April 2025 Leftovers

 

vegetable garden, planted by a squirrel

pay phone in train station
I put a coin in the return slot for someone to find.

The little one I care for is learning to pump!

New mural in the village

A Full Day in February

It started with a morning walk and catching the moon in Skyspace.

The weather was great so I squeezed in a load of laundry (in the background).

I went to the Sycamore Talent Show and got to hear the act I had been looking forward to. This group of students sang all the states and their capitals (same song as performed here).

After bringing in the laundry we drove with D's parents to a church in South Pasadena

where they stayed for a concert and we went exploring.

First stop was the public library.

It warmed my heart to see a display of a child's collection,
which is something. my library did when I was a child.

The library has both a mural and statue by Leo Politi.
For better or for worse, the Friends of the Library bookstore was closed.

From there we explored the neighborhood, 

admiring many homes, 

but being surprised by the lack of drought-tolerant landscaping.

The historic soda fountain was closed so made do with a French bakery.

Oops - our regular minifigs were at home on their new tandem.

We finished the day with dinner at a deli. The rye bread was the best I had had in SoCal.

Exhibit created by a group of veterans who meet here weekly.

I do love my daily life, but it is good get out and about, too.

Travel Photos

Not the fancy kind of travel photos, just regular getting-from-one-place-to-another photos

It was a windy start to the trip.

I saved the 36th bottle

I mostly walked, but cycled once,
just to say I had done it

view of the Cuyahoga River from the train to the airport

for those who want a view from the airport

Art in the airport

It was nice to change planes in Phoenix and have new places to explore.

Museums

Two friends shared about a museum website, Every Museum of Greater Los Angeles. In one weekend I went to two of them and then added one more the next weekend.

Up first was a museum inside the Redlands post office.

Makes me want to get a post box!

Do you miss these little boxes?

They are so uncommon that the postbox building in Denver is now called the cash register building! Or maybe it was the cash register building first, because who knows what those are, too.

I shared this photo with my mail carrier and she said she wished they still dressed like this!

The next day D and I went to a museum listed as one of LA's best new architecture projects. It was our first visit to Chapman University's Hilbert Museum of California Art so I can't say anything about the old space, but the new space was fabulous.

This picture was taken from the train depot, right across the parking lot.

A Millard Sheets mosaic was rescued from a bank.
He is the same artist featured on many buildings close to home.
See old posts here and here.

Not only were the buildings of interest, we liked a lot of the art inside, too.

Erin Hanson, Sunset Lace

Open Impressionism is a new style of painting developed by American artist Erin Hanson. The style is characterized by short, impasto brush strokes that are applied without layering, creating a mosaic or stained-glass appearance to the paintings. The paintings are created with a limited palette of colors, applied without blending or mixing upon the canvas, which adds a dimension of texture to each brush stroke. Inspired by classic impressionism, pointillism, and post-impressionism, Erin Hanson continues the tradition of impressionism into the modern day with her colorful and vivacious landscape paintings.

Ralph Hulett, People skating underneath the green bridge
This was part of a special exhibit of Christmas cards designed by Hulett.

I would definitely come back, and maybe even take the train.

I did not take a single picture of our last museum visit, a Phil Dike exhibit at the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art.

You could watch this video of Phil Dike's son talking about growing up in a fantasy land of artists.

I have a picture of the museum from a couple years ago.

This picture shows the banners on the floor before the opening of the show.

Regardless of the documentation, we enjoyed the art work tremendously and were surprised by the the variety. It was good to get there before the show ended.

Local Art

As a child I visited our local art museum, which had a juried art show with pieces by local artists. There were five categories and there were modest prizes, too. I have fond memories of this show and it brought out people who might not otherwise go to the museum.

The art museum here had a similar event, although anyone was allowed to exhibit art as long as it was deemed family-friendly, it could hang from one nail on the wall, and it was no more than 30" in any direction.

I dropped off a piece of A.'s art,
chosen because it was already in a frame.

I liked getting a sneak preview.

The variety was fantastic.

"Rubbing of Manhole Cover, Pomona College", 2017

The turnout was fantastic, too.

I hope it becomes an annual event.

Birthday Trip, part two

You have been very patient. Unfortunately, I have a lot of pictures, but some fuzzy memories about why I took those pictures. I'll do my best.

Each part of this post could be its own post, but here's the short version of our second day.

As I write this in the heat it is hard to remember cycling in the drizzle and fog and being cold, but it was still a good ride. I am guessing the views would have been great if it had been clear.

After the ride we headed to the public library, which I make sure I visit each time I am in Redlands. 

I love the Leo Politi mural

and stained glass windows.

We visited the Friends bookstore for the first time.
Of course, I had to support them by buying some books.

We visited the heritage room to learn more about Redlands

and found information about the original water
station for dogs (seen in the first Birthday Trip post).

Right outside the library door was an arts festival. 

We did not buy anything, 

but enjoyed seeing the Mona Lisa-themed art contest.

Other highlights of the day were 

"The Lincoln Memorial Shrine is the only museum and archives dedicated to the study of Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War west of the Mississippi River."

house tour by bicycle

Finish line of local bike race

We had an early dinner at a Thai restaurant and enjoyed 

some great shave ice, which was new to me.

We did have a couple questions.

Why does the city have so many logos?

What do the numbers on the old lampposts mean? I thought they were locations, but they were inconsistent from to the next.