Our Lady of the Snows

This is Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church between Ketchum and Sun Valley. I’m told that Ernest Hemingway attended Our Lady of the Snows, although not in this building, which was built just a few years ago.


I really like the design of this church, at least from the outside. Next time we’re there, we’ll have to see if we can take a peek inside.

Scenic walk

More scenes from our trip to the Wood River Valley...


It is turning colder here now. They are predicting snow in the mountains by the weekend.

Fall in the mountains

We’ve been in Ketchum / Sun Valley area the past few days for a much needed getaway. Taking in art (including Picasso and Chagall) and shops, excellent food, long walks in town and by the river. The air was crisp, cool, filled with scent of pine. And the views were awesome…



I'll be sharing a few more photos from our trip during the next few days.

Time for a change of scene

It’s been a busy week, meeting people, visiting with friends, taking in a couple of art exhibits. And tomorrow, we’re heading out on a trip. A much needed change of scene.

A toast to good friends, good art, good news, and new vistas…

Golden chrysanthemum

Fall sun and chrysanthemum.
Our neighbor gave us this huge, lovely blossom; so large it only fits in a bowl.

A few “mum” tidbits from Wikipedia:

~ The chrysanthemum is one of the "Four Gentlemen" of China (the others being the plum blossom, the orchid, and bamboo). The chrysanthemum is said to have been favored by Tao Qian, an influential Chinese poet, and is symbolic of nobleness.

~ Chrysanthemums are the official flower of the city of Chicago.

~ The chrysanthemum is the flower of November.

The hill

Climbing the hill -- for exercise, for the view, for some fresh air, to get another perspective, to see the big picture. This hill looks pretty straight forward. But we don’t fully understand the path until we feel it under our feet. We don’t know what’s on the other side until we have gone up far enough to see a larger vision of the terrain we’ll have to cross.
Seems reflective, in some ways, of our situation right now.

It begins one step at a time. It can be done alone for a little while. But eventually, like serious hiking or rock climbing, it takes several of us working as a team to achieve what we set out to do, to keep each other’s back, to survive – to thrive.

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What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.
— René Daumal

A change of seasons

Saw this on the sidewalk during a walk. I wonder if someone laid it there intentionally?

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anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)

spring summer autumn winter

he sang his didn’t he danced his did.
--e e cummings, excerpt from “anyone lived in a pretty how town”

In the morning light

Honeysuckle blossoms in the morning light.

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In the film, “Double indemnity,” Mrs. Dietrich (played by Barbara Stanwyck) is said to wear honeysuckle perfume.

Honeysuckle is also known as woodbine or eglantine.

In Japan, a honeysuckle blossom represents "devoted affection," referring to young lovers who come together through fate or destiny.

“Honeysuckle Rose” is a 1928 song written and performed by jazz pianist Fats Waller (and others), a 1980 movie, and the name of Willie Nelson’s touring bus.

Drumming a storm

The musicians we heard last night gave a great percussion workshop today. Intense, fun, lots of soul... Kevin Nathaniel Hylton is a master teacher who was able to move the group of us (about 13) from basic 4/4 time into clave rhythms, including the African 6/8. Hasan Bakr, also a great teacher, guided us on drum, helping us hear the “1” as we played.

Drumming, rhythm, is three-dimensional shape, Kevin explained. You work it, feel it, live it through your whole body so that the beat comes from within. The clave rhythms are the root; learning those lead to deeper rhythms, and when playing with others, the result is the poly-rhythm mix of beats, tones, all meshing together into an awesome wall of sound.

The room vibrated as we played clave sticks, hand drums, bells, shekere (large gourd rattle with beads or shells), woven rattles.

To close the workshop, Tomas, Hasan, and Kevin played again, improvising, jamming on a couple of numbers, then invited us to play with them on Changui en Siete, a song with a 7 beat clave rhythm, for a grand finale.

Earlier, when we came to the workshop, it was sunny with blue skies. But by the end, trees were thrashing in the wind and dark clouds roiled overhead. Sheets of fresh rain pelted the windows, streets, earth.
We drummed a storm…

http://www.hasanbakr.com/

http://www.mbirasanctuary.com/

http://www.tomasrodriguez.com

Music to move your soul

This isn’t one of my photos; this is one I borrowed of the ensemble we heard tonight -- which was totally excellent! The program, “Dialogues: Music of the African and Spanish Diaspora” featured three New York City musicians: Tomas Rodriguez—Spanish and Flamenco guitar, Kevin Nathaniel Hylton -- Mbiras and percussion, and Hasan Bakr -- Latin and African percussion. They played and sang traditional music from Cuba, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Brazil, and Venezuela, as well as their own pieces.

The mix was a colorful, electric, mesmerizing dialogue between three outstanding musicians. Rodriguez’s guitar and Hylton’s mbiras fit extremely well together, complimented each other. And Bakr is an amazing percussionist. Surrounded by percussion instruments, he created the perfect sounds, mood, and rhythms for each piece. The three played off each other, came together, back and forth; weaving their strands of melody and rhythm like a brilliant tapestry.

Hopefully, these dialogues will continue…

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Info about Tomas Rodriguez: http://cdbaby.com/cd/tomasr2

Info about Hasan Bakr and Kevin Nathaniel Hylton: http://www.heritageop.com/index.html

A "geesely" gathering

When geese gather, you know fall’s around the corner…
(or -- it’s a political rally)

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Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.
-David Letterman

If you feel the urge, don't be afraid to go on a wild goose chase. What do you think wild geese are for anyway?
-Will Rogers

Cowboy enlightenment

Saw this flag in front of a house during one of our walks and loved the cool light and shadow patterns. Perhaps this is the home of a retired rancher. Or a wanna-be-rancher.

In honor of the cowboy, both real and legendary, here are a few Cowboy proverbs (some of which are sayings by Will Rogers):

Don't squat with your spurs on.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.

If you’re ridin’ ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there with ya.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction.

Another perspective

One last post about the Hyde Park Fair (And I promise -- this one has no nude mannequins). There are always booths where you can get a massage, buy herbal treatments, have your chakras cleared, have your fortune or tarot read. This booth featured info about acupuncture and body work. (The skeleton with the hat is a nice touch, don't you think? I wonder if it is also wearing SPF 30 sun block?)

Then, there was this booth.

At last, a way to get to the “sole” of my destiny…

Day at the fair

As I mentioned in my last post, the Hyde Park Fair took place this weekend, complete with booths of crafts, jewelry, blown glass, metal work, clothing, food, and more. People bring their dogs – one guy even brought a goat – and wander through the grounds, munching on “loaded fries”, gyros, ice cream bars, fried cinnamon rolls, corn dogs, kettle corn, and other culinary delights. Musicians play, people dance. Kids have their faces painted and play games for prizes in the Children’s Garden.


During the afternoon, the hand-knitted top this mannequin** was wearing slid down into her arms, provoking snickers from passers-by. One very helpful guy and his girlfriend tried to redress her -- but to no avail.

When we returned the next day, she was gone. Perhaps she escaped during the night with a mannequin from Macy’s…

**(NOTE: After I posted the original photo of the bare-chested mannequin, Blogger slapped a TOS warning on my blog, so I removed the original photo and put a Photoshopped version in its place. Hopefully that'll call off the nudity police...)

Good omens

As walked past Camel’s Back Park tonight, we saw that a small village of tents has sprung up. This weekend is the annual Hyde Park Fair, which features arts and crafts booths, live music on three stages, roaming performers, food.

Weather’s supposed to be sunny, the moon’s almost full, saw this piece of art in front of a neighbor's house; good omens for the fair.

Arrival of the kokanee

Kokanee salmon at the Nature Center.

Kokanee are “land-locked” salmon; they don’t make the trek from the ocean. Instead, they migrate through streams and lakes. Because the Nature Center is a human-made environment with no access to streams or lakes, these fish were stocked (and fishing is prohibited). The Center features viewing areas where you can watch the fish spawn, see egg masses, new hatchlings, and full grown lunkers.

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A trout that doesn't think two jumps and several runs ahead of the average fisherman is mighty apt to get fried.
~Beatrice Cook, Till Fish Do Us Part, 1949

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
~Author Unknown

Shades of green

Within shades of green dances a tall woman wearing a gold tignon;
swirling skirt, foot stomp beat
buds erupt, shower the sun

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Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.
~ Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Sunset on a Sunday

The Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship meets here. Can’t find much info about the building, but it’s been in the neighborhood for a long time and often serves as a community meeting place.

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I like the silence of a church, before the service begins better than any preaching.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gathering place

A quiet spot to gather flowers, herbs, ladybugs, bees, thoughts, fragments of the past week...

Life is a child playing around your feet, a tool you hold firmly in your grip,
a bench you sit down upon in the evening, in your garden.
~ Jean Anouilh, French dramatist, 1910-1987

Thoughts on red lilies

The scientific term for daylily, Hemerocallis, comes from two Greek words meaning "beauty" and "day," because each bloom lasts only one day. As a result, they have many buds.

According to Wikipedia, “the flowers of some species are edible and are used in Chinese cuisine. They are sold in Asian markets as gum jum, golden needles, or yellow flower vegetables. They are used in hot and sour soup, daylily soup, Buddha's delight, and moo shu pork.”

There was a silent movie in 1924 called “The Red Lily” about two young lovers "who go to Paris to try and escape their pasts, until fate separates them,” according to imdb.com.

What I love is the shade of red of these blossoms, and how they glow in the morning light.

Cloud reflections

Clouds can represent many things; animals, angels, faces, objects, shapes of countries. They give rain, snow, fog, reflection, create ever-changing sky art. They could be collections of millions of ideas, swirling there for one of us to grab. Gives new meaning to “reach for the sky.”

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The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.
~ Rita Dove

Clouds symbolize the veils that shroud God.
~ Honore De Balzac

In the morning dew

Many names for this blossom: Black-eyed Susan, Blackiehead, Brown Betty, Brown Daisy, Brown-eyed Susan, Gloriosa Daisy, Golden Jerusalem, Poorland Daisy, Yellow Daisy, Yellow Ox-eye Daisy. And the roots are used in herbal medicines.

Black-Eyed Susan is also the name of the official drink of the Preakness stakes horse race. There seem to be different recipes, but the “official” one contains Bourbon, citrus flavored vodka, sweet & sour mix, and orange juice, topped with an orange slice and a maraschino cherry. A couple of recipes actually advise having a designated driver take you home after the race-day celebrations...

And as an update on yesterday’s entry, it’s great news to hear that New Orleans didn’t get slammed as hard as they feared during Gustav’s landfall. So far, the levees are holding. Prayers to all those affected by this storm…

Keeping fingers crossed...

Keeping a sharp eye on Hurricane Gustav, which will hit the Gulf Coast Monday morning.

New Orleans has a special place in my heart. Sending prayers, positive thoughts, keeping fingers crossed, maybe invoking protection from the saints -- seems to be all we can do for now.

A house ended...

No, a storm didn’t cause this destruction. This house is being demolished in order to build a new home on the site. Many houses in this part of town date from the 1890s – early 1900s. Many of them were Sears kit homes, bungalow style. The owners of this house originally wanted to add a second story. But after examining the condition of the building, they decided it would be cheaper to demolish and rebuild than to restore.



They have salvaged what they can from the old structure, and say the new house will look very similar to the old, be of the same architectural style. It will be interesting to watch the transformation.

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Old houses mended,
Cost little less than new before they're ended.
~Colley Cibber

School days...

School started today in Boise. I don’t know how old this building is, but I like the “ornamentation” framing the front door.

Soon, the early mornings will bring strains of melodies from the school marching band as they practice the art of marching and playing music, simultaneously.

More coffee, please…

The edge of a petal

Rose petals dropping, one by one -- seems rather poignant, doesn’t it? Marking the end of a good weekend, and coming on the end of summer.

But fall brings such luscious colors and that crisp air. It was over 100 here today. Not being a hot weather kind of person, I’m looking forward to the coolness of autumn.

In accord with roses and gardens, here’s an exquisite book of poetry that came out this summer: Ours: The Gardens of André Le Nôtre, by Cole Swensen. (Le Nôtre was the gardener of King Louis XIV and developed the gardens at Versailles.) Perfect read for an afternoon in a garden.

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It is at the edge of a petal that love waits.
~ William Carlos Williams

Head and hand...

This is in front of one of the houses in the neighborhood. I don’t know who lives here, but the front yard is always interesting. At various times, there have been a mosaic head, a bright purple chair, various banners, metal and wood sculptures. Something always seems to be going on, although we never see anyone when we walk by.



A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.
-Elbert Hubbard

Un cervo dolce

I happened to catch this mule deer enjoying brunch at the MK Nature Center last weekend. It didn’t seem to mind as I snapped a few photos. Must be used to the Center paparazzi…

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The word "paparazzi" is derived from a character in the Fellini film "La Dolce Vita." The character, a photographer named Paparazzo, reminded Fellini of "a buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging."

Fellini's inspiration for the character was the famous Italian "street photographer" Tazio Secchiaroli. Fellini consulted Secchiaroli for research while developing the script for his classic film.
--from Howstuffworks.com

Garden glow

I love how light glows through petals and leaves. And it was a beautiful morning to try and capture it. A treat to be in such an exquisite garden.

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The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.
~Hanna Rion

I think that if ever a mortal heard the voice of God it would be in a garden at the cool of the day.
~F. Frankfort Moore

Drawing conclusions?

Came across this while walking the neighborhood over the weekend. In this part of town, the graffiti is usually limited to a few obscene words here and there in the alleys, and there isn’t much of it. This is different; I wonder what the story is?



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In the dime stores and bus stations, people talk of situations, read books, repeat quotations, draw conclusions on the wall.
-Bob Dylan

Gray hair is God's graffiti.
-Bill Cosby

Some lunkers…

Big fish, aren’t they? They were painted by a group of kids as an educational project at the MK Nature Center. Fun to see the color and design choices of these young artists.

Salmon fillets, anyone?

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I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street.
-W. H. Auden

Green glow

Lily pads in the sunlight…

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When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.
~ Bob Hope

Once in a blue moon?

The Blue Moon, in Hyde Park. Packed floor to ceiling with a wide assortment of antiques, including old post cards…

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Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

A new discovery...

Here’s some recently discovered sidewalk art. Experts date it from the Jurassic era, but haven’t been able to identify the creature depicted. But they suspect the creatures may have become extinct from the volcanic activity so aptly illustrated.

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Dr. Alan Grant: Oh my God. Do you know what this is? This is a dinosaur egg. The dinosaurs are breeding.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth...

~ from “Jurassic Park”

A little music, please…

Lately I’ve heard some incredible music (on CD since Boise is not a “music mecca”):

The Marcin Wasilewski Trio, January

Bobo Stenson Trio, Cantando

Vince Mendoza, Blauklang

Irma Thomas, Simply Grand

Maria Schneider Orchestra, Sky Blue

All are jazz except for Irma Thomas, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans”, who does it so very well on this CD, accompanied by some of the best blues-jazz pianists around.

Tonight’s photo is in honor of Maria Schneider, who won a Grammy this year for her composition “Cerulean Skies,” which is on Sky Blue. Schneider is an avid birdwatcher and Cerulean Skies is a marvelous, uplifting piece, a “musical poem” of birds migrating to Central Park in the spring.

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
~Leopold Stokowski

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~Berthold Auerbach

Heading for the finish line

In going with the theme of Katie’s blog and the Olympics, here is another group of swimmers :)

Hopefully none of these is divined to be a Mandarin Duck in the future…

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If you should rear a duck in the heart of the Sahara, no doubt it would swim if you brought it to the Nile.
~Mark Twain

When the earth floods from global warming, the swimmers will rule the world.
~Author Unknown

Another way to swing

A perfect spot to take a break with a book and a cold drink…

I like the linear movement of this photo. A visual poem. A good way to swing into the weekend.

Angel, by Nobody

Sidewalk art I came across during a walk…

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The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
~George Elliot

I'm no angel, but I've spread my wings a bit.
~Mae West

Another take on hair care...

Looks like Vince has some competition. Clever name for a salon, don’t you think??

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Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges -- but eventually you find a hair stylist you like.
~Author Unknown

A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.
~Oliver Herford

An enlightened Cosmos

Sunlight on the Cosmos…

Cosmos bipinnatus, also known as the Mexican Aster.

According to plantanswers: Spanish priests grew cosmos in their mission gardens in Mexico. The evenly placed petals led them to christen the flower "Cosmos," the Greek word for harmony or ordered universe.

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We and the cosmos are one. The cosmos is a vast body, of which we are still parts. The sun is a great heart whose tremors run through our smallest veins. The moon is a great gleaming nerve-centre from which we quiver forever. Who knows the power that Saturn has over us or Venus? But it is a vital power, rippling exquisitely through us all the time…
~ D.H. Lawrence

In a sea of glass

A bench we discovered while walking through downtown Eagle, Idaho.

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A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea.
-Irish proverb

You must lose a fly to catch a trout.
-George Herbert

What's inside?

Filled with treasure? Empty? Or Pandora’s box?

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A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
-J. R.R. Tolkien

If out of all mankind one finds a single friend, he has found something more precious than any treasure, since there is nothing in the world so valuable that it can be compared to a real friend.
-Andreas Capellanus

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow them.
-Louisa May Alcott