Black Dirt Leads My Thoughts to Construction - Real and Imagined

Yesterday morning Fra-Dor delivered a 1/2 ton of black fill dirt to my front yard. DH snapped a picture and sent it to me, and I'm sharing with you. If you never knew what 1/2 ton of dirt looked like, now you do - LOL. It took him more than 25 wheelbarrow loads to get it moved from the front yard to the backyard where it's now all happy under tarps to protect it from the rain we should be getting tonight. He's already using it, of course. The first thing he did was start working on that stone drainage which now has been extended and given extra height to avoid spillovers. 

A half-ton of black dirt doesn't look like much in the yard, but it
actually is a LARGE pile of dirt and took DH more than two
hours to get moved from the front yard down to the back, one
wheelbarrow full at a time. 

When dealing with large piles of dirt and many man-hours of shoveling and moving dirt, it makes me have great admiration for the construction of places in our past. Mankind has lofty ideas when it comes to architecture, and some of the most amazing structures were made long before the equipment we have today. No machinery, just sweat and brawn. 

Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is widely considered to be the world's first
temple and predates Stonehenge by more than 6000 years. It's
an amazing place and would be awesome to actually visit, although
I doubt I'll ever get the opportunity. 

Just think of it - the great Pyramids of Egypt, the vast cities of the Mayan people, Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, Petra in Jordan, and several mountains that are really tombs in China. All of these places built by human beings (unless you subscribe to the "Ancient Aliens" school of thought), one shovel at a time, one rock at a time. It's one of the reasons why I became an archaeologist those many years ago. I was in awe when confronted by the achievements of our distant ancestors. I still am. 

Many of you are familiar with Tikal and other Mayan ceremonial
centers, but were you aware of what LIDAR is now showing us about
Mayan civilization? Take a look.

LIDAR reading over the jungles show vast cities of the Mayan
civilization still uncovered and waiting to be explored.
Sometimes modern technology can be so amazing! 

So I'm peppering this post with a few posts of the more famous places I mentioned above, and admit that I also think of the huge effort put forth by the Dwarves in the halls and mines of Moria. I know Moria is fictional, but what an incredible place. It took the Fellowship three days to walk from back door to front chasm and bridge through hallways, passages and vaulted rooms of immense size, all excavated by hand. 

Getting through the Mines of Moria isn't easy, but of the many
areas of Middle Earth I've wandered through in my 13 years of
playing Lord of the Rings Online, Moria is my favorite. I'm
always a bit sad when I leave it behind, even though I miss the
open skies and the fresh breezes. 

Have a great Friday and be kind to one another. I'll be back tomorrow. Be well, stay safe, and please, wear a mask. 

The Vessel - Straddling Art and Architecture

So, no pictures yet for last night's Project Runway, so my post of the show will be up tomorrow for all of my fellow "fashionistas". Today, instead, is a dive back into mediocrity ... or not ... because it leaves me free to speculate on architecture and definitions of beauty. 

The Vessel, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, is an amazing
construction of light, cells and glass. I've never seen
anything quite like it before and I'm totally in love. 

Last night's Project Runway "walk" took place in a very different venue - The Vessel. This architectural art design is in New York, of course, and when I finally get to New York in 2023, I'm adding a visit to The Vessel onto my "must see" list. It's absolutely amazing and I want to experience it for myself. 

An interior view of The Vessel gives you an idea of the scope
and size of the structure. Each cell has a platform with
stairs heading down each side to the next platform. There is
an elevator that takes people to the top for their walk
down and around (or down and zig-zag). 

It reminds me of a beehive in a lot of respects - those cells built upon cells. Or maybe it's more like a wasp nest, but either direction, it's quite amazing and absolutely beautiful in a very modern way. This is not old-time architecture, this takes architectural elements and pulls them into the future. 

The Vessel is 15 stories tall and cost approximately
$200 million to build. It doesn't really serve a function,
but as a large interactive sculpture, it's pretty amazing.
I'm not sure if any other US city could pull off something
like this, but it seems perfectly suited to New York City. 

The crazy thing about architecture is that it's usually there to serve a function. I can't, in all honesty, say what the function of The Vessel is outside of art, and the fact that a building of this size would be constructed at a cost that would leave me breathless, solely because of art just floors me! It's amazing, wonderful, and a bit thrilling to have art constructed for the sake of art on this scope. 

And, unfortunately, the structure has also had its first suicide - a young
man who jumped from the 6th floor a bit more than a week ago. So, as
most major structures do, The Vessel gathers its own history, both good
and bad. My heart goes out to his parents who have lost their only child. 

So even if we don't have Project Runway photos today (and I'm not 100% sure there will be any photos to see given that the "Runway" was actually The Vessel), we can still contemplate the juxtaposition of art and construction that led to this amazing venue. Have a great Friday. I'm heading to the gym for the first time in days because I'm finally feeling much better and I feel like a slug when I'm not working out regularly. I'll be back tomorrow, with or without Runway fashion photos. 

Three Things to Enhance Your Day - Videos of the Extraordinary

Today I'm sharing movement, sound and a building - things that I thought might be of interest to all of you. I'm going to start with something relatively simple.- rhythm and tone that requires some human intervention, but that's still a lot of fun to see and experience for the inventor as well as those listening. 

Here, Pete O'Connell demonstrates his "Rhysonic Wheel" at an
intimate concert. If you follow THIS LINK, you can see the
concert on You-Tube. 

Here I'm featuring Pete O'Connell and his "Rhysonic Wheel". A New Zealand artist, he's been inventing wheels that play stringed and rhythmic instruments for years now. This latest device spins several wheels at once, impacting a drum, dhembe and other percussive and/or stringed instruments he places in the path of the spinning discs. 

NEXT ...

I've been a follower of Wintergatan on and off for years now. This group of musicians/inventors have had an ongoing Marble Machine project. Here's a video documenting the successful completion of the "Marble Conveyor Belt". It's demonstrated by Martin Molin, a member of the band and the inventor of the Marble Machine. If you enjoy rhythm and beat, you'll love this video. 

Here, Martin Molin gives a lively demonstration of the
Epic Marble Machine X. Just click THIS LINK for the
full video. It's wonderfully fun. 

NEXT

The third thing I have to share with all of you today is a bit different - a dragon ... a very LARGE dragon. This 17-story dragon wraps around a Buddhist temple in Thailand. The temple is called "Wat Samphran". The building is 80 meters tall to honor the number of years that Buddha lived. You can climb the building and touch the dragon's beard or talons from the rooftop. Want the full experience? I'll pin a 360 degree perspective in a video link below. 

Isn't he simply magnificent? I'll embed a LINK HERE so that you
can experience the full 360-degree experience of this amazing
dragon. If I ever get to Thailand, I'm visiting this guy, for sure!

So, there you have it - three videos to capture your imagination today. At least, they certainly captured mine. I'm off to the gym for another day on the machines. Have to lose this birthday weight (only four pounds were gained and they were well worth it, but I still have to get it back off - LOL). I hope you enjoy what I presented to you today, and have a spectacular Tuesday. I'll return tomorrow! 

Abandoned Houses - Memories and Structures

I'm flying solo (more or less) at the shop for the next few days. Chickie is off today doing the last of her packing and getting ready for the BIG MOVE tomorrow. Then she'll be back at the apartment on and off over the next week or so cleaning, patching, and getting it ready to return to the landlord along with the keys. Places always look so different after furniture and items have been removed. Walls that held memories of discussions, laughter and tears echo aimlessly until new lives come in to imprint upon them. The old adage of "If these walls could speak" sets up residence once more and lives move on. 

This is Ashcroft, Colorado, also known as Chloride and several other
names. It's located ten miles south of Aspen. In my mining book I
was writing for several years, one main characters lives in Chloride
until the 1930's. 

One of the things I adore is the exploration of old houses. There aren't as many of those around these days as there were when I was young, but my youth was spent exploring in places I very specifically was NOT supposed to enter. My summers, if you might recall, were spent in Aspen, Colorado, which at that time was still a sleepy old mining town just finding its feet and a new life with the arts during the summer and skiing in the winter. Throughout the town were old, abandoned miner's houses and shacks, because it's too high in altitude with weather too grim for too many months for camping out alongside the Roaring Fork river. 

Quite a few miles south of Ashcroft and Aspen, closer to the
border of Colorado and New Mexico, was the town of Animas.
This mining shack still stands, paying homage to those who
worked the mines. 

My parents rented, and then purchased, one of these old abandoned houses. It was actually pretty well kept up - inhabited regularly so patched and painted. It dated from the 19-teens, so it was an older house, although not as old as some. The walls were thick - almost a foot thick. That was for the purpose of insulation and structural integrity against the winter cold winds and the heavy snowfalls. There were windows present in each room, but wall dominated each exterior expanse. There was a front porch - a bit rickety so we rarely used it, and a back entry directly into the kitchen which was our normal way in and out. A side yard allowed for our construction of a more modern house a few years later when we split the lot in half. 

OK, this isn't a home, this is the Crystal Mine, near
Marble, Colorado. I remember a few car trips to Marble
in my summers while in Aspen. The Crystal Mine
is nestled deep in the hills. Although people still
live in the area, access is difficult so the residents
are summer residents only. 

I explored throughout the town and on many of the streets, abandoned houses were the norm. They were settled in their weathered wood, surrounded by waving grasses and weeds, and the music of the grasshoppers and squeaks of the mice sometimes sang along with the ever-present breeze. I always had to be careful - some of the flooring wasn't safe to walk on, and the houses were mostly pit foundations - holes dug for cold storage cellars, large boulders in the corners to hold up the housing structure, and quite the fall into darkness if the flooring gave way. Exploring the homes was exciting and I couldn't resist their siren's call. 

The mining town of St Elmo, Colorado was founded in 1880. It's up
high - more than 9000 feet above sea level. When mining was at its
peak, more than 2000 people lived here. The town was abandoned
in the 1920's and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's
a lovely ghost town, with a lot of similarities to the Aspen I
knew as a child. 

Did you ever do something in your youth that you probably shouldn't have done? I'm sure we were all guilty of something in our past. If you're up to it, share with me. I'm going to put abandoned houses into this post, bundle up, and go out into the cold. We're getting a nice cold snap now and are getting our coldest temps of the season thus far. BRRRRR! Have a great Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Books, To Be Read Lists, and Libraries

We're creeping through the month. Samhain is next week, and then it's November! I'm also creeping along - and trying to get something accomplished on my holiday cards each day. Yesterday morning I finished the first image on the cover, now I need to move onward to either the interior or the top heading for the cover. I'm uncertain about which direction I want to move next, so it's just as well I have a day at home today to work on the envelopes instead. If everything works well (my initial test was "meh") I'll have a nice decoration on the back of the envelope. If today's second test also turns out "meh", I'll scrap the initial idea and look for a different direction or a different material to work with. 

Since I'm talking about books, let's look at some libraries. This is
the Geisel Library in California. Great architecture with
lots of light through those windows. 

I made the mistake - well, not so much a "mistake" as a "giving in to temptation" - of revisiting a three-book series by a favorite author over the past week+. I don't regret the time spent with my nose in her books. Far from it - I certainly wouldn't waste my time reading them if I didn't enjoy them. I was reading them because I wanted to revisit the backstory for her current books four and five - four which I read earlier this month, and five which just got released a few days ago. It's been wonderful to dive back into her world, but the only books of hers on my TBR list were books 4 and 5, so my list keeps growing. 

I've had photos of the Kansas City library before, although this is one
of the nicer photos. I'm not sure if the library is in the Missouri or the
Kansas side, though. It could be either/or. 

I never mind having a long TBR list, though. I actually had one point earlier this year when there were only three or four books on my TBR from this year, and a few carry-overs from earlier years. I was almost panicked, but by the time I got to the bottom of those few books, the list had grown once again. It jumped a LOT, a week or so ago. I had more than 20 ebooks stacked up in my Barnes & Noble shopping cart. It took a while to enter all of those titles into my list after I checked out. Now I'm happy. I have a lot of fun books to work through on that list, and a few that I will move up the pile to be priority reads - just because - LOL. 

Here's a library I hadn't seen before. The Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library at New Haven, Connecticut, is one I'm unfamiliar
with, but it looks really interesting. I'd love a look at this building and
how it functions. 

Do you keep a TBR list? There's something wonderful about checking books off the list and looking back at the end of each year. Maybe it's a good thing there's still 2+ months left in the year, I'll be able to check off more books. I'm wrapping this up and moving along. It's my "day off" and the schedule is crowded, as usual. Have a fabulous Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Super Bowl Was A Super Game

Super Bowl Sunday at my house means we're watching analysis, pre-game stuff, and then the game for the day. The TV was on all day and we were more-or-less glued to it. The game itself didn't start until close to 5:00 pm, but by that time I'd already eaten too much, and fajitas for dinner were still to come. It's going to take me the week to get my weight gain from Super Bowl back off. Oh well. 

Well done, Philadelphia. It was a hard-fought game
that could have gone either way up to the final
play. 

What I wanted, more than anything, was a good game. I've watched a lot of really boring Super Bowl games where one team so outclassed the other, that it was lost in the first quarter. Thank goodness that wasn't the issue yesterday. We had a GREAT game to watch - hard fought in every aspect and won by a combination of good plays and the clock. I'm not sure if the lead wouldn't have switched once more if there had been more time to play. 

The Eagles have been trying to win this for a long time, and their opponents,
the New England Patriots, have won the trophy five prior times.
Philly winning was dark odds, but their fill-in quarterback pulled
it out, assisted by some talented receivers and a stellar defense. 

I'm delighted that the Philadelphia Eagles won the game. This was the team that beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Division Final, so to be beaten by the eventual winner of the Lombardi Trophy was OK. It took the sting out a bit. We were beaten by the best ... OK, then - LOL

Both quarterbacks played well, and the lead changed hands
several times. With more time on the clock, it could have
been the Patriots celebrating another win. It was that tight! 

It was a very cold Super Bowl - not in the stadium, but we didn't get above 3 F outdoors and there was a wicked wind chill to add to that, bringing the temps sub-zero very quickly. When attendees were asked about their opinions re Minnesota, the first thing almost everyone said was how cold it was. But the second thing almost everyone said was how nice the people were, and that made me feel great. "Minnesota Nice" is a trope, but it's also very real. We have great people living up here in the Frozen Northlands, and yes, we generally are pretty nice. 

US Bank Stadium is the new home of the Minnesota Vikings, completed
in 2016. That light blue on the roof is a glass composite, allowing for
a transparent roof over much of the playing field, and still protecting
from the weather. Snow just slides right off. They have 90-minute
public tours available. I might have to look into getting tickets. I'd
like to see the inside. 

As everyone leaves the state today, returning to their homes and much warmer temperatures, I'm saying "Thanks". Thanks to everyone for an excellent game and for visiting our concerts, events, parks, statues and restaurants. Thanks for filling our hotels and bars. Thanks for helping our economy and enjoying our new US Bank Stadium - which really is pretty darned spectacular. Thanks for visiting, and have a safe trip home. 

It's Monday, life returns to normal, and I hope each of you have a wonderful day. Time to start working off this Super Bowl weight. 

A Relaxing Sunday of Discovery

DH and I had a lovely Sunday relaxing and watching a lot of National Geographic television. We got totally pulled into shows on what caused the death of Tutankhamun, what items truly were in his tomb and whether they were his or were hand-me-downs from other tombs, and also a wonderful two hours on locating the burial place of Genghis Khan and the history of China's First Emperor and his huge tomb. It was a day of relearning old facts and discovering new ideas. So fun! 

This death mask of Tutankhamun is the best known
of his artifacts. It features 20 pounds of gold and uses
lapis, turquoise and red carnelian (or agate) for the
colorful bands. It's had a rocky history but
hopefully will now be protected. 

Because I've been studying Egypt and the Pharaohs for what seems like my entire life, I couldn't miss new shows about Tut, but I had forgotten that Egypt was building the "Grand Egyptian Museum" which will open sometime in 2018. When? Well, that seems to be anyone's guess. The old Cairo museum is being emptied and everything on display, including a lot that had just been in storage because of lack of space, will be now displayed on exhibit within the bright, climate-controlled conditions of this new museum which is tucked into the Giza plateau. 

The Grand Egyptian Museum is located just 2 kilometers
from the Pyramids, on the Giza Plateau. It is expected to
have a provisional opening in May, but a firm date is still
unknown. Last week a huge statue of Ramses was moved
to it's new home in the Grand Egyptian Museum. 

Of course Tut is a major draw. Just that death mask would be enough to pull me there. But add in the more than 80% of the items from his tomb that have never been seen since their initial removal, and Egypt will set a magnet up calling me there. Of course that's all kinds of dangerous too, but I might take the chance within the next ten years or so. I've seen a lot of artifacts and several exhibitions on Egypt here in the USA; even followed one specific exhibit from Milwaukee to Denver to see it for several days in a row. I've flown to various cities to see Ramses and other Pharonic exhibitions and have loved each one. Spending a long time in the Grand Egyptian Museum should be phenomenal. 

The current Cairo Museum was built in 1902 and houses 120,000
artifacts, most of which are in storage. It desperately needed 
either an upgrade or full replacement, but Cairo is massive, and
finding room for a new building within the city was impossible.
Placing it closer to the Pyramids will increase tourism and it allowed
for a large, expansive building with climate-controlled storage for
the historic artifacts of this amazing region. 

So I'm dreaming once more - about travel, about Tutanhkamun, and about art - because it all comes down to the art. This coming Sunday won't be as relaxing. I'll be watching Super Bowl and trying to not eat too much during the game. But even if I do, there's always the pool waiting for me on Monday morning. Enjoy your day. I'm going to pepper this post with some photos, and then head out to swim my mile. 

Eero Saarinen - An Architect of Geometry

It's supposed to be my "day off" today, and I'm hoping I actually will get a few hours late this afternoon to have my weekly chat with Aearwen and catch up on some things that fell behind over the holidays. But no guarantees. It's our 4-Day End of the Year Sale and we're busy. Busy is good! But busy also means I'm needed at work instead of at home. So I squeezed my laundry chores in yesterday and will do the other half later this week, and I'm pushing to get out of the shop no later than 2:00 pm if customer numbers permit. We'll see. ... I'm crossing my fingers.

The St Louis Arch is one of Eero Saarinen's more famous structures. He
died before it was completed, but won a design competition over a
design submitted by his father. It's such a striking form moving into the sky. 

Last night on PBS, "American Masters" featured architect Eero Saarinen. He made some super wonderful buildings but the thing I know him for is the first design of "The Tent" for the Aspen Music Festival. "The Tent" is currently in it's third evolution and now seats 2500 people, but when it first started out, it was an actual canvas tent seating less than 1000 people on its hard bench seating with tie-on cushions. I remember the sound of the wind when a storm kicked up in that original tent as well as in the second evolution. There were rather dramatic problems with leaks down the main tent poles, and the audience would sometimes get quite wet.

He worked for a lot of corporations including GM, but this design he made
for an airport terminal for TWA was revolutionary. Of course, TWA no
longer exists, but my understanding is that the building is going to be
reworked into a hotel. Buildings need people and activity to live, so I
really hope that happens. 

The structure that most of you would identify with him is the St Louis Arch - a stunning landmark for the town that was the "Gateway to the West". It was in St Louis that the Conestoga wagons gathered to cross the broad, dangerous Mississippi River and head west to the gold fields of Colorado and California or the agricultural valleys of the Pacific Northwest. St Louis has a unique history of progress and passages celebrated in the soaring steel of this amazing structure.

The entire roof of the Kresge Auditorium on the campus of MIT rests upon
three small points, one of which you can see at the left. He designed with
sweeping curves and remarkable geometry, carving the designs out in
balsa before trying to transmit the designs over to paper. 

I don't do a lot with Pinterest, but one of the boards I do have set up is Modern Architecture. I love buildings and designs that are unique and revolutionary. I balance that board out with one on Abandoned Spaces - what comes up must go down. A good reminder to all. It's been a very tough year for a lot of my friends and customers - several customers have lost loved ones in December, one gym friend's niece committed suicide last week, and several friends are still in the hospital. I think I'm more than ready to say good-bye to 2016.

Ice Rinks are usually uninspiring architecture, but the Ingalls Rink on
the campus of Yale University is another story. The wood and steel structure
is like an upturned Viking boat, the acoustics are amazing, and the
interior is magnificent. What a departure from the usual boring pre-fab. 

Have a great Wednesday. Start looking ahead to 2017 - I think we need some positive things in our lives (while we ignore our political morass). I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures of some of the creations of this amazing architect. Have a happy day!

Some Contenders

Earlier in the week we looked at some fantastic architecture - the winning design and several others under consideration for the CTBUH Best Tall Building Award. There were too many amazing buildings not to share more with you, so I have four more of my favorites among the 2015 designs that were considered for each region for you to look at today as I listen to thunder outside. It may be a wet drive to the gym this morning. So ... here we go.

This is the Sunrise Kampinski Hotel in Beijing. 

I think, in the runners-up category, this is one of my absolute favorite buildings. This round structure is actually a large hotel that perches upon a terrace sculpted to match the surreal shape. I'm absolutely floored by this building and its amenities and recommend you take a look for yourself at the many photos of it, or just Google for images. What an amazing design.

Torre Virreyes in Mexico City. 

Just look at this great design just hanging in space so high up. The overhanging design is so radical that even in a city of amazing architecture and history, it still stands out. I love the interplay of design on the narrow side and the balance of symmetry on the main facade. It's stunning.

The Leadenhall Building in London is also
known as the "Cheesegrater". 

I had a hard time finding a photo of the Leadenhall Building that managed to cut out the other amazing structures close by. London is booming, and I am in awe every time a new building goes up there because it is a very crowded capital city with an extremely long history of constant occupation. To erect something new means the destruction of something old. Even making the room to erect a skyscraper in the middle of the "downtown" area is rather phenomenal. It's a great building design, too - another plus!

The Al Hilal Bank Tower in Abu Dhabi, UAE. 

Finally,  I present the Al Hilal Bank Tower in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This structure with its offset blocks and hints of brilliant color offers interest and breaks up the monotony of what could have been a more standard straight-sided cube visage. It catches the eye during the day, but also shimmers at night when the inset panels catch shadow and allow for depth.

So there you have it, four other buildings that were under consideration by the CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) for their 2015 Best Tall Building award. The eight innovative structures I've shown you during the week are just a small portion of the 100+ under consideration, and what I love most is how different and distinct each building is from the others. It makes me happy that innovative architecture is still being designed and built. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make it to Beijing. I want to see that hotel up close and personal. It has a great pool and workout room - LOL. Have a constructive Thursday!

Winning Skyscrapers

When is a skyscraper not a skyscraper? When it is the winner of the "Best Tall Building Worldwide" for 2015. This year's winner is "Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) by Stefan Boeria Architetti, located in Milan. I love the way it brings the forest to the people, making an intensive multi-use building that incorporates nature right in the middle of the bustling city.

Bosco Verticale in Milan, Italy takes the forest and brings
it up into the sky. 

There were a total of more than 100 entries into the competition, from four regions: the America's, Asia & Australasia, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. The entries were decided by The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)  a not-for-profit resource for skyscraper design. The other regional winners were:

The crystal spire and environmental parameters of One World
Trade Center made it the winner for the America's. I love
the reflective surface bringing all of New York into its aura. 

One World Trade Center in New York City for the America's,

CapitaGreen in Singapore is topped by a huge rooftop garden
featuring multi-layered greenery and this wonderful multi-story
red glowing futuristic "plant" growing above the roof line. It's
quite striking. 

CapitaGreen by Toyo Ito & Associates in Singapore for the Asia & Australasia area.

The sleek and angled cylinders of the Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid
Towers were the winner in the Middle East & Africa area. Of course,
Dubai is becoming well known for innovative urban architecture. 

The Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid Tower by Foster + Partners for the Middle East & Africa.

One of my favorites that didn't win was this - the Evolution
Tower in Moscow, Russia. The sinuous, twisting shape
reminds me of the DNA helix and I'm sure that was
the basis for the design and the name. 

Some of the other buildings in the running (like the Evolution Tower above) were really spectacular too. I'll try to pick a few others to show you tomorrow. Have a great Tuesday and don't forget to look around you - innovative architecture is everywhere. For those of you watching "The Voice", who's going to win this tonight? Laith Al-Saadi, Hannah Huston, Alisan Porter or Adam Wakefield? All four put in strong performances last night. I know who I voted for ... Final show of Season 10 is tonight when the winner will be revealed.

Thinking Ahead to Milwaukee

I've received emails and supply lists from three of my four teachers for Bead & Button Show, and I'm starting to get psyched for the event. It's always one of those love/hate relationships. I love going to the show, seeing old friends and acquaintances, looking at new products and wonderful artwork featuring beads, and playing with fire and metal. What I don't like is staying in a hotel for a week, eating every meal out, and not having a pool available for swimming. I also know that once the show kicks in toward the end of the week, even the hotel's exercise room will become too difficult to visit because I'll be too exhausted to do much else besides sleep on my off times.

Milwaukee has some great architecture, including the Hilton
Hotel where I'll be staying this year. The hotel dates from the
1930's and has exceptional art deco throughout. 

The public internet connections in the hotels aren't great, so I always fall behind on my daily reading, I don't post in my blog for the week that I'm gone so I always feel a bit odd coming back to a routine, and I really miss my normal rather scheduled life. But I love Milwaukee - especially the architecture.

The Milwaukee Art Museum is one of my favorite places to go
when I have some extra time. If you're there at noon, the wings
are brought down and then up again - spectacular. It is perched
on the edge of Lake Michigan with a wonderful view of the water. 

Going to the show is always exciting. It's a lot of hugs with friends I've had for a decade or more, and it can be a wonderful experience if I have a good project or two to keep me occupied. I guess I am looking forward to it.

Among the more unique architectural sites in Milwaukee are
the bio-domes at the Mitchell Conservatory. These unique
structures are open to the public with a different biology in
each one. Spectacular to view from a distance and from up close. 

DH looks at it with that positive/negative aspect too. He has to work every day, so that messes with his schedule. He misses me terribly so gets much more grumpy than usual and won't spend time on the phone with me because listening to me makes him miss me more (I know - not sensible but it's his stated reason for not talking to me much while I'm away).

The Milwaukee Brewers professional baseball team plays here, at
Miller Stadium. It's an incredible moving building. See those
roof trusses? They open for good weather and close for rainy days.
Check it out in the next photo.

Here, the roof has been opened for a sunny day game. It's pretty
neat. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but one of these days I want
to sit in the stands of this stadium, order a brat and a beer, and
watch a game in this incredible building. Love it! 

By the time I get back, we're both exhausted. I'm always happy to return to routine and he's delighted to finally have a few days off during the week again. I suppose my one week away can be good for us - not just to kick-start my own creativity once more. Maybe I'm looking forward to my upcoming trip after all - LOL. Have a great Wednesday, I'll be starting it out in the pool in an hour.

Outside Dreams

Yesterday's spring snow was weird. The dividing line bisected my city, so that my home got lots of flakes but none sticking, where my shop had enough for my staff to scrape off and brush off their cars at the end of the day, and the southern suburbs actually got three inches or more. It was bizarre, but I didn't mind the fact that I didn't have to shovel. Spring snow is always wet and heavy snow, and I wasn't really in the mood to deal with it.

One of my favorite places to go is the Como Zoo and
Conservatory. This wonderful zoo is still no-charge, but is
extremely popular and well funded through donations. They
are constantly rebuilding and expanding their exhibits. The
polar bears got a new home/exhibit a few years ago. Polar
bears are perfect for our winter weather, but they need the
colder waters for our hot and sticky summers. 

I was out in it, though (between housework and writing), so I thought I'd look for some reminders of things that we can do outdoors when the weather gets nice once more. Here's a quick photo blog for all of you on this Thursday morning.

The other major attraction in Como Park is the
Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. This wonderful
building opened in 1913 and, again,
is no charge to the public. It's many rooms of plants along with
koi fish winding through waterways create a world of delight. 

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is in the far western
suburbs (you drive past Prince's studio to get there - no, it's not
purple). Although the spring is usually sparse since the plants are
just waking up, the summer and the autumn seasons are filled
with color and texture. It's a great place to spend a day with
a camera. 

Nearby, next to the St Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota, is the
Gibbs Farm of Pioneer and Dakotah Life. This cool working farm has structures
from the 1800's through early 1900's furnished appropriately. It is a working
farm, so livestock is cared for and there are events throughout the summer.
You can just see the roof-line of a soddy on the left - that's a log structure built
into the prairie soil with a soil roof. It's almost invisible. 

As a final offering today, I present Historic Fort Snelling. Located on
the bluffs overlooking the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi
Rivers, Fort Snelling was built in the early 1820's. It was an active,
staffed fort for more than 120 years, and the Fort Snelling National
Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 180,000 soldiers and
is still actively used today. The restoration of the Fort brought it back
to the appearance it had in the 1820-1830 era. 

If you are interested in additional information on any of these locations, I've embedded links to pages in each caption that you can follow. I'm looking forward to a few seasons without snow so that I can take advantage of my "day off" time and maybe visit a few outdoor places over the summer. Today, it's still too cold, though. Happy Thursday to all! Do you have special places in your city/town that you love to visit? Share with me in your comments. I love to explore.