11/6 The week in Pittsburgh was all I wanted it to be. Being there alone gave me big benefits. I have never had a chance to spend one-on-one time with my Great-grandchildren and that has now happened. I spent 3 nights at Yael and Sam’s, whose childfren are now 8 (Isaiah) and 6 (Orli B.) and 3 with Hilary and Damian and their 18 month old twins( Mattie and Ellie). There is no better way to go.
I listened to Isaiah practice, and we played games and discussed his latest ideas for inventions (he has several every day). He builds futuristic weapons with Legos as loves guns and battles. He soon found that I did not, and being a great teaser, couldn’t resist turning his skills on me. Here he is in half of the Torus costume that Phoebe made for Halloween. Orli and I spent Halloween afternoon with her collection of costumes in the basement playroom; she was busy deciding what to be – a Flamenco dancer, a butterfly or a witch. The witch won and here she is.
We did a watercolor of the brilliant leaves from gingkos and maples in the garden and could have done a lot more painting but even a week wasn’t enough time there for everything. Mattie and Ellie are very busy exploring the whole new world of walking. They are toddlers whose legs don’t always work perfectly, like when turning sideways or stepping off a rug. I have indelible images in my head of their staggers and recoveries (or not, as sudden losses of balance are frequent). They got so used to me they would grin and chortle when I appeared. Then grab books from a cart and pile them in my lap – but had not much time for looking at them, too busy for that. They understand a lot that is said to them but the ability to articulate sounds is a work in process. Right now their vocabulary is limited to ma, da and baa plus chortles. If you ask ‘where is the lamb’s eye?’ in a book they will point to it and say daa. I wish I could have stayed long enough for that magic breakthrough when speech occurs. By Christmas when we meet again it will probably have happened. They are, without doubt, the cutest toddlers on earth.
Pittsburgh was in full fall color and the gold of the gingkos at Yael and Sam’s rivaled our aspens, and the maples were all shades of red-rust-yellow-orange. We did a lot of playground time, as the weather was great, and also ‘babies in the library’. Mattie is fearless on play equipment and totally at home in new situations like at the library. After being freed from her coat and mittens she trotted out to the middle of the oval rug and stood waiting for whatever came next. It turned out to be a friendly boy about her age, also uninhibited, and they stood there, non-communicating. You can just about distinguish her small presence in the photo below. Ellie, meanwhile, had fallen asleep en route and continued her nap undeterred by the noises of a pack of toddlers. And when she woke up was content to snuggle in her mother’s lap and watch the others stagger around.
Mealtime was always interesting. The twins eat lots of finger food – cheerios, cheese, apple, pear, banana, crackers. They are quiet and serious when eating and I took a delightful video of Ellie picking up cheerios with her index finger. Then the finger dried out and wouldn’t hold one, so she switched to a thumb. Such intensity!
We did some great museum-going. Pittsburgh was Andy Warhol’s hometown and there is a fine museum devoted to him. His art works are so large that its 7 floors and easily filled, and not in any way complete, he was one prolific artist. One of the rooms in Pittsburgh has only 5 paintings, so huge you have to stand way across the room to encompass them. I really like a lot of his early work, before he got so entangled with boring videos; but there are lots more I’ve seen elsewhere that weren’t there. In Long Beach I once saw a show of big photos of endangered species that he had outlined in red very effectively, and which I found compelling. There is a huge photo in the entry lounge just above the red velvet chaise lounge he is reclining on in the photo. I couldn’t resist channeling him on it, and then Yael decided to join me and Sam took our picture.
91st birthday – November 8th
I thought that once the 90th was over we would go back to the usual birthday celebrations – phone calls, cards, gifts. But I did not reckon with Jenny. She missed the big 90th at Chez Panisse because Mac was recuperating from a hellish double hip replacement and she could not leave him. The operation was in September but the time needed to recover was hugely underestimated and actually took almost a year, not the 3 months he was anticipating. So, with many complex and misfiring plans she finally decided to fly here and cook a birthday dinner for me. She arrived on Thursday for the Saturday event and we had a super day on Friday. She is here for a month every summer but is kept so busy rehearsing, practicing, concertizing and socializing with her close group of 15-year friends that we hardly ever do a Rogue Valley day. And one of the great experiences here is the Upper Rogue Gorge and hike in an old-growth Doug Fir forest. Followed by lunch at Becky’s, a small home style restaurant that dates back to CCC days and is noted for its soups, chilis, pies and Oregonian homeyness. So that’s what we did and she was thrilled by the gorge and pleased with Becky’s. On the way home we sought out an organic meat market in Phoenix and Jenny bought racks of lamb for the feast. I didn’t want to see the price, as they were 1$16/lb; I’m still living in the 70s as to the cost of some things, rack of lamb being one! Heath arrived around 4PM and we took off at 5 for First Friday. Covered only a few galleries as I always meet people who want to talk, which makes First Friday NOT an art viewing event but a social gathering (and that’s fun too). If there is a really good show I go back the next week. And the best show was at Hanson Howard, where Judy Howard had the work of some of her artists on display. I think hers is the best gallery in town. Then supper at Sesame, delicious as always. And lots of catch-up well into the night.
Next morning they ran on the ditch trail (and I walked it) and then we went to see John Sollinger’s exhibition of mosaics at SOU. And they grow more impressive with every visit. Next was a visit to Margie Mee’s spread. She is a well known artist in the valley and a friend of many of my friends (Pat, Phyllis, Diana). We have known about each other for years but never met til I went to the Open Studio Tour last month (see the October account). And she was just great. Took us all around, entertaining us with tales about everything. It was a delight for all of us, ending with a visit to her free-range chicken site across a little creek where the chickens trotted up to be petted. Jenny later said she had never been that close to a live chicken!
And then it was time to think about the feast. Ilene, Jenny’s host for the Britt, was bringing an appetizer and dessert and Jenny also made two delicious appetizers using endive and several fillings. Ilene triumphed with a lobster appetizer and a chocolate chili mousse. Jenny’s lamb was delectable and served with a sauce based on mascarpone and whipped cream. And here sweet potato pie was soooo good. As was the wine. And the conversation. I’m afraid I can’t do a detailed description of the food as Jen or Lolly would. It was a VERY special occasion. We were 7 at table and a whole lot of people I’d have liked to be there could not be accommodated in my little house. I really have gathered close friends here, and a host of acquaintances and special interest friends like opera-goers, symphony lovers, birders, dipper watchers, painters, lunchers, hikers, etc. And there are so many pre-Christmas parties I think I will have to do some pay-backs in the winter. A good idea for the dreary-weather months ahead.
The cards and gifts were special. A garden stick-in-the-ground Great Blue Heron, a gorgeous hand thrown pot which now graces the dining table, a fabulous photo of rocks and aspens in the Sierras, special wines from Kermit Lynch. Thank you all. So the bar has been raised – what’s on for 2015?????
Thanksgiving was in SF this year. I left by our local van service – shawnsrideshare – on Tues Nov 25 in a new bus, roomier and more comfortable than the vans but very jouncy, maybe needing new shock absorbers. The trips both ways were pretty eventful so I’ll start with the travel drama. The bus going south was packed with oldsters – I was the youngest of three over-90s, the others were men of 92 and 97. Neither was in good shape and neither should have been making the trip alone. At Corning we had a resg stop at the big travel center, and Shawn urged us all to be a quick as possible so we could get to the big city before the traffic got too bad. We were all back on aboard promptly except our oldest member, who, as we sat watching, came very slowly out of the building to the curb, at which point his walker (not his own as he didn’t have one!!! but borrowed from the other nonagenarian) lost a wheel and he went tumbling face down off the curb. And couldn’t get up, even with the help of half the bus who rushed to his aid, as his leg was hurt. Soon two ambulances came screaming off the freeway and he was loaded onto a gurney and on his way to Chico and the nearest hospital. (On the return trip we learned that he had a hairline fracture of the femur and was back home in Ashland.) The man whose walker was deficient seemed vaguely unconcerned; he was staggeringly slow and fitted with a hearing aid that didn’t work very well. But Shawn was a marvel of cool and efficiency and all the passengers were really great, and we even made up the lost time. On return many of the same people were on the bus and at Orland (another blip in the middle of nowhere between Davis and Redding) we pulled off to take on a new passenger and were suddenly alarmed by a fearful grinding noise from the undercarriage. Shawn made it onto a graveled area and looked underneath the bus where an essential rod had broken off. My knowledge of vehicle innards is nil, but clearly this was serious. The closest building was a Burger King. Here we spent the next 4 hours while Shawn paced around his crippled vehicle while talking on his phone – to his wife, his insurance company, wehat local possibilities were available for transporting us (none), and finding the nearest tow truck to the nearest garage (Redding, about 75 miles up the road). The call to his wife in Ashland resulted in her rounding up 2 vans and another driver and starting down to rescue us (we were 22 in all). Dusk was upon us so we rode in the dark, and got to Ashland at 7PM, 4 hours late. But everyone was in surprisingly good spirits. I spent a lot of the Burger King time talking with a very interesting young musician while we were holed up in fast-food heaven and the wait went faster than expected.
The days in SF between trips were packed with fun events. I love visiting Heath and staying in her top floor apartment with views east and west. There was a morning at Cal. Academy that started with coffee with Phyllis Faber and Frank Almeda and catch-up among the 4 of us, and then a browse thru a great Skulls exhibit, a revisit to the fabulous aquarium, and a check-up on the green roof. Phoebe arrived on Wednesday afternoon and we went to Mau (Vietnamese restaurant) for an exotic and delicious dinner. She spent the night and next morning (Thanksgiving) we went to Chrissie Field for a long walk (they ran) to start Turkey Day right with some good exercise. There were 5 of us at the table with two of Heath’s friends for dinner and two more – Phoebe’s friends – for dessert. Really good conversation and even better food. Heath brined the turkey overnight and made a chard-based stuffing, veggies came with friends. Desserts were non-traditional, a chocolate cranberry torte, chocolate ginger cookies apple pudding with ice cream. Great meal. We did something nifty every day, saw the underwater gardens at the arboretum, the Keith Haring show at the de Young, a great movie – Citizen Four, and last but definitely not least the SF Symphony with Suzanne Markii conducting Bartok’s 3rd piano concerto with Jeremy Denk, and Brahms 2nd Symphony. Ms. Markii is Finnish and has just been appointed music director of the Helsinki Symphony, She is in her late 40s, tall, slim, and blond, in a black suit and a braid down her back. She is the first woman ever to conduct at La Scala. The times they sure have changed; Toscanini would be utterly shocked. We heard an informative pre-concert talk and then had a half hour to wait, so we got Irish Coffees. When I saw the bartender splash a generous amount of whiskey in my glass I was startled, not being accustomed to a large shot at 1:30 PM. But it was delicious, and I got such a buzz I floated down the aisle and the music was decidedly heightened by my alcoholic state. Must do it again.