Susan's Blog

2012 So Far ...

2012-01-22T18:38:00.000-08:00

Now that January is close to finished, I realized I haven't done any blogging in 2012 so far since New Year's. I've gotten out of the habit of taking photos for the blog, and I know that some readers don't care for blogs without pics, so I'll try to remedy that next time.

It's been a weird month weather-wise in Champaign-Urbana: one day it's 50 degrees and dry and everyone is amazed what an easy time we're having of it for a winter month. But then the next day is freezing cold with huge gusts of biting wind and freezing drizzle or snow dusting or both, and then it all comes back to us why we dread winter so much in the Midwest. And for us, it's especially tough dealing with walkers and frozen van doors and slippery parking lots and so on.

On the personal front, in fact, it's been a bit tough. Since Thanksgiving or so, I've been learning firsthand about a painful condition called "sciatica" that involves a long skinny muscle, the piriformis, that is buried underneath the glutes. If it gets irritated and inflamed, it presses on the "sciatic nerve" that runs all the back down from the lower back, under the buttocks, and down the leg to the calf. As if I didn't have enough challenge with severe arthritis in both knees and back, hah!

I had a blissful week of relief on prednisolone just before Christmas, but then the sciatica returned with a vengence. So now I'm going for physical therapy, resting a lot, and trying to stretch that nasty piriformis as best I can. Too bad the therapy last week that helped a LOT caused me to pull a muscle in my right knee (opposite side) by lying on the hard table with my weight on it while having my left lower back massaged. I guess that proves you can't win when it comes to the problems of an aging body.

On the bright side, however, we managed quite a coup in getting a lift chair for David. These are upholstered recliner type chairs that plug into an electric outlet and have a motor inside that moves you all the way up for ease in getting out of the chair as well as all the way back for reclining or sleeping.

The new ones are about a thousand bucks, so I figured we'd never be able to get one. David was having trouble getting out of his prior recliner where you had to pull yourself to a sitting position and then reach down for a lever to bring the footrest door and the chair upright and then you still had to struggle to get out of it. This lift chair does it for you ... so cool. We got it on craigslist for $150 ... wow! This lady bought it ten years ago for when her dad visited her house and he had passed away and she wanted to sell it. What luck, huh?

What else is new? Well, we've been to a couple of jazz gigs. We've missed a few too between lousy weather and body pains. We did catch Desafinado at Buvons (the wine bar inside Corkscrew Wine shop) last weekend. The band has really evolved into a different sound these days with a number of new band members. It's less acoustic and laid back, but we like it anyway. It's a lively contemporary Brazilian sound with some electric instruments and a wide range of percussion and some fast-paced numbers that don't have that samba beat. They had a good crowd at Buvons and a couple of friends joined in for some numbers. As always, Elis Artz gave a wonderful performance on vocals and pulls the whole effort together beautifully.

Buvons has a deal with Mirabelle bakery: they text in handmade pizza orders and then someone brings them over by car. We tried the goat cheese and red peppers and pesto -- very tasty! My friend Frank (source of expert info on plants but also on cuisine) thinks maybe those small extra-sweet red peppers are the ones from South Africa.

Last night we made it to the Iron Post after our Saturday at the Urbana library, despite frosty weather and some frozen patches in the parking lot, to hear Del Sur. This is a new band that gave its second performance and is going to be playing the first Saturday of each month in the slot that used to be Sandunga, the Cuban band. In fact, Eduardo Herrera was a band member for Sandunga (and Bate Calado, another Brazilian band), and now heads up Del Sur along with Julian Norato (also from Sandunga), Ian Middleton, and Alex Agudelo.

Del Sur means "from the South" and Julian, Eduardo, and Alex are from Columbia. Ian is from South London. They play an amazing mix of folkloric and popular Latin American and Caribbean music, including "huaynos, cumbias, porros, zambas, and many other genres." If you're familiar with "El Condor Passa" from Paul Simon, you will recognize the distinctive sound of the pan flute, expertly played by Alex. They also play lively Columbian and Peruvian cumbias that are very danceable and the same dancers who used to come for Sandunga have obliged once again. So it's fun to watch them too.

Eduardo gives some information about the origins of the songs (his ethnomusicology studies are showing here) and plays some incredible guitar and charanga (and melodica and bongos and vocals). Julian plays guitar and sings in his lovely melodic voice. Alex handles flutes of various kinds and percussion and sings as well. Ian was especially surprising this time. Last time, he mainly played congas, bongos, and other percussion. This time he also played a very long flute and performed some incredible vocals! He has a wonderfully authentic Spanish but speaks English with a delightful British accent (and he's really good looking). We had a lovely time listening and watching the dancers.

What's new with my Etsy business, Beaded Jewelry by Susan? The short answer is nothing. Sadly, there were no sales over the holidays at all. I'm starting to get a bit discouraged about getting people to the online shop. I have put some items on clearance, but that doesn't seem to have made any difference so far. I'm going to retire some items when they come up for renewal to make room for some new ones (if I get around to photographing the new earrings) or, at least, to keep smaller numbers of items to pay for every four months.

I'm hoping that Sara and Theresa will want to have some jewelry parties or something over the winter and start selling my wares again at Farmer's Market in May. They did a good job and had some lovely displays, but some bad luck too with hot weather this summer outside and poor lighting inside at Lincoln Square. Maybe 2012 will be better for Beaded Jewelry by Susan. Let's hope so.

In the continuing household saga of objects wearing out along with our aging bodies, we had to install new "motor mounts" in our ten-year old Honda van. We are still trying to pay off the new air conditioner and waiting for the state to reimburse us on the dental insurance. It was not fun to wrack up another giant bill, for sure. The house door is falling apart by crumbling on the inside so the screws don't hold the plate tight, so that will have to be replaced eventually at considerable expense as well. Glass broke recently in a book case, but we got that taped, thank goodness, and the batteries replaced in the smoke alarms. What's next?

I've been reading a lot (so what's new ... 60-plus years of reading a lot). Now we're looking into audio books or DVDs of various types for David because reading is getting difficult, even with the large print books. Maybe we'll consider an iPad or something like that for him at some point. Have been getting some cool smooth jazz CDs from the library based on a list I found on the Internet.

I've started getting the all-color catalogues from the perennial flower houses. Even though I can't really afford to get many and have to pay Sara to plant them for me, it brightens my day to leaf through the pages and circle my favorites. And I am looking forward to those species tulips she planted in the raised beds on the east side last fall. That will bring my camera out if nothing else will!

Actually, I have been thinking about taking some cat photos for a nice blog post about our five fabulous felines. What do you think? Is anyone interested? They never cease to amaze, inform, entertain, and delight me in all ways. But, of course, they are my (our) cats, and so there is a certain bias.

Well, that's about it for now I guess. No use discussing the wretched state of the world (or the nation, just please don't vote Republican if you have any sense), so I kept it to the small but usually fairly pleasant space of my own little world. Hope you enjoyed it, dear readers. I love comments if you feel so inclined.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2011-12-22T19:30:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that the day after tomorrow is Christmas Eve! It seems as though the time since Thanksgiving has really gone unnaturally fast ...

We haven't actually been that busy, though. Just the usual routine plus some Christmas activities thrown into the mix. We got the Christmas tree early this year because our friend Bob, who helps us put it up, was leaving for a family trip to Guatemala. It turned out to be more complicated than usual finding a cut tree, however, probably for a variety of reasons.

In the past, when we were all able to walk around easily, we would go out to the country and wander around on a Christmas tree farm, sometimes freezing our butts off, and then pick the tree to cut -- usually it wound up being the first tree we spotted a hour or more before. But maybe those farms have closed because of so many people buying artificial trees. Or they planted new small tree seedlings that were wiped out in the horrendous heat this summer. I know some of the cut trees coming from out West were ruined by drought.

But the tree farm specimens kept getting bigger, too big for our house, so we turned to in-town tree lots for trees that had already been cut. There was one that used to be in the parking lot for Jarlings ice cream that we went to several times.

Then the ice cream shop started staying open longer into the late fall and early winter and the tree lot moved to a location where annuals are sold in the spring. So that's where we headed, only to find nothing there but the empty tables from the spring plant sales.

I thought I remembered U of I forestry students selling trees down near the pomology grounds, but there was nobody there either.

So we went to the C-U Optimists Club tent on Springfield Avenue. What a scam! You'd have to be an optimist to think anybody would fall for it. The guy has maybe 12 trees all together to choose from (remember, this is early, December 9). Six of them are Scotch pine, which I don't like to begin with. They are usually ugly, stick your fingers, and don't hold ornaments well.

These Scotch pines were especially ugly, in fact, having twisted trunks and scrappy bare branches. They looked like the leftovers someone might get as a job lot from a real Christmas tree sale.

Then there were six or so Frazier firs that looked fine but were too tall for our house really. I glanced at the price tag anyway just to see what they cost and my mouth fell open: $120! We told him we needed to look further and where were the other tree lots. He claimed he didn't know and didn't think there were any others ...

So we bought a newpaper while trying to exchange the multicolor lights that turned out to be all red because someone put the wrong package on the wrong shelf (but they were out of the cheap ones already and we had to buy a more expensive kind of course). Unlike prior years, there was NO section in the classified for Christmas trees, either on farms or in town.

We then wondered about Prairie Gardens, the nursery center and craft store on the west side of town. I knew they had expensive and beautifully decorated artificial trees for sale, but didn't know if they did cut trees too, so we called. Yes, nice balsam firs, five-six feet tall, for twenty bucks!

Unfortunately, it was evening by then and the young guy in charge of the trees couldn't saw off the bottom for us. When we got back, we got it in the house and got it mounted in the stand and then remembered the bottom hadn't been cut. Well, it has been very pretty and we really enjoyed it, but it didn't take up any water and now it is soooo dry! I plan to get Sara to help me take it down the day after Christmas.

We did have pretty lights all along the top of the breezeway, part way up the Japanese tree lilac, and on the fence, thanks to Sara. One of the strings even plays Christmas carols! It's probably a surprise to the many dog walkers of our neighborhood, hearing the tinkly sound of Christmas music as they pass our driveway.

Well, I sent the cards the other day and finished the wrapping tonight. Tomorrow we go to the library (closed for our usual Saturday visit) and end the evening with Christmas jazz at Silvercreek with piano by Donnie Heitler and Nick Schroeder (great trumpet player). Christmas Eve we will visit with David's son Christopher and son Jonathan and family and then have a quiet dinner and gift exchange, just the two of us. On Christmas Day, I'm making a ham and Vicki and Frank are joining us.

Merry Christmas to all of my blog readers and Happy New Year!

Flying Down to Rio!

2011-11-20T15:46:00.000-08:00

Winter is coming to Champaign-Urbana and many folks are thinking about heading south. My sister and her husband are traveling down the Oregon and California coasts to San Diego and taking a Caribbean cruise. My friend Bob is going to Guatemala over the holidays with family to visit Mayan ruins. What about David and me? In addition to vicarious vacationing via friends' e-mails and photos, we flew down to Rio de Janeiro for the weekend, figuratively speaking of course.

Last weekend we went to the Iron Post (approx. 15 blocks from our house, so closer than South America) for the Brazilian band called Bate Calado. Yesterday, Desafinado played there. David remarked in the middle of a lively number at last night's gig, "It's like being in Rio, isn't it?" Good enough for me!

Bate Calado--which specializes in performing Brazilian bossa nova, MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), choro, and contemporary Brazilian light pop and rock music--features Gina Reynolds singing rhythmic tunes in Portuguese, Dave Cubberly on electric bass, Rick Deja on saxophone and flute, Eduardo Herrera on guitar, and Andy Burton on drums. This time Ian Middleton joined them on congas and various percussion instruments as well.

There was a good-sized audience and the sets were energetic. Gina dances around a bit as she sings and the beat was a toe-tapper!

Than last night we heard Desafinado. As our regular blog readers know, we've been following this group for years and years. The band members have changed some, including recently, but the terrific samba and bossa nova sound is very consistent and the musicianship is always top-notch!

Greg Jahiel is the group's earliest member and guitar player (and he does Portuguese vocals). But he's "on leave" right now with happy parenting. George Turner has been playing with them for a while, but George is busy teaching right now. So a new guitarist has joined the group.

His name is Gabriel and he is from Brazil.

Gabriel is a terrific guitarist and is fitting in just right with the Desafinado style!

The very talented Luciano Tosta, who used to play with Bate Calado, plays electric mandolin in Desafinado most of the time. But he also plays guitar and tambourine, triangle, gourds, and a number of other funky and interesting percussion instruments.

In addition to Giraldo Rosales, long-time band member and wonderful master of the congas, there was a new drummer tonite named Niko who did a fine job.

Another crossover from Bate Calado is Dave Cubberly on electric bass. We enjoyed Dave's playing last weekend and were happy to see him back again with this band!

One of the earliest band members is, of course, the multitasking musician Tom Paynter, who is equally impressive on keyboards, flute, and melodica.

We were lucky enough (and early enough) to get a table right near the band and this time we were close enough to Tom to watch some of his amazing runs on the Baldwin and his flute fingering.

As with many photos of pianists, we usually just see the back of Tom's head, but here we caught a close-up with a bit of profile, including a great expression of what looks to me like "feeling the music."

But it wouldn't be Desafinado without the voice, beauty, warmth, and energy of the incomparable Elis Artz!

As always, Elis really lights up the stage with her dynamic performances, belting out soul-shaking sambas, definitely spirited contemporary Brazilian tunes, and old favorite bossa novas by Antonio Carlos Jobim.

At this gig, Elis was so open-hearted and generous in bringing up other friends to sing with her. Here Brazilian friend Robert Perrerre joins in for some great numbers.

Another Brazilian friend, Paulo Henrique, provided some very lively percussion.

And Gina Reynolds, the singer from Bate Calado, was in the audience and came up for some solos, duets, and three-way performances with Elis and Robert.

Gina has a lovely voice that is quite different from Elis' and the two blend together very nicely indeed.

It was a terrific gig, with two sets full of wonderful music, great performers, and a real sense of being in South America--flying to Rio--for a Saturday night!

International Gem and Jewelry Show

2011-11-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

What fun! Last weekend we made a trip to Collinsville, Illinois to the International Gem and Jewelry show. We had a wonderful time exploring all the new beads and buying some great new crystal, lampwork, and metal trim to use (soon!) in new designs for Beaded Jewelry by Susan.

We had a beautiful fall day for the trip down, about a three-hour drive from Champaign-Urbana. The fall color on the trees was fantastic, and we saw a few hawks at the edge of the interstate. Once we got down south a bit, the terrain started to be less flat and there were rolling hills and river valleys that we don't get to see much around Champaign County, so it was a nice treat.

Our friend Bob dropped us off at the Gateway Center for the show and went on to spent a pleasant afternoon in nearby Edwardsville, checking out the historical houses there. Meanwhile, we entered the center excitedly and began the great bead expedition! It had been quite a while since we'd been to a bead show and the anticipation had built to a peak.

This year my focus seemed to be on Chinese crystal. I love crystal and it makes such wonderful trim and accompaniment for lampwork and other delicate glass beads and pearls. Of course, I have a big collection of crystal already, both the expensive Austrian Swarovski and the new Celestial Crystal. But there were new colors in the lovely faceted rondelles I like so much and excellent prices. So I stocked up!

Also found some lovely lampwork that was faceted: colorful patterns inside clear glass rondelles with the whole outer bead faceted. Got some more of the interesting opaque lampwork beads too--with swirls, clusters of flowers, and geometric patterns. Although I didn't photograph them, I also found bags of tiny adorable bead caps in silver, gold, and bronze plating ... just right for earring trim.

I saw a lot of lovely stone beads at the show as well, but many of them are too large and heavy for earrings and right now I am mainly doing earrings and some pendants. I also saw lots of those charming ribbon necklets for suspending bead charm pendants, like the ones that Theresa and Sara Jones have been making. I have already made a few pendants and a bunch of new earrings for them to sell at the Holiday Market inside Lincoln Square (now that it's too cold for the outdoor Farmer's Market), beginning next weekend for the entire month of November.

I had to get a new Plano storage box for all the new beads and do quite a bit of reorganizing of my crystal collection. That's always time well spent because it makes it so much easier and faster for me to locate the bead I want in the middle of a design moment. I have started making new designs with the new bead and am looking forward to doing more of that very soon.

Hopefully, at some point I will take new photos of new jewelry to add to the Etsy site. In the meanwhile, I will continue to pass new work to Sara and Theresa for sales at Holiday Market and, at the end of the month, the U of I Holiday Bazaar in the Illini Union. I hope that local fans of Beaded Jewelry by Susan will be able to come to some of these events. If not, you can always shop online in my Etsy shop.

Provena Go Pink Tonight!

2011-10-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Tuesday October 25, is the fundraising event at Provena Hospital featuring Beaded Jewelry by Susan. Drop by for jewelry, snacks, and speakers!

It’s time to Go PINK! in honor of breast cancer awareness month. Provena Covenant Medical Center is putting on this fun, free and informative event on Tuesday, October 25 from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. in the auditoriums at Provena. Go PINK! will feature world-renowned University of Illinois breast cancer researcher Ann Nardulli, Ph.D., who will discuss the latest advancements in fighting cancer. In addition, two breast cancer survivors will be on hand to share their stories, and they will join a panel of medical experts to answer questions about prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

“The focus of this event is of course breast cancer awareness, but we wanted to bring in some other exciting things for women to do as well,” said Louise Fellmann, Women’s Health Program Coordinator. Rod Sickler Salon & Spa will be providing free mini-manicures and mini-facials, Confidentially Yours will be doing bra fittings, and Macy’s will have fall fashions and a lipstick station. There will also be plenty of educational booths and free health risk assessments, plus light hors d’oeuvres, PINKtinis from Holiday Inn, door prizes and other giveaways.

This event is made possible by proceeds from It's All in the Jeans Day. Registration is requested by not required. To register, call 866-PROVENA toll-free or visit www.provena.org/covenant/rsvp.

Go Pink with Beaded Jewelry by Susan

2011-10-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Beaded Jewelry by Susan earrings will be available at the Go Pink event at the breast cancer fundraising evening at Provena Hospital next week:

Go PINK!

Join us on Tuesday, October 25 in the Auditoriums at Provena Covenant Medical Center from 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. for this fun, free and informative evening focused on breast cancer awareness. Wear your favorite casual pink attire and join us for a night of pampering, education, networking and more. Registration is requested but not required. To register, call 866-PROVENA or visit www.provena.org/covenant/rsvp.
World-Renowned University of Illinois Breast Cancer Researcher Ann Nardulli, Ph.D. will discuss the latest advancements in fighting cancer, two breast cancer survivors will share their stories, and a panel of medical experts and breast cancer survivors of all ages will answer your questions about prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Mini-manicures and mini-facials courtesy of Rod Sickler Salon & Spa
Free bra fittings courtesy of Confidentially Yours
Fall fashions from Macy’s
Free health risk assessments
Light hors d’oeuvres and wine
PINKtinis, courtesy of Holiday Inn in Urbana
Door prizes
Giveaways

What's New?

2011-09-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Fall is in the air, and a variety of things are going on with us. Today, someone included a pair of earrings from Beaded Jewelry by Susan in her Etsy treasury.

Last weekend, we enjoyed the CD release concert by Mean Lids at the Iron Post. Miriam (Mimi) Larson played flute, mouth harp, train whistle, kazoo, and various other "special" musical instruments as well as performing beautiful vocals. Ben Smith tore up the sound barrier with his fantastic violin (and the baritone violin) and did a few very lively banjo numbers as well. He and Matt Turino did some vocals too, and Matt joined in with his fiddle for some numbers and his guitar for others. They did some "old-timey" tunes--Western swing, waltzes, jigs and reels--in the first set and then the second set was straight from the CD and all original instrumental numbers. These were really great because they are all excellent composers as well as accomplished musicians (and they have nice "lids" as well.)

Also managed to discover some wonderful new literary fiction authors lately: Stefan Merrill Block's The Storm at the Door; Margaret Leroy's The Soldier's Wife; and Ellen Feldman's Lucy.

Thinking ahead to October, I have ordered a big bunch of tiny bulbs: species tulips, the short, small tulips from which the big Holland beauties were developed. They are charming and just the right scale for our raised beds (I am hoping I can plant these myself sitting on the garden bench).

Sara and Theresa Jones are continuing to attend the Saturday Farmer's Market in Urbana with Beaded Jewelry by Susan items for sale, and the Provena Hospital sales to raise funds for the Women's Center continue this month (once a week) and include my earrings as well. I am looking forward to a bead show at the end of October in Collinsville to find some great new beads. Have had a few sales on my Etsy website lately as well!

Last project is trying to get some copyediting work to help with generating some income, so took an editing test today! Hope all goes well for all of you. Please feel free to post comments or questions anytime.

Fundraiser Sales Begin!

2011-09-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was the first of the in-house sales this month of earrings from Beaded Jewelry by Susan at the Provena Hospital fundraisers for the Women's Center. All employees and patients will have three more chances this month to purchase these lovely earrings, and again part of the proceeds will go to the Women's Center. The next sale will be Monday, September 12, at Provena Hospital.

In October there will be two big events that will be open to the public as well. More on that later . . .

Another Great Saturday Night Gig

2011-09-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say we enjoyed another great Saturday night music gig at the Iron Post. Bate Calado was playing, and Elis Artz was substituting tonight for Gina Reynolds, who is in Brazil, on several numbers. The music and singing were terrific! Rick Deja's saxophone is so sweet it seems to be talking, singing, and even crying sometimes! He did a number of virtuoso solos, but one in particular was outrageously impressive. Eduardo Herrera's guitar work was also exceptional this evening. As always, the bass with Dave Cubberly, the drums with Andy Burton, and the percussion with Cody Jensen (including the lovely triangle and tambourine) provided just the right mix. There were a number of wonderful tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim, one of our favorite Brazilian composers, along with some other numbers that we hadn't heard before. Thanks so much, guys!

Fast Week

2011-09-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

This week really went fast. We went to hear Desafinado as promised on Saturday and I got some photos for the blog. Now here it is Thursday night already and I am just now writing the blog! Tomorrow is David's 70th birthday, so I won't be on the computer ... we've planned a picnic lunch at Homer Lake, some enchiladas for dinner at La Fiesta, and friends coming back for cake afterward. Then on Saturday, Bate Calado, another Brazilian band, at the Iron Post.

This time, we got the new CD by Desafinado, with lots of wonderful originals, some of which they played on Saturday at the Iron Post. Thanks to Hurricane Irene, Giraldo Rosales was still in Costa Rica, so no congas this time.

However, there was plenty of interesting percussion sounds. In addition to mandolin and a small electric guitar-like instrument, Luciano Tosta played tambourines, gourds, whistles, chimes, and "bongers" (my term for the strange instrument).

And Cody Jensen was there with drums and cymbals as well, if you can see him in my dark photo (the lighting in that place isn't much).

It was a real treat to have Greg Jahiel back with the group on guitar and vocals in Portuguese. Greg is also a very talented composer.

Here's another shot of Greg, but the mike was in the way!

Partway through the first set, George Turner joined the group, with his lovely melody guitar works.

Tom Paynter (are pianists always photographed from the back?) made excellent use of the nicely tuned Baldwin. Tom told me he thinks the Baldwins are as good as the Steinways any day.

You still can't see his face, unfortunately, but Tom's flute is so distinctive, it's a definite ID. He seems completely absorbed in playing piano and then suddenly grabs up the flute at just the right moment and sends a trill thrilling down your spine!

Or he surprise you with the accordion-like sound of the air-driven melodica mounted above the piano. You can't see the tube, but he is blowing while he plays.

This is my last attempt to get a better photo of Tom (not just the nape of his neck) as he returns to the ivories. He did a number of piano solo moments in various pieces that night, and they were truly impressive. His playing is not only virtuoso, but inventive and always intriguing.

Well, her head got cut off here, but you can see the lovely multicolored sundress worn by Elis Artz, great Brazilian singer!

That's better! Elis is back from a couple of months at home in Brazil with a new haircut but the same rich, resonant voice! She's been writing lyrics for some of the new compositions by the band too.

Isn't she lovely?

Books and Things

2011-08-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

Life has been a bit busy, so I haven't posted for a while now. The garden seems to be starting to recover from the massive Midwestern heat wave, but it's still touch and go depending on how much rain we get. In fact, we probably won't know until next year how much damage was suffered by major shrubs and perennials because they can look okay after a heat wave but be weakened and then killed if the winter is tough. Not very many spectacular blooms right now to lure me outside in the heat with the camera ...

We have gone to a few jazz gigs lately, but we are trying to save money on cover charges and have had some health issues to deal with. However, we are looking very forward to hearing Desafinado again this coming Saturday at the Iron Post. I will try to remember to bring the camera and to post soon afterward.

My dear husband David is turning seventy years old a week from tomorrow and I'm planning a little getogether with some cake and friends to mark the occasion.

Things are moving along with Beaded Jewelry by Susan. We've have two Etsy sales lately ... hurray! Also, in September and October there will be some fundraising events at Provena Hospital with earrings from my collection, especially a lot of charming pink ones to support the Women's Center for breast cancer. In addition, Sara (of LetUsGetDirtyForYou) and her mom are selling my jewelry at the Urbana farmer's market on Saturdays, and Sara has just designed some great new business cards, signs, and banners to promote sales.

So much for a general update. Now ... about books. I can't say enough good things about a terrific novel I just finished called Next to Love by Ellen Feldman. I hadn't read her before, but have already requested an earlier novel of hers from the library. Next to Love is set in the period from 1944 to 1964 in a small town in Massachusetts. Babe, Millie, and Grace have been friends since kindergarten, all marry boys going off to fight in World War II, and continue close relationships with each other throughout their adult lives, despite various complications. This is my mother's generation of women, who grew up in hard times, lived through the fear and excitement of the war years, dealt with the horrifying consequences of the war itself and the amazing changes that the postwar years brought, and helped create the society that is most familiar to my generation of early baby boomers. Each character (and the town as a whole) serves as a window into the events and social changes of the era. The prose is handled beautifully, the narrative is clear and compelling, and the emotions are rendered heartbreakingly vivid. There is a lot of fiction coming out these days about World War II and the postwar years ... now that this generation is disappearing ... and it's a subject that is fascinating to me. Despite being a work of fiction, this novel fills in many day-to-day details of the life of the time and is faithful to historical events as well. Highly recommended.

Also recently read 22 Britannica Road by Amanda Hodgkinson. This is a story set in England about Polish immigrants after the war, with flashbacks to the characters' wartime experiences. Here is another author I had not read before and, again, an excellent depiction of a complicated and interesting period of history. These literary fiction novels about the era aren't just historical fiction per se because they touch on universal themes that transcend the era as well.

I didn't get a review out on it, but don't miss Ann Patchett's newest masterpiece, State of Wonder. It is totally compelling, thought-provoking, and profound ... as was her earlier Bel Canto. This one is set in the depths of the Amazon jungle and touches on many important contemporary themes, medical issues, and ethical questions. It's also exciting!

Of course, I never mention the novels I start and don't finish. I used to feel obligated to read a book all the way through even if I wasn't really engaged or impressed. Now that I'm "older," I no longer feel the same obligation. There are just too many great novels still waiting for me (I hope) to waste time on one that just isn't for me (which doesn't mean someone else might not enjoy it, of course).

However, I have to mention a specific disappointment--Robert Olen Butler's latest novel, A Small Hotel. I was introduced to him in his Pulitzer-prize-winning short story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. Then I went on to read all his novels written before that, mainly set in Vietnam during the war. The writing was superb and the content was profound. Then he stopped writing about Vietnam and tackled other contexts. That's fine ... a writer needs to write new novels rather than reworking the same material too much. But unfortunately the newer works were more and more superficial and lacking distinction. Finally, this recent novel is really a total comedown in my humble opinion. It is shallow and melodramatic. The characters are two-dimensional and completely self-absorbed. The descriptions of New Orleans, Mardi Gras, and the two hotels (which are NOT small at all) are so much on the surface as to be almost gratuitous. Well, enough said. Not all of my favorite authors please me all the time, but this was too bad and I will be cautious about him in the future.

Bate Calado

2011-08-07T12:59:00.000-07:00

We attended a terrific performance last night at the Iron Post from the Brazilian band Bate Calado. This group just keeps getting better and better each time we hear them. Check out their Facebook site for information about upcoming gigs.

The singer, Gina Reynolds, is a beautiful powerhouse of energy and motion, her clear soprano tones ringing out in the Portuguese lyrics while she dances to the rhythms. Gina is a graduate student in Political Science at the U of I and a big fan of Brazilian music of all kinds.

Saxophonist and flute player Rick Deja did some truly outstanding solos. We have also heard him play music from Malawi at a concert at the Urbana Free Library earlier this summer. His improvisations are so good--intricate and interesting but never straying too far from the melody of the piece. BTW, check out his amazing website with lots of music and a slide show.

Eduardo Herrera, who also plays with the Cuban band Sandunga frequently mentioned in this blog, brought his new guitar with the hole on the side. It is quite cool and has a different tone and depth as a result of the construction of the instrument. He also played an electric guitar last night. He and Dave Cubberly on electric bass make a wonderful team.

Speaking of teams, two fairly new band members, Cody Jensen and Andy Burton, interact musically in a very successful way: Cody brings in a range of percussion from conga to tambourine and triangle and Andy has the drum set with cymbals. The way they combine reminds us of when Chad Dunn and Giraldo Rosales were both in the band Desafinado, playing off each other's moves so amazingly.

In the first set, we were treated to some great bossa nova and samba numbers, including some favorites by the master composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. The second set presented some lively dance music in the forro (foho) style, a type of country music popular in northeastern Brazil, and even some Brazilian reggae.

We were pleased to learn that, starting in September, this group will be playing at the Post on the first Saturday of each month. Yeah!

We're also looking forward to Desafinado's performance there on the 27th of August. Elis Artz, singer extraordinaire with that band, is back from a two-month visit to her home in northeastern Brazil. Tom Paynter, fabulous pianist/flute and melodica player from Desafinado, was on hand to hear the music too.

Another Treasury

2011-08-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! Yet another Etsy person has included a pair of my earrings in her latest treasury about jewelry inspired by nature. Have a look!

A Blue Treasury

2011-07-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

My blue earrings have been included in a lovely treasury on Etsy. Have a look!

Sandunga Farewell

2011-07-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we attended the final performance of Sandunga, a wonderful local Cuban band that we've enjoyed many times in the past. Several band members are moving away and this was the last time they could get together. Unfortunately, we were sitting back a ways because tables had been moved to make room for the dancing and the stage lights were low, so my photos came out too dark.

I did get a flash pic of my dear husband David and our friend Vicki, sitting across from me at the table, however.

The music was absolutely great. All of the performers are amazing musicians: Will Hope on Cuban lute (laud) and guitar and vocals, Julian Norato on guitar and vocals, Tina Hope on percussion sticks and vocals, Eduardo Herrera on bass and vocals, Andy Miller on bongos and percussion, and Adam Walton on congas (later on, Cody Jensen sat in for a while on bongos).

You can check out the archives of Susan's Blog for earlier posts about this group with good photos. As explained in those posts, the "guajira son" music is sung in Spanish and is the music of the mountains and countryside of Cuba. You may know some of this wonderfully infectious sound from the DVD called Buena Vista Social Club.

Champaign-Urbana has an extensive Latino/a community from all over Central and South America and they turn out enthusiastically for Sandunga performances. Many the of the people know each other and they know the songs, often singing along. And there is always DANCING! People of all ages, men, women, and children, are all dancing their feet off the whole time. It is really fun to watch. I do a little in-chair dancing myself, despite the arthritis. It was so crowded because of the dancing that David could hardly get through to the restroom with his walker!

We will certainly miss this group. There's some hope for a reunion next July for a single performance, and fortunately we were at the CD release party recently and have the CD (check their Facebook site if you want to get one too).

Will and Tina will be going to Maine, where Will is going to be teaching anthropology (courses on Cuban culture and music); Andy is going to Columbia on a Fulbright grant; Julian and Eduardo are Columbian and may be going down there in the winter (?). Adam is staying here (he and his wife recently had twins). We wish them all well and thank them for some very enjoyable evenings of great music, singing, and dancing!

Honey Bee Treasury

2011-07-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here's another one of those lovely treasuries of photos from Etsy with honey colored items: The Quiet Bee.

The creator has kindly included my citrine stone earrings. Thanks!

Suggestions for Etsy?

2011-07-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, mainly because it is much too hot to take pics in the garden. Lots of daylilies are in bloom right now, and the annuals are practically bursting out of their containers with color, but the heat index is making it pretty miserable to be outside for more than a short time. We have been to a number of good jazz gigs, but I failed to remember the camera unfortunately. I promise a blog post for next Saturday's final performance of Sandunga, for sure.

So what's been happening on Beaded Jewelry by Susan, my Etsy site?

Well, for one thing, I recently sold and shipped this lovely pair of poppy jasper triangle earrings to a woman far away from Illinois in Blackwood South Australia. I've now had forty-four sales since the site opened at the end of April in 2009. So it's kind of difficult to assess what direction to take. Maybe you readers can offer some suggestions for future planning.

I used to do a number of shows, mainly outdoors, every summer for many years, which gave me an outlet for my earrings and necklaces and an excuse to add to the bead collection and to design and make more jewelry. But it got to be too difficult physically to continue and I sold my tent and other equipment year before last. Last year we tried doing a couple of indoor shows, but even that wasn't easy and we decided to quit doing shows altogether. I miss it, of course, because it was fun as well as being hard work and it was a good way to use up some of my inventory!

I've been maintaining 300 items on the Etsy site. I'm trying to balance the Etsy costs for listing with the sales that trickle in, and that limits the number of items I can keep showing. I probably have about three times that many pairs of earrings in my inventory that aren't yet on Etsy. No way I could even estimate how many beads I have that I'm still yearning to turn into earrings (and necklaces, of course, but they sell even more slowly, so I've temporarily stopped making them).

I am investigating having someone act as a sales representative for me, maybe selling at home parties, farmers market, or shows, but it's slow getting started and she isn't sure yet whether she wants to do it or not. Meanwhile, I lower the inventory a little bit by giving earrings to friends and as "tips" to folks who help us out at the grocery, gas pump, and restaurants. I do enjoy that and so do they--it's a nice way to say "thank you."

But sooner or later I need to make some decisions about the Etsy site. One possibility is to expand it and add more from my inventory or brand-new earrings yet to be designed. What do you think?

I also have a new camera and could take some new photos, but I haven't figured out how to make them small enough (it's a camera with lots of megapixels) to upload properly. Anybody know how to do that? Also, I've got some white foam board for making a little enclosure for better lighting, but haven't got that quite figured out either.

I'm happy that I have had a few more sales this summer and that they seem to be coming in from people and places far and wide, but I need more sales to justify expanding the listings very much. I know that jewelry, maybe especially beaded jewelry, is all over the Internet and so there is a lot of competition for getting people to your website.

Also, lots of stores have started importing inexpensive jewelry, usually made of plastic or poor quality materials that won't last, and selling it more cheaply than I can afford to with the stones, glass, crystal, and so on that I use. It's such a "throw away" society that people don't pay as much attention to quality and the idea of keeping things a long time as they used to, I guess.

In addition, the hobby of making beaded jewelry has exploded over the twenty-plus years during which I've been collecting interesting and unusual beads and designing with them. Everyone can learn to make jewelry, but it isn't always as easy as they think it will be to find the time to actually do it, to come up with a successful design, or to make something that doesn't fall apart the first time it's worn.

I suppose it's also a factor that people want to see jewelry in person, hold earrings up to their ears, etc. rather than shopping online. On the other hand, they do have the leisure online to read a detailed description of materials, view various photos (five for each Etsy item and the option to use the "zoom" for close-up views) of each item, and check through their closets at the same time for clothes that need matching jewelry.

I do mention my site on Facebook and I use Twitter whenever I get a sale. Does anyone have other ideas for promoting my Etsy site or thoughts about what direction I should take? Please comment if you have ideas for me. Thanks.

June Flowers

2011-06-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a weird summer so far in Illinois, with lots of heavy rain, some very hot days, some very cool spells, and then more rain. So I take garden pics when I can ... in between rain drops. I even have to keep the plastic chairs tipped so the seats don't fill with rain!

But of course roses love rain. That's why they love England, I guess. The pic above is a cute little shrub rose with diminutive blooms of light pink called The Fairy. Many of our other roses have died back to below the graft, and so the common red rootstock is all that's left. But they are pretty in their own way too.

Roses are not easy to grow in Illinois in my opinion, especially the delicate tea roses that don't like water on their leaves (but plenty in the soil), winters that are too cold, summers that are too hot, bugs that eat them, etc.

I have had better luck with shrub roses and mini-roses, like the one shown above, in the raised beds than I have with tea roses. I tried the exotic and beautifully full hybrids between modern tea roses and old roses that David Austin creates, but they don't like Illinois much either. This year we just planted a Knockout double red shrub rose. I see it all over town this year, so maybe it's going to work for us!

Hydrangeas are coming into their own about now all over town too. The so-called mopheads in brilliant colors don't really like Illinois winters, except for a few hybrids (like "Endless Summer") that bloom on new wood, so don't lose the next year's blooms during an extra cold winter. But the oakleaf hydrangeas do great here (and so do the later blooming paniculatas).

Here's a close-up of our oakleaf hydrangea, blooming in the northeast part of the garden in a fair amount of shade. The blooms last into the fall, slowing turning the color of old lace.

Quite a few years ago, I bought a small plant in a pot at a private sale that was labeled "native hydrangea." It has turned into a huge bush, blooming very reliably every year, forming a nice background for the ostrich ferns.

This past year we added two of the "snowball" type of hydrangeas, and they are blooming now. Here's a pretty white one.

And a pink one with one large lovely bloom so far.

Related to the climbing hydrangeas is a fantastic vine called Schizophragma. They take a long time to establish and flower (six years or more), but they are so beautiful and are one of the few flowering vines for shade.

Here's a close-up of the interesting flowers with their two very distinct parts.
I have another one climbing up the pin oak, but it's too young for blooms yet. My friend Frank has a pink one. I want a start from it sometime!

I can't talk about shade plants without giving praise to hostas ... one and all. There are so many lovely ones ranging from dwarf hostas in barrells to giant like this sieboldii planted in a circle beneath the northmost Chinese dogwood. Its pure white flowers (most hosta flowers are lavender) are just delightful.

When we moved this hosta to the present garden from our prior garden, it was really big, so we decided to break it up into six pieces and plant in a circle. Now each one is as big as the original was!

Here's the tree the hostas encircle. It's a Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa). The Cornus florida, in white, pink, or rose, is the more common early spring-blooming dogwood in these parts, but this one has huge flowers and blooms late enough that it is never ruined by spring frosts.

As you can see, the four-petaled flowers are very striking. They last a pretty long time as well.

Let's go from cool white in the shade to hot orange in the sun with these very bright Asiatic lilies. They come from bulbs, large ones that are planted very deep in the soil in the fall. I've had these a while and they are always a welcome bit of color in June.

Speaking of bright color, these Lychnis coronaria, sometimes called Rose Campion, are like neon signs. The foliage is a soft hairy downy light green, almost white in places, but the blooms are pure magenta. It seeds around a bit, but it isn't too hard to pull up (if you can force yourself to do it ... I'm such a soft-hearted gardener that we have "volunteers" everywhere).

Dianthus can be brightly colored too. Here's one we just got this year; it's blooming already with that cute dark eye. These are in the "pinks" family along with florist's carnations and tiny alpine dianthus with itty bitty flowers.

Here's another beautiful dianthus with remarkable patterning. Dianthus aren't always reliably perennial because they dislike the wet winters we have in Illinois, so I'm not sure which named hybrids are still around or not ... but I think this is one called Laced Romeo.

Now that the evening primrose has finished, there aren't too many bright yellow things in bloom in the garden. This is a tall sedum with starry flowers (a bit out of focus, sorry) that I grew from seed and transplanted from an earlier garden. The seed was from the garden of a French gardener who was here visiting and came to my garden because we both belonged to the French seed exchange society at the time. So it's a special sedum for me.

For a delicate range of colors both bright and subdued, this small shrub is perfect. It's an Anthony Waterer Spirea. The flowers themselves resemble those of the Achillea, but they are not related as far as I know.

The close-up shows even better the range from light rose to a soft fuschia color. It's an easy shrub too, pretty undemanding in good light and reasonable soil.
There are lots of different spireas, including the well-known white bridal veil spireas you see blooming earlier in the spring.

Soft pale colors are wonderful in the garden too, and the "moonbeam" Coreopsis is a lovely lemony yellow. The foliage on these "threadleaf" types is pretty even when they aren't in bloom.

I'm not sure why Clematis don't seem to be so easy for me to grow. I think they are hard to establish. It's said that they like their feet in the shade and their heads in the sun ... and that isn't a common situation in my yard. I have planted them many times in several different gardens. I seem to have the best luck with the purple ones, especially the jackmanii variety of vine.

This pretty little wine-colored one near the gate is proving me wrong, however. It is establishing quite well and although the flowers are small, it's a charmer. I think is a Polish hybrid of a species clematis.

Of course, some plants are a bit too easy. This penstemon with its white flowers and red stems is a cutie, but it does tend to sow around in places in the path as well as in the beds. It's tall and cheerful though. I guess I never met a flower I didn't like?

Even the recently planted annuals in pots and containers are starting to show some growth. Here are terra cotta planters with red wax begonias in them.

And a concrete planter, also in the shade, with bicolored impatiens.

Double impatiens is a favorite annual of mine in shade. Here it is in a hanging basket in front of the kitchen window.

Although this pot isn't very showy yet, it will be later as it fills out. The purple wave torenias with orange impatiens were a striking combination last summer.

This pot in the sunny east side contains an interesting dark petunia I hadn't seen before, along with a red aster, a salmon geranium, a white angelonia, and an orange dahlia. Lots of colors!

Here's a close-up of that petunia. The color here is pretty true ... it's really that dark!

Here's a lively combination of pink and red verbena with a dark foliage plant and a yellow lantana.

The Calibrachoa "superbells" are charming little guys. Here we have one called Blackberry Punch and another magenta one mixed in with white vinca to show them off. I think I've got a dark red ivy geranium in there too that hasn't quite taken off yet.

Angelonia, blue scaveolens, orange osteospermum (from South Africa) and white/plum petunias fill this pot and will, hopefully, look even better in the next set of pics.

The yellow here is an annual called Bidens; it's a new one for me, but supposedly it is drought and heat resistant. There's lantana in a pale yellow and pink combination too and purple angelonia.

The bright red pentas (my mom used to have these in her Florida garden) and red superbells look good with that variegated fuzzy foliage plant (helichrysum of some kind?).

This shot shows the bicolor aspect of the lantana better.

For the small pots near the front door where it's less sunny, I'm hoping this blue lobelia can last through the hot days. I know the red vinca will endure and stay brilliant all summer.

Well, that's all for now folks. Hope you enjoyed it!

Chihuly

2011-06-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

People on Etsy love to make colorful displays, called "treasuries," of beautiful items they find in Etsy shops. Today there is a treasury on display by a woman who just attended an exhibit of the artist Chihuly's amazing glass work. I saw a DVD a while back of his exhibit at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. The huge complex blown glass pieces were truly astonishing.

The treasure includes a pair of blown glass earrings from my shop, Beaded Jewelry by Susan. Have a look!

Lots in Bloom

2011-06-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

Lots of blooms in the garden now. I took these photos just before the big downpours finished off the rhododendrons. Here's a close-up of the same plant.

It's a roseum elegans that I planted about twelve years ago. It's shady here in the north yard and we have a light mulch of chopped leaves at the base of the rhododendrons.

The red one is nova zembla and it's a smaller bush but very bright.

We added this pink one just a few years ago, but it's already blooming pretty well.

The beauty bush (Kolwitzia amabilis) was already here when we bought the place sixteen years ago and it just keeps getting nicer every year. It's a very tall bush, located in more shade than it would prefer, but it blooms every year. The small white blossoms have orange freckles inside ... very charming.

We have two of these red honeysuckle (Lonicera) vines, both of which were labeled "Dropmore Scarlet." But this one is earlier blooming and redder than the more orange one. This one has finished already, but yesterday I saw a hummingbird on the later one. The tiny birds love the long-necked blossoms for their nectar!

Some plants show off flowers, but for others foliage is the name of the game. With all the rain we've had, the ostrich ferns are looking good this year, as are the hostas. The white flowers in the photo above are meadow rue (Thalictrum).

The siberian iris are lovely this year and we have lots of them. They are easier to grow than many other irises and they have delicate, tall leaves that are attractive even after the blooms are finished.

The siberian iris are especially pretty next to the early blooming white peonies. I need to take some more pics, because now all the lactiflora peonies (i.e., "regular" peonies as opposed to the earlier woody tree peonies) are in bloom.
But it was the white ones (very fragrant) that started this show.

This bright red peony is a hybrid I bought many years ago from a daylily, iris, and peony breeder who lived in Monticello, Illinois. It is named Eliza Lundy.

I can't cook without onions, and I can't imagine a garden without some of these giant onions (Allium giganteum). I bought three bulbs many years and two gardens ago, and they have moved well, spread well, and bloomed well with no coddling whatsoever ... very reliable plants.

I love all the "pinks"--Dianthus, the family that florist carnations hail from. They come in a wide range of sizes and coloration, and some are very sweetly scented.

I also love the columbines (Aquilegia). The native ones are yellow and red, but the hybrids come in all colors and sizes. I was once told by a plant friend that columbines were very "promiscuous" and so they cross and cross and nobody knows which hybrid is which in their garden.

These tiny but charming flowers are from a dwarf shrub called Deutzia nikko. The whole thing is only about six inches tall and puts up with a fair amount of shade and neglect but blooms every year in late spring. I just love it.

Even though the forget-me-not blue flowers have finished on all of the Brunnera macrophylla in my garden, the "Jack Frost" hybrid is still pretty showy because of its foliage.

The Japanese painted fern also has very striking foliage. There are a number of varieties of this fern on the market now and they are all nice to have.

There is just one northern maidenhair fern, to my knowledge, but with its black stems and oh-so-dainty fronds it's one of my favorite plants.

Well, already many of these beauties have finished their season of flowering and others have come into bloom to take their place (turn, turn, turn), so I will need to go out with the trusty digital sometime soon again. In the meanwhile, I have been busy planting annuals in all the containers and buying some perennials to fill in beds that are going to be weeded. Below is the first annual planter pic. I'll take pics again later as the annuals grow and fill in the pots more.

So ... happy summer! Happy gardening!

Brazilian Blast

2011-05-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

It's always a special occasion when Desafinado plays, but last Saturday night at the Iron Post was a Brazilian blast of fun and music. Everybody was in top form, the songs were great, the audience was enthusiastic, and there was lots of variety--with friends joining in at various times. In the photo above, you can see the incomparable Elis Artz belting out her heart in these gutsy, romantic, rhythm-filled Brazilian favorites--with George Turner on guitar at her side.

On several numbers, Gina Reynolds, whose lovely soprano voice was known to us as the singer from another local Brazilian band called Bate Calado, joined with Elis Artz in a vocal duet. Their voices complement each other very well, and it was a pleasure to hear their harmonies. They both sing in Brazilian Portuguese, of course, and also sort of dance while they sing, which helps get that samba rhythm going throughout the room.

Gina did a solo number as well, and you can see that George Turner on guitar and Tom Paynter on flute were on hand to back her up.

Tom is a talented multitasker: in addition to the flute (soprano and alto), he is a highly accomplished jazz pianist. The Baldwin at Iron Post had been tuned recently (we heard Tom's quartet play there Thursday night) and the sound was wonderful!

Another member of the Bate Calado band, Luciano Tosta, has joined Desafinado full-time. Luciano is from the northeast of Brazil, as is Elis. He plays an electric mandolin, a small guitar, and a very wide range of intriguing percussion instruments. These include cymbals, gourds, whistle, and wind chimes!

Luciano's charming young daughter, Anna, was on hand. She hit the cymbals on a cue from her dad and was delighted to help out!

Another musician known about town as playing with quite a few bands, including Bossa Nuevo, is Karim Yengsep. Karim has become a regular with Desafinado, playing either acoustic bass or electric bass. And we're glad he's joined! He's a passionate and talented addition indeed.

But to me Brazilian music (and Cuban as well) is never quite right without the infectious sound of the congas. Giraldo Gonzales is one of the original members of Desafinado and he used to also play with Sandunga in the past, the Cuban guajira son band that we like so well. Giraldo is a busy guy with job, family, and community politics going on, but he makes time to come and provide the beat that keeps me tapping the table (spilled some of Elis' wine at one point during a very lively number).

Here's a nice solo shot of guitar virtuoso George Turner. I've heard George playing with a number of local groups about town and now he has joined Desafinado. He did some terrific solos during this gig. Every time I hear him he's just getting better and better with that sweet guitar improv.

Of course, I can never say enough about the fantastic voice of Elis Artz. I was so amazed to learn a while back that she was not a professional singer back home in Brazil but had started singing with the Desafinado band here in C-U. Her singing is magical and she is such a radiant person, so obviously delighted with the tunes themselves that you can't help learning a few lyrics in Portuguese and singing along from time to time.

Elis, who is going to Brazil soon for a six-week visit to family back home, knows lots of Brazilians here in town. Saturday night two of her friends were available to do a couple of numbers with her. Unfortunately, I didn't get their names, but they were both talented and the songs were great.

This guy played a special kind of drum as well as singing a duet with Elis while the other friend played guitar. After their numbers, I told my husband David, "When you see Brazilians making music together, you can tell that these are a people who know how to have fun!" The two friends agreed heartily when I repeated it to them.

In addition to some favorites, including some songs by the great Antonio Carlos Jobim, the group played several pieces I hadn't heard before. All the choices were terrific, ranging from soulful sambas to lively toe-tappers.

I forgot to include the tambourine as one of Luciano's specialties.

Tom sometimes plays a chord on the piano at the same time as he's playing the flute. In the photo above, I caught him including the melodica as well, a really cool portable keyboard instrument he blows into, making a sound a little bit like an accordion. It's a unique sound and a just-right addition to many of the songs the group performs.

Giraldo was off in a dark corner, but I managed to get one more pic of him. He's always smiling and nodding along with the music. He doesn't sing, but I suspect that he knows all the words ...

Karim seems to have that ability to enter completely into his bass playing so that he appears to be in a musical trance! Delightful!

Elis and Gina did another duet near the end of the evening, joining together for that most famous (in the U.S.) of Brazilian songs, popularized by Burt Bacharach, "The Girl from Ipanema."

Desafinado is a terrific group, and I'm always surprised that they don't do more gigs than they do. I think people are beginning to get to know Brazilian music locally and it's getting more popular.

I noticed too that a lot of local musicians support each other by showing up for gigs. It's nice to see familiar faces and socialize a bit during the breaks. I think that if the owner of the Iron Post would make an effort--maybe clean the place up a bit, get more comfortable chairs, and expand the food menu as well as bringing back great musicians like those in Desafinado--that the Iron Post could become a really premiere jazz club in Champaign-Urbana.

Crazy Spring!

2011-05-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Spring is my favorite season, but in the Midwest it's a very unpredictable time indeed. We had not only April showers aplenty (and now May showers) but April cold as well this year. A very brief hot spell finished off the daffodils, but cool wet weather made the flowering trees and tulips last a long time. It did put off shopping for annuals, however.

Then another heat wave finished off the tulips, lilacs (except for the dwarf lilacs still blooming), and the loveliest big spring blooms--the tree peonies. Fortunately, I got a few pics in before the rains came to finalize things.

We are lucky to have a number of tree peonies in the garden, some of which are old and big. A lot of branches were broken last year in heavy rains and the show wasn't as magnificent as it has sometimes been in the past, but the big fluffy flowers are always a joy to behold.

A few days without rain provided a quick time to take photos and also a chance to bring out the houseplants for the summer. Usually I have planted at least some of the container annuals by then, but this year I hadn't even started looking for them yet.

By the time that all the tree peonies on the east, west, and north areas of the yard were blooming, the temperatures started rising.

Suddenly, it was extremely humid and in the high eighties. We weren't really ready for it and it was exhausting. Okay, we said, it's summer now ... too bad spring is over, but open those windows and turn off the furnace.

So I went to a garden center and got a bunch of great annuals: angelonia, lantana, osteospermum, callibrachoa, saliva, marigolds, vinca, lobelia, coleus, petunia, euphorbia, scaveola, bidens, gazania, zinnia, wax begonia, verbena. Had a heck of a time getting them unloaded from the van, set up on trays, and watered (no room on the convenient table this year because the houseplants were already taking up the area).

I was wiped out by the heat and humidity but grateful that I had gotten them watered (the pots were pretty dry at the nursery). Five minutes later, we got a huge downpour. Now the temperatures have dropped such that it may be in the mid-thirties tonight. Close the windows, turn on the furnace, switch back to winter nightgowns!

Meanwhile, the Persian lilac is still blooming well. The tall "regular" lilacs are finished and ready to be pruned. And "Miss Kim" lilacs are blooming their heads off and filling the cold wet air with their wonderful scent. Lots of other flowers are blooming now too.

The lily of the valley doesn't last long, but they are little charmers and so sweetly scented!

The bearded dwarf German iris (Iris pumila) are gorgeous now in the raised beds on the east side. I've seen some delightful stands of full-sized German iris around town now too.

Like their big cousins, these short irises come in a wide range of luscious colors.

The brilliant azalea was in full bloom last week, although the nearby rhododendrons are just starting to open, probably confused by the weather!

As you can see, the bush was covered with blossoms. And I love that hot pink color!

Spring tall phlox (Phlox divaricata) are a joy now too, with their delicate look and fragrance. They bloom in the woods around here also and are sometimes called Wild Sweet William.

The short white cress called Iberis is also in bloom now in the southeast raised bed. They don't seem to have a fragrance, but the pure white is lovely and especially beautiful at night in moonlight.

In shadier beds under the maple and the pin oak are the yellow wood poppies (Stylophorum). They are so cheerful and I like their shapely foliage too. They do tend to spread a bit, however.

I was happy to see the return under the pin oak of this rare Japanese Jack-in-the Pulpit from my friend Frank (Asarum sikkokianum). The black tail is amazing!

All of our ferns love cool moist air, of course, and the maidenhairs are nice right now. But the ones that are spreading the most are the reliable Ostrich Ferns, upright and oh so green!

We've got a couple of these white bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis alba) in partial shade, and I really like them a lot. They are very reliable and undemanding and lovely in the spring.

Of course, I like the deep pink one as well. Even though they aren't flowers, the pink/red/marroon leaves of the Japanese maples add color to the garden now. They will turn green in summer and then deep red again in the fall.

Although it is finished blooming now, I did catch a photo this year of the Fothergillia, a very easy shrub with honey-scented bottle brush flowers.

Well, by the time I get this blog up (the Blogger program was unavailable for a while ... just when I finally found free time!) new plants are blooming. But it's too wet and cold to take photos today!

How's your garden?

In a Treasury (again!)

2011-05-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

A pair of my earrings made it into another etsy treasury! It is very nice to be included.

Tourism in C-U

2011-04-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

I was told by someone today that 35,000 people had come into town this weekend from elsewhere. It was an interesting intersection of various events: the Illini Marathon, the Roger Ebert Film Festival, and the Artists against AIDS exhibition.

East central Illinois is not ordinarily the tourist target represented by places like Paris, Rome, Bali, or New York (not to mention Chicago 150 miles north). It's a wonderful place to live in many ways, but there are no mountains, lakes, oceans, colonial history, mangrove swamps, etc. to be found anywhere around here.

Most of the "tourism" in our particular town is usually seasonal and university-related. So folks come for football weekends, engineering open house, high school state basketball, the occasional concert, circus, or skating extravaganza, etc. At various times of year, a handful of folks are here for conferences on campus, of course, but they aren't numerous enough to tie up traffic or cause long lines at the local restaurants.

So this weekend was unusual. The Illinois Marathon isn't something I know much about except a lot of people were running in the blocked off streets while I was sleeping very late and finally going out to brunch around 2 pm. It wasn't raining for a change, although it was windy, but I don't know if that helped or hurt the runners.

The Roger Ebert Film Festival is a yearly event (for 13 years now, I think). Roger is a well-known movie critic, of course, but you may not know that he was a University of Illinois student long ago. He wrote for the campus paper, The Daily Illini, which used to be an award-winning rag (these days, it's just a rag). A series of movies are shown and various speakers provide discussions and so on. The movies are chosen by Ebert and represent selections on a continuum that goes from excellent films I like and have seen but that some people might consider arty or weird or something ... to films that are just a little bit too weird or arty or something even for me. Hah!

The Artists against AIDS is probably more of a community event than a draw for outside tourists, but it added to the traffic snarl and crowded restaurants, especially in downtown Champaign. Artists exhibit their works and a portion of the proceeds goes to local AIDS help groups. I had some jewelry in the show a number of years ago and have attended sometimes in the more recent past. Desafinado, my favorite Brazilian band, played there today, in fact.

But we kept a pretty low profile, going to the Urbana library for a bit after brunch and then spending the evening at home. We saw an excellent film on DVD called Endgame about the talks in the U.K. that resulted in the negotiations between the African National Congress and the South African government that led to the release of Nelson Mandela and the formal end of apartheid.

Of course, like any place we have "tourist" offerings here year round: the campus, local parks, libraries, a few museums, live jazz from time to time, animals on the University farms, and ... umm ... well, chain restaurants, shopping malls, Christmas tree farms, and frozen custard stands. Okay, it's not Tuscany, but you can come visit anytime!

On Another Blog Today

2011-04-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

My millefiore earrings are featured in the treasury that is shown on the Starry Starry Night Studios blog today. Check it out!

In a Treasury

2011-04-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

People on Etsy make what's called "treasuries" from time to time. They are lovely displays that include photos from various shops that match with some sort of theme. Here's a nice new one that is about starry starry nights and includes a pair of millefiore earrings from Beaded Jewelry by Susan. Check it out!

Spring Is Sprung!

2011-04-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

Despite some roller coaster temps and rainy spells, I think we can safely say that spring has finally sprung here in Champaign-Urbana.

The small early spring bulbs have finished for the most part now, but the daffodils are still around. These yellow trumpet kinds are very cheerful and they stand up to the rain pretty well.

This small cup and white perianth (the outer petals) belong to Fragrant Rose, a lovely daffodil that I have planted in a circle around the base of the crabapple tree.

One of my very favorite daffodils is the narcissus called "Thalia." It's pure white and the clustering kind, with "reflexed" perianths (i.e., the petals are turned backward a bit and the cups hang downward). It's a small flower compared to some daffs, but it is so elegant.

Just in time for Easter is the so-called Pasque flower, Pulsatilla vulgaris. The stems are covered with a soft downy white "fur" and the purplish-blue petals are filled with fluffy yellow insides with a black center.

Another Easter favorite is the Lenten Rose, Helleborus orientalis. These long-lived perennials start blooming quite early and continue through the whole spring. Some are white, others reddish or purple, and there are new expensive hybrid strains that are red and white spotted. They take a while to establish and spread and prefer moist soil in shade.

The earliest of the little spring bulbs, the snowdrops Galanthus nivalis, are finished now, but the taller and later summer snowflakes Leucojum aestivus are blooming their heads off. These charmers return year after year without any special treatment. The white bells have tiny green dots on the end and are really sweet.

Many of the tiny, delicate species tulips (from which the well-known hybrids were all derived) are early bloomers and most are finished already. But the "tardy" little Tulipa tarda is making its show right now and it is spectacular.

The big cousins of the species tulips are displaying their bold colors and huge flowers all over town now as well as in our yard.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is a woodland wild flower that blooms for just a short while in the spring. Native Americans used the root of this plant as a dye. There is a rare double form as well and a pink one, but I love the simple native variety shown here with a yellow anemone at its side.

Our bed under the ash tree has quite a lovely display right now that includes lots of the yellow anemones Anemone ranunculoides, some blue Anemone blanda, both white and the purple-checkered Fritillaria meleagris, and a yellow "pagoda" Erythronium.

One of the joys of driving around town running various errands in the spring is the opportunity to see blooms in people's front yards. This place displayed not only tulips and daffodils but a nice line of cute little blue grape hyacinths.

If you look in the blog archives, you'll see a post last spring about our discovery of a number of amazing weeping Japanese cherry trees. They are out in force once again this year, blooming like mad. Now we're seeing more and more of them in residential areas all over Urbana and Champaign. The above is a sweet close-up of the charming flowers.

Here are a couple of examples (with a lovely PJM rhodendron at the left in the first photo) of weeping cherries in Urbana.

The flowering quince are colorful and full this year too. I don't like their thorns and they aren't much to look at the rest of the year, but they are glorious for now.

The saucer magnolias are truly spectacular all over town. They are very full this year and just wonderful. I hope you like these spring pics. What's blooming in your area now?

Odds and Ends

2011-04-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

We're getting into that in-between time now when it's spring one day and late winter the next and then back again. It's an odd time of year, but one that promises some future excitement. We've had the folks who work on our yard get things rolling now and I'm eagerly waiting for the stores to set out their annuals.

We have daffodils, both full-sized and miniatures, blooming now, along with squill in the lawn and anemone blanda and ranunculoides in the ash bed, pink corydalis and white bloodroot and hellebores, a pale pink-flowered pulmonaria, vinca, turkestanica, kaufmaniana, and praestans fusilier species tulips, a few hyacinths, and rue anemone.

I finally got my new camera set up with a charged battery and a memory card and hope to add some spring garden pics to the next blog post.

It's also the time for birds to start migrating. We took a trip with our friend Bob over to Heron Park in Danville last week. It turned out to be colder and much windier than we'd expected, but we enjoyed getting out and we saw quite a few birds on the water from the boardwalk: Canada geese courting and nesting and being very vocal; Northern Shovelers, the pretty colored ducks with the big bills for sieving food out of the water sideways; Blue Winged Teal, small, quick ducks with a pretty white crescent on the males' heads; a couple of coots with their funny way of moving forward and their pale silver bills; white egrets floating seemingly without effort from tree top to tree top; and a couple of shorebirds (maybe Greater Yellowlegs?).

We stopped for ribs on the way back at the Possum Trot, not health food by any means, of course, but plenty tasty.

Not a good week for backs, however. I'm still struggling to get my pulled back muscle to stop torturing me and now David's old disc problem reemerged. I called his chiropractor, whom he hadn't visited in many years, to discover that he had just retired three months ago. That's a problem for people our age -- not only do your friends retire, which is nice because you can get together more easily -- but so do your doctors, dentists, etc. Fortunately, we got David set up with another chiropractor and he's feeling somewhat better already.

Last weekend we had a great time once again with the monthy Sandunga gig at the Iron Post. The place was packed and the dancing started almost from the first number and kept on the whole time. What fun! This time Eduardo was with them on electric bass, Will's father dropped by to visit, it was Matt Turrino's birthday, and Cody Jensen sat in with bongos. The music was terrific and a good time was had by all. Next month is their CD release party, which promises to be another great evening.

Warmer days and chances for rain seem to be in the offing for all of next week. It'll be a busy week for us too, with various doctor and dentist appointments and the Dance for PD class at the end of the week.

This 'n' That

2011-03-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

Various odds and ends of things going on lately ... What a funny week weatherwise, huh? Wednesday afternoon we go for a late lunch after getting the car serviced and we eat outside for the first time this year. Since it's spring break on campus, it is possible to park, so we go to the place with the great French onion soup.

The outside tables are set up, and so here we are, eating and looking up at a blue blue sky and fluffy white clouds. After we eat, we run a couple of errands and an hour later we're heading home when ... the wind picks, the sky turns gray and large black clouds appear, the air smells different, and the temperature drops drastically. Yup, ol' winter came back for one more round right at that moment. Maybe the cold will keep the daffodils from finishing up too soon (a few days of heat finished off the early reticulata irises).

Spent the later part of the week finishing Joyce Carol Oates's new memoir A Widow's Story. It would be very difficult to have read ALL of JCO's books because she is so enormously prolific and wide-ranging, but I have read a good number of the novels and would say I am a fan. I don't usually go for memoirs, but I made an exception in this case. What an amazing book! So intensely personal and yet so accessible, so universal in its poignancy, its very intimacy. She lets the reader inside her mind, her heart, and her marriage in a heartrending way.

Now I've started Susan Vreeland's Clara and Mr. Tiffany, historical fiction set in NYC at the turn of the century in the famous stained glass studio where a crew of women artists are creating the masterpieces that will be shown at the Chicago exposition and introduce the world of amazing Tiffany glass art.

By Saturday night, we had to wear winter coats and hats and nearly froze coming out from the Mean Lids gig at 8:30!

Mean Lids refers to the cool hats that these guys like to wear at each gig. We had seem Miriam Larson and Ben Smith at a library concert a while back when Matt Turino couldn't join them. And we knew Ben Smith's wonderful violin performances when he played the Stephan Grappelli parts in the Music of Django Reinhardt (we miss him there!). But we had not heard the three all playing together and it was a real treat!

Ben is a prodigious talent with both the fiddle and the banjo! Matt plays a mean guitar indeed and fiddle as well. Miriam loves to switch instruments from her incredible flute to kazoo, Jew's harp, train whistle, washboard, and any number of other amazing devices. All three sing wonderfully well too! And what kind of music do they play? It's a bit hard to define, but it's an intriguing mix, all skillfully done and a joy to hear. There's a fair amount of Irish folk music, some haunting waltzes, old-timey swing tunes, even a Patsy Cline song, and lots of astonishingly good originals composed by the members of the band. They are not only consumate musicians and laid-back and entertaining performers, but admirable composers as well.

There was a good sized crowd and it was nice to see a handsome and graceful couple who not only knew how to do swing dancing par excellence but who could also waltz! A dance and a type of music with a long and noble history that isn't over yet!

They say it could snow tonight, but it doesn't look like it's gonna happen here anyway. Next week is my birthday, so I'm hoping spring will return just in time! We've got the crew from LetUsGetDirtyForYou coming on Monday to begin the garden clean-up, put out the chairs and benches, and get the pots ready for this year's annuals. It's my favorite time of year!

Triple Music Weekend

2011-03-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

As I've said before in this blog, Champaign-Urbana is a great town for live music, and this weekend was another example. We went to three different gigs, each very different and each very enjoyable.

Desafinado
On Saturday night we went to the Iron Post for Desafinado, our favorite Brazilian samba group. The group has changed its membership a bit recently because of some folks moving away and others being busy with family things. This time the group included Elis Artz on vocals, George Turner on guitar, Tom Paynter on piano, flute, and melodica, Giraldo Gonzales on congas, Karim Yengsep on bass, and Luciano Tosta on mandolin, guitar, and various percussion instruments.

Desafinado is experimenting with some new tunes, as well as continuing with well-known Brazilian favorites such as "The Girl from Ipanema," sambas by Antonio Carlos Jobim, the theme from the film Black Orpheus, and Aquarelles de Brasil. They played two sets and we loved all of the songs!

Elis sings in Portuguese in a most expressive and spirited way, so the meaning of the songs comes across even if you don't speak the language. Her performance just keeps getting better and better. She says she had a few voice lessons last year in Portugal and a few here in town (she was a total novice to performance when she started with this band) and the results really show! Her voice is stronger and her range is greater (and she's more confident as well). But the beauty of the singing is how totally natural it is and how perfectly it expresses her feelings for the songs she is singing.

The rhythms of the Brazilian beat are, of course, part of the magic too. And there was plenty of variety in the musical sounds coming out of the group. The foundation of the infectious beat itself is the conga. Giraldo has three congas and he certainly knows just what to do with them. It's an essential part of what makes you keep time on your tabletop, just like they do in Rio or Sao Paulo ...

Many of these pieces have beautiful and intricate melodies that are perfect for leading into George Turner's expert guitar improvisations. I was so happy to see George playing his acoustic this time and Karim Yengsep his acoustic bass (including some lovely bow work). I've heard them use the electric instruments well too, but to me this music is best acoustic.

Tom Paynter is an incomparable musical talent, and he really had a chance to let loose and show it at Saturday's gig. He had use of a genuine grand piano for a chance, a Baldwin, as well as his flute (and a wooden or bamboo flute for one number) and his melodica (a sort of combination of accordion, keyboard, and harmonica with a unique sound). He manages to play all three at the most appropriate times in hauntingly lovely ways.

A couple of the new numbers were songs from the Northeast of Brazil, from Paraiba where Elis and Luciano are from. The sound of this regional music is very distinctive and really interesting. Luciano adds to the range of sounds with his mandolin, small electric guitar, and lots of cool percussion such as triangle, wind chimes, gourds, whistles, shakers, and bongers (is that a word?)

Karim plays with such intensity and passion on the acoustic bass that you can't help feeling the deeper tones within the songs. The wonderful thing about this group is the way they really do play together, their "esprit de corps," as the French say: the spirit, the sense of connection and being totally immersed together (including the audience) in the music and culture being expressed.

Of course, the evening was great fun most of all because of the best company at my table, my sweet husband David.

Bossa Nuevo
The next afternoon, on Sunday, we went to the Urbana Free Library to hear Bossa Nuevo play.

In the past, this group has performed some of the same Brazilian tunes as Desafinado, but since their singer, Holly Holmes, has gone to Brazil to study, the band decided to expand their repertoire to include tangos and other interesting arrangements of lesser-known compositions by modern composers. There is some overlap in the membership with other bands we enjoy. George Turner (on electric guitar this time) is also in this group, as well as Karim Yengsep on bass.

Behind George, hopefully you can spot the beautiful and talented jazz pianist Lara Driscoll. We used to hear Lara play with a number of local musicians at V. Picasso, which sadly is closed now. She also plays in some other groups, including with Mikael Templeton, who graced Bossa Nuevo with sterling performances on four horns: alto and tenor sax, clarinet, and flute.

The beat is entirely different for these Argentian tango pieces and quite interesting.

Cody Jensen on percussion, a new musician to us, did a great job and was playing with Andy Miller on bongos, whose virtuosity we've enjoyed regularly in the Cuban guahira son band called Sandunga.

I especially liked the tangos by composer Astor Pizzarelli. There was one long modern piece that was a bit different in tone from the rest of the concert, but the other musical numbers were definitely in the realm of Latin jazz.

The Music of Django Reinhardt
The third gig of the weekend was Sunday evening at the Iron Post with the regular once-a-month appearance of a band called The Music of Django Reinhardt. This group's membership is pretty fluid too and various musicians sit in if they're in town. But the music is always great and lots of fun for those of us who recognize songs that are seventy years old!

The two "regulars" are the leader of the band Jordan Kaye, guitarist par excellence and a guy with an enormous sense of humor, and his happy sidekick and terrific bass player Josh Houchin.

A nice surprise tonight was the goofy but delightful singing that Josh and Jordan did (evidently they always sing when they play with the Prairie Dogs and do bluegrass and country). Also, Chris Reyman was there for the second set with his wild and lively accordion.

But Paul Asaro's amazing performance on the Baldwin was not to be missed! Paul is not always with the group because he tours nationally, currently with Leon Redbone. He is a master of stride jazz piano, an incredible technique requiring extreme two-handed dexterity to say the least, and he seems to know every early jazz piece ever written. Most of the songs that Django played were from the forties, often performed by jazz bands in occupied Paris.

This group does some standards from the time that are well-known and much-loved, such as "Stardust," "Honeysuckle Rose," and "Ain't Misbehavin,'" but they also perform some Django originals such as "Nuages" and "Manoir de Reve" (Django's Castle).

It was a small audience because of U of I spring break and a warm evening with lots of folks probably out riding bikes and kicking soccer balls, but the show was much appreciated. What a great town for live music!

What's Happening?

2011-03-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

It looks as though the worst of the winter is past us now here in Urbana and daylight savings time has come along to help with the gloomy blues. We're had a lot of rain lately (don't my joints know it!) and it rained again today. But there are signs of life: snowdrops, yellow aconite, adonis, and reticulata iris in bloom (photos to come later when it's not raining).

We had a lovely St. Pat's Day dinner last night. Friends Victoria and Frank joined us for corned beef (from the slow cooker, nice and tender), fresh cabbage (cooked lightly so it still has texture), boiled potatoes (with real butter), and Gala apples and craisins cooked in a light maple sauce. We finished off with pistachio ice cream and lemon Pepperidge farm cookies. Vicki brought some Celtic music CDs to add to the Irish atmosphere and a good time was had by all.

This morning we went to another dance class at Krannert as part of the Dance for Parkinson's program. This was a smaller group, about 14 people, led by two dancers from the U of I dance department. Again, there was piano music and some lovely stretches and movements. I couldn't do everything because my knees are so stiff right now and I think I've pulled my back muscle again, but I used my walker for part of the activity. Everyone was so nice to us!

We followed up the morning's adventure with a quick stop at Panera for bagels and latte and then back home again.

We've got a DVD for this evening and then Brazilian samba tomorrow night (after our usual Saturday library afternoon) with Desafinado and then Bossa Nuevo on Sunday at the library and Django Reinhardt Sunday night. So it's a big weekend for live music! Hope you all have a great weekend too.

Movies

2011-03-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

Saw a couple of really good DVDs lately that I wanted to share with you. Hachi: A Dog's Tale and An Education.

Hachi is based on a true story of an akita in Japan who was so loyal to his late human that he returned every day to the train station to wait for ten years. Lasse Hallstrom, who also did Chocolat, Cider House Rules, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? was the director. The story has been tranplanted to a suburb of Rhode Island, but the spirit of the story is universal. It's about loyalty and unconditional love and acceptance. Richard Gere does an excellent job as the the music professor who takes in the stray akita pup and forms an amazing bond. The dog trainers did great work with the akita actors, who are adorable. The story is heartwarming and heartbreaking without being at all sentimental.

An Education was done by Lone Scherfig, a Danish woman who directed Italian for Beginners. It's set in a London suburb in the late fifties/early sixties. An innocent and brilliant young woman at a girl's school is preparing for entrance exams to Oxford when she meets an older man who opens up a more sophisticated world to her but ultimately deceives her. She learns from her experience and all ends well. It's a common enough journey but it is told with great delicacy and nuance and is a wonderful portrait of the coming of age of the girl and of postwar Britain into the modern world.

Dance for Parkinson's

2011-03-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, we ran into a woman I know at a jazz gig. She has problems with her health and especially with balance and movement. She mentioned that friends had recommended to her a special program of workshop/classes at the university that were supposed to help with these problems. She hadn't gotten the details, but she passed on what she knew in case David, my husband, was interested because the program was called Dance for Parkinson's.

So I googled and found out the information. Here's a description from their website:

Dance for PD® offers dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease in Brooklyn, New York and, through our network of partners and associates, in more than 40 other communities around the world. In Dance for PD® classes, participants are empowered to explore movement and music in ways that are refreshing, enjoyable, stimulating and creative. An on-going collaboration between the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group—a chapter of the National Parkinson Foundation—the Dance for PD® program also provides teacher training and nurtures relationships among other organizations so that classes based on our model are widely available.

It turned out that several classes had already taken place last fall and winter but that there were a few more this spring. David decided that he wanted to try it, so we got up early Friday morning and went over to Krannert Performing Arts Center. The class was held in the dress rehearsal room, so we had a long (I was glad I brought my walker. The damp weather is really hard on my back and leg problems these days) but rather interesting trek down the corridors of the not-so-public part of the center, passing by big props for plays, rooms where orchestral rehearsals were going on, and so forth.

The dress rehearsal room is a huge space with mirrors all along one side and a sturdy wooden rail (the "bar" in ballet, I suppose) against the wall. We arrived late (as usual, sigh) and saw a big circle of chairs. People sitting in the circle included Parkinson's patients, their friends or spouses, and some students from the dance department. In the center were three chairs for the group leaders. To start off, one of the instructors of the program who is on the dance faculty here demonstrated some seated warm-up movements. A grand piano and a lovely lady named Beverly provided musical accompaniment.

The program developed by the Mark Morris Dance Group was being offered as a cooperative effort by the dance department, a Carle clinic Parkinson's group, and the MMDG. We were especially fortunate to come to this particular session because it was also attended by three members of the MMDG who were in town for a special reason (to be revealed later in this blog post!). So after the warm-up, each of the three dancers led the group in a series of interesting (and sometimes pretty difficult!) movements.

The movements all involved fairly intricate sequences of movements of all different parts of the body (some seated, some standing holding onto a chair, some walking) with live music. The people in the group were at different stages in terms of which movements they could do most successfully; some of them were a challenge for me with arthritis as well as for those with Parkinson's. But there was a wonderful atmosphere of acceptance; everyone was encouraged to do what worked for him or her.

At one point, we were doing standing movements that my husband couldn't manage and he had sat down. David Leventhal, a dancer who is devoting all his time right now to directing the PD education program in 14 states, came over and sat down across from my husband and helped him do a seated equivalent of some of the moves.

Some of the activities were lyrical, some humorous, many imaginative. We saw a few people we knew from the community. Everyone seemed to be making an effort, enjoying the music and companionship, and smiling and laughing. The dancers themselves were marvelous to watch and very kind and patient with all of us. It was a really great experience.

To my surprise, at the end they said we shouldn't forget to pick up the letter for the free tickets. I didn't know anything about it. It turns out that the reason the dancers were at this particular session was because the Mark Morris Dance Group was giving a performance Friday night at Tryon Festival Theater in Krannert Center. So we had two free tickets! (The regular price for senior citizen tickets for the performance would have been $33 per person.)

So we went home and rested and then went back to Krannert in the evening and had dinner there at the Intermezzo Cafe with a friend and then went to the concert. We had seats in the front row, just left of the stage, and could see everything on stage very well, and we were also right next to the area with the two pianos, three violins, and the cello.

We realized soon that many of the movements that were used in the class were taken from the marvelous choreography of the evening's performance of the Mozart dances. And of course it was a thrill to see some of the dancers in the troupe as people we had as leaders in the morning's activities! The performance itself was exceptionally delightful. The dancing is modern (barefoot and no tights or tutus) and bold. Sometimes the troupe's movements and gestures are synchronized, but sometimes they are all moving differently in a sort of living dynamic sculpture. The skill of the dancers, the incredible musical performance, and the visual delight of the costumes were all thrilling! What a terrific treat!

We plan to attend the other sessions of the Dance for Parkinson's and thank all involved in the efforts that went into developing the program

Flame and Citron

2011-03-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

Recently saw a terrific film called Flame and Citron. It's a Danish film based on true events. It's about two bold and amazing men who were heroes of the Danish Resistance in World War Two. The film is beautifully made, with wonderful shots, nuanced color, and excellent framing of scenes throughout. A fair amount of black-and-white original footage of the German invasion of Copenhagen is included and very interesting. It's a very emotional and atmospheric film, but also full of lots of action, romance, intrigue, and superb character development. Another aspect of the film that makes it very worth seeing is that the story shows fully the complexity and ambiguity that is part of resistance work. It isn't always clear who the enemy is and whether or not those being killed are innocent or not. The two characters are portrayed very well by excellent Danish actors. The film is in Danish (and some German) with clear easily readable subtitles. I love films that offer historical knowledge as well as an engaging plot and beautiful visual cinematic elements.

Living Room Makeover

2011-02-19T17:38:00.000-08:00

Although it may not be a topic of burning interest for all of you readers out there in cyberspace, this post is about my living room.

Okay, so we're not talking about inclusion in the latest home interior design magazine, but ... there's no place like home. This is the official "before" picture.

So David's recliner was starting to sag (like our bodies ... that's how age works) and we decided to find him a new one. He spends a lot of time there and so it needed to be just right for him and super comfortable.

Wow! Here he is standing behind the new recliner. It's nice and comfy and has two reclining positions and a nice footrest. Of course, he found this chair in the first store we went to. But you know how it is, we had to go to two more stores and think about it overnight before we actually signed on the dotted line and arranged for delivery.

Nearest the kitchen, we had this swivel/glider rocker. Our friend Bob once referred to it as "that hideous chair." Well, I must admit it was not comfortable. It didn't cost much used and we needed something in that spot, but mostly it was sat in by cats (and on top of, eventually tearing the strap holding up the cushion).

Now that spot holds "my new chair" -- what a beauty! I was wandering around the furniture stores while David tried various recliners, sitting in one chair after another when I found one that fit me perfectly! Also, I love the fern pattern so much. And there is a recliner position and footrest.

Our old sofa was originally pretty comfortable and useful. But it was soft and low and deep. We both belong to the generation of people who knew how to "get down" -- but now we have a hard time getting up, especially from soft, low, and deep old sofas! So we very rarely sat on this anymore since it required a crane, forklift, or special heavy equipment to get up. Again, it was used mainly by cats and our friend Bob.

The new sofa is very comfortable (and nice looking) but also firm enough and not so deep, and the arms are sturdy. We can actually sit on it and get off it with relative ease! We chose this one partly because we wanted to harmonize the colors since the furniture (all on winter clearance) wasn't matching. So the couch has dark brown, beige, and burgundy in it. The recliner is brown, the chair we didn't replace is burgundy, and the new chair is cream with brown and grey and olive.

I think the overall look of the room is greatly improved. Also, it's kind of a thrill for me to have a brand-new sofa for the first time in my nearly sixty-six years of sitting on sofas. We didn't really intend to buy anything but the recliner, but furniture stores have a way of making you reassess all of your present furniture!

Of course, our five feline residents were very interested in the new developments. Here is Angus Macduff checking out the new sofa.

Panther was also very curious about the sofa and decided to try it out right away.

Yang wasn't shy either; he climbed right up there and tested the sofa for comfort.

As it turned out, Panther was even more thrilled with the new fern chair!

Here's a nice shot of Sylvan's beautiful plume of a Maine Coon tail as he investigates the sofa.

Toffee's favorite is always the top of a sofa, so that was his first place to try out on the new one.

Of course, cats also enjoy furniture indirectly, sitting on the laps of the humans sitting on the furniture.

My guess is that they will enjoy all the new furniture, as will we. But the table remains a great place for cats to spread out any time of day.

On the Baldwin

2011-02-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

We had a chance on Sunday night to hear Lara Driscoll tickle the ivories of the Baldwin grand over at the Iron Post. Lara is quite a virtuoso. She plays jazz piano in a very wide range of styles, and she is good! She's a lovely young woman with long slender fingers and an air of relaxed and friendly elegance. There is none of that style of sullen pouts about her that is, unfortunately, rather common these days. And she likes all kinds of jazz tunes: old standards, including some corny ones, originals, contemporary jazz, slow heartbreaking ballads and hopping hot pieces alike.

We were treated to a lovely rendition of the Charles Trenet tune "Que reste-t-il de nos amours?" (English title "I Wish You Love") and the beautiful Sarah Vaughn favorite "I'm Glad There Is You." We love the old standards best, of course, because we've become sort of old standards ourselves (n.b. it can happen to you!).

Lara was playing with a bass and drum backup on Sunday, but she also appears in duets with horn players, in a quintet with Mikael Templeton, and playing solo piano as well in a number of venues about town. We've enjoyed her gigs at V. Picasso, which is, sadly, closed now. I hope the new owners (whenever they emerge) will include live music with whatever food they're offering. Downtown Urbana is a great place for music.

S'Up?

2011-02-15T11:10:00.000-08:00

What's new around here? Well, a couple of things. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my eight-year-old computer died just before Christmas and I got a new Inspiron from Dell. I'm pretty happy with it. The CPU unit fits nicely lying flat on top of the shelf, so the space underneath where I used to have the old CPU standing vertically was empty. Nothing obvious came along as a new use for the space, so I recently put a small cave-like cloth cat bed in there. Purr-fect! And now it's in use. Although Angus MacDuff is the largest (at 13 pounds) of the five longhairs, he decided to squeeze into this space. He seems to be enjoying it.

Winter Cement

2011-02-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

The temperature here in Champaign-Urbana has finally gone above freezing and the sun is out. Hooray! We are starting to have dripping from icicles on the roof eaves and puddles forming in the middle of humongous piles of dirty frozen snow. This has seemed to me to be an endless winter!

Early in the winter a friend e-mailed me a slide show of photos taken in winter in Russia. For a long while these appalling pics kept me from whining about our local conditions. I was also humbled by how much snow Chicago got a little while back. In many ways, we were lucky not to have it worse . . .

That said, however, what we have had instead of very heavy snow is a horrid sort of conglomerate that could be called "winter cement." Just as cement is a mix of smooth material with gritty stone mixed in, we received layer upon layer of snow mixed with tiny hail that froze into solid blocks.

We've been pouring on the snow melt, using a kind that is easier on the environment and on sensitive animal paws than the ordinary salt. Sand has helped too with broad areas of ice.

One friend recently said she had to use a garden pick axe to chop pieces off of her driveway. Although my stepson has been very kind in shoveling here for us, the snow plow pushed a ton of impossible-to-shovel winter cement against the end of the drive. Then we had some sunshine during the day that was just enough to melt the topmost layer, which promptly re-froze after dark -- creating the slickest, scariest, most dangerous stuff I've tried to walk on. Of course, neither I nor my husband walk very well either, so it has been tricky indeed and we've spent a lot of time indoors.

Weekend before last, we decided to venture out on Sunday afternoon (the sun was shining a bit) to go to the concert at the Champaign library for our favorite local Brazilian band, Desafinado. So we got stuck backing out of our driveway. I eased back and forth a little tiny bit each time and finally we got out ... whew! Then I'm driving down the street when enormous chunks of ice fall off the top of the van down onto the windshield and pop the wipers straight up. Fortunately, there was no one in back and we were able to stop to clear it off.

By the way, the concert was great. Elis Artz sang a number of Brazilian samba favorites and quite a few new tunes as well. Luciano Costa played the mandolin, George Turner was on guitar, and Tom Paynter played flute and melodica. We missed Giraldo's congas, and I'm sorry to say I don't know the name of the new drummer. But we had a terrific time, and it was good to get out for live music again, despite the winter weather challenges.

Tonight we will attempt to go out (hoping that not everything that's melting now will be transformed back into an ice sheet) for the Lara Driscoll Trio. More later!

Jeweler's Blog

2011-02-12T22:42:00.001-08:00

My Etsy shop is listed on a great jeweler's blog! Check it out! http://homebasedjewelers.blogspot.com/

Jazz about Town

2011-02-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

While I'm cozily tucked into my warm house--with lots of food, cats, and library books--to wait out the aftermath of the humongous winter storm, I thought to post a bit about recent jazz gigs I've been to in the past few weeks.

Just before the really bad weather started, we'd gone to the Iron Post for a session with Kevin Hart's "Vibe Tribe." Kevin is a fantastic musician and plays some amazing jazz on the vibraphone. He used to live in Champaign-Urbana and we have enjoyed his performances for many years. Now he lives in Bloomington but still comes over to teach a class at Parkland College.

Tonight he was playing with two of his former students from a class he taught at Knox College in Galesburg: Adam Wilhelm on keyboards and Andy Crawford on bass. Also joining him were Tony Marcos on drums (ISU jazz studies director) and local trumpet player Jeff Helgesen.

They played a nice mix of standards and original compositions. For two numbers, Donnie Heitler, jazz pianist of local and longtime fame, joined them. He and Kevin go way back.

The prior weekend we heard the group called "The Music of Django Reinhardt," led by Jordan Kaye on guitar. The group plays at the Post every month, sometimes with slightly different musicians. In the past we've enjoyed Ben Smith on violin and Chris Reyman on accordion. This time there were two horn players: Mikael Templeton on saxophone and clarinet and Nick Schroeder on trumpet (with three different very cool mutes). Josh Houchin, Jordan's "right-hand man" was there on bass as well. And we were fortunate enough for Paul Asaro, incredible stride-style jazz piano player, to be in town between national touring gigs. It was a good show as always. They did "experiment" some, as Jordan put it, with tunes I didn't know. I guess I do prefer the standards and the Django compositions best, but we had a good time and there was a good turnout.

Later in the weekend, we went to hear Mikael Templeton's excellent quintet. This weekend there are some good gigs scheduled, including Bate Calado, Bossa Nuevo, and Sandunga, but it remains to be seen whether the weather will relent enough for us oldies to dare to venture out after dark.

We are really lucky to have such as wealth of great live music in this community. In addition to jazz gigs, there are rock bands on campus, country music and blues in several local clubs, ethnic world music performances in various venues, and classical music at the university performing arts center. The university school of music is a big attraction for many talented young musicians and a lot of the jazz bands we enjoy include grad students. It's just another reason why Champaign-Urbana is a great place to live and rather atypical in east central Illinois (but we do still wish there were mountains and lakes).

Valentine's Day

2011-01-23T13:59:00.000-08:00

It won't be long now until Valentine's day, February 14. I remember when I was in grade school in the fifties there were these packages of thin colorful cardboard valentines, very inexpensive, and we would give them to everyone in the class. Sometimes special valentines were also handmade with crayons and construction paper and whatnot -- for important people like moms and grandmothers. And there was tiny heart-shaped pastel hard candy with words on each piece saying things like "be mine."

In recent years, in my household, we usually just celebrate the holiday by going out to dinner at a nice restaurant -- sometimes just my husband and myself, sometimes with friends. Maybe a box of chocolates will be in the offing as well.

Romantic Valentine's day celebrations for adults sometimes involve flowers, candy, and other gifts from prospective or current "significant others." An evening out in a fancy red dress may be on the agenda for some folks.

Since many people like to give Valentine gifts, I thought about the fact that Valentine earrings from Beaded Jewelry by Susan would make lovely presents. I have some pairs on the site right now that would be perfect for the occasion and yet classic enough in their design and materials to be worn at any time of the year. So I created a new section called "Valentine Earrings." Come and have a look and tell me what you think!

Mid-Winter Outing

2011-01-19T14:32:00.000-08:00

Last Friday we decided that it was time for a mid-winter outing (hoping that winter is really half over is a tricky business, of course) and went on our annual trip over to Turkey Run State Park in Indiana. Champaign-Urbana is actually closer to a couple of state parks in Indiana (an hour away) than most of the state parks in Illinois, which tend to be in the southern or northern parts of the state.

Turkey Run is a pretty park with lots of ravines and trails through the woods. In prior years (and warmer weather), we've enjoyed hiking and identifying wildflowers, ferns, and birds on the trails. This time of year the draw is to the Turkey Run Nature Center. They have a bird viewing room. Inside, the room is quite comfortable and cozy, furnished with couches and bird identification pictures on the walls. The floor-to-ceiling window is one-way glass -- so the people can see the birds without the birds seeing the people. There is a microphone on the outside that brings in the sounds as well. Outside, the staff has done a wonderful job of enticing our feathered friends to come on by -- even on a cold and snowy day. There are hanging feeders and tables and houses and suet cages and sunflower seeds and corn on rocks and logs. There is running water as well.

We saw quite a marvelous array of familiar birds that afternoon. Early on, there were lots and lots of charming, tiny goldfinches. They don't have the bright yellow color this time of year, being more of an olive green, but the white stripes on their wings are still very noticeable. They left later on in the day, but there were a lot of them. They are small, about the size of the chickadees.

Speaking of chickadees, I always love to watch them. They are tiny and sort of round and chubby looking -- real cuties with their black caps and their rapid movements. Another big favorite of mine is the nuthatch. They are beautifully marked birds with a long dark stripe along the head. They're able to walk backward up a tree or log like the brown creepers do. And they love to eat suet, competing with all the woodpeckers at the Nature Center. When they take a sunflower seed in their long thin beaks, they fly to a log, insert it, and break open the shell by pecking like the woodpeckers do.

Woodpeckers were in abundance that afternoon as well. What a treat! We saw the small black and white cute guys, the downy woodpeckers, and the large red-bellied birds with orange-red heads and necks (males) or just necks (females) and the patterned black and white backs like herringbone tweed coats. And the red-headed woodpeckers were there too with their totally ruby red heads and solid black and solid white body colors. They are a bit smaller than the red-bellied ones and so lovely.

The winter usually brings the snowbirds from up north, the juncos, and this year was no exception. These are cute little birds with slate gray tops and white bottoms. They like to feed mostly on the ground, grabbing corn and sunflower seeds off the big boulders beside the running water.

Tufted titmice were around too. They don't seem to be as shy as some other birds and come very close up to the glass to get their sunflower seeds. They have a little bit of a crest like the cardinals. The cardinals are really gloriously red against the snow, and there were quite a number of them there early in the afternoon.

Blue jays came through from time to time and a squirrel was there for a while, feasting on the sunflowers. As the afternoon wore on, there were more and more of the common house sparrow (or English sparrow) we are all familiar with at backyard feeders. I also saw a few purple finches at one point. For a while, a Carolina wren showed up, enjoying suet as well as seed. This is a tiny round bird with lovely brown coloring and a white eye stripe. This bird loves to flit around and hold its tail bent upwards. What a sweetie!

When it got late (and colder) and the Nature Center was closing soon, we decided to head back toward home. But we stopped in Attica to have a nice meal at the Attica Hotel dining room. Originally named the Revere House, the hotel was built in 1853 and has been nicely restored. There are several lovely dining rooms with a very pleasant atmosphere.

It was an uneventful trip back in the dark and the five cats were eagerly waiting for their evening feeding when we returned. A successful mid-winter outing and a good time was had by all!

Sandunga

2011-01-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

After a late fall filled with lots of terrific jazz gigs, we hadn't been out for jazz in almost a month while we dealt with winter weather; snow and ice in parking lots is no fun for anybody, but between my arthritis and my hubby's Parkinson's, it's just too tricky to go out in those conditions if we don't have to.

So it was a very welcome event last night (the streets are clear--until tomorrow night, that is) to go out for Sandunga playing at the Iron Post in Urbana. I have featured this group before on Susan's Blog (see October and November archives) and with good reason -- they are an exceptionally talented local band! I forgot my camera (again!), but there are some terrific photos taken last night that are available on the Sandunga Facebook page.

The band plays mainly guajira son, the music of the Cuban countryside. It's a rhythmic and infectious mix, with lots of musical influences in its heritage: Spanish, African, Caribbean.

Willy Hope plays two Cuban guitar-like instruments, the tres and the laud. Laud means "lute" and is sort of like a Cuban lute. It is an instrument with twelve metallic strings and has a high, poignant, and folkloric sound. The tres is really as much a rhythm instrument as a guitar. It has two sets of three strings. Willy plays both with impressive virtuosity, sings in a clear and beautiful voice, and seems to radiate joy as he performs.

Julian Norato plays guitar and provides the lead for many of the vocals with his wonderful voice. Many of the pieces seem to involve a repeated chorus as well as the narrative lyrics, and so the others join in the vocal backup. The way that Willy's and Julian's voices harmonize and then blend seamlessly with the sound of the other voices is both melodious and magical to hear! Tina Hope plays the wooden percussion instruments, the claves and the guacharacha, and joins in vocals. Andy Miller, a cool-looking young dude with dreadlocks whose birthday was yesterday, plays the bongos exceptionally well, joins the vocals, and plays a bell-like instrument as well as using his new seat as a drum! Adam Walton is there with his three congas; the dialogue between the congas and the bongos is marvelous and causes everyone in the audience to hoot and clap and yell for more.

Sometimes the group is also joined by Eduardo Herrera on the electric bass guitar. He adds a welcome rhythm, joins in the vocals, and makes humorous comments at the mike. Another special guest tonight was Gina Reynolds. I first heard Gina sing in Portuguese with Bate Calado. It's a Brazilian band that also includes Eduardo. She did a couple of songs, including the haunting "Besame Mucho" (I also love Andrea Boccelli's version of this on CD).

Listening to these songs makes me wish I knew more Spanish than I got from the short course many years ago. Because of French, I do pick up a word here or there, but I wish I could find lyrics to some of these popular "son" tunes that many of the audience members seem to know. (Willy, can you help?) Nonetheless, I get the idea that the lyrics are lighthearted and full of the kind of joy in life that seems to emanate from each of the band members as they perform. They so obviously love what they do that you can't help but feel the enthusiasm.

Speaking of enthusiasm, it's always a warm and diverse audience at Sandunga gigs, and the dancing usually starts in earnest during the second set after folks have had a bite to eat and drink (Iron Post cheeseburgers are quite good and reasonably priced). Though we can't join in, we both love to watch the dancers. It's such a great mix of people: a retired physics professor dances with his daughter, a community radio personality gyrates, a young woman who clearly adores dancing is teaching her steps to her lovely young daughter, and a couple soon to have a child dance cheek to cheek (or is it belly to belly?).

The audience also included some local musicians who have come to share the fun: Karim Yengsep the bass player from Bossa Nuevo and other groups, Holly Holmes, singer from Bossa Nuevo, guitarist George Turner who has played with Desafinado, with pianist Lara Driscoll, and in his own quartet, and Mikael Templeton, clarinet and saxophonist who plays with various groups, including the great Jordan Kaye combo called The Music of Django Reinhardt.

It was mighty cold when we left at nine to head home (single-digit windchill, I'm guessing), but we felt warm inside from such a delightful evening!

New Year ... New Computer!

2011-01-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted in Susan's blog. Just before the first of December, my eight-year-old computer gave out at last. I knew it had to happen eventually, but it's always a blow when it comes, isn't it though?

I had been dreading the technical aspect of computer replacement more than the financial element, to tell the truth. I don't really know my "gigs" from my "megs" and so on very well. I still remember, in fact, when 48K on our old Apple IIe was a big deal! Fortunately for me, my friend Bob was willing to do the research for me and help me select the right replacement machine for my needs.

Then there was a bit of a wait after online ordering for the boxes to arrive in the mail. Of course, it also took a while to set up the new machine and the new flat screen monitor (my first). I soon discovered that my printer wouldn't work with the new equipment, but my sweet stepson bought us a printer for Christmas and installed it. He and Bob helped out with getting things set up in terms of software too, such as getting my mail program to work right, loading the browser I'd decided to use, and so on.

It will take me a while yet to get used to all the new goodies and the differences in the programs. This time, I want to take the time to learn more about the options in the new system, the new browser, the new mail program, and the new version of Word.

For example, tonight I learned how to transfer photos from my camera to the pictures folder on the new machine, such as this shot of our Christmas tree:

Speaking of Christmas, we had a very nice one. It was completely white, with tons of snow all around that has been (temporarily, I suppose) washed away by rain since the New Year. On Christmas day, we had four friends join us for a baked ham, potatoes, brussel sprouts, cranberry apples, green salad, corn casserole, and banana cream pie. A good time was had by all.

Now it's time to ease into the New Year, hoping that the rest of the winter won't be too bad and that 2011 will be a better year for us all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

Well, the cranberry sauce is in the fridge and the plans are written down for the oven-baked stuffing and the green bean casserole to be made tomorrow. One friend is finishing up the baking tonight: pumpkin pie, lemon tarts, and custard tarts. Other friends will be getting up early tomorrow to put in the turkey. The squash soup was made a few days ago and frozen. The sweet potatoes are ready for re-heating tomorrow as well. Some sort of apple chutney has been mentioned, maybe fruit salad, and olives to start. It should be a fine feast. This is the first time we've divided all the cooking up three ways, and I'm very grateful for it. Many times I've done the whole job myself, but it's getting to be a bit too much for me! (I am, thankfully, over my head cold, but my back is still not healed up.) It will be so nice to have friends with us tomorrow.

I hope all of you have a nice day, a pleasant meal at home or with others, and a chance to think about all the incredible things in our lives we have to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holiday Earrings

2010-11-21T13:21:00.000-08:00

A while back, a friend asked me if I was planning to do anything special on my Etsy site for the upcoming holidays. Well, I'm no humbug about Christmas, but I'm not crazy about how commercial the holiday has become. And I didn't want to make "special earrings" in the shapes of snowmen, trees, or angels.

This fall at a bead show, I saw a lot of pretty funky lampwork glass beads in these kinds of shapes and beaders were buying them to use for Christmas crafting. I've also recently seen for sale in bead catalogues Austrian crystals cut to make up the layers in a Xmas tree. So I guess these special holiday earrings are actually quite popular. I have nothing against them if people like them, but that's just not what I want to make when I design earrings.

But I do like the idea of making some beautiful earrings that would look great for a holiday party or get together and yet would be perfectly suitable for wearing any other time of the year as well.

So I looked through my big online inventory of nearly three hundred earrings (which is still less than half of my non-virtual inventory) and identified a few pairs that seemed to fit that description.

So, if you are browsing in my Etsy shop, check out the new section option called "Holiday Earrings" and see what some of the possibilities are. Earrings do make great gifts as well as ways to dress up your own holiday outfits. Enjoy!

Also, for your locals, we will be in the Illini Union for the Holiday Bazaar on Wednesday and Thursday of the week AFTER Thanksgiving (Dec. 1 and 2) from 10-5 pm. I'll have the entire inventory available there. Drop by and see us!

November Winding Down ...

2010-11-16T13:40:00.000-08:00

The weather has turned definitively autumnal around here, as the leaves drift down from the trees and November moves ever closer to the end. It makes me think of the words to that old song "and the days dwindle down ... to a precious few." Unfortunately, the last couple of those "precious few" days have been fairly miserable chez moi because of sore throat, fever, and clogged sinuses. Today is a bit better, but now I seem to have messed up my lower back from being in bed so long!

But before the recent misery, there was fun to be had, and we had some of it. I knew that it was going to be a great day for weather on Friday (and a cold snap coming after that), so I put myself into high gear and finished up the book I was copyediting a bit in advance of the deadline to free up the day. We went to Heron Park, an area of wetland, just north of Danville, with a lovely boardwalk, observation tower, and benches. We'd been there a few weeks ago, but it was a cold and windy day and we arrived late in the day, so the birdwatching was limited.

This time, the weather was perfect and we had lots of time, but the wetlands had dried up! Most of the area under the boardwalk was just left with puddles and animal footprints (racoon, muskrat, possum, shore birds) in the mud. We did see a few kildeer, so pretty with their brown-and-white stripes and distinctive call, but most of the birds must have gone to deeper waters. There were a few quick little birds (swamp sparrow?) flitting around in the brush. They are what my mom used to call ELBs (elusive little bastards), so we couldn't really see them well enough for clear identification. The "real" birders, of course, are willing to get up at the crack of dawn (or before), able to keep quiet the whole time ("hey, guys, look at this!!!), and know the sounds of the birds so they can identify those they can't actually see.

Nonetheless, a good time was had by all. On the way over, we'd taken the scenic route on some lovely curving road that Abraham Lincoln once traveled through hilly areas and ravines, a rare treat for us flatlanders. On the way home, we stopped at O'Leary's for a bite to eat.

Saturday included the usual brunch and library trip, nice and relaxing as always (I even got the New Yorker this time). Home to feed the five famished felines and then off to the Iron Post for Desafinado! As I think I've mentioned in an early post, we've been following this Brazilian samba and bossa nova band for about ten years now. Over that time, the change in players has resulted in the sound of the band evolving and changing.

One of the original founders, Connie Johnson, vibraphone player, moved to Portland, Oregon this summer. Connie is certainly missed -- the vibes are a mellow instrument for the music. Greg Jahiel (vocals in Portuguese and guitar) was the other co-founder, I believe. He's still part of the band, but he is temporarily busy with some important and exciting family activities. So George Turner on guitar and Karim Yengsep on acoustic bass have added their considerable talents to the mix.

Back at the beginning, Chad Dunn was the drummer and percussion experimenter, and there was a cello (Margo?) and her husband (Don?) on flute from time to time. Matt Plaskota was drummer for a while, succeeded by Joel Caracci. For quite a while, Tom Paynter has been with the group, on flute, melodica, and other interesting sound-makers. Giraldo Rosales on congas is also a steady feature of the band. I recently found out that he used to play congas for Sandunga. I love the conga sound, and it is absolutely essential to the kind of music that Desafinado plays.

There have been a couple of singers for Desafinado, one of whom, Simone da Silva, also moved to Oregon (do people really like that much rain?). But starting about three years ago, the singer has been the incomparable Elis Artz. Elis has the ability to express all the feelings in the lyrics and all the movement in the beat in a wonderfully natural and radiant way. It doesn't matter whether the listening audience understands the meaning of the Portuguese lyrics because Elis pours out the meaning in her voice.

This evening's performance was especially delightful for a couple of reasons. The Iron Post has a real piano, a Baldwin grand, and Tom Paynter played! This was quite a treat. Tom is so perfect with the flute and melodica in those haunting Brazilian melodies that those who haven't heard him on keyboards in other bands may not realize what they are missing! I'm really curious now about how and when Tom got interested in jazz because there is clearly some classical background as well. Tom is modest and rarely blows his own horn, but he is an extraordinarily talented musician (and loves to do experimental things like reaching into the piano to pluck a string!). Another cool note was the wonderful bowing work (there's probably a technical term for it) on the bass from Karim in a couple of numbers, including the beautiful "Quiet Night of Quiet Stars." And a third treat was that Mikael Templeton on saxophone joined the group for one number. His sound is so smooth! We'd like to hear more from him!

The place wasn't really crowded (I wish more people would come out for this great band!), but there was a nice audience of appreciate folks. Shelley Masar was doing some kind of dance and yoga performance in the wings during the second set, so I promised to mention her in my blog. She's very flexible and graceful. I usually think of yoga as sort of private and meditative rather than performance-oriented.

Too bad I forgot (again!) to bring the camera for pics. I'll try to catch them the next time.

A Full Weekend

2010-11-09T22:38:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Sunday night and I've just been thinking over our weekend activities. A pretty full and fun weekend, all in all. It continues to be a dry and fairly colorful fall, with leaves still partially on the trees and partially on the ground. On Friday, the crew from LetUsGetDirty4You came over and did a little leaf raking, tree seedling removal, and pulling up more of those unending starts of trumpet vine. We'll have to wait for some cold nights (we had one that night at 19 degrees) and some rain to knock all the leaves down so they can come back and clean the gutters.

Then later we had some leftovers from the freezer (corn casserole and turkey, yum) and watched an excellent but rather heavy DVD, a Polish film about the massacre of most of the Polish educated class by the Soviets in 1940 in Katyn Forest. The shootings were blamed on the Germans and the repressive Soviet regime was able to keep the truth hidden for a long time.

So then we needed something to lighten up with and went over to the Iron Post for Samba Soul!
Vivian Feliciano was singing in Brazilian Portuguese and doing a bit of samba dancing as she sang. George Turner provided some cool guitar work beside her, with Brent Jordan on drums in back and Karim Yengsep on bass on the other side.

Carlos Vega on saxophone joined in the fun and Lara Driscoll on the piano. They did a number of the Brazilian samba and bossa nova favorites that we were familiar with from Desafinado (with singer Elis Artz, Greg Jahiel on guitar, Tom Paynter on flute and melodica, Giraldo Gonzales on congas, and Joel Carracci on drums).

Because it was a later set than we usually go to (starting at 9), the audience was a young crowd, lively and busy talking with each other, but everyone seemed to enjoy the upbeat sound and enthusiasm of the band.

Saturday's fun followed some of our favorite routines -- brunch at Original Pancake House with Frank the Supergardener. I think we discussed the difficulties of growing good tomatoes anymore, along with our complete dismay about election results, over bacon and eggs.

The next stop was the Urbana library. This time, some selfish person had grabbed the copy of the latest New Yorker so I was unable to read this issue's short story while sipping my caramel latte. (I only indulge in caffeine twice a week -- during Monday evening grocery shopping and Saturday afternoon book browsing.) David's Newsweek was out too, so he had to content himself with the New York Review of Books and a mango smoothie. Of course, I checked out the new fiction shelves as always, but this time I've already got too many piled up, having just finished a huge book of Deborah Eisenberg's collected short stories. I did pick up three CDs, however, by a Cuban pianist that Tom Paynter recommended.

After a quick trip home so the five felines could have their delicious premium canned food served on real china saucers, we left for another gig. This was also at the Iron Post. It's close to home, has music nearly every night, and good but reasonably priced cheeseburgers.

Sandunga, the Cuban guajira son band, was doing their "first Saturday" of every month concert. But that night they were more than a great band -- they were a phenomenon. The place was packed. The crowd tended to be fairly young and there were a lot of Latino folks from lots of interesting places who knew all the words to the songs.

William Hope played "tres" guitar and his wonderful 12-string laud. It's a Cuban instrument that sounds a bit like a cross between a guitar and a mandolin, and he plays it expertly and with great joy and spirit radiating out from him in all directions.

Andy Miller is one of three percussion players. He handles the bongos superbly and shakes the maracas and hits the bell-like instrument (a campana, I think it's called). He's young and lean and rather cool good looking with his big dreadlocks.

Adam Walton brought his three new beautiful congas and really heated them up with his quick hands!

And Tina Hope joins in on some vocals and keeps the beat lively with claves (wooden stick instruments) and the guacharaca (rasping metal along a wooden stick).

Julian Norato plays guitar and is lead singer; his soft and melodious voice is perfect for all those lyrics about the "corazon" (heart).

The music was so infectious, and how much this very together group obviously enjoys performing it came across big time to the audience. Part way into the second set, people got up and started dancing. And I mean really dancing! There were some couples, but a lot of them were women and girls and they were having a fantastic time! The energy was amazing. All these women, young and old alike, were swaying and wiggling and waving their arms about and singing along with this tremendously upbeat music from the Cuban countryside. Pretty soon every space between the tables was filled with dancers. (I took a photo at the very start before it got so crowded.)

They didn't ever want to music to end. In fact, I think the band wound up playing at least a half hour after their time while the next band waited to set up. The last encore was the most famous Cuban tune of all, Guantanamera, and the dancers and those sitting at the tables tapping feet and clapping hands went wild! It was such a fun and rejuvenating evening. It was cold outside going home, but we had such a warm feeling inside.

A nice personal note: when we had heard Sandunga some weeks back at the Illini Union Courtyard Cafe (see my prior post about "big night on campus"), David had forgotten his cozy warm old blue-and-black plaid flannel shirt-jacket. We'd called the Lost and Found and they put us "in their database," but we assumed it was lost for good. It turns out that Tina Hope found it and saved it for us and guessed that we might be coming to the Post, so she had it in her car!

Sunday turned out to be work day for me, a World Bank Report on Uganda was waiting to be copyedited. I'd had a long dry spell on freelance work lately and had almost forgotten why they call it "Work." Now I remember. But we later met up with Eleanore Brown, Etsy and Urbana library friend, for some tasty vittles at the Fiesta on First Street.

How was your weekend?

This and That

2010-10-31T14:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't done any new blog posts lately because I have been busy with "this and that" a lot and I keep forgetting to take my camera with me. Of course, some of my recent activities didn't lend themselves to sharing photographically, namely the colonoscopy, the removal and replacement of a large molar filling, and the recent upper GI and small bowel follow-through test. I suppose I could have taken a pic of the flu shot, but it was very brief. I have to say that I am grateful to the ability of modern medical technology to identify and diagnose (and sometimes even treat) important potential problems with my body. But I also have to say that the sadistic, cruel, unusual, and tedious preparations and procedures themselves are no fun.

* * *

In addition to invasive bodily tests, I have been busy attending a number of great local music gigs. Since we all know here in Illinois that the pleasant weather can't last (patchy frost a couple of nights), now's the time to get out and enjoy ourselves, especially before daylight savings disappears into the sunset.

So, after The Music of Djano Reinhart (posted here), we took in Bate Calado, a Brazilian group, at V. Picasso. They play sambas like Desafinado but with a little more contemporary (i.e., loud and fast) sound. They are fun though and we enjoyed the evening.

A cool thing happened actually. I had written on the wall of their Facebook Fan Page (BTW, if you haven't joined my page as a Fan, please do. The link is on the right-hand side listing of links on Susan's Blog) and so I guess a thumbnail pic of me was displayed. The singer for Bate Calado was a different one than I had seen when I saw the group last, this past winter, so I didn't know her. At a break, she came up to me and thanked me for coming and said she was glad to see me. I suppose I had a puzzled look on my face, so she added, "I recognized you from Facebook." Wow ... my physical reality and my virtual reality met! Such a world of technology we live in, I guess.

The next gig we attended was at the Iron Post. Kevin Hart was going to be there. He's a dynamite vibraphone player from Peoria who used to play around Champaign-Urbana from time to time. We found out once we were there and had ordered our cheeseburgers that he wasn't playing -- he was coaching some students who were playing.

As the set went on, a bunch of local musicians were drifting in. I was amazed to see so many terrific professional musicians showing up just to support the efforts of these students. Then, to our surprise, the second set turned out to be a group headed up by Jordan Kaye, guitarist extraordinaire and leader of the Music of Django Reinhardt, called something like Early Jazz Group. Wow! Carl Johnson, incredible clarinet player and saxophonist; Barry the trombonist, also from the New Orleans Jazz Machine like Carl; Nick Schroeder, wonderful trumpeter (especially great with the bluesy mute); Paul Asaro, incomparable stride piano player who tours nationally and, it turns out, also plays horn (coronet, I think); William Hope, guitarist and player of the Cuban laud from the Sandunga band that plays guajira son; and a banjo player, tuba player, and bass drum plus singer whose names I didn't catch.

They were absolutely terrific. They did some great old tunes like Canal Street Blues, Frankie and Johnnie, Jazz Me, and, the last piece, St. Louis Blues ... a wonderful rendition that brought the house down. Thanks, guys! Although some of the musicians were fairly young people, maybe grad students at the U of I's famous music school, several were oldies like us, so it was nice to hear how several decades of musical experience ... coupled with skill and talent, of course ... make a difference!

Then, after a quick trip home to feed the hungry five felines, we went on to V. Picasso to catch Desafinado, the Brazilian jazz group par excellence that we've been following for at least 10 years. They started late because of trying to fit onto a small stage, and the sound was a little different than usual because of some band members who were new and others who were not able to be there, but the music was great as always. Elis Artz's vocals are always so spirited, and she is so radiant, you can't help but get caught up in the music and the Portuguese lyrics. George Turner was sitting in for Greg Jahiel on guitar and gave a very impressive performance. As always, Tom Paynter's flute and melodica were a joy. Luciano Costa, Brazilian mandolin player from the Bate Caldo group, joined in. He was having some trouble with the electronics at first but got that straightened out and did some great work. Joel Caracci was on drums and Karim Yengsep from the Bossa Nuevo band was on bass.

Just before Desafinado came on that night, Lara Driscoll was finishing a set of jazz piano, and George Turner joined her for a couple of numbers. It was mellow and very good, so we decided to catch her playing again last night at V. Picasso. This time she was appearing with Carlos Vega, a wonderful saxophonist who played a few times with Desafinado some time back. For a few numbers, Chip O'Neill, U of I jazz director, joined in as well. Lara and Carlos did an especially nice version of "Moonglow" and "Bewitched" in honor of Halloween. I enjoyed the music a lot and, since the restaurant provides paper placemats and pencils, had a little fun doing a humorous drawing of the band and another more "surrealistic" style drawing as well.

* * *

In the realm of nature/outdoor/garden activities, we have been enjoying the fall color, both in our own yard and around town. We did a little tour of Urbana residential streets near us the other day, where many trees are changing leaf color gradually (and losing leaves as well), and the fruiting trees (like the red-berried hawthorns) are filled to the brim with bright round tiny berries. My guess is that it's been such a strange summer and fall weather-wise that those trees got a bit nervous about their survival and so decided to put out a lot of seed for future generations of their species (nature is so smart!).

We also had a bit of an out of town nature trip last week. We had been wanting to explore a new nature area over north of Danville, about 40 minutes away, called Heron Park. I had gotten directions for getting there from our dental hygienist who commutes from Danville and has two little boys who like the outdoors. Our friend Bob was in town and the three of us were going in his car. We loaded up my four-wheeled rollator (if folds) into the trunk and were ready to leave, even though it was windy (we had a wind advisory that day) and not very early. At the last minute, the intrepid Panther, our sweet black cat, managed a daring escape. I spent 20 or 30 anxiety-filled minutes trying to find him, calling his name pitifully, and waiting for him to reappear. Thankfully, he did, and we went on our way.

Heron Park is a fairly new place with a wonderful expanse of wooden boardwalk (wide enough for the rollator and with a rail to help steady David on his feet) all around the park over the shallow bottomland waters. There is an observation tower, and I could even go to the first level of it with the rollator! It was so cold and windy and late in the day, however, that most of the wildlife was probably hunkered down in the reeds and whatnot to stay cozy. But we did see a couple of mallards, a bunch of tiny birds on the muddy flats that I thought might be sanderlings, a lovely white swan, and -- big treat -- a pair of sandhill cranes! Nice show of foliage changing color along the interstate going back home.

In our yard, the Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa) has changed color and the Japanese maples are gorgeous. This year the Fothergilia shrub has turned bright red, and several viburnums and hydrangeas have color on their leaves. The hostas have turned a cheerful yellow, but there's still lots of green and even blooming annuals still around. The crabapple is full of tiny orange fruit, and the firethorn (Pyracantha) bush is covered with berries. The chokecherry trees fruited a lot earlier this fall, and the robins feasted and then spattered my car windshield with the results (ugh!). But I have been quite surprised by the endurance of the annuals (and a few blooming perennials like the butterfly bush and the fall anemone). Frank the supergardener's hypothesis is that the dryness has made the plants tougher against the frost compared to the usual rainy fall here.

Well, that's about it for now. I will try to remember to bring my camera with me next time I do something that might be sufficiently interesting to share because I know my readers like photos. Write a comment and let me know what the autumn is bringing your way.

About town

2010-10-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

We've been very fortunate with the weather here in Champaign-Urbana lately. It's been sunny and cool, with low humidity, for a number of days in a row. The trees are starting to change color, but we haven't really had a killing frost here in town. We took advantage with a trip to the University of Illinois Arboretum, the Idea Garden (sponsored by the Master Gardeners' program), and Homer Lake, part of the Forest Preserve District.

In the afternoon on Sunday we enjoyed some time indoors in the sunny lovely space of the Urbana library, listening to Mean Lids' delightful performance of Irish music for the violin and flute. Then in the evening, we went to hear a group called "The Music of Django Reinhardt" at the Iron Post.

We have enjoyed this group before, several times. The composition of the band is pretty fluid. One time there was a super trumpet player and a clarinet player and a drummer. Another time a fantastic stride piano player named Paul Asaro joined the group for the evening. Often Ben Smith (also in Mean Lids) plays fiddle. Tonight a guy from Nashville, Paul Kramer, was in town with his fiddle. Jordan Kaye on guitar and Josh Houchin on bass seem to be the regulars.

What kind of music do they play? Well, it's always spirited, often nostalgic or poignant, and frequently toe-tapping. Jean "Django" Reinhardt was a Gypsy jazz guitarist who started playing jazz in Paris in the 1930s. Despite playing with two fingers as a result of an injury in a fire, he was an incredible guitarist and a formidable composer. He teamed up with Stephane Grappelli on violin for quite a while and the music was amazing. His influence has been considerable, both on jazz musicians of the past and present and on a number of musicians who don't primarily play jazz.

The local band plays a lot of Django originals, of course, but also some good old songs from the thirties and forties, such as "Stardust" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" and so on. There was a pretty good sized audience there, many with white hair, who knew these tunes pretty well. We had a fine time.

I took several photos, but I'm having some upload problems right now in Blogger. Maybe I can add the other pics later. Tomorrow night, we go to hear Bate Calado, a Brazilian samba group.

Big Night Out on Campus

2010-10-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday night on campus ... and David and Susan were there! At the Courtyard Cafe in the Illini Union, two great bands were playing: Desafinado for Brazilian samba and Sandunga for guajira and Cuban son. Here's the fascinating backstory:

Despite the fact that David and I both spent an embarrassingly major portion of our adult lives on the campus of the University of Illinois (as graduate students and academic staff in various jobs over the years), we were no longer in the habit of going up to campus very often. Frankly, things on campus had changed a bit since I came to Champaign-Urbana in 1963 (what a surprise!).

Time was, for example, when I had taken or taught a class in almost every building around. French was actually a popular language in U.S. universities once and before the Foreign Language Building was erected (during my two-year absence teaching at Drake in Iowa), the classrooms were spread all over. Since then the demand for la belle langue has, regretfully, diminished considerably, and the campus has expanded and spread out very far in all directions with tons of brand-new science and technology labs that I have never had occasion to set foot in!

Campus town, the area of stores, restaurants, bars, and apartments near the student union, has changed as well. It used to be a couple of blocks of one- and two-storey places serving some typical campus needs -- a malt shop, bookstore, barber, florist, and a few bars. In the sixties, there were coffeehouses, import boutiques, and head shops. Now it looks like just another chunk of suburban Chicago: towering high rise apartments, ethnic fast-food chains of all sorts, fitness centers, hair salons, tatoo and piercing parlors, smoothie stands, and tons of bars.

The automobile traffic has quadrupled in the past twenty years alone (ah! the perspective of age ... maybe the only good thing about it?). Believe it or not, students didn't used to be allowed (imagine a word like that even!) to have cars on campus; freshman couldn't live in apartments rather than dorms (which had curfews and rules and weren't coed!). Now every apartment with four students includes four cars, as well as numerous and sundry other vehicles: bikes of all types, skateboards, rollerblades, scooters, etc. It requires grim concentration on the part of conscientious drivers to survive in campus town these days. Meanwhile, the pedestrians are usually concentrating too -- on their phones, texting, iPods, etc. as they cross the street totally clueless of traffic.

If the traffic sounds bad, consider the parking options. Okay, getting back to our own story a bit too, we were running late (a regular occurrence for us). I was afraid we wouldn't be able to still get tickets, figuring they might be sold out in advance. We tried to find a handicapped spot near the Illini Union Building but couldn't find any. There was a metered place, however, that cost a quarter for every 20 minutes. But it was enforced 24/7 with a two-hour limit (it wasn't yet eight o'clock and the concert went until eleven), so that didn't work either. Finally, we found a free handicapped parking place several blocks away in a municipal lot. I got my four-wheeled rollator/walker out of the van and we headed through the crowds of scantily clad girls and boisterous boys with backward baseball caps.

We were nearly all the way to the student union when we decided to sit for a minute on a bench at the intersection to catch our breath. A young man came up to me and made an unusual request: it was his birthday, he said, and he had to have a birthday spanking and wanted me to provide it. I ascertained that nothing more was involved than giving him a quick slap on each buttock while his girlfriend took a digital photo. Then she asked to stand in a slow-dance pose with my white-haired and bearded 69-year-old husband while her boyfriend took another photo. They seemed immensely pleased that we had cooperated. I suppose somebody's Facebook wall will display the results of this odd encounter!

Next was a quick stop with the bored ticket taker on her laptop doing homework; she had to charge us eight bucks instead of four because we were no longer students or staff and were retired from the university, but the sponsoring student organization hadn't given her any change. Fortunately, I found eight ones in my wallet.

We were the first to buy tickets that night. And, except for a table of friends of the bands, we were amazingly the only audience! It's a nice venue with a raised stage, good lighting, plenty of tables and chairs, and a coffee place nearby. I think there were a lot of events going on that night and maybe the student group sponsoring the show didn't get the word out as well as they might have. That must have been the explanation for the poor turnout. We've been following the first band, Desafinado, for about 10 years now, and they are truly terrific -- all extremely good musicians who play wonderful, interesting, and upbeat music from Brazil. They really play together, compose original pieces, and seem to enjoy what they are doing.

But, from our point of view, it was pretty great to be sitting right up front and feeling as though the concert was being performed especially for us. The group was terrific. Elis Artz, the singer from Brazil, is phenomenal. She is lovely and lively and radiant, with a tremendous voice filled with emotion that comes across big time, despite my inability to understand the literal meaning of the Portuguese lyrics.

Greg Jahiel on guitar also sings in Portuguese in beautifully harmonized duets with Elis and provides fantastic guitar accompaniement to all the numbers. He's a talented composer as well; one of his originals was performed that night -- a song so poignant it brings tears to the eyes.

Giraldo Rosales keeps that wonderful conga beat going that is so important to the Latin jazz, samba, bossa nova, and MPB sound. It makes me play my hands on the table in time to his drumming. Joel Caracci is new on percussion, replacing Matt Plaskota, who replaced Chad Dunn. (According to the old spoof movie, Spinal Tap, drummers change about often because they are victims of spontaneous combustion!)

Tom Paynter is well-known in a number of local bands as a musician extraordinaire. I'm not sure if there are any instruments in a band or orchestra that he can't play. And he plays several "things" that are certainly musical but maybe not officially instruments. He is an extremely talented composer and pianist and wild maniac with a synthesizer, but in this group he plays an amazing flute (maybe a separate blog post about that in the future -- there's quite a story there) as well as a melodica, sort of a "wind-powered piano/accordion in a package" kind of instrument. He is able to create the most beautiful and surprising sounds from these instruments that lend so much atmosphere to the music.

We all miss Connie Johnson, one of the founders of the band, and her delightful vibraphone work and compositions. She recently moved to the West Coast, but her hit number "Sea Breeze" was performed at the concert. Sitting in tonight was Karim Yengsep, a musician from Almaty, Kazakhstan, on electric bass.

After a great performance by Desafinado, there was a short break during which I discovered that a huge tango dancing contest of some sort was going on the large ballroom down the hall. There were interestingly costumed dancers standing in the hall catching their breath as I rolled by in my walker on the way to the restrooms.

The next group was Sandunga, a band that has been around these parts a long time but which we heard for the first time only a few weeks ago at an Urbana jazz club. They play Cuban son and guajira music, and it's a lot of fun. The two lead vocalists and players of guitar and other interesting Cuban string instruments are William Hope and Julian Norato. They sing in Spanish (of course) and harmonize beautifully with each other. Their virtuosity with the guitar and laud and tres (Cuban string instruments) is something to see and hear!

Tina Hope sings as well and keeps a terrific beat with an intriguing instrument involving a wooden rod hit against another piece of wood. I've also heard her play a cool drawing and scratching kind of instrument that's hard to describe but provides just the right sound.

Adam Walton kept the beat as well with three great congas. Later in the set, he was joined by a terrific bongo player whose name (I think) is Andrew Miller. He also plays a bell-type instrument and shakers.

When they played in Urbana, there was also an electric bass player named Eduardo Herrera, but he wasn't with the group on Saturday. The music is lively and infectious. Like Desafinado, they are all very clearly accomplished musicians and friends and they play with a sense of genuine joy that the audience can't resist. Even though there were still very few other people in the room, one of the young women was dancing, which was fun to see. Again, a superior performance by an excellent band.

On our way out of the student union, we passed through the South Lounge area of this massive Georgian Colonial building and I stopped to wait for David to use the restroom. There was a grand piano at the end of the vast room near a gas fire in a lovely marble fireplace. A sofa was next to the fire and a young man who looked very intent on what he was doing was working through some incredible pieces of Beethoven. He was probably a graduate student in the famous school of music here and he was clearly practicing. It was thrilling. We sat and listened for another half hour or more.

Unfortunately, David had forgotten his padded flannel shirt jacket on the back of the chair in the concert room. We hope it will show up at the lost and found tomorrow, but maybe not ... On the way to the car, Zorbas the gyros place was still open and we stopped for a quick bite. We made it through the throngs of students still milling about after midnight, some clearly intoxicated by now, and reached quiet southeast Urbana safely after our big night out on campus. What fun!

Annual Finale

2010-10-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

We had a frost advisory the past two nights in east central Illinois, even though there wasn't frost in our yard here in tree-protected southeast Urbana. But it was a sure sign of things to come. We've taken in the houseplants now (much to the dismay of kitties who had gotten used to stretching out on the empty plant tables), and the neighborhood trees are starting to show early signs of leaf color. It's getting darker sooner now that the autumn equinox has passed, of course, and the angle of the sunlight has changed and yellowed. So far, there haven't been the usual fall rains, however, and some of these sunny cool days are quite a delight.

It's always interesting this time of year to see which annuals faired the best and the longest over a particular summer. So I thought I'd take a finale set of photos. The marigolds weren't as full-flowering this year as they have been in the past, so I was surprised to find them looking good this late.

The Victoria blue salvia, on the other hand, have been blooming their hearts out all summer long and show no signs of stopping anytime soon. Some annuals do keep going after the first light frosts. As far as the first to succumb, surely it will be the impatiens, but they've had a good long and full run this time, much to my surprise -- as long as they're watered faithfully, they can evidentally take a lot of heat.

The lantanas often take their time blooming well and don't really reach their full potential here, but this year they loved the heat advisories and high humidity. That reminded me that they were basically perennials (and almost weeds!) in my mother's garden in Tampa, Florida, years ago. There are so many nice two-tone varieties now -- very cheerful.

But it is the red salvia that have truly outdone themselves this year. I think I just put in one six-pack, three in each of the containers at the head of the front walk, but they look like a jungle of fire!

And yet another salvia, the blue and black from Brazil, has grown a lot from one small start in April, and its charming and unusual flowers continue attracting hummingbirds.

The easy and reliable "wave" petunias are still holding their own too, especially here in a slightly cooler and shadier area than the front pots.

There are still some perennials blooming too, although this isn't really a peak time for them. Sedums are undemanding and reliable plants that propagate easily from a single leaf, and they bloom and hold their color well as the nights cool. Here's a nice one:

The fall-blooming Japanese anemones are a lovely bunch. There are pink and white ones and a few doubles as well. They are tall and can spread a bit, but I like them anyway.

I don't happen to have any chrysanthemums (can never remember the "new" name for them) this year, but I have been enjoying the huge colorful pots of them at the local grocery stores. Besides mums and pumpkins, how could it be fall without fall asters?

There are a few other perennials on right now, including the toad lilies in the north yard, the purple dwarf butterfly bush, and some pink hydrangeas. But blue perennials aren't common in the fall, so I especially like the little leadwort with the long name, Cerastostigma plumbaginoides.

Well, that's about it for now. Next stop will probably be photos of fall leaf color around town ... and then snow pics! Had to happen ... What's still blooming in your yard?

New Article Published

2010-09-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've just had a new article published on Handmade Spark all about bead buying tips. Enjoy!
http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/bead-buying-tips/

A Few Recommendations

2010-09-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

These cooler autumnal evenings (now that the equinox is past) are perfect for enjoying books and movies, so here are a few recommendations based on my recent experiences.

Two books: a book of short stories called Something Is Out There by Richard Bausch. They are separate stories about a range of characters, but each and every one pulls you in from the very beginning and they seem more like novels in terms of engagement with the characters and their situation. These are contemporary tales of interpersonal nuance, told with the keenest of psychological insights. I've read many stories and novels by Bausch and always admired his style, his directness, and his intelligence. He and his brother Robert (also an excellent novelist) are twins, perhaps the only twin novelists??

Also: a historical novel (not my usual) by Melissa Jones, sister of Sadie Jones, whose two novels I enjoyed thoroughly and discussed in an earlier post here. This one is called Emily Hudson. It's based somewhat on the life of Mary "Minnie" Temple, the cousin of Henry James. The book is partially told in letters and the rest in third-person narrative and is very well done and engrossing. Emily is a thoroughly admirable young woman of her time and very brave. The cousin character that presumably is Henry James is a cruel, despicable, and arrogant individual indeed.

Movies: two DVDs this weekend of a very different nature but both good and worthwhile. Crazy Heart, with Jeff Bridges (I still remember his dad, Lloyd, from Sea Hunt), Maggie Gyllenhall, Robert Duvall, and Colin Farrell. It's the perfectly hearbreaking story of a worn-down hard-drinking country singer-songwriter and his attempt to save his own life. The music is fun as well, of course, even though country music isn't my top choice most of the time.

Second film is Adoration by the Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan. This was probably one of the best movies I've seen in a while in terms of serious cinema. It's a deep and complex exploration of a family's issues and their extension into global issues of terrorism and fear, the role of new technology in self-expression, self-discovery, and the pursuit of truth ... and many more serious and fascinating themes, beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted.

I rarely get comments on these blogs posts (too bad ... I would enjoy them), but if you have read or seen something good lately, please share that here. Thanks.

Bead Buying Trip

2010-09-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

What fun! We went on a one-day bead buying trip on Friday. Our good friend Bob drove us down to Collinsville Gateway Center for the International Gem and Jewelry Show exhibition and sale. The day started earlier than I'm used to and I was excited about the prospect of great new beads, so I overenthused on my morning stretches and managed to somehow pull that muscle in my lower back and buttocks that I hadn't pulled for a long time. Eek! I had a hard time just getting from the house to the car and getting out at Perkins for a quick omelet to get us started. But my back was resting on the trip down in the car of course.

It is about a 2 1/2 hour trip with a short rest area stop. It was beautiful weather, with blue sky and sunshine all the way. The traffic was pretty heavy and we went via interstate, but it was still great to get out in the country a bit. Many of the corn and soybean fields were already harvested (early this year?) and some were being taken down as we drove past. Once we got down past Effingham, our familiar flat landscape developed into a rolling terrain as we moved toward the Mississippi River valley. It was more wooded too, and you could see the beginnings of autumn adding a yellowish cast to the deciduous leaves. The quality of the light is different too in the fall, falling at a lower angle and with more yellow in the light itself.

We got to the show about 1 o'clock and Bob dropped us off until 5. I had my four-wheel rollator so that my back was supported and I had a seat to sit in, which helped immensely. David was pulling our handy two-wheeled tapestry tote bag for the bead purchases, so we were ready to roll.

The show was really crowded this time! We headed for the wholesale room first and one particular vendor at the back end who had terrific bargains. The tables were so mobbed with people that I had to wait to get my rollator into a small spot where I could see and look over the goods! But I found great deals on bags of plated pewter trim elements, strands of sparkling crystal, tiny glass pearls, and interestingly patterned stone. It was even a long wait in line to pay.

I found some neat striped stone in thin discs and ovals with matching small rounds at a booth in the retail section while David rested at one of the tables filled with bored husbands reading newspapers or dozing off while their overexcited wives had a blast looking at beads. Probably the opposite of a hardware or power tool show, as Bob remarked later.

To my delight, a vendor I had bought from at prior shows was there, with lots of new and intricate lampwork beads sold by the strand. It's hard work choosing and a great deal of fun as well! It's a big show, and there are lots of booths that I can skip, thank goodness, or I'd be totally exhausted within an hour! The whole center of the main room is booths with finished commercial jewelry like diamond rings, watches, etc. There are some booths with non-jewelry and non-bead items such as handbags, scarves, sheets, curios, etc. as well.

I also located some very nice twisted swirl glass discs in several colors that had been faceted so that they sparkled like crystal. This was the first time I had come across this particular bead and, of course, I had to get a number of strands, one in each color.

As I hovered over a booth, carefully deciding and inspecting each strand I chose, David sat nearby patiently waiting for me and taking care of the bag with our purchases already in it. Unfortunately, near the end of the time we were supposed to be out front waiting for Bob's car, we got our signals crossed a bit, and I returned to find that David wasn't in the chair I left him in. I panicked a bit and wound up walking all over the place while he was walking all over looking for me and Bob was waiting in the drop-off spot wondering what was going on!

We all found each other at last, although by then I had really messed up that back muscle (ouch!). We ate quickly at the nearby barbeque place and took off on the return trip. We had about one-third of the trip before dark, so another chance to enjoy scenery, and then dark the rest of the way.

Once we got home, we immediately fed the cats, who were ravenous. They had missed their 5 o'clock meal by about 4 hours, so they got two cans instead of one (they had two cans in the morning early) for the four of them and the rest of his one can to our boy who has prescription food. That calmed things down enough that I could sit with a microwave hot pad on my back while we looked over our purchases briefly before falling into bed.

Then last night I took the photos and we started the process of cutting apart the strands and figuring out which compartments to put which beads in -- always a fun thing to do. Today I will need to "reorganize" some bead trays, combining some beads, to make room for the rest of the new beads! It's an addiction, for sure, but at least it's not one that harms anybody. Now I'm looking forward to designing earrings with the new beads and putting them up on the website. I am thinking about writing any article for Handmade Spark about some tips for buying beads based on my own experiences over the years.

From May to September

2010-09-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

Remember the line from that old song . . . "it's a long long way, from May to September"? Well, now it's officially September, and despite blasting days of seemingly endless heat and humidity, we had to shut the windows tonight (and not because the air-conditioning is on). Yup, down to 45 F it is predicted. Of course, it will warm up again before the summer's totally over, but, hey, this is Labor Day weekend after all -- end of the park district pools, the summer camps, the festivals and outdoor activities for the most part.

So it's also a time when the garden is slowing down. Hopefully, the weeds are slowing down too. And the gardeners are starting to take stock. It's been a tough year for a lot of plants: heavy spring rains, amazing heat stress, continuing bouts of high humidity. Some plants like to be treated like that, but many do not.

So what do we still have in bloom? Well, some of the die-hard annuals in pots are going strong: red vinca, red salvia, petunias, blue salvia, lantanas, and impatiens in enough shade. The front row of pots looks a bit overgrown and exhausted, but there are these bright spots of continuing color!

Some of the petunias in the front containers in full sun have given up the ship by now, so to speak, but those planted later in a less sunny location seem to be coming into their own on both sides of the garden statue that I still have from my grandmother's garden long ago.

The barrels behind the glider with the double impatiens and dwarf hostas survived the heat too, thanks to my husband's faithful watering.

Although I would have thought that this would be a bad year for impatiens of any kind, it turned out not to be true. They can and do take the heat as long as they are in shade and kept watered. I had the doubles and singles in containers, a single in a basket, and a couple of new guineas in barrels, and they all look pretty good. I wasn't sure about putting bright red and yellow-orange ones together in the pots alongside the old metal glider sofa, but the brightness is certainly welcome now when everything else around it has turned to green -- and the green is starting to have that exhausted yellow tinge :)

Back in the shady shady north yard, there isn't much color and the overgrown elderberries I didn't plant are busy fruiting while they smother the viburnum, hydrangea, and dwarf lilac. We've got to get them out of there! But the white impatiens in pots near the north seating area did very well and are so clear and cool looking.

The white picks up again behind them in the lacy panicles of the Hydrangea paniculata "Tardiva" (meaning late-blooming, like "tardy"), whose blooms have lasted a long time this year!

Not many perennials are in bloom right now, although the fall-blooming anemones are in bud I noticed. But a new planting of a dwarf buddleia is doing nicely.

Of course, there are always surprises in a garden, even late in the season. I had gotten a start of bright red annual begonia from supergardener Frank Cooper, who had kept it over the winter in his greenhouse. But it just didn't want to start growing ... all summer long it just sat there looking forlorn -- all stem and no leaves or blooms! But on my garden rounds this afternoon I re-discovered it. It's not huge and it won't withstand a frost (in October?), but it is blooming and it's a lovely color.

As for the project to "rehabilitate" the garden and make big changes for easier maintenance in the future, well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice, men, and gardeners . . . We did make some progress despite all the rain and all the heat advisory days, however. And three of the four raised beds on the east side were cleared of weeds (although some have already grown back!) and mulched and we got the paths cleared (a big step!) and mulched. That will make it easier to get around and see what else can and can't be accomplished before the season is completely over. More on that later ... Enjoy your late-summer/early-fall gardens while you can!

Fiction Corner

2010-08-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

These hot muggy days it's sometimes a pleasure just to sit in your air-conditioned house and read a book, isn't it? The last couple of novels I read were the authors' second books, and both were very good. Jennifer Vanderbes wrote a novel a while back called Easter Island.

It was one of those novels that tell two intertwined stories from different times. It was fascinating and informative, and I learned quite a bit about Easter Island and what happened to that society that had erected the enormous figures.

Now she has a new novel called Strangers at the Feast. Again, anthropology figures into the plot in a way, but this one is set in the United States and takes place on the most American of holidays, Thanksgiving. The tale turns tragic and is a grim indictment of where the American dream has gone wrong ... gone wrong ... gone wrong. The book touches on many aspects of family life, the changing role of women in U.S. society, the issue of eminent domain and unbridled development and materialism, and the familiar gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Jenna Blum is the author of an excellent earlier novel about a woman who finds a way for her and her child to survive in the midst of the horrors of World War II in Europe -- Those Who Save Us. It was very well written and engaging.

Now she has a new novel called Stormchasers. It's set in familiar territory--Minnesota and the Plains States. It's about twins who haven't seen each other for 20 years. The brother is bipolar and he's a stormchaser. The sister is a reporter who joins a stormchasing tour to try to find her brother while doing an assignment for her paper. As with many novels where the intricacies of family life are important, there is a deep secret between the twins that emerges from the shadows. The scenes describing the tornadoes the group is chasing are vivid and dramatic indeed.

I am in the middle of reading Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

I haven't read this author before, but I am thoroughly enjoying her writing. The book is so very very English and utterly charming.

In our reading group, we've been doing Corduroy Mansions, the new McCall-Smith series set in London -- what fun! I just rented the DVD of the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series HBO episodes to view a second time. I love all his books.

Read the Latest!

2010-08-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Susan is in the news! Well, sort of. I'm featured in a very nice interview done by Emily Orpin on Handmade Spark. It's a good mix of information about personal stuff, jewelry making, and Etsy selling. Use this link to read it.

Also, I just published a new article on Spark about what I do when I get an Etsy sale. You might enjoy reading this as well.

Meanwhile, Eleanore keeps putting up great "earrings in the garden" photos on my Etsy site. If you haven't seen these, please take a look and tell me what you think.

Butterflies Are All Around!

2010-08-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

It's been difficult to do much in the garden lately with the heat advisories we've had in east central Illinois. Our helpers have added mulch to the raised beds on the east side and mulched the paths. I'm not sure how they did even that without collasping with heatstroke!

Some of the annuals, especially the vinca and the salvia, are bravely blooming like crazy in their heatstruck pots, but some plants are showing signs of fatigue. The shrubs are holding up well, however, and the tall white panicles of the Hydrangea paniculata tardiva are still quite showy.

This is the peak time for a visitor to the garden who doesn't mind full sun, blazing heat, and high humidity: the butterflies! A friend of mine lives in the western part of the Carolinas border in an old apple orchard where she gardens extensively. She sent me the photos I'm including in today's post. Thanks, Viv!

I've always loved butterflies for their colorful patterns, their grace, their reminder of the precious but brief gift of life itself. There are lots of plants that attract butterflies to a garden. Butterfly bushes, for example, of the genus Buddleia are wonderful for bringing them in with their long slender clusters of purple or blue blossoms.

We used to have an entire row of them along the east side outside the fence. Every year I would prune them down to about 10 inches in the early spring, but last year someone doing some cleanup work for us cut them back to the ground in the fall and, sadly, most haven't returned. Fortunately, we have a nice dark purple one (Black Knight) near the front door and a new dwarf one in a raised bed, just added this spring.

In an earlier garden at another location, I had some of the annual bloodflower milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), and when we moved some plants, the seeds traveled with us. At one time, they were all over the garden -- and so were the Monarch butterflies as a result. It was delightful. Too bad the plants reseeded so heavily that we had to do some weeding and wound up losing them. There are two hybrid milkweeds that are well behaved: Asclepias tuberosa. I used to have one, a nice short orange version of a prairie plant, and there is a yellow one as well called "Hello Yellow."

A number of different butterflies show up here in the garden from time to time. The Tiger Swallowtail, with its extravagant sharp-tipped wing ends, like the one in Viv's photo is a frequent guest. We also have lots of Red Admirals, Painted Ladies, the small sulphur yellows, and the little Cabbage Whites. We still get Monarchs, but not as many as we used to. I don't know if that has to do with the corn pesticide that affects them being used in fields around here or not. The darker Eastern Swallowtail visits too at times.

Of course, back when my husband and I were still nimble enough to keep them from jumping over the fence, we used to take the cats into the garden and they loved to chase butterflies. But the butterflies are very quick and the cats were usually disappointed after a brief but exciting moment or two of pursuit.

One time David and I saw a Giant Swallowtail in a nature preserve on vacation. It looks just like the Tiger but very very large and impressive.

Some of the same annuals that attract butterflies also attract hummingbirds: salvia, petunias, fuschias, callibrachoas, as well as perennials like lilies and the dropmore scarlet honeysuckles, among others.

Butterflies are the incarnation of summer delight, aren't they? Do you have butterflies in your garden?

The Mind behind the Book

2010-07-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

I've always been of the opinion that reading foreign literature (especially in the original, but even in a reasonable translation) was not only a cheap and safe form of world travel, but an opportunity to get a glimpse of what I like to call "national character" for want of a better phrase. I'm talking about something that is more personal, more linked to the nature of an individual -- and in this case to a nation -- than the term "culture" usually represents. So it is that the Bryson memoir of the fifties (The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid) is quintessentially American, compared, say, to Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

I've also always been of the opinion that something of the writer's mind is revealed by his or her writing, maybe particularly but not exclusively in the case of fiction. I enjoy discovering an excellent writer and then going through all of that writer's previous works and emerging with a bit of a sense of the writer's mind, his or her interests and insights, themes and techniques, and perhaps a quick peek at the writer's "worldview" and stance in the face of the big issues: life, death, love, loss, grief, sin, redemption, war, politics, relationships, ambition, greed, lust, etc.

I don't tend to read much nonfiction other than some of the books we choose for our twice-weekly discussion group, the books that I copyedit, the articles I read in the New York Times every day, and the occasional magazine article. Last Saturday, I was in the library browsing through my favorite section, "New Fiction," and I noticed the woman next to me picking up and looking over a number of novels I'd recently read and liked. I made a comment and suggestion and we got to talking. It was great fun. We seemed to have so many authors, themes, and so on in common. But she mentioned a nonfiction book at one point and said, "It read just like fiction. I couldn't put it down."

Thinking back on this, I realized that it's a rare thing for me to find nonfiction that reads like that, and I remembered the last time I had that experience. Some time ago, in our group, we read Barack Obama's early book, Dreams of My Father. It had been written a number of years before I had even heard of the man, but we were reading it after he had become the president. It read like fiction. I was totally engaged as a reader. I couldn't put it down. And I was thoroughly impressed with the mind behind the book: the personal honesty and straightforwardness, the sincerity, the intelligence, the depth of psychological insight, the sense of history and community, and the essential American character.

Not long ago, we read his second book (written before he ran for president) called The Audacity of Hope. It doesn't really read like fiction for the most part. It's less personal and more political, most certainly. But, again, it was tremendously impressive in terms of the writing itself and in terms of the mind behind the book. The section on the history of U.S. foreign policy is better than many of the political science textbooks I edited when I worked at the university. His assessment of the changes this nation went through in the sixties aptly matches so much of my own experience. His analysis of the challenges we face as a people, as a nation, and as a planet is outstandingly comprehensive, far-sighted, and right on target in my personal opinion.

Of course, that doesn't not mean that he will be able to do what he proposes -- for myriad reasons. But the breadth and depth of his vision as revealed over the pair of books is enough for me to take heart and hope for the best. And this is coming from a person who pretty much lost interest in politics after Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.

I have, however, voted in every presidential election and some regional ones for the past four decades since I turned 21 years of age. But I only got interested in politics again, to tell the truth, because the George W. Bush administration was creating so much damage to international affairs, domestic policies, the governmental system, the environment, and the balance of power between the corporate elite plutocracy and the people of the United States that I couldn't ignore politics any longer. I didn't campaign for Obama, but I voted for him. I don't watch television, but I watched the inauguration and I watch the YouTube versions of his weekly address every single Sunday and I read the papers.

I have mostly steered away from political views on Susan's Blog, preferring to offer garden photos, fiction reviews, links to my articles on beaded jewelry, and cat photos, but these two books and the mind behind them were exceptional, and I wanted to pass that on to any who were interested. Comments?

An Appreciation

2010-07-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

A quick glance at the current news articles confirms anyone's guess that there are people in this world whose greed for money and power and special interest is making other people miserable in uncountable ways. But what about the everyday kindnesses of ordinary people to one another? That doesn't make the headlines nor, perhaps, does it change history. But maybe the overall effects afforded by those smallest acts serves as a balance to all the rest, one that has prevented civilization from totally collasping, so far anyway.

About ten years ago, I started needing to walk with a cane (just one, then!) and I was concerned about other people's reactions: would strangers stare at me with curiosity or pity? would I get pushed down the stairs as abler others hurried past? As it turned out, other people, "perfect strangers," as the saying goes, have been extremely kind to me. People don't stare, but they often notice and then offer to hold doors, carry packages, step wide to make room, and so on. I have been both amazed and gratified by the ordinary acts of everyday people.

Let me offer an illustration. In the last six months or so, grocery shopping has become something of a challenge to David and me. We go once a week because we have done it that way for a long time: it's efficient in terms of time spent, meal planning, and gasoline usage. But even for only two people,and the occasional dinner guest, a week's worth can be a fair amount of groceries, and some of the items are heavy or awkward. I use one of those electric carts and David pushes a regular shopping cart. It holds more than the basket in the cart and gives him some stability to help with the out-of-balance and motor coordination problems of Parkinson's Disease. When we get to the checkout, he goes first and I am right behind with a few things in my basket as well. Sometimes, he forgets to go ahead of the cart for unloading. Then he's trapped because the aisle is too narrow, and maybe I can't back up to give him more room because there are other shoppers behind me.

So here comes the young bagger guy, probably half a century younger than David. He actually looks up and sees the problem. He sees us as people, not just old people, or just as more customers to wade through until his shift is up -- but as real people. And he comes over immediately and starts to unload the cart for us. He asks if we'd like help loading into the car. He waits until I get from the cart into the driver's seat and returns the cart for us. We exchange a little small talk about the weather and thank him. Both sides wish the other a good evening. It seems small perhaps, as an effort on his part, but it's an enormous help and relief to both of us.

And so I offer an appreciation, to all the everyday people whose names I don't know, who may not remember me or my circumstances, tthose who provide other such kindnesses to people other than myself, in lots of different places far and wide -- but to all of whom I am grateful. And I think it must really represent a great mass of kindness over all, over all the world, and its importance should not be discounted for a moment. Thanks!

New Article on Spark!

2010-07-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hey! My new article "What's Design Got to Do with It?" just published: http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/author/susan-campanini/

Container Plantings

2010-07-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've always liked container plantings. They allow you to place sunny or shady annuals right where you want them to complement whatever is blooming in nearby beds. They are also nice along walks, next to bird baths and seating areas, and just here and there as well.

Garden centers are starting to sell already made-up pots of mixed annuals, which are handy for people who don't have the time or inclination to make their own combinations or those who want a single pot of mixed color for a balcony, patio, or condo area. But I think it's fun to make up containers full of annuals each year.

To save on effort and cost, I prefer those fairly good-sized containers made of some sort of fiberglass or polystyrene material that can stay outdoors all winter with the soil still in them. They are not so heavy if they need to be moved and don't fall apart from frost compared to terra cotta. The plain plastic ones don't last very well, get brittle in winter, and are ugly from the beginning anyway. The downside of these containers if that they need to be watered more often during dry or hot periods than raised beds or regular flower beds. I always add some fresh sterile container potting soil to the top level each spring along with a few of those polymer crystals that hold water in the soil and a time-release fertilizer. That -- and my husband David's faithful watering -- lasts the season.

I usually stick to traditional annuals (or herbs in one container this year) rather than a lot of the dramatic (and expensive!) tropicals that container gardening books and magazines always rave about. Mostly, I include a mix of four or five plants of different kinds in the large containers, matching the two sides of those along the walk. But sometimes, I just put in a lot of one plant for a really bright spot of color.

These vinca did really well this year and are sooo brilliant!

Almost every year, some of the annual dianthus in containers lives over the winter. I always try not to disturb it when I re-do the surface soil and I usually add new dianthus to that same pot for a mix of frilly pinks.

Gazanias are an attractive container annual because of their sunshine colors and striking markings. I try to pair them with something blue, but this time the blue plant hasn't bloomed much so far.

All of the annual salvias are good for containers: the firetruck reds, the deep purples, and the tall blue Victoria types as well.

I guess I'm not afraid to mix bright colors. I'll tuck in red salvia with other reds, pinks, and fuschias fearlessly!

For a long time, I resisted petunias because they were sticky and floppy and reminded me of Ronald Reagan. But the new breed of wave petunias and supertunias are wonderful. They last into the heat very well and just keep right on blooming their heads off!

Just as the supertunias are an improvement over the old petunias, the superbenas are a better verbena that is more heat tolerant than the others.

The brightest annuals show off best when there are also some light-colored or white flowers in the neighborhood as well.

Red supertunias pair nicely with my blue-and-black salvia, the hummingbird attracter.

For red annuals, though, I always have to include at least a few of the old classics: red geraniums (actually, the annual ones are called pelargoniums and they hail from South Africa).

Years ago, I remember huge lantanas growing like weeds in my mother's Tampa Bay garden. Now they are available in wonderful colors for container growing in the summer here in the Midwest. There's even a terrific planting of purple angelonias and yellow and pink lantanas in a long bed in front of the grocery store!

In shadier areas, the plants change and sometimes so do the types of containers. Although many of them have fallen apart over the years, I still have a few of those wooden half-barrells (which have now become prohibitively expensive).

The barrells are nice for various small plants and double impatiens.

The barrells are quite wide and can accomodate a small perennial as well as annuals if I'm careful not to disturb the surface too much. One of them holds crested iris and the others hold dwarf hostas and a dwarf goatsbeard.

Most of the color in the garden right now is in containers, in fact, although there are some bright spots outside the pots, such as the bee balm (Monarda).

There's the vining perennial sweet pea (Lathyrus) too. It's not fragrant like the annual English kinds that die in Illinois as soon as the summer hits, but it is easy and colorful.

The shrubs that are blooming now are primarily the hydrangeas, and they are beauties. Here's a new one just planted this spring called "Incrediball."

One of my favorites is the easy to grow and long-lasting Oak Leaf Hydrangea (quercifolia). The leaves are pretty enough on their own, but the bonus is huge cone-shaped white flowers that turn a soft dusty antique rose pink later on. (And the leaves turn red and rust in the fall as well.)

Small clay pots of houseplants are containers of a sort too. Every year, we take our houseplants outside and let them enjoy the fresh air and rain on a wooden plant table my husband built. They are easy to water with the hose too. The Clivia (a South African plant in the lily family) almost always graces us with clusters of bright orange blooms.

Raised beds aren't exactly containers, but we are continuing the work of re-doing them. You can see the difference easily between one that hasn't been re-done yet and one that was just weeded and had the soil topped up ready for mulching.

I've been using surveyor flags to mark plants that stay as we work on re-doing the beds, removing weeds, adding soil, and planting new plants to fill gaps.

Well, that's it for now for container ... plants. But the cat patio and run that my husband built 15 years ago is still a source of fun, fresh air, and exercise for "containing" some frisky felines.

Daylilies

2010-07-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

After a long period of heat indexes over 100, the weather turned wonderful here in east central Illinois. We've had sunny days with gentle breezes and cool nights without thunderstorms. Yeah! So it was time again to go out in the garden take some photos.

This is the peak time for daylilies to be in bloom, and they are glorious. Daylilies (Hemerocallis, from the Greek words for "day" and "beautiful") are one of the most popular perennials available. They are generally easy to grow and easy to hybridize. There are more than 6,000 cultivars and many specialty daylily societies. Daylily hybridizers experiment with color, texture, bloom size, and many other factors.

When I was a kid, the daylilies I was familiar with were the tall orange naturalized kind that you sometimes see on roadsides in the country. Even though some people consider them weeds (and they can indeed get out of hand), there are some of those in my north yard. But for many years, I have been interesting in acquiring a range of hybrid hemerocallis in a variety of colors.

One of the neat innovations that the hybridizers (and the daylilies themselves, of course) have come up with is a contrasting color at the center of the bloom that is different from the throat color or the color of the rest of the petals. I especially like the purple and white ones.

As the name suggests, each individual flower blooms for only one day. But during the blooming season there are lots of flowers coming on each day and mature plants can have plenty of blooms still open while others have already closed. Sometimes I go around and pick off the finished blooms (it's neater and maybe is better for the plants?), but you can always see a few.

Some hybrids have ruffled edges, like fancy pie pastry. The foliage is full and makes a good covering to discourage weeds from growing in a line of daylilies. They are often planted with daffodils so that the daylily foliage is starting up just when the daffodil foliage has flopped over and isn't so attractive. We have done this along our east and south fences. So we have blooms there in April and May from the daffs and in July and August from the daylilies.

Some daylilies are fragrant, but others are not. It depends on the hybrid. There are very tall ones too, ones that do well in hot weather in the South, and miniatures (the flowers are smaller and more delicate, but the plants aren't miniature). The "tet hems" (tetrapoloid versus diploid) have an extra chromosome; many of those kinds have very large flowers with thick petals. There are some that bloom earlier in the season and some that are quite late. A well-known cultivar called "Stella d'Oro," a short yellow daylily, is often used in public places for its reliability, easy care, and long period of bloom.

Although collecting new hybrids and prize-winning named cultivars of daylilies can be an expensive (but popular) hobby, many lovely daylilies are available at garden centers for reasonable prices. Also, there are gardeners who actually do what the books suggest -- divide their perennials periodically. So I have bought daylily divisions at private plant sales. One year a very kind woman with a great many beautiful daylilies gave me starts from a half dozen of her plants.

Along the outside of the fence on the east side of our house, we have a line of herbaceous peonies with daylilies just in front of them. The foliage of the now-finished peonies makes a nice backdrop for this charming lemon yellow hemerocallis.

For a number of years when my husband and I were able to garden actively by ourselves, we were adding new flower beds each spring, and we would take a trip up to a place just south of Madison, Wisconsin, called The Flower Factory. They have a wonderful range of interesting perennials and the plants were always in beautiful condition and reasonably priced. We'd fill our van and go back home and plant them. One year when we unloaded the van, we discovered half a dozen pots of this bright yellow and red so-called "spider" daylily that we hadn't purchased. It turned out to be a very nice gift or accident -- we don't know which :)

There are zillions of fantastic photos of hemerocallis on the Internet. They are very photogenic plants! If you haven't ever grown any, don't waste another moment. Try them now. You won't be sorry.

Body Butter

2010-06-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

It's been much too hot and humid here in east central Illinois to take any more garden pictures lately. Also, Susan' blog is meant to have a range of topics, not all gardening related. So far, I've avoided controversial topics involving the takeover of our democracy by the corporate elite, the need to see the oil spill as a horrendous warning about climate change, the urgency of reform on all levels, the desperate need for balance in this unbalanced world of wealth and poverty, power and helplessness, cutting-edge technology and centuries-old cultural traditions ... etc. For now, let's try a trivial topic -- but one close to my heart, literally: body butter.

Okay, I'm an old sixties person in many respects. I love flowers. I still play Beatles and Dylan and wish I'd gone to Woodstock. I don't shave, pluck my eyebrows, dye or perm or streak my hair, wear makeup, or care about fashion. My husband and I try to tread fairly light on the earth (even though we're both overweight). We recycle -- not fanatically (paper towels for cat barf, please). We don't have a television. We have one car and use it with planning in mind for efficiency of trips. We make real food but aren't obsessive about it (salt, fat, sugar, and chocolate are still major food groups even though we eat broccolli often and are not even vegetarian). We can't really afford to buy everything organic or even shop very often at the whole foods store, but we go to Farmer's Market when we can get up that early and it's not raining.

All this is to say I use only natural body butter, lotions, shampoos, etc. They are not really much more expensive. Besides, there are so many chemicals out there interfering with our air, our water, our bodies -- why add more than you need? Also, I had a brush with a blood disorder some years back that may have been related to chemical exposure (or viral), so I got careful about reading food and cosmetic labels assiduously.

It's also true that even people who live very modestly and don't go in for luxury like to feel luxurious sometimes, like to be pampered, like to feel feminine. And people who don't have the money or time or health or energy to do much traveling (not to mention the stamina for airport lines given the security checks and so on), need aromatherapy to transport them to exotic places. What is the answer then to meet these varied needs? Body Butter. Yes, fragrant, vegan, smooth, moisturing cream to spread slowly and sensually over your dry, rough, aging skin after a nice shower or bath.

One of my favorite companies for body butter is Pacifica. The link is in the list of links on the blog page. They are based in Portland and sell online. This past week, they had a 25% off sale on all their body butters and I stocked up.

I'll never get to Bali except via Bali Lime Papaya. Vanilla Vera Cruz takes me way south of the border. The Far East is mine with Thai Lemongrass. Desert sun and camel rides? Tunisian Jasmine. African jungles and clove harvests? Madacasgar Spice. Sunsets and surf in Hawaii? Waikiki Pikake. Paul Gaugain made it to Tahiti to do some painting and lie around under the palms a lot, but for me it's Tahitian Gardenia body butter. The perfect complement to my Tuscan bean and sausage and vegetable soup? Tuscan Blood Orange body butter. April in Paris? French lilac. They have fragrances too (totally vegan) in spray bottles. Lovely to spritz on after the butter.

Another favorite is the body cream by Alba Botanica -- the scents of the islands: kukui nut, coconut, papaya mango. The shampoos are great too, and the Jasmine face cream is the best! A related company is Avalon Organics, which carries a wonderful lavender face cream and a great lemon hand lotion.

There are some other companies I've discovered as well. Green by Nature makes a super hand cream called Almond Cocoa. Wonderful fragrance and so thick and creamy and great for chapped hands in winter.

Natures Gate makes pump hand soaps with no bad stuff in them and they really wash your hands well, gently, and fragrantly. Their shampoo is nice too, especially persimmon and geranium, lemongrass and clary sage, and patchouli and mandarin orange.

Desert Essence is another favorite. I love their tubes of hand and body lotion: Spicy Citrus, Almond, Chai Vanilla -- not to mention their Shea body cream in a tube with honey -- and the skin ointment really works on my elbow psoriasis. Be Fine makes a lemon-shaped container of lemon oil paste called Rough Spot that is also terrific for very dry patches.

This really wasn't meant to be an advertisement but more of a thank-you to good companies that produce a healthy, enjoyable, reasonably priced product that does what it aims to do without polluting the environment or irritating your skin! But do check out their websites if you like this kind of thing and then kick back and soak up the luxury of body butter!

Handmade Spark

2010-06-18T17:12:00.000-07:00

I just published a new article on Handmade Spark all about beads with an Asian flair. If you find the subject interesting, have a look at http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/author/susan-campanini.

Letters

2010-06-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting experience today. I spent two hours writing -- by hand -- a long letter to a friend.

In 1969, I was teaching French at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, when I met my friend Francoise, a French woman who was there for a year to teach French as well. She and I became fast friends and spent nearly all of our free time together that year. When she returned to France to teach junior high English, we wrote letters to each other -- long, newsy, frequent letters for a while.

One time, in the seventies, she came to Champaign-Urbana for a brief visit. In 1985, David and I went to France for two weeks and stayed with her in her Paris apartment for a week. Other than that, it's been letters as the only form of comunication over the years.

But it's hard to keep updating and communicating when you no longer have many in-person experiences to share, and the frequency of our letters dribbled down gradually, to the point that we only write about once a year now. I've asked her about e-mail because that's really how I keep up with other friends from earlier times who live far away. But she doesn't like the impersonality of it and just uses it for quick information sharing about schedules and train departures and so on. She likes -- and still sends -- long, newsy handwritten letters. She writes in French, and I write in English. That helps us both keep our reading skills up a bit.

But, as I said, it had been almost a year since I've written, and I have to admit that the last time I had written in Word and then made a printout to mail to her. So it had been a while since I'd handwritten anything long at all. Unlike some younger people, I was used to writing letters to friends and family for many years when I was younger, but over time it all turned to e-mail and phone calls.

I am an inveterate list maker, and I do handwrite notes related to my copyediting work even though I do the work online. But it was still an eye-opening (and hand-cramping!) experience to cover both sides of five pages of lined 8 1/2 by 11 paper with a pen, and it led me to think about the transitions we've all made because of technology.

It made me think about the letters of famous people that I've read in books, the epistolary novels, and the letters inside novels that I've enjoyed reading. And I wonder sometimes what it was like for scribes at the time of the first printing presses. Food for thought. Have you written any letters lately?