August 14, 2005

Greetings Relatives and Friends,

Walking Near Home

While I was walking Zeus in the morning of June 22, 2005, the moon was setting over the mountains and I just had to take a photo with the reflection of the moon in our pond. To further the beauty of that day, the sunrise was spectacular. This too I photographed.

Our morning routine after walking around the pond includes feeding the birds. After that I heard a snapping noise and saw some creatures were thrashing around in our neighbor’s pond. BC, the humongous snapping turtle, was back and he found a girl turtle and they were mating. I called upstairs to have Ken to wake up (at 5:15am) and we both walked to the pond to have a better look. The claw in the photo is the size of Ken’s hand. Six hours of thrashing later, GT came out of the pond and plopped herself on the lower bank. I think BC sank to the bottom of the pond. (Turtles can stay underwater for several hours.)

On this same morning, I met my friend Aine and we did our fast walk at Golden Ponds. The morning offered us beautiful reflections. At one point we walk over a bridge with a waterfall and the rushing water was the most we had ever seen there. A few days later Zeus and I were walking down our driveway and when we got to the irrigation ditch and saw 5 baby ducks swimming along. As soon as they caught sight of us they literally walked on water as they could not fly at this point in their lives.

Ken and I decided to hike the Diamond Lake Trail in the Indian Peak Wilderness and we were rewarded with beautiful wild flowers, cascading water, 10 ft. high snow banks (which we had to hike over), and on top of all this – beautiful, beautiful Diamond Lake. If you ever come out this way and wish to do a hike we can definitely recommend this one.

Art Activities

In early June I received a call from the owner of Trattoria Girasole, a restaurant on the famous Pearl Street pedestrian mall. His wife had seen my work at the Colorado Building Gallery and asked him to call me to have my paintings displayed in their restaurant. Girasole means sunflower in Italian. So, I brought several sun flower paintings to the restaurant and they are hanging there at this moment. It’s great exposure to have work on the Pearl Street mall.

One of the programs I’m involved in is the Outreach Program for Studio Tour. As part of that effort I was demoing at Longmont Rec Center. It is always fun to talk to the children and encourage them in some art form. A group of girls about 10 years of age came by and were very interested in my painting. They were having a birthday party at the Rec Center. This demo shows just a few stages in the development of a painting and I never have time to finish during the demo. So with this in mind one young lady gave me her recommendation regarding the water advising that it should be darker to reflect the sky. (I knew this, but thanked her for her advice. I did not want to discourage her from speaking out.) Her mother came along and the girl told her she had given me a recommendation. Mother kind of rolled her eyes and gathered the girls to go into the pool.

We had a Potluck dinner at our home on June 26 for Longmont Studio Tour participants. It is always fun to have artist friends with their spouses come over. They always admire my gardens and compliment me on them. This is music to my ears.

July was extremely busy. I hung paintings at Human Resources in Louisville. One of the tasks I assumed for Longmont Studio Tour was Project Manager for a fund raising booth at the Cherry Creek Art Festival. We did not show artwork, instead we earned a percentage of the Pepsi products we sold at a Pepsi booth. We worked Saturday, Sunday and Monday, July 4^th . Setting up the booth was exhausting work. There were three of us who lugged ice and Pepsi products. In addition, I hand trucked in four boxes of brochures for six blocks. By 11 am my two friends and I were wiped out. We had workers come in for the afternoon shift but the three of us worked all day and finally got home a little after 10 pm. It was exhausting!

On Monday, July 4^th, I drove to Denver with another artist friend and her husband and we again worked all day. We again had workers join us for shifts A and B, but I was the booth and finance manager and had to be there all day.

The Cherry Creek Arts Festival is a large and well organized event. Being finance manager, I had an opportunity to learn about it from the inside. We just received our final commission statement and we earned $936.25. This will be used for Studio Tour expenses.

I hung thirteen of my paintings in the Member’s room of the Old Firehouse Art

Gallery. The reception on Friday, July 8, was well attended. I didn’t sell anything, but it was good exposure. Too bad artists can’t pay the rent with exposure.

July 9 was Longmont’s Rhythm on the River. This was their 10^th anniversary event and draws 25,000 people. Artists who are involved in the Studio Tour rent a space and show their artwork in the Art Tent. We were to arrive at 5 am and stay until 5 pm, a long day. I met a lot of people and spent much of the day painting. One boy with his father asked if he could paint. I told him I didn’t have any paper for him or a place where he could paint. Then, in a flash, he took his finger and altered my painting. Too bad I wasn’t quick enough to say, you alter it, you’ve bought it. Most kids are great! This was a case of a parent not controlling, or teaching the child proper manners.

During the month, time also had to be dedicated to the Mahlerfest. This music festival includes paintings inspired by Mahler’s Symphony No.1 and “Songs of a Wayfarer”. I went down in Boulder and pounded the pavement finding shops for artists to display their artwork.

The Boulder Art Association and Longmont Artist Guild are collaborating on an art show which will take place August 18 – 21, 2005. Our juror is Ning Sun from Ningbo, China. After emailing and calling Valerie Singleton, a reporter for the Day and Night Section of the Daily Times Call, we set up a date of July 19^th for Ning Sun and his interpreter, Ruwany Sung, plus artists from both BAA and LAG to come to our home for plein aire painting. Valerie came over with a press photographer and stayed over an hour. They took photos of everyone painting and photos of my gardens. Ning finished a watercolor sketch of my neighbors’ pond and home and we all retired to the house for Ning’s interview. It was a wonderful day. We are hoping the article will be of good size and hopefully come out this Friday, August 12. Will report on this in the next Colorado Tale.

Road Trip – Canada!

July 30^th Ken and I left for a road trip north to Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada. The only reservations we made were for two nights in the Tetons at Jackson Lake Lodge and three nights at Deer Lodge in Canada.

Ken had planned the trip north on scenic routes following the Rocky Mountains and passing through historic Lewis and Clark countryside. Our first stop was for a picnic lunch in Landers, Wyoming. We found a couple of picnic tables in a small park near the Chamber of Commerce. We continued on our way through the Flathead Indian Reservation and crossed the Wind River many times on our way to the Tetons.

The Tetons are beautiful! Approaching them from the east they are magnificent. We had a very nice bungalow at Jackson Lake Lodge. Morning views of the Tetons are great with different lighting and cloud formations every day. I had a chance to paint one day while Ken went for a road bike ride to Jenny Lake. We had dinner one evening in the Lodge’s Mural Room which over looks the lake. This is quite a lovely setting.

Early Sunday morning we started our hike on “Paintbrush Trail” above Jenny Lake. Walking along the edge of String Lake where we saw a mother moose with her calf, a family of ducks, who walked on water at our approach and a Ptarmigan with her chicks. These birds do not fly and are not afraid of humans.

As we hiked we saw beautiful wild flowers, Indian Paintbrush, blue bells, lupine, delphinium asters, yellow and white flowers and pink fireweed, cascading water falls, beautiful mountain scenery, and many warning signs about bears. We did see a bear paw mark and the entire trail was a treasure of berry bushes for bears. As always, I sang as we walked and we did not see a bear although we could feel their presence.

As you continue to climb more and more views open up and at one viewpoint we had a beautiful view of Jackson Lake. We start out early on our hike and we were alone until we reached our destination above the upper Paintbrush camping zone. On the return we met several people hiking up.

Tonight we joined a barbeque outside Jackson Lake Lodge. We shared a table with a local couple. The husband had retired from Wall Street and his wife works part time. They retired to a tiny Wyoming community far more remote than where we live. They couldn’t understand why more of their friends had left the New York City area.

Gas prices reached $2.65 a gallon in the park as we found out the next morning. We drove through Yellowstone and really did not see many animals. Toward the end of our drive through the park, a bunch of tourists had stopped to view what might have been a bear in a tree a good distance away. A photo would not have pictured this bear, just a dark spot, so we drove on toward Montana.

Montana is a beautiful state with interesting terrain – beautiful rolling hillsides, round hay bales everywhere, grazing sheep, lakes, streams and rivers. It’s a paradise for fishermen, sportsmen and just getting away from the hubbub of activity in the cities. We stopped for lunch at the Blue Anchor in tiny Twin Bridges, Montana. A newspaper outside this restaurant had headlines that they had just had an earthquake.

Next destination was Missoula, Montana. Don’t you just love the name? I had to keep correcting Ken on its pronunciation (Hmm, and Ken keeps correcting Diane’s spelling). Missoula is a college town with a lovely river walk. Our motel stop was along the Clark Fork River, named after Captain Clark, co-commander with Lewis. It began raining. We chose to spend only one night and move on.

Again, we drove through lovely countryside and arrived in Eureka, just south of the Canadian border. We stopped for lunch at Café Jax, having got a recommendation from nearby construction workers that it’s the best place in town. What a wonderful surprise it was; what a wonderful chef. Visiting this town is like going back into the 40’s; a really neat place. We gassed up at a station across the street where the owner has worked for over 30 years. He still provides full service and a clean windshield with a smile; incredible.

We went through customs with no problem and drove up Hwy. 93 to Hwy. 1, the Trans Canadian Highway. The scenery changed instantly as we entered Banff National Park at Radium Hot Springs. Each motel attempted to outdo the next with flower boxes and alpine architecture. The terrain also changed. We saw “Olive Pond” which was truly green, not the usual reflection of blue from the sky. Bow River was robin’s egg blue and it wound and twisted all along our way to the town of Banff. We called ahead for a reservation and got accommodations at the Elkhorn Lodge, one of the town’s historic places and just off of the main thoroughfare. The town of Banff itself is quite lovely and worth a visit.

The next morning, August 3^rd, we started our day with breakfast at the YWCA, a recommendation from our waitress of the night before. It was a good place to catch breakfast and close to our lodge. We then hiked along the Bow River up to the Fairmont Hotel, a very expensive and impressive resort. We found the trail to the gondola, hopped on board and had some wonderful views.

At the top of the mountain there was an entire trail above the tree tops built of platforms and staircases and leading to the next summit. We walked this path along with hundreds of others, many of whom were Japanese. We thought for a moment we were in Japan, not Canada. Beautiful views all around. Our return trip on the Gondola we met a couple from Bordeaux, France and had a nice conversation.

Next we walked to the Banff hot springs. We had brought our bathing suits and enjoyed the break. We walked back on Spray Ave and got a frontal view of the Fairmont – very impressive. Again, many of the tourists at the hotel were Japanese.

Ken went for a bike ride and I went to the Whyte Museum and a walk around town. Had an ice cream at the Cow Shop where inside they had printed letters on the floor “the line Moos here” directing you to a counter where 5 employees were busy scooping ice cream to the visitors.

Next morning Ken biked from Banff to Lake Louise. I drove the 37 miles and arrived about 10 am. It was too early to check in so I went to look at Lake Louise and walked along the edge of the lake. I got back to the lodge just in time as Ken arrived about 5 minutes after I had returned from my walk.

The famous hotel, Chateau Lake Louise was undergoing landscape construction which was very noisy and we could not help but think that if you booked a $400+ per night room overlooking the lake and the construction you might be upset by the constant noise.

Staying at the Deer Lodge as we did with a five minute walk to the lake was a better choice. The place has a handsome sitting room and restaurant area and lovely gardens. The bedrooms however were very, very small. You had to close the bathroom door to get to the sink. After being there a day, we amused ourselves watching new guests arrive with 4 large suitcases. We said, wait till they see the room, they can’t fit their luggage into there.

The lake with its surrounding mountains and glaciers were beautiful and not a disappointment at all. The huge number of tourists pouring into the area were, however, discouraging.

We hiked to Mirror Lake, a steep but popular climb. On our return, a woman, who Ken named “loose boots” had left perhaps two minutes before us and was resting on a rock. Upon seeing us she leapt up to almost a run to keep ahead of us. We passed her and kept hearing her loose boots until we put some distance between us. Some folks surprise you. The next day we hiked the Beehive Loop to little Beehive and Big Beehive. This was beautiful and not so crowded.

That evening we had dinner in the exclusive and spectacular Fairview dining room at the Chateau Lake Louise. Coming into the dining area the maitre de saw that I was wearing black so she opened a glass cabinet, took out a black napkin and carried it to out table so as I would not get white lint on my dress. Service and dinner was excellent as you would expect. We enjoyed a bottle of Canadian wine. Ken winced a little at the Bill. Now comes the amazing point. As I mentioned before the number of Japanese was overwhelming. There were two large tables near us with Japanese executives complete with an interpreter. Later a Japanese family came in for dinner with 5 small children. Their bill had to be $1000. The Yen sure goes a long way.

We had dinner a couple of evenings at Deer Lodge and the quality of food was excellent at less cost than the Fairview. None-the-less meals were expensive with lunch averaging $50 and dinner over $100. But the quality and explosion of tastes were great. One evening I had a dessert called “Bumbelberry syllabub”; white chocolate with a custard center and decorated with sauces and berries. It was a beautiful presentation. Our waitress’ name was Eva and the second night we asked for her. She was a lovely young lady. In fact all the staff at the lodge was very friendly and accommodating.

One morning going down to breakfast Ken pointed out something on the wall on the second floor. It was a sleeping bat. So, I reported it to the lobby desk. They told us later that one of the help went up and scooped it up with a jacket. They had difficulty shaking it out of the jacket as it wanted to sleep.

We drove up to Bow Pass on the Ice Fields Parkway and walked up to Peyto Lake. Luckily we viewed this lovely lake and the glacier above before the first bus deposited a horde of tourists. We continued to Waterfowl Lake. This was a camping area and was laid out very well. The sites were large and far enough away so that you felt you had solitude in the woods. The park has a new regulation requiring hikers to travel in groups no smaller than six on certain trails because of the bears. We didn’t see any signs to this effect, so we began the hike to Chephren Lake. On our way we met another couple who were retreating because they were afraid to continue in bear country. Our confidence encouraged them and they joined us for the hike. They were Canadians and we had a pleasant conversation along the way to the lake. The lake was lovely, unspoiled and a satisfying destination.

We took many photos during our trip and these will provide much material to paint from. For our return trip we used the main highways. On the Trans Canadian Highway we passed under lovely stone bridges surprisingly covered with grass and shrubs; no road, no pavement at all on top. We figured out that these are animal migration trails. We also noticed that the highway is bordered by 8ft animal fencing for perhaps thousands of miles.

We drove through Calgary; it looked similar in size to Denver. Calgary is Canada’s energy center and growing fast. There really is an “Old Man River”. We crossed it between Ft. McLeod and Lethbridge.

We crossed back into the states and noted a sign that said not to bring in fruits, meats, etc. I had saved a banana from the yesterday’s lunch and it was quite black. During our conversation at the check point I held up my banana and asked if they wanted to confiscate it. It looked pretty pathetic. The border guard smiled and said “we don’t take bananas”. We proceeded to Billings, Montana. At this point we were both spacey from 10 ½ hours of travel so we found a room and walked three blocks to dinner. What a difference in price for dinner. Less than $40 for more than we could eat complete with beer and wine.

It sure was good to be back in the states. The next day we completed the 1200 mile drive from Lake Louise and arrived home at 3:30 pm. Zeus was really happy to see us and we were happy to see him.

Hope we haven’t bored you.

Love, Diane and Ken