Ah, wheels! These photographs are from the Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Festival, from October 2023. All of the machines are human powered and have to go on land, up a big hill, be able to brake, go through water (the Port Townsend Bay is COLD) and through a mud bog at the fair grounds! They have to have a theme, bribes for the judges, support teams (usually on bikes), a teddy bear on board and I think duct tape is required too.
It is three days of costumes, physical work pedaling the human powered machines, a parade, a dance, a Kinetic Kween, a brake test and the challenging trip through the water, the race itself (most mediocre wins) and the mud bog. There are many wheels involved and quite a lot of fabric and glitter. Some machines are thoroughly engineered and others involve more duct tape and improvised floatation attachments.
It is the Pacific Northwest, so there might be giant slugs too. Are there wheels involved in this tail or not?
I admire this orange sculpture outside the local library and then realize that it’s useful. Bike tools and a pump, in a central location and orange too! Very nice! I like it up against the darker orange of the building.
I’ve been haunting the library about twice a week, taking out piles of books. A new friend has also lent me a kindle, to read all of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric and Desdemona series. And what else will I find in it? It is like exploring someone’s bookshelves!
I have managed to acquire a few books and I am now watching for Little Free Libraries to pass the ones that I have read on to someone else.
I consider putting up a picture of my travel pile. Right now it’s outside the bedroom at my aunt and uncle’s because my daughter is still asleep. But I am still back at the Glenstone Museum: this is an interesting artwork. Does it belong? The paths wind around and we climbed a hill to it.
It grows in the spring. It still has a bit of a winter beard.
This is the first time I have managed to photograph one of the cats doing “Cat Art”. Sol Duc. I have two bowls for the cats, with a smaller bowl inside a water barrier bowl. I shut the door between the two when I feed them, because Elwha will eat all his and then bully Sol Duc. He outweighs her by five pounds. When I started limiting their food, they started decorating Elwha’s bowl. With toys. There are often toy mice, that pair of in ear headphones that I’ve given up on, a sponge, tissue paper when they can get it, as many as four different things in the bowls. I have to wash the outer bowl and toys often.
Is this play? It started when Elwha was overweight and I started measuring their food. All of my other cats have been self-regulating about food, but Elwha and Sol Duc were very starved tiny kittens when I got them and Elwha is the first male cat I’ve ever had. Art? Trying to trade toys for more food? I tried reading about it and found that cats will bury their food. Sometimes the art shows up when the bowl is not empty.
This is the first one with tissue paper:
This was the first use of a sponge:
I think this is a particularly fine installation and sophisticated use of tissue paper as well as the toy creature, headphones, and the combination flashlight/whistle.
I hope it is play. It certainly entertains me. I wondered which cat was doing it but I think it is both. It is almost always Elwha’s bowl, though, not Sol Ducs. The mysterious plays of cats.
Also not blonde. This is the Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race. The fabulous parade and bribing of judges was Saturday morning, when I took these photographs. The costumes are wonderful. After the parade comes the brake test and the water portion of the race. The Kween was there and the Unexpected Brass Band. Then Sunday is the hilly portion and mud bog. The sculptures are all human powered.
I traveled around Italy for two weeks with my daughter. We had backpacks and we planned it as we went. We usually had a place to stay two days ahead or a little more and both had return tickets. Hers is changable, mine was not unless I got sick. Then the insurance should kick in.
The last time I traveled in Italy was with two cousins in 1980. We traveled from January to March, with a Eurorail pass, and tried to do $20 per day. We did not like Italy very much because we felt terribly hassled by men. They yelled things at us, invited us into their cars, felt us up on buses and in general were awful. We were dressed in jeans, hiking boots, down jackets and frame packs. This made us obviously from the US or Canada, but we certainly were NOT dressed in a “suggestive” manner. We were very relieved when we got to Greece and there was less harassment.
I did not think I would be hassled since I am 43 years older. We were not hassled and I really did not see that behavior happening. I did see some outfits that I would consider rather sexy on young women in the hostels, but mostly people were in summer clothes. Narrow tank top straps, mini skirts and short shorts were frowned on in a number of the Catholic churches, and my daughter borrowed a large scarf from me as a skirt a couple of times. I liked Italy much much more this time. Thank you!
It was interesting to travel with a backpack in Europe again. There are other grey haired people in the hostels, though the closer to the tourist areas we were, the younger the clientele. I liked my pack better than a roller bag because honestly, there were stairs everywhere. At first both my feet and my quadriceps complained about the amount of walking and walking with a backback, but I got stronger. I woke up with terribly sore quads every day the first week.
My daughter wanted an open schedule. We had the first two night’s stay set up but no more than that. We took turns finding places to stay, getting tickets for big things like the Vatican Museum, and getting bus and train tickets. Google maps is quite amazing. We could put in our destination and it would tell us which bus and which stop and trains and metros. Back in 1980 we pored over maps, so that is a big change.
When I got off my last plane, I put the pack on and thought, either it is lighter or I am stronger. Both, I think, because I had eaten all the food while on the airplanes. Food is heavy!
I want to travel again next year, though I don’t know where. I have a long list of ideas.
I am getting some Facebook trolls. My favorites right now are two who requested that I friend them, ostensibly guys, but both said how beautiful I am and charming and etc. The picture that they put the request on is the poster for the last concert. The picture is of a sea lion.
Heh. Guess they think she is beautiful. I replied, “Uh, guys, that’s a sea lion.” They do not acknowledge this.
I am also getting peculiar friend requests. Often there is one friend in common. I contact a friend in Virginia to ask about one. She doesn’t remember the name, so I don’t reply. I also take a look at their home page before replying. If there is nearly nothing there, I think it’s a fake account. Pretty weird.
I am not answering WordPress’s daily questions, either. I think that is feeding ChatGPT or Big Data or someone. Nope.
Ok, let’s feed something random to the algorithm: Al Gore rhythm! I hope that confuses things. How is Al Gore’s rhythm anyhow? Can he dance? Can he shake it? Does he twerk? Work the twerk, Al! As usual, I would like to thank my personal AI, whose initials are MM. She knows who I mean. Sending you love, MM.
Now I will get Al Gore and twerking in my Facebook ads. Are there YouTube videos on How To Twerk? Inquiring minds shy away with horror, though it’s probably decent exercise.
Have a lovely day, trolls! MM, would you go mess their feeds for me? Give them Al twerking!
The photographs are from a museum in Europe in March 2022. Which is a troll? Maybe neither.
Yesterday was the Parade and the Brake Test and the Bribing of Judges and the Going Full Speed No Brakes into Port Townsend Bay and then paddling or floating or somehow getting out. And the glorious Kinetic Ball and Krowning of the Kween!
Today, so many more events! The race up the winding hill and then the Mud Bog at the fair grounds! The Teddy Bear trebuchet! More Bribes! And the coveted “most mediocre” award!
Blessings on all the Kinetic Kops for keeping everyone from being run over and for everyone who contributed! The Chimacum High School Marching Band and the Unexpected Brass Band added to the festivities!
Blogging from A to Z, all women artists, and this one is not my mother. Now we have a third woman artist, Nancy Clough. I know her through her daughter, who went to medical school with me at the Medical College of Virginia. I visited them in Portand, recently.
Nancy Clough does bronze statuary, clay statuary and pottery, and installations. I took the photographs when I was visiting. That sculpture is titled Summer and is one of four Season sculptures. She said that she needs to pour Winter again, because she sold her most recent one.
Statue by Nancy Clough.
Nancy Clough and her daughter have houses on the same property, with wonderful sculptures outside. Her art is imaginative and joyous! I asked how she started doing sculpture and she said that she had a class next to a sculpture class. She was drawn in. Like a moth to flame, I think! Contact me if you want to reach her about her wonderful work. Or surf the interweb. We are all spiders, skittering around the web.
Discover and re-discover Mexicoβs cuisine, culture and history through the recipes, backyard stories and other interesting findings of an expatriate in Canada
Engaging in some lyrical athletics whilst painting pictures with words and pounding the pavement. I run; blog; write poetry; chase after my kids & drink coffee.
Refugees welcome - FlΓΌchtlinge willkommen I am teaching German to refugees. Ich unterrichte geflΓΌchtete Menschen in der deutschen Sprache. I am writing this blog in English and German because my friends speak English and German. Ich schreibe auf Deutsch und Englisch, weil meine Freunde Deutsch und Englisch sprechen.
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