. 

With Love from London:  Sarah Jio I loved this book from the very beginning and was delighted to enjoy it all the way through to the end. I found myself reflecting on Laila Lailani’s book, Conditional Citizens where she talks about groups whose rights are not guaranteed, one of those groups being women. Frank was powerful and wealthy and against him, Eloise was powerless to defend herself or her rights. The story is a result of Frank’s actions told in alternating voices of Eloise and Valentina, with some romance here and there. Eloise willed her interest in her book store to Valentina and prepared a treasure hunt to help her daughter get to know her. I just finished reading on this snowy day, perfect reading weather. Valentina would approve. What the Fireflies Knew.  Kai Harris This is a coming-of-age story about a ten-year-old Black girl named Kenyatta Bernice or KB for short. She has lived all her life in Detroit with her mother, father and 14-year-old sister named Nia. Life has been good until shortly before her 11th birthday KB’s father dies, they lose the house and have to move into a rundown motel. In a desperate move, Mama takes the girls to live with her father, Granddaddy, in Lansing, Michigan, two hours from her home. KB and Nia are constantly at each other’s throats and when KB tries to make friends with the two White kids who live across the street encounters racism for the first time in her life. Granddaddy doesn’t appear to want the girls and seems ill equipped to take care of them, yet he grows to the task and he grew on me. KB struggles to negotiate the difficult and awkward situations that keep popping up, and she meets family that she never knew she had who are indifferent to her. She remembered what her Momma told her, “In life, we’re going to get hurt. If we stay focused on that hurt, and nothing else, then we won’t ever be able to heal. But if we focus on the healing, well, then we’ll start to notice that hurt disappear.” I appreciate the author’s sympathetic portrayal of these lives in such a way that I am invested and care deeply what happens to this family. I couldn’t stop reading and because I was on my Kindle, couldn’t fall asleep until after 2:00. It’s that kind of book.

Beach in February

We left Yachats and headed toward Netarts Bay for a few days.  Since we weren't in a hurry we left Hwy 101 and drove to the coast to have lunch at one of my favorite brew pubs, Pelican Brewery. 

As soon as we had ordered Ian went to find the restroom.  He said it was the most unusual one he'd every come across in a public setting.  He didn't notice the "All Gender" sign so was taken unawares that there are a dozen private stalls and a long trough for handwashing.  Later I took my turn and was pretty tickled that the men seemed to have such a difficult time understanding the facilities.  I hope we see more of this in time to come so men can stand in line for their turn, just like we women have done all our lives.

We took a drive up the coast to see the Cape Meares lighthouse, the only one we haven't seen yet.  In spite of the pouring rain, there was no shortage of tourists, ehecking it out.

It's a stubby lighthouse and was working until 1962, then when decommissioned, the first order Fresnel lenses were left in place for people like us to enjoy.

Well worth the trip!

We were staying at Netarts on the three-day holiday of Presidents Day.  There was no shortage of clammers during low tide.  I'd like to try it myself another time but we were just sightseeing.  I'm still laughing at this, the Tsunami Evacuation Shuttle.  There are warning signs everywhere so this little bit of levity was most welcome.

Part of the reason for this trip was for my cousin and I to get together for the first time in 52 years.  I last saw her at her father's funeral.  Christina had just been born and a few months after that, she and I flew to the Philippines where we lived for the next two years.  Our mothers weren't friends and none of us saw each other again until this trip.  The man who is researching our grandfather's history is the one who put us in touch.  She and her husband have run the Wheeler Marina for 42 years.  We had a great visit and there will be more.

The marina is breathtakingly beautiful.

Do you see the Wheeler alligator?

The plan was to drive back to Bend after we left Wheeler but that didn't happen. We stopped off at Newport for lunch at the Clear Water restaurant on our way back to Yachats and our B&B.  We ended up staying two extra days because a sneaker snow storm made the Cascades almost impassible.  After a month of near spring conditions we got caught by freak weather.  The drive home was miserable.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home!!

Newport Harbor Seals.

 

Yachats (pronounced YawHots)

We are at the beach!  Some days it's stormy and somedays it's not.  Some days we eat seafood and somedays we don't.

This is the mouth of the Yachats River on an almost sunny afternoon.

Just one of many seagulls.

We walked down last evening to say goodnight to the ocean.

We also said goodnight to an awful lot of seagulls.

We came across a guy serenading the ocean on our walk this morning.

Good night from Yachats.

Time Flies

This is the best washing machine I have ever had.  The drum is huge so I'm able to do the laundry in fewer loads.  And the dingy sheets are bright white again.  I was feeling sorry for myself because the choices were limited to what would fit in this little laundry closet under the stairs, but no more.

One of my recent hikes was high above the Deschutes River.  It's beautiful in its own craggy way. 

I met these ladies through the community garden at our church and last week we decided to form a small hiking group.  Our first outting was on the Juniper Forest trails in the Badlands, east of Bend.  It's hard to believe that it's February when you look at this photo.

My weaving has taken a back seat to everything else but I finally finished a set of towels, a variation of Turned Taquete.  

I've wanted to participate in the guild's color challenge and this is the inspiration image I was given.

These are the colors I've chosen.

I've wound three quarters of the warp and this is how it's shaping up.  I'd like to finish winding and beam the warp tomorrow.  My weaving has been infrequent and the downside of that is my back gets tired quickly.  Usually winter is when I get the most weaving done.  If there's one thing I've learned through the pandemic, it's that there is no "usually" anymore.  And on that note I'm going to read on the patio since it's a sunny 63 degrees this afternoon.

 

Books, Books, Books

 Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis

There are about three book groups represented in the group I hike with and a couple of weeks ago all of them were gearing up to read the same book, this one!  I put it on hold at the library and got it right away.  If you haven't already read it, you should.  

From the publisher:

"Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu…everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work."

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles.

This is the recent book by the author of A Gentleman in Moscow and The Rules of Civility.  The following is my review for NetGalley.

It’s 1954 and 18-year-old Emmett Watson is being returned to his family home by the sheriff after serving time in a juvie-jail for involuntary manslaughter. The hitch is that the banker who has repossessed his Nebraskan home is waiting at Emmet's old home to finalize the foreclosure. There’s no family to welcome him as his mother walked off years earlier and his father, lacking the farming skills necessary to keep a place going, has passed on to his heavenly reward. His eight-year-old brother Billy is in the care of the next-door neighbor. With no roots to bind them, Emmett and Billy decide to take a road trip on the Lincoln Highway to California where they hope to reunite with their mother.

When the sheriff brought Emmett home, he also unwittingly provided transport for two friend inmates, Duchess and Woolly, who hitched a ride in the sheriff’s trunk. This is a road trip like no other. For starters their trip to California kicks off with a hoboing train ride to New York. The journey is filled the characters along the way. For readers of Ivan Doig and William Kent Krueger.

Conditional Citizens:  On Belonging in America by Laila Lalani.

I bought this at my favorite indie bookstore in Reno when I was there in November.  Her fiction, The Other Americans, was the community reads choice for Deschutes County last year.

"What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize-finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth--such as national origin, race, and gender--that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still their shadows today."  Could I pass the citizen test?  I doubt it.

Adapting to change

 New Years Eve day our dryer door decided it no longer wanted to stay closed.  In fact, the best we could do was to duct tape it closed.  Stores were closed for the holiday so we got on the computer and tried to locate a new set.  We bought this set from my son and his wife when their new house came complete with a new set.  Matt was going to put it on Craigslist for $100.  We weren't so fortunate with appliances left behind and had already replaced the dryer and were shopping for a washer.  That was four years ago.  I found a top-loading Samsung set on the Costco website for $1600 that would fit in our little laundry closet and was available for delivery in our area.  It's absolutely wonderful and the dingy sheets are once again white!!

I started the new year by joining a hiking group that goes out every Tuesday morning at 9:30, regardless of the weather.  We're old and slow but make up for it in tenacity.  We all like to read and we talk a lot.

Last week we went to Tumalo Reservoir and got a spectacular view of the Cascades.  Sadly, the reservoir is dry.

Today we went to Horse Butte, which was a most demanding hike so far and the longest.  I thought I was in better shape than I am, but was glad when we got back to our cars.  I'm getting to see a lot of new territory and realize I need to lengthen my daily walks to be in shape for the Tuesday hikes.  BTW, a butte is a fancy name for volcanic cone.

I finally finished the sweater I've been working on for the past year.  The pattern was in Vogue Knitting and was by Deborah Newton.  The yarn is Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool.  I have another aran sweater on needles and it will probably be another year before I complete it.  I started both of these at the same time.  For now my knitting is more scarves for my daughter to cover her surgical scar.  Her family was vaccinated but got hit with Covid about a week ago and they're struggling to recover.  Chris told me that she's so sick that she's not sure she could have survived this unvaccinated.  I don't think I could have survived it she hadn't.

Lexi has fared the best and is rebounding but will be in quarantine from school for another week.  She recently finished another sweater.  Her knitting skills continue to improve and she has an exceptional eye for yarn and pattern.  She's very fashion aware and carefully curates her clothing collection from used clothing outlets.  She says this summer will be her last with us as she will be required to do an internship during the summers following her freshman year.  She has been accepted at the University of Nevada Reno and is on a career path to be a PA (physician's assistant).  Sorry, I got carried away with bragging.

Happy New Year!

 

You've probably given up on me and assumed that we were Covid victims but we're fine, still kicking, even the rotten cat is fine.

This was our last Thanksgiving dinner together celebrated Sunday December 18th because Josh had Covid on the actual Thanksgiving.  It took him two weeks to recover and he is now in Blackfoot, Idaho where he accepted a new position with FedEx, managing two terminals in the SE corner of the state.  I just got off the phone with him after his first week in the new position.  He said the first couple of days were bewildering but he's in love with his three-year-old state-of-the-art headquarters and is happy to be there.  Missy and Evan will join him after Evan graduates from high school this spring.

Meanwhile we're trying to get used to living small, just the two of us.  It feels dire since we're still managing our lives around Covid.  It's pretty empty but we still get out and about for lunches here and there.

We make it a point to get in our two-mile walks, just not together.  Ian is out and walking by 6:00, before I get up!  I prefer midmorning and this walk was in the raccoon's tracks.

Snow melts quickly these days and the deer are finding bits to munch on.  We always enjoy seeing them, though there aren't nearly as many as we've had in the past years.

I've been focused on keeping my neck warm this winter, both by longer hair and also by knitting shawlettes.  This pattern is on Ravelry called Close to You and is free.  I like it so much I've made it for both my daughter and me.,

I'm really excited with this popcorn maker.  I love popcorn as a snack but I don't like getting my hands oily.  My friend Kathi says she and her partner have microwave popcorn every night so I found this maker on Amazon and ordered it.  It pops just the right amount in a little over a minute and oil is optional.  I put a little olive oil in the bottom, add the corn and pop!  It's the perfect afternoon snack.

Yikes!  All of my holds came in to the library at the same time.  This will keep me busy!!