The Saturday Morning Post: The Color Of Place

Washington DC, is shades of brilliant blue sunshine, warm white Indiana Limestone, at night the landmark buildings are brilliantly lit against the night sky. Art of DC, needs these colors. 

The first time we went to Italy, was in the winter, February, and I found exactly the color tone I was dreaming of, the color tones I had seen in art. Warm earth tones, terracotta and ocher.  The late winter light made it all the more perfect. Italy in art, needs these colors, these are the colors of place. 

I have a special place in my heart for the desert southwest of the United States. My father got a wild hair idea and we spent a winter in Phoenix when I was in the first grade. That experience left etched in my memory the warmth of the landscape against endless deep blue skies. The deep reds and purples of the mountains surrounding the city. Art of that part of the landscape is art of those colors. 

Florida is pine trees and palmetto scrub, shades of evergreen not brilliant or vivid greens. The surf is dark green, and brown, with musty foam. The lakes and rivers of Florida are brown, often murky or muddy looking, the deep springs emerge crystal clear out of coquina rock caves.  Paint it with caribbean blues in the water and it looks wrong, because outside of the shallows in extreme south Florida, that is not the color pallet of nature. 

Each place has a color pallet, look for it, see it, incorporate it into your art, or maybe not if you want the art to look alien to the landscape. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

Fearless Friday: Go and Do

In her 50's my sister went to a funeral, picked up an old boyfriend and married him. The funeral was for Pete's father, she and Pete had dated in high school and gone separate ways. Pete had gone off to college, she had moved to the nearest town, gone to work, and married the guy down the hall. Pete finished a Phd, worked as a professional counselor, and had been married and divorced three or four times. She had three plus decades in an increasingly unhealthy marriage and had decided she needed to be treated better. Pete flew home for his father's funeral, and never returned to where he had been working.

Shortly after the dust settled on her divorce and moving in with Pete, my mother's health declined, and my sister and Pete moved to Florida, lived with my parents and provided care that made it possible for my parents to live out their lives in the home they loved. 

In the months before before being called to Florida, they flew to Amsterdam and had plans to go onto Paris to place a love lock on a bridge over the Seine. Things went sideways when the boat they were staying on Amsterdam took on water, they put off going to Paris, saying they would do it later. Then they were off to Florida and said we will do this when we move back to Michigan. By the time Dad died and they moved back to Michigan, Pete was already being treated for cancer. Still they said, as soon as he is better we will go and do. Except he bounced from treatment to treatment and never got better. And they never did go and do.  A dream, never to be realized.  

Define your dreams and go and do, now while you can. There is no guarantee that later will be possible. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

The Thursday Ramble: Three Crossings

For me, there is a romance about crossing the Atlantic Ocean by ship, this is my third time. My paternal grandmother, crossed the Atlantic three times by ship. I pulled her diary out of my cabinet of treasures. She arrived in New York May 18, 1910 on the Majestic, went back to England in October of 1912 on the Lusitania, and then back to New York in August of 1913 on the Adriatic. 

Why back and forth for her. Her father came to New York to work on subway tunnels and the family joined him. He then took a job in Mexico and sent the family back to live with family in London while he worked that job, and they re-joined him in New York when that contract was over. I asked her about sterrage and Ellis Island and was surprised by her answer. They traveled second class, above the water line in private cabins with meals in the dining room. Her father had arranged visas for them, so they didn't stop at Ellis Island, but went to the piers in Manhattan.  Her passage was not first class like the movie Titanic, but much nicer than most immigrant classes. 

There was something wistful about the way she and my great-grandmother talked about the crossing. Something that made me really want to do this. 

So here I am on my third transAtlantic crossing by ship. Having known my grandmother and great-grandmother, it is special. I think they would be pleased that I have done this. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

My World of Wonders April 29, 2026

Where have I been? Mostly on the ship, with visits to Bermuda and the Azores. I am looking forward to both. In Bermuda I want to get off the ship and turn right, and explore and area we didn't see the last time. The Azores will add another country to the count. 

What have I been eating? The cruise is on Celebrity, noted for above average food, so lots of good things.  Interestingly I usually lose weight on cruises, lots of moving about and smaller serving sizes. 

What am I seeing? Lots of open space.

Where are we going? Through the Straits of Gibraltar, a couple of stops in Spain, then Italy early next week. 

What have I been doing? Falling into a new daily routine and relaxing. 
 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

Travel Tuesday: Mt Vernon Afternoon

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

Monday Moods: Getting My Priorities Right

I have disappointed a few people when I chose this adventure, instead of accommodating others with my time. I put myself, before others. I have not always done this. 

Way back in the mid 1980's I was working for a home builder in Orlando.  We had a new project getting ready to open, and I had been tapped to be the onsite marketing lead. It was a great opportunity. I had scheduled a week of vacation and planned a trip to New Orleans. Then the dates for the project opening were posted, to overlap with my planned vacation. I asked if the date could be moved, pointing out that development was behind schedule.  The response was, "change your plans, or we will have someone else lead this project." I reasoned that the the project was behind schedule, and that was met with "he assures he will get it done." I cancelled my travel plans. Then the opening date was pushed back two weeks because the development was behind schedule - as I knew it was.  I never did take that trip to New Orleans. I let work take priority over my life. (It was a very good year, the most profitable I ever had with that company.) 

Flash forward to 2018, we were planning a trip to Vienna and onward into Slovakia to see where SBs grandmothers were born. I was serving on the board of a national organization, and they issued a save the date for an important board meeting in Nashville.  We were instructed to hold the dates, but not make travel plans, as there were details to be worked out. It overlapped with the only dates that worked for Vienna, so we didn't plan that trip. Then the board meeting was moved to a month later. Fast forward to today, the locations in Slovakia are 60 miles from the border with Ukraine.  We will make it to Vienna, but probably not father east. I let volunteer work be a priority over my life, and missed an opportunity that may never be possible again.  

As I was planning this trip, there was a save the date for another board I am serving on, for a meeting in San Diego. I kept checking and the answer was, we are not confirmed, there are details that have to be worked out, we are not sure on the budget, don't make travel plans yet. Then the cruise that starts this adventure opened for booking. It is repositioning cruise, so there is only one date, the same week as the maybe, we are not sure, we are trying to work out the details board meeting. I finally decided it was time to let my life be the priority and I booked the cruise. Three months later I get repeated emails asking me if I can't please speak at the meeting in San Diego. I promptly explained that I would be in the middle of the Atlantic, and unable to be in San Diego. 

It has taken me 50 years to do it, but I have my priorities straight, if it is not confirmed, I am not going to plan my personal life around it.  

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

The Sunday Five: Big Thoughts

1: What emerging technology do you think is going to have the biggest impact on life ten years from now? 

2: Should the average home get larger or smaller over the next ten years? 

3: What is the most important thing for schools to teach today? 

4: If travel to the moon was as easy and safe as going to the grocery store, would you go?

5: How do you eat a 100 pound Chocolate Easter Bunny? 

My Answers: 

1: What emerging technology do you think is going to have the biggest impact on life ten years from now? Autonomous vehicles, driverless cars, trucks, drones. 

2: Should the average home get larger or smaller over the next ten years? Homes should get smaller. 

3: What is the most important thing for schools to teach today? Human interaction. Machines can do research, write, make decisions, fly airplanes, what they don't do as well at is making people feel like they are valued, understood, or believed. 

4: If travel to the moon was as easy and safe as going to the grocery store, would you go? No, and I am not sure why. 

5: How do you eat a 100 pound Chocolate Easter Bunny?  One bite at a time. 

Please share your answers in the comments.  

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May.