Moosely Mornings, Snowy Days

One Thursday evening last month we arrived in Jackson Hole in the midst of a snowstorm and I was more impressed than ever with the skills of pilots who fly large jets in and out of the Jackson Hole airport.  Situated within Grand Teton National Park at about 6,000 feet of elevation, surrounded by mountains (hence "Hole" in the name Jackson Hole), and having only one short runway, which, by the way, cannot be salted due to park regulations, the airport has more than its share of exhilarating landings, especially when the weather is bad.

Fortunately, Jackson Hole has plenty to entice the winter visitor to put up with potentially scary travel.  Abundant wildlife, magnificent scenery, and fabulous skiing combine to set Jackson Hole apart from other ski destinations.

So much of the valley is national park, national forest, or other protected land that it has an abundance of wildlife.  During our short stay we saw a variety of waterfowl as well as deer, elk - both inside and outside the National Elk Refuge - and moose.  In fact, we saw moose every morning of our stay, the most notable being a large bull browsing right outside the house in which we stayed.

Moose are incredibly well adapted to cold climates.  With seemingly leisurely strides, their long legs move them rapidly even in the deepest snow.  More remarkable is how they survive by eating the young parts of trees and shrubs.

Bull moose browsing on aspen branches

Cow moose on the lookout for tasty branches

Jackson Hole is, of course, well known for its scenery.  During this visit heavy snow obscured the big peaks of Grand Teton National Park and made us focus on the valley's more intimate scenes. 

Dinner time along Spring Gulch Road

Bar BC Ranch fence

I used the snowy day palette of pale blues and white with brown and green highlights to make another top to practice my long arm quilting skills.

Practice quilt, machine pieced and machine quilted

As a ski area Jackson Hole stands out for its extensive, varied, and steep terrain and for its snow.  We were fortunate to have from 6 to 18 inches of fresh snow each day that we skied.  Wow!  With almost non-stop snow the light was rather flat so we stayed mostly in the trees, which afforded better visibility and numerous beautiful lines through uncut powder. 

Along "Slalom," one of the few open runs we skied

I imitated the sinuous curves of ski tracks for some of the quilting.

Toy Joy, an Austin Treasure

Toy Joy is one of those places that immediately comes to mind when I hear the line "Keep Austin Weird."  It is a store filled with both toys and joy.  And sadly, it appears that it will be closing, or at least, no longer be under control of its present owners.

We made a pilgrimage there yesterday to show our support and to soak up it's wonderful atmosphere.  With South by Southwest underway and a Saturday article in Saturday's Austin American Statesman about its closing, the store was buzzing.

This is not your average toy store.  No Barbies, no Legos, really none of the things you find in the toy aisles of places like Target and Walmart.  Instead it is filled with an enormous, but lovingly selected, array of toys and oddities from around the world. The proprietors have wonderful senses of humor.  I especially enjoy the toy bin labels.

Many of the displays are quirky.

Others are sweet.

But they appeal to all audiences.

The decor is as much fun as the merchandise.  Originally a small army of these nuns adorned the outside of the building which formerly housed the store, but they were too tempting for thieves and so had to be  brought indoors.

I hope that this window display remains accurate.

No matter what happens, I  wish Lizzy and Trevor all the best.

Lizzy Newsome, Toy Joy proprietor

Sights from the Southern Hemisphere

If you just glanced at the photos in this post you might think I had made another excursion to parts well south of Austin.  In fact, I went north.

As I noted in my last post, we took a little trip to Boston.  While there we stopped in at the New England Aquarium, where we were greeted with two new-to-us species of penguins, little blues and Africans, along with one previously seen species, rockhoppers. It is always fun to watch penguin antics and these guys did not disappoint.

Little blue penguin

African penguins

Of course, the aquarium had many other things to see besides penguins.  I particularly liked the giant ocean tank and coral reef which forms the centerpiece of the main exhibit area.  A circular ramp takes you all the way around from bottom to top and is the next best thing to donning SCUBA gear and diving in.  Myrtle the green sea turtle, weighing in at an impressive 540 pounds, is the largest inhabitant.

Myrtle, the green sea turtle

The seals and sea lions, which are in a separate exhibit area outside, were great fun to watch too.  It took me a minute to realize that the little turtle this one had is a plastic toy!

I'll finish this post with a final scene from the southern hemisphere, my just completed quilted wall hanging inspired by a scene along the Antarctic Peninsula.  I began this piece during a class taught by Valori Wells at the Modern Quilt Guild's first QuiltCon here in Austin in February, 2013. It was a terrific class and I hope Valori will return for next year's show.

"Mysterious Antarctica," (cotton, machine pieced, hand quilted, 36" x 24")

I used the etched glass design on a ceiling light in Tulsa's Pythian Building for one section of the quilting.  You can see a photo of the ceiling light on my April 8, 2013, post.

Detail of back

I plan to hang the quilt along with a print of the original photograph.

Sunset along the Antarctic Peninsula

Harvard's Peabody Museum

In search of indoor entertainment during our recent visit to Boston - it was really cold - we took the T across the Charles to Cambridge to visit Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology. I spent most of my time in the North American section where they have all sorts of interesting pieces, such as a pipe bag used by the Sioux chief Sitting Bull.

Pipe bag carried by Sitting Bull; beaded and quill on leather, leather fringe partially wrapped w/ quill, ca. 1883

Like so many of their other North American objects, such as baskets, rugs, and clothing, the pipe bag has a strong graphic design and bold colors.

Micmac birchbark box, ornamented with quillwork, 1850

Navajo saddle throw blanket, wool, 1885-1889

Seminole patchwork "big shirt," ca. 1900

I have reinterpreted the design of this Seminole "big shirt" for a quilt top.  I originally intended to include the vertical stripes but decided I preferred the simplicity of exclusively horizontal stripes.

Sarah defending my new quilt top

An afternoon's work and now I have a top to practice quilting with a long arm machine.  Stay tuned to see how it turns out!

Massachusetts in Winter

Visiting the girls at school in Massachusetts is always fun but this year's winter parents' weekend brought some special joys. Campus was sparkling with fresh snow under a brilliant sky.

Memorial Chapel at NMH School

On Saturday we watched Eva compete in a Nordic (skate style) ski race at Notchview in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.  Even in this, her first, season on the Nordic ski team she is a graceful and powerful skier.  With a little more experience I suspect she will learn how much harder she can push herself and how very good she can be.

Skiing at Notchview, Windsor, Massachusetts

Every knitter worth her needles is delighted when someone asks her to teach them to knit so you can imagine my pleasure when the girls asked me to teach them.  To be fair to the girls, they mostly figured it out themselves, relying on a little prior experience and on-line resources.  We stopped at Metaphor Yarns in Shelburne for supplies and were warmly greeted and eagerly assisted by the proprietor, Meta, who helped us choose some non-scratchy yarn for headbands.  As you can see, Isabel is just about finished with hers.

Isabel's headband

I just may have to start one of these myself.  It would be great for Austin's cool, but not cold, winters and a small enough project to carry around in my purse.

Back to the Texas Hill Country

A while back I promised to show a picture of the quilt I made for one of the other screened cabins at our little lake place.  The girls call it the Jelly Bean Quilt, I suppose because the colors are so scrumptiously like those of jelly beans.

 

When I took out the quilt for photographs I found my crocheted afghan that has also become part of cabin III's linens.  I didn't intentionally match the afghan to the quilt, or even make it specifically for this cabin, but it was obvious once it was finished that the two belong together.  I guess at the time I just really liked this color palette.

In the background of the next photo you can just see a sliver of what currently passes for Lake Travis.  We are in the midst of a severe multi-year drought and the top of the lake is about fifty feet below where it is when full.

Given the gentle slope of the lake bed on the opposite shore from our place, fifty feet of water translates into a huge increase in the surface area of the lake and so makes an enormous difference in the view.  The sunrises and sunsets are still beautiful though.  Perhaps they subconsciously inspired my color choices for the quilt and afghan.

In case anyone is wondering about the colors in these photos, they are true representations of what I saw.  I only made minor tweaks to the RAW files using Lightroom -- and didn't touch the saturation slider.

Evenings at Home

Winter in Austin is pretty short so I particularly enjoy the few evenings when it is chilly enough to have a fire.  The cats enjoy it too and make for a very cosy scene.

It is also a good time for hand quilting and knitting. I work away while Steve reads to me.  Thankfully once he finished "The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751" he turned to biographies of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and has even been persuaded to slip in a little of "The Hobbit" here and there.

I have been working on my Antarctica piece and expect to finish it right about when Bilbo makes it back to his snug little hobbit hole.